Samarium prospectivity
across Australia, the USA & worldwide.
Carbonatite and alkaline igneous samarium, ranked and explained — across the United States and Australia.
Run samarium on your ground →Where you can run samarium.
A certified national model in the countries ticked below — and anywhere else in the world through our global model.
Outside the certified countries, a run returns the prospectivity map, the geology behind it and a per-cell confidence read — how the global model works →
What the model reads for samarium.
Every samarium target is scored against the full national evidence stack — mapped geology and rock age, gravity and magnetics, radiometrics, terrain, satellite radar and alteration — the way a geologist reads a map sheet, with a pathfinder-geochemistry signature tuned to this system.
Pathfinder geochemistry the model weighs
Lead signal: The incompatible-element suite — zirconium, niobium and thorium. These are the elements this national model actually reads to rank samarium ground.
What is samarium?
Samarium is a light-to-middle rare-earth element best known for one alloy: samarium-cobalt, the permanent-magnet material that keeps its strength at temperatures where other magnets fail. Like the other rare earths it forms few minerals of its own, travelling instead in monazite, bastnäsite, apatite and xenotime within carbonatite intrusions and alkaline igneous complexes. MineDSS models samarium through those systems, reading the geological, radiometric and multi-element geochemical footprint that rare-earth-enriched magmatism leaves in national survey data.
The deposit model
Carbonatites — rare, mantle-derived carbonate magmas — are the world's principal source of the light and middle rare earths, crystallising bastnäsite, monazite and apatite either magmatically or in late carbothermal veins, with samarium riding the light-rare-earth budget. Alkaline igneous complexes concentrate the same elements in peralkaline granites, syenites and their pegmatites. Both systems are marked by distinctive alkaline and carbonatitic geology, thorium-bearing radiometric anomalies, ring-like magnetic signatures, fenite alteration, and a coherent halo of incompatible high-field-strength elements. MineDSS ranks ground by that converging footprint rather than by any single indicator.
Why it matters
Samarium sits on national critical-minerals lists because samarium-cobalt magnets are effectively irreplaceable in defence and aerospace systems that must perform hot: missile guidance, radar, electronic-warfare hardware and high-temperature motors and actuators. Supply is concentrated, separation capacity outside Asia is thin, and demand for temperature-tolerant magnets is growing — so credible new sources of samarium-bearing rare-earth ground carry strategic value well beyond their tonnage.
Where it's used
Samarium-cobalt permanent magnets dominate demand: they trade a little of neodymium-iron-boron's strength for far better performance at high temperature and in corrosive environments, which makes them the choice for defence electronics, aerospace actuators, downhole tools and high-speed motors. Samarium also serves in neutron-absorbing applications in nuclear reactors, in specialised optical glass and lasers, and historically in samarium-based cancer therapeutics.
How MineDSS reads it
Because samarium travels with the incompatible-element family, the model's pathfinder suite traces that association: zirconium, niobium, thorium, uranium, hafnium, tantalum and beryllium — the high-field-strength elements that concentrate in the same carbonatite and alkaline melts. Thorium in particular gives these systems a strong radiometric expression. The geochemistry is read alongside mapped alkaline and carbonatitic geology, radiometric and magnetic geophysics and terrain, so that a mutually reinforcing rare-earth-system footprint outranks any isolated anomaly.
Samarium prospectivity — common questions
Which samarium deposit types does MineDSS model?
MineDSS models the systems that supply the light and middle rare earths: carbonatite intrusions — the world's principal rare-earth source, hosting bastnäsite, monazite and apatite — and alkaline igneous complexes, whose evolved granites, syenites and pegmatites concentrate the same elements. Samarium rides the light-rare-earth budget of both, and both leave the distinctive alkaline-geology, radiometric and incompatible-element footprint the model is built to read.
How is the model validated, and where is samarium available?
Every MineDSS model is tested the hard way before it is served: we hide known deposits, rebuild the model without them, then test whether it still finds them, with test ground kept spatially separated so the model cannot memorise nearby points. A model that does not pass our release gates is not offered — for any mineral, in any country. Coverage today for samarium spans the United States and Australia. Skill is model-level, never a specific site's measured accuracy, and never a discovery or JORC / NI 43-101 resource claim.
Which pathfinder elements does MineDSS use for samarium?
The co-located incompatible-element family: zirconium, niobium, thorium, uranium, hafnium, tantalum and beryllium, with zirconium, niobium and thorium carrying the lead signal. These high-field-strength elements concentrate in the same carbonatite and alkaline melts as the rare earths, and thorium gives the systems a clear radiometric expression. The suite is read qualitatively alongside geology, geophysics and terrain — never as fixed numeric weights.
Does a high MineDSS score mean a deposit or a resource estimate?
No. A high score means ground is geologically similar to known carbonatite and alkaline rare-earth systems and merits closer exploration attention. It is not a discovery, not a JORC or NI 43-101 resource or reserve estimate, and not drilling or investment advice. MineDSS ranks prospectivity to help prioritise where to look; confirming whether samarium is present, and in what grade and quantity, still requires field programmes, drilling and independent assessment by qualified professionals.
Other commodities we model
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