de Caritat, Patrice2020-01-122020-01-120375-6742http://hdl.handle.net/1885/196954The National Geochemical Survey of Australia (NGSA) provides an internally consistent, state-of-the-art, continental-scale geochemical dataset that can be used to assess areas of Australia more elevated in commodity metals and/or pathfinder elements than others. But do regions elevated in such elements correspond to known mineralized provinces, and what is the best method for detecting and thus potentially predicting those? Here, using base metal associations as an example, I compare a trivariate rank-based index and a multivariate-based Principal Component Analysis method. The analysis suggests that the simpler rank-based index better discriminates catchments endowed with known base metal mineralization from barren ones and could be used as a first-pass prospectivity tool.application/pdfen-AUCrown Copyright © 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V201810.1016/j.gexplo.2018.01.0142019-08-25CC BY license