alkaline / ion-adsorption
Ytterbium prospectivityacross Australia, the USA & worldwide.
Alkaline igneous and ion-adsorption ytterbium, ranked and explained across the United States and Australia.
-
✓ Australia
Ranked targets
-
✓ United States
Ranked targets
-
· Canada
Not modelled
- ✓
Everywhere else
Global model
Ranked targets come with national models in Australia and the United States. Everywhere else, the global model returns the prospectivity map, the geology behind it and a confidence read. Next, the models are retrained on the full record and new sources, such as hyperspectral imagery, before we use them to rank and select ground.
How we rank ytterbium ground
From a country to a decision.
- 01 · Atlas
Know the ground
The geology, structure, recorded deposits, tenure and geochemistry over the ground, on one map with the source of every layer.
See Atlas - 02 · Open Ground
Find ground you can peg
Which ground is open, held or excluded, read from each licensing authority's own register.
See Open Ground - 03 · Prospectivity
Rank it for ytterbium
The ground scored for ytterbium, with the evidence behind it and ranked targets in Australia and the United States. Anywhere else, the global model maps ytterbium.
See Prospectivity - 04 · Spectral
Map the alteration
The alteration minerals and the structures that control them, from satellite: regional to district scale, and camp scale from WorldView-3.
See Spectral - 05 · Due Diligence
Check before committing
Tenure, land access, environment and the real cost to hold and test a ytterbium position.
See Due Diligence -
Talk to us about ytterbium
Partners, investors, publishers and researchers.
The deposit system
The ytterbium system.
Ytterbium is one of the heaviest rare-earth elements: the workhorse dopant of modern high-power fibre lasers and a frequency standard in some of the world's most precise atomic clocks. Like the other heavy rare earths it forms no ores of its own, substituting instead into xenotime, zircon, fergusonite and eudialyte in evolved alkaline igneous rocks, and accumulating as loosely bound ions on clays where such rocks have weathered deeply.
Read more: the deposit model, why it matters and where it is used +
More on ytterbium
MineDSS models ytterbium through both systems.
The deposit model
Alkaline igneous systems begin with peralkaline granites, syenites and their pegmatites: magmas so enriched in incompatible high-field-strength elements that the heavy rare earths, with zirconium, niobium, thorium and uranium, are driven into late fluorine-rich melts and fixed in xenotime, zircon, fergusonite and eudialyte. Ion-adsorption systems are the weathered expression of the same chemistry: prolonged subtropical weathering strips an enriched granite, and the liberated rare earths (the heavies preferentially) are adsorbed onto kaolinite in the residual clay profile, from which they can be recovered by mild leaching. Both leave a mappable footprint of alkaline geology, thorium-uranium radiometric response, and coherent incompatible-element geochemistry.
Why it matters
Ytterbium is on critical-minerals lists with the other heavy rare earths, the scarcest and most supply-concentrated end of the lanthanide series. Its role is disproportionate to its tonnage: ytterbium-doped fibre is the gain medium of the industrial laser systems used across advanced manufacturing, and ytterbium lattice clocks are among the most accurate timekeeping devices ever built, with applications in navigation, geodesy and fundamental science. Heavy-rare-earth supply security is one of the hardest problems in the critical-minerals landscape, and every credible new source matters.
Where it's used
Ytterbium-doped fibre lasers dominate demand: they convert electrical power to laser light with high efficiency and power, driving industrial cutting, welding and additive manufacturing, with defence directed-energy research alongside. Ytterbium serves as the reference atom in optical lattice clocks, improves the grain refinement and strength of some stainless steels, appears in stress-gauge and gamma-source applications, and dopes speciality glasses and ceramics for photonics.
Questions
Ytterbium: common questions.
Which ytterbium deposit types does MineDSS model? +
Two related systems: alkaline igneous heavy-rare-earth deposits (peralkaline granites, syenites and pegmatites that fix ytterbium in xenotime, zircon, fergusonite and eudialyte) and ion-adsorption clays, the deeply weathered expression of the same enriched rocks, where the heavy rare earths are held as easily leachable ions on kaolinite. Both concentrate ytterbium from incompatible-element-rich magmas and leave the footprint the model is built to read.
How is the model tested, and where can I run ytterbium? +
Every MineDSS model is tested before it is served: we withhold whole blocks of ground, rebuild the model without them, and check that it still ranks the anomalous samples there above background, with test ground kept spatially separate. A model that does not pass our release gates is not used, for any mineral, in any country. National models for ytterbium run in Australia and the United States, with ranked targets. Anywhere else in the world, the global model returns the prospectivity map, the geology behind it and a confidence read. 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 track ytterbium? +
The co-located incompatible-element family: zirconium, niobium, thorium, uranium, hafnium, tantalum and beryllium, with zirconium, niobium and thorium leading. These elements concentrate in the same peralkaline melts as the heavy rare earths and survive into the weathered clay profile, tracing both fresh and weathered expressions of the system. These elements are part of the geochemical record our models learn from. In a run on any piece of ground, the map itself is read from geology and rock age, gravity and magnetics, radiometrics, terrain, satellite radar and spectral alteration, so it covers ground that has never been sampled.
Does a high MineDSS score mean a deposit or a resource estimate? +
No. A high score means its evidence closely matches ground where samples assay anomalously high for the target mineral, and it 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 ytterbium is present, and in what grade and quantity, still requires field programmes, drilling and independent assessment by qualified professionals.
-
Partners
Exploration and mining companies interested in working with us.
-
Investors
The record, the models and the ground they point to.
-
Publishers and researchers
Geological surveys, universities and programmes whose work the record is built on.
MineDSS ranks prospectivity to help you decide where to explore next. It is not a discovery, not a JORC or NI 43-101 resource or reserve estimate, and not drilling or investment advice.