This field trip provides a focused overview of how mineral systems in southwest Western Australia are expressed from the Archean basement through the cover and across the landscape. 

Drawing on results from the MRIWA-funded SOWETO project, it showcases basement–cover links that support multi-commodity exploration, highlighting gold while also capturing distal polymetallic and critical-mineral footprints detection.

Participants will explore how basement structures, mineralisation styles, and alteration translate into geochemical and mineralogical footprints in the cover, supported by integrated datasets spanning geochemistry, mineral chemistry, passive seismic data, and landscape evolution. The program includes a full day at the GSWA Perth Core Library followed by four days of field visits across the South West.

Set within one of Australia’s most underexplored region, despite world-class deposits like Greenbushes, Boddington, and Julimar, the trip underscores the region’s significant untapped potential and the enduring value of understanding the evolution of landscape geochemistry, particularly where shallow cover preserves diagnostic dispersion footprints.