At present calcrete-hosted uranium deposits constitute only 1% of Australia's uranium resources. Most known deposits (nine out of eleven) are associated with Cenozoic drainage systems in the Yilgarn Craton, and similar drainage systems in the Gascoyne Province and Ngalia Basin. In the Paterson region calcrete-hosted uranium mineralisation has been reported only in the Lake Waukarlycarly area but no major deposit of this type has yet been found.

During 2008 and 2009, and under the Australian Government's Onshore Energy Security Initiative, Geoscience Australia acquired airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data over the Pine Creek Orogen of the Northern Territory. The survey area was split into three areas for acquisition. VTEM data was acquired in the Kombolgie area east of Kakadu National Park (this data set) between August and November 2008. TEMPEST data was acquired west of Kakadu National Park with the area split in two to facilitate the use of two aircraft: the Woolner Granite area in the north was acquired between October and December 2008; and the Rum Jungle area adjoining to the south, was acquired between October 2008 and May 2009. The main purpose of the surveys was to provide additional geophysical/geological context for unconformity style uranium mineral systems and thereby promote related exploration. The survey data will also provide information on depth to Proterozoic/Archean basement, which is of general interest to explorers, and will be used as an input into ground water studies in the region. This dataset includes the subscriber company data K1 K2 and K3.

As part of its Energy Security Initiative, the Australian Government allocated Geoscience Australia $59 million in August 2006, to undertake a five-year Onshore Energy Security Program. This is designed to deliver precompetitive geoscience data and scientifically-based assessments to reduce the rick in exploration for onshore energy resources, including petroleum, uranium, thorium and geothermal energy. The work is being conducted in collaboration with the State and territory geological surveys and is scheduled for completion in June 2011.

Australia's ancient river networks are substantially obscured by dunefields. The depths of incision of the river valleys into bedrock, the nature of sedimentary infill, and the palaeoenvironmental and geomorphic evolution of these fluvial systems are little known for much of the continent. The fluvial systems are defunct and the valleys are now typically disconnected chains of salt lakes with the relict valleys governed by groundwater processes. The palaeovalley sediments represent important aquifers in widespread parts of the Australian semi-arid to arid zone. They commonly contain the only available water resources to support mining activities, remote Aboriginal communities, the pastoral industry, and groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs). In Western Australia, investigations are underway in two regions to assess palaeovalleys and their groundwater resources: the Paterson Province in the Great Sandy Desert, and the Murchison Province of the Archean Yilgarn Craton. A variety of technologies have been applied to provide a regional context for more detailed analysis.

More recently the O'Farrell government has called for expressions of interest to explore for uranium across NSW. Fugro Airborne Services Pty Ltd also called for expressions of interest in flying a large TEMPEST AEM survey in NSW covering the NSW Curnamona Province and portions of the Murray-Darling Basin and Lake Eyre Basin, abutting the SA border, to complement the Frome AEM Survey. The following is a brief summary of some of the main points discussed and presented during 3 presentations at the NSWGS on 19 September 2012, and in follow-up discussions on 20 September 2012. Approximately 40 people attended the three presentations. A discussion after the talks centred around using AEM in NSW for regional mapping including for uranium, porphyry copper-gold systems and massive sulphide systems. PowerPoint presentations were left with NSWGS. Three abstracts describing these presentations are included at the end of this document.

The National Geochemical Survey of Australia project represents an essential component of the Australian Government's Onshore Energy Security Initiative. The national geochemical survey involves the use of field-tested methods for collection and analysis of transported regolith samples representative of catchments covering most of Australia. The project is a collaboration between Geoscience Australia and State and Northern Territory geoscience agencies, which will provide an internally consistent geochemical dataset useful for calibration and ground-truthing of airborne radiometrics surveys. The survey also will help to fill gaps in current airborne radiometrics and geochemical coverages of Australia, provide multi-element characterisation and ranking of radiometric anomalies and aid in first-order investigation of the nature of geothermal hot-spots. As a result it will support and add value to numerous other Onshore Energy Security Initiative projects and have wider applications in mineral exploration and in environmental assessment and management. This report details the methodology underpinning the determination of the theoretical sampling points using terrain and hydrological analysis; and the protocols for sample collection. It will be used for knowledge transfer during training sessions for the State and Northern Territory field parties who also will receive field equipment and consumables which will ensure there is consistent sampling throughout the project. A digital data entry template has been designed to enable efficient and consistent in-field data capture, which also will streamline data entry into Geoscience Australia's corporate databases.

The record is a presentation given by Adrian Fisher to staff of the Aditya-Birla Nifty copper mine and to staff at the Geological Survey of Western Australia, August 2007. It describes the planning behind the Paterson AEM survey, to be acquired in 2007-2008.

Airborne Electromagnetic data are being acquired by Geoscience Australia in areas considered to have potential for uranium or thorium mineralisation under the Australian Government's Onshore Energy Security Program (OESP). The surveys have been managed and interpreted by Geoscience Australia's Airborne Electromagnetic Acquisition and Interpretation project. In contrast to industry style deposit scale investigations, these surveys are designed to reveal new geological information at regional scale. The Paterson airborne electromagnetic data were acquired at line spacings of between one and six kilometres, a total of 28 200 line km and covers an area of 47 600 km². The outcomes of the Paterson AEM survey include mapping of subsurface geological features that are associated with unconformity-related, sandstone-hosted and palaeovalley-hosted uranium mineralisation. The data are also capable of interpretation for other commodities including metals and potable water as well as for landscape evolution studies. The improved understanding of the regional geology resulting from the Paterson survey results will be of considerable benefit to mining and mineral exploration companies. This Data Package is for Archive to the internal area of the CDS and contains all data, grids, images, mxd, shape files, documentation, licenses, agreements, interpretations and scripts used to create the Paterson deliverables. At the projects completion (2012) all directories are required to be moved off the NAS. The reason to keep all the files is that more work is to be done on this data in the 2012-2015 period and these files may be needed in this future work.

Short article describing a new method of defining depth of investigation for airborne electromagnetic surveys

Conceptual MAR targets in the Broken Hill region were identified in previous investigations (Lewis et al., 2008; Lawrie et al., 2009a). In the BHMAR Phase 2 study, the project team is required to make recommendations on the presence and suitability of potential MAR sites with an 80% confidence level. While this will be attempted through a combination of AEM, borehole analysis and seismic reflection data acquisition, AEM is the prime dataset required to map the aquifer targets in 3D.