Australian mineral exploration spending in 2007-081 rose by 41% to a record $2461.4 million2 of which 44% was spent on the search for new deposits3. Spending rose in all States and the Northern Territory; Western Australia dominated with 51% of Australian mineral exploration spending. Base metals were the dominant target with 32% of exploration spending while gold was the major commodity sought with 24% of total spending. Exploration results were announced for a wide range of commodities from across the country with significant increases in resources at the Prominent Hill copper-gold project in South Australia, Cadia gold-copper project in New South Wales, Cloncurry copper and gold project in Queensland and the Solomon iron ore project in Western Australia. High-grade nickel intersections were reported from the Spotted Quoll and Lounge Lizard deposits in Western Australia.

At the request of the South Australian Government a gravity survey to investigate the possibility of further coal basins to the north of the Leigh Creek coalfield was commenced by officers of this Bureau in October, 1947. This survey was suspended in December, and a report was prepared dealing with the work carried out to that date (1948/004 and 1948/048). The area covered, however, was only a small part of a much larger area covered by a superficial layer of Tertiary rocks, beneath which a coal basin could exist. The work was resumed in May, 1948, and was continued until September, when the party was withdrawn. In additional to the geophysical field work carried out on the covered area to the north of the known coal deposits, some work was done on the Center or Telford basin. A number of traverses was read on the western edge of the basin, with a view to determining places where shallow coal might be found. The geology of the area, technical matters, results, and recommendations are discussed in this report. Accompanying plans are included.

Report summarises results from the Offshore and Onshore Energy Security Progams undertaken between 2006 and 2011.

Gravity surveys were conducted of the Gippsland Lakes district during 1949 and 1951. Both surveys showed an anomaly immediately to the north of Lake Wellington, the magnetic anomaly being a little displaced to the north-west of the gravity anomaly. The size and nature of the magnetic anomaly suggested that it might be due to rocks with higher than normal magnetic susceptibility in the basement complex. The gravity anomaly might be due to a buried hill in the Jurassic or basement, perhaps associated with the same feature which is responsible for the magnetic anomaly. Such a buried hill could result in a geological structure favourable to the accumulation of oil being present in the overlying Tertiary rocks, and in order to test whether or not a favourable structure existed a seismic reflection survey was undertaken by the Bureau. This report deals with the results of the seismic survey. Two north-south traverses and one running east-west and crossing the other two were surveyed.

This statement gives the results of a scout drilling campaign conducted by the Bureau at the Kirby's Hill Area of the Western Coalfield of New South Wales. The area investigated comprises approximately 200 acres of the parish of Cullen Bullen in the County of Roxburgh. At Kirby's Hill itself a maximum of about 300 feet of Coal Measure rocks rests on Upper Marine beds, and this is one of the most westerly exposures of the Upper Coal measures. The purpose of scout drilling was to determine the suitability of the Lithgow and Irondale Seams for open cut exploitation.

In Portion 11, Ph. of Stockrington Diamond Drilling near an unnamed creek tributary to Surveyor Creek has disclosed coal continuously for a distance of 7,600 feet south from the northern boundary of the Portion. The seam is split and banded and the coal is inherently high in ash. Proximate analyses of the coal were carried out by the New South Wales Mines Department laboratory in Sydney. All coal ores were forwarded from the field and shale etc. bands of greater thickness than half an inch were discarded by the analysts. Stony coal or carbonaceous shale with S.G. greater than 1.6 was also rejected from the assay samples. Consequently the analyses quoted indicate a composition roughly equivalent to that which might be expected for cleaned or hand-picked coal from this area.

As part of Geoscience Australia's Onshore Energy Security Program the authors have investigated whether there is any evidence that a sandstone hosted uranium system has operated in the Eromanga Basin and assessed the basin's potential to host significant uranium mineralisation.

Map which identifies Australia's diamond deposits, kimberlites, and related rock locations overlaying the 'Magnetic Anomaly Map' image. Includes photo images of major mine fields, and pie charts depicting Australia's diamond production and value in $US against world data. Information compiled from different sources, including mining companies, mining journals and 'Magnetic Anomaly Map'

This report deals with the results of 25,000 ft. of boring over an area of 15 sq. miles. Twenty-six coal seams were identified and named. Total reserves of all seams with band-free thickness greater than 4.0 ft. are 200,000,000 tons. Net open-cut reserves (to 9:1 ratio) of 7,500,000 tons over an area of 400 acres were tested and defined on four seams. All work in the Howick Area was done in the period March, 1952, to June, 1953.

Considerable exploration interest has been generated by the platinum-group-element (PGE) and Ni-Cu potential of the Archean layered mafic-ultramafic intrusions in the west Pilbara Craton, Western Australia. The Munni Munni Intrusion contains the largest known resource of PGEs associated with a layered intrusion in Australia, and the Radio Hill and Mount Sholl intrusions host significant resources of Ni-Cu-Co sulfides. Titaniferous magnetite layers, remobilized sulfides, and structurally controlled hydrothermal polymetallic deposits have also been a focus for exploration in recent years. The ca. 2.9 Ga Munni Munni, Andover, Radio Hill, Mount Sholl, and Sherlock layered intrusions are a cogenetic suite of high-level (<5 kb) bodies that represent some of the oldest mineralizing systems of their type in the world. Although they display similar field relationships and mineralogical, geochemical, and isotopic features, their contrasting chalcophile metal distribution patterns show that the timing and mechanism of the S-saturation event were critical for the development of PGE-enriched sulfide-bearing layers and basal segregations of base-metal sulfides. The intrusions form thick (>5.5 km) 'dike'-like bodies or relatively thin (0.5-2 km) sheets and sills emplaced at different levels along major lithological discontinuities in the upper crust. Rhythmically layered ultramafic components are generally thinner than, and occur along the northern sides of, more massive overlying mafic components. The ultramafic zones consist of dunite, lherzolite, wehrlite, olivine websterite, clinopyroxenite, and websterite. Inverted pigeonite gabbronorite, magnetite gabbro, olivine gabbro, anorthositic gabbro, and anorthosite comprise the mafic sequences. Olivine and clinopyroxene were generally the first minerals to crystallize, except in the Andover Intrusion, where orthopyroxene preceded clinopyroxene and possibly reflects greater contamination of the parent magma by felsic crustal material. The crystallization of chromite was inhibited in the ultramafic zones by the partitioning of Cr into early crystallizing clinopyroxene, thus downgrading the potential for PGE-chromite associations. The PGE mineralization in the Munni Munni Intrusion occurs in the upper levels of a porphyritic plagioclase websterite orthocumulate layer directly below the ultramafic-gabbroic zone contact. Mineral compositional trends and Nd isotopic data indicate that a Pd-Pt-Au-enriched S-undersaturated magnesian basaltic magma was frequently injected into a small magma chamber during formation of the ultramafic zone. A major influx of more fractionated, S-saturated tholeiitic gabbroic magma related to the resident magnesian magma, rapidly inflated the chamber and induced turbulent magma mixing that resulted in the formation of the PGE-bearing porphyritic websterite layer. In contrast, the parent magmas that formed the Mount Sholl, Radio Hill, Andover, and Maitland intrusions were saturated in S before they were emplaced into the magma chambers. In these intrusions gravitational and structural controls were important for the concentration of PGE-poor (5-400 ppb Pt + Pd + Au) massive sulfides in depressions and structural embayments along the basal contacts beneath the thickest sequences of mafic-ultramafic cumulates. The parent magmas to the west Pilbara intrusions were siliceous high-Mg basalts of Al-depleted komatiitic affinity (Barberton-type) with 9-12% MgO, 15-25 ppm Sc, 12-18 ppm Y, low Al2O3/TiO2 (ca. 11, or half chondrite ratios), and light-rare earth enrichment (chondrite-normalized La/Sm = 2.7, La/Lu = 9.0). They were generated with garnet in the residual asthenospheric mantle with probable involvement of a pre-3.0 Ga subduction-modified lithospheric mantle. Isotopic and geochemical modelling suggests that the magmas were contaminated by ca. 3.0-3.3 Ga Archean tonalitic to granodioritic crust before being emplaced into high-level magma chambers.