Despite its small size, Tasmania has a remarkable geological diversity and abundance of mineral deposits. Rocks from every period of the Earth’s history from the Middle Proterozoic are present and there have been at least four major episodes of economic mineralisation.
Significant mineral deposits include Proterozoic iron ore, silica, dolomite and magnesite; Cambrian VHMS base metal-gold and ultramafic-related platinum group minerals (PGM) and chromite; Devonian slate-belt gold deposits; Devonian granite-related tin, tungsten, fluorite, magnetite, silver-lead-zinc and possibly nickel deposits; Triassic and Tertiary coal deposits; and Cainozoic alluvial gold, tin and PGMs, and residual iron oxide, silica and clay.
Simlified geology of Tasmania (source: modified from MRT 2007)