Musgrave Ranges is a mountain range

Mountain range

A mountain range is a single, large mass consisting of a succession of mountains or narrowly spaced mountain ridges, with or without peaks, closely related in position, direction, formation, and age; a component part of a mountain system or of a mountain chain...

 in Central Australia

Central Australia

Central Australia/Alice Springs Region is one of the five regions in the Northern Territory. The term Central Australia is used to describe an area centred on Alice Springs in Australia. It is sometimes referred to as Centralia; likewise the people of the area are sometimes called Centralians...

, straddling the boundary of South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

 (Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara

Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara

Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara is a large Aboriginal local government area located in the remote north west of South Australia...

) and the Northern Territory

Northern Territory

The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...

 (MacDonnell Shire

MacDonnell Shire

The MacDonnell Shire is a Local Government Area of the Northern Territory, Australia. The shire covers an area of 268,784.20 km² and has a estimated population of 7,142 people.-Geography:...

), extending into Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

. It is between the Great Victoria Desert

Great Victoria Desert

The Great Victoria Desert is a barren and sparsely populated desert area of southern Australia.-Location and description:The Great Victoria is the biggest desert in Australia and consists of many small sandhills, grassland plains, areas with a closely packed surface of pebbles and salt lakes...

 to the south and the Gibson Desert

Gibson Desert

The Gibson Desert covers a large dry area in the state of Western Australia and is still largely in an almost "pristine" state. It is about in size, making it the 5th largest desert in Australia, after the Great Sandy, Great Victoria, Tanami and Simpson deserts.-Location and description:The Gibson...

 to the north. They have a length of 210 kilometres (130.5 mi) and many peaks that have a height of more than 1100 metres (3,608.9 ft), the highest being Mount Woodroffe

Mount Woodroffe

Mount Woodroffe is South Australia's highest peak, at 1,435 metres.- Cultural Significance :The mountain is known to the Pitjantjatjara Indigenous Australians as Ngarutjaranya....

 at 1435 metres (4,708 ft).

Inhabitants

They were inhabited by the Pitjantjatjara Aborigines and discovered by English explorer William C. Gosse

William Gosse

William Christie Gosse , explorer, was born in Hertfordshire, England and migrated to Australia with his father in 1850. He was educated at J.L. Young's Adelaide Educational Institution and in 1859 he entered the Government service of South Australia. He held various positions in the survey...

 and named after Anthony Musgrave

Anthony Musgrave

Sir Anthony Musgrave KCMG was a colonial administrator and governor. He was born at St John’s, Antigua, the third of 11 children of Anthony Musgrave and Mary Harris Sheriff...

, then Governor of South Australia. In a historic decision freehold title to the South Australian portion of the Musgrave Ranges was granted to the Pitjantjatjara people by virtue of the Pitjantjatjara Land Rights Act 1980. Since that time however, the remote and relatively inhospitable nature of the area has moved many of the young traditional owners to relocate to such urban centres as Port Augusta

Port Augusta, South Australia

-Electricity generation:Electricity is generated at the Playford B and Northern power stations from brown coal mined at Leigh Creek, 250 km to the north...

 and Whyalla

Whyalla, South Australia

-Demographics:According to the 2006 Census the population of the Whyalla census area was 21,122 people, making it the second largest urban area in the state outside of Adelaide...

.

Mineral exploration

In order to combat unemployment, the Pitjantjatjara Elders seek to develop employment and opportunity within the Pitjantjatjara Lands. Mineral

Mineral

A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...

 exploration

Exploration

Exploration is the act of searching or traveling around a terrain for the purpose of discovery of resources or information. Exploration occurs in all non-sessile animal species, including humans...

 companies in particular have been keen to discuss possible business alliances with the Pitjantjatjara people because in addition to being a highly prospective region (platinum group

Platinum group

The platinum group metals is a term used sometimes to collectively refer to six metallic elements clustered together in the periodic table.These elements are all transition metals, lying in the d-block .The six...

 elements, gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

, uranium

Uranium

Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...

, copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

, silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

, possibly oil

Oil

An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....

), the region represents the largest freehold Aboriginal province in Australia and has had no modern mineral exploration

Mineral exploration

Mineral exploration is the process of finding ore to mine. Mineral exploration is a much more intensive, organized and professional form of mineral prospecting and, though it frequently uses the services of prospecting, the process of mineral exploration on the whole is much more involved.-Stages...

techniques applied since the Land Rights Act of 1980.