Workshop
Workshop
Critical minerals as main commodities or potential by-products in Queensland’s mineral deposits: Co and REE in hydrothermal deposits
Summary
This drill core-focused workshop will offer a broad overview of key mineral systems and deposit types in Queensland known to contain potentially economic concentrations of critical minerals, followed by a more detailed discussion of cobalt and REE endowment of selected hydrothermal and magmatic deposit types (IOCG, sediment-hosted Cu, peralkaline magmatic REE) – illustrated by drill core samples.
The main part of the workshop will involve core viewing and a tour of the GSQ on-site analytical facilities (including HyLogger-4, Bruker Tornado and their outputs to assist critical mineral exploration).
Registration
Workshops can be purchased with a Critical Minerals Conference 2026 registration. If you wish to include this workshop in your registration, please select the additional workshop option in your registration form. If you have already registered to attend the Critical Minerals Conference 2026 and wish to add the workshop to your registration, please contact conference@ausimm.com.
Presenters
Vladimir Lisitsin
Dr Vladimir Lisitsin is the Manager of the Mineral Systems team at the Geological Survey of Queensland. Vladimir holds PhD from the University of Western Australia and has over 20 years’ experience working in the geological surveys of Victoria and Queensland. He is leading a diverse team of geoscientists undertaking extensive data acquisition and research focusing on comprehensive characterisation of key mineral deposit types across Queensland, their critical mineral potential and improved methods for exploration and discovery. Personal research interests include signatures and footprints of diverse copper-gold and copper deposits in the Mount Isa Province of NW Queensland, the genesis of intrusion-related mineral systems in eastern Queensland and evolution of mineral systems in general.
Elena Belousova
Elena Belousova graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Geology from Kyiv State University, Ukraine in 1988. She earned her PhD from Macquarie University, Sydney in 2000, where her research focused on the trace element signatures of zircon and apatite across a wide range of rock types and mineral deposits. From 2000 to 2021, Dr Belousova held a series of academic positions in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Macquarie University, progressing from Postdoctoral Research Fellow to Senior Lecturer and, subsequently, Associate Professor. Since 2021, she has been Principal Geoscientist at the Geological Survey of Queensland.
Alkis Kontonikas-Charos
Dr Alkis Kontonikas-Charos is a Senior Geoscientist at the Geological Survey of Queensland. He completed a PhD (2017) and Postdoc at the University of Adelaide focusing on alteration signatures and the paragenesis of the Olympic Dam IOCG deposit, South Australia. He then took up a Postdoc position at the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, Germany investigating critical metal deportment in Fe-Ni-(Co) laterite deposits of Indonesia. Alkis returned to Australia in 2023 for a short Postdoc at the Queensland University of Technology before joining the Geological Survey of Queensland, where he actively works on mineral systems of NW Queensland, with a particular interest in IOCG and affiliated deposits in the Cloncurry district.
David Purdy
Biography coming soon
PD Hours
6.5
Date and time
Thursday 24 September 2026
9:30am – 4:00pm
Location
Exploration Data Centre, 68 Pineapple St, Zillmere
Cost
AusIMM Member: $150
Non Member: $200
Catering
Includes day catering (morning tea and lunch) and bus service from the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre to the workshop venue and back.
Maximum participants
30
