The Australian Bureau of Statistics March quarter data indicate further deterioration in Australian mineral exploration keeping current expenditure levels well below recent levels. Despite this, indicators including increased mineral company floats in 2002 on the back of new discoveries, improved gold prices, increased activity especially by juniors, and prospects for improved metal prices in 2003-2004, present the most positive outlook for mineral exploration since 1997. However, a period of sustained increases in metal prices is required for a significant rise in exploration levels. Exploration is focussed in the Yilgarn Craton, the Tanami Province, the Gawler Craton, the Musgrave Province, and the Murray Basin. The Ashburton province is an emerging gold province and much of the Northern Territory is under tenement for diamonds. Discoveries continue to be made but increased greenfields exploration, especially in areas under cover, is needed to exploit Australia's potential. New government geoscience programs, especially regional pre-competitive geophysical surveys, are playing an important role in helping to unlock that potential. Originally published in The AusIMM Bulletin No. 5 September/October 2002, pp 36-42.

Contents: 1.Ahmad M. Geology and mineral deposits of the Pine Creek Inlier and McArthur Basin, Northern Territory. 2.Moore DH, VandenBerg AHM, Willman CE, Magart APM. Palaeozoic geology and resources of Victoria. 3.Bottrill RS, Brown AV, Calver CR, Corbett KD, Green GR, McClenaghan MP, Pemberton J, Seymour DB, Taheri J. A summary of the economic geology and mineral potential of Late Proterozoic and Palaeozoic provinces in Tasmania. 4.Daly SJ, Fanning CM, Fairclough MC. Tectonic evolution and exploration potential of the Gawler Craton, South Australia. 5.Robertson RS, Preiss WV, Crooks AF, Hill PW, Sheard MJ. Review of the Proterozoic geology and mineral potential of the Curnamona Province in South Australia. 6.Belperio AP, Preiss WV, Fairclough MC, Gatehouse CG, Gum J, Hough J, Burtt A. Tectonic and metallogenic framework of the Cambrian Stansbury Basin-Kanmantoo Trough, South Australia. 7.Ferenczi PA, Ahmad M. Geology and mineral deposits of the Granites-Tanami and Tennant Creek Inliers, Northern Territory. 8.Witt WK, Hickman AH, Townsend D, Preston WA. Mineral potential of the Archaean Pilbara and Yilgarn Cratons, Western Australia. 9.Tyler IM, Pirajno F, Bagas L, Myers JS, Preston WA. The geology and mineral deposits of the Proterozoic in Western Australia. 10.Hocking RM, Preston WA. Western Australia: Phanerozoic geology and mineral resources. 11.Wygralak AS, Bajwah ZU. Geology and mineralisation of the Arunta Inlier, Northern Territory. 12.Wallis DS, Draper JJ, Denaro TJ. Palaeo- and Mesoproterozoic mineral deposits in Queensland. 13.Draper JJ. An overview of post-Mesoproterozoic mineralisation in Queensland. 14.Stevens BPJ, Burton GR. The Early to Late Proterozoic Broken Hill Province, New South Wales. 15.Suppel DW, Barnes RG, Scheibner E. The Palaeozoic in New South Wales - geology and mineral resources.

Thematic issue

Thematic issue

Contents: 1.Durney DW, Kisch HJ. A field classification and intensity scale for first-generation cleavages. 2.Mernagh TP, Witt WK. Early, methane-rich fluids and their role in Archaean gold mineralisation at the Sand King and Missouri deposits, Eastern Goldfields Province, Western Australia. 3.Whitaker AJ. Integrated geological and geophysical mapping of southwestern Western Australia. 4.Michael Leiba MO. Fluctuations in seismicity in the Dalton area, NSW, Australia, and their relevance to earthquake forecasting. 5.Ollier CD, Pain CF. Landscape evolution and tectonics in southeastern Australia. 6.Lavering IH. Marine benthic communities in the Early Carboniferous of New South Wales (Visean-Delepinea aspinosa Zone). 7.Palmieri V, Foster CB, Bondavera EV. First record of shared species of Late Permian small foraminiferids in Australia and Russia: time correlations and plate reconstructions. 8.Nicoll RS. Seximembrate apparatus structure of the Late Cambrian coniform conodont Teridontus nakamurai from the Chatsworth Limestone, Georgina Basin, Queensland. 9.Roach IC, McQueen KG, Brown MC. Physical and petrological characteristics of basaltic eruption sites in the Monaro Volcanic Province, southeastern New South Wales, Australia.

Contents: 1.Ewers GR, Mackenzie DE, Cruikshank BI, Andrew AS. Whole-rock regional oxygen-isotope depletion patterns as a guide to epithermal gold exploration in north Queensland. 2.Michael Leiba M, Dennis S. Relationship between body wave and local magnitudes for Australian earthquakes. 3.Nicoll RS, Gorter JD. Devonian-Carboniferous stratigraphy of Quail 1, Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia: regional implications for geohistory and hydrocarbon prospectivity. 4.Senior BR, Truswell EM, Idnurm M, Shaw RD, Warren RG. Cainozoic sedimentary basins in the eastern Arunta Block, Alice Springs region, central Australia. 5.McLoughlin S, Haig DW, Backhouse J, Holmes MA, Ellis G, Long JA, McNamara KJ. Oldest Cretaceous sequence, Giralia Anticline, Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia: late Hauterivian-Barremian. 6.Wilkie J, Gibson G, Wesson V. Earthquake duration magnitudes in southeast Australia, accounting for site, seismograph and source. 7.Trotter JA, Webby BD. Upper Ordovician conodonts from the Malongulli Formation, Cliefden Caves area, central New South Wales. 8.Warren RG, Thorpe RI, Dean JA, Mortensen JK. Pb-isotope data from base-metal deposits in central Australia: implications for Proterozoic stratigraphic correlations. 9.Wilkie J, Gibson G. Estimation of seismic quality factor Q for Victoria, Australia. 10.Drummond BJ, Goncharov AG, Collins CDN. Upper crustal heterogeneities in Australian Precambrian provinces interpreted from deep seismic profiles and the Kola Superdeep Bore Hole. 11.Mortimer N. Geological note: igneous and sedimentary rocks dredged from the northern Macquarie Ridge, Southern Ocean.

Contents: 1.Powell TG. BMR's legacy and AGSO's mission: strategic influence on the future direction of Australia's national geological survey. 2.Veevers JJ. Australia's buoyancy inherited from Gondwanaland. 3.Coleman PJ. Australia and the Melanesian arcs: a review of tectonic settings. 4.Gunn PJ, Milligan P, Mackey T, Liu S, Murray A, Maidment D, Haren R. Geophysical mapping using the national airborne and gravity datasets: an example focusing on Broken Hill. 5.Rutland RWR. The sustainability of mineral use. 6.Schmidt PW. The sequicentennial of palaeomagnetism and rock magnetism in Australia. 7.Murray AS. The Australian National Gravity Database. 8.Taylor SR. The origin of the Earth. 9.Solomon M, Sun SS. Earth's evolution and mineral resources, with particular emphasis on volcanic-hosted massive sulphide deposits and banded iron formations. 10.Kennett BLN. The mantle beneath Australia. 11.Taylor SR, McLennan SM. The origin and evolution of the Earth's continental crust. 12.O'Reilly SY, Griffin WL, Gaul O. Paleogeothermal gradients in Australia: key to 4-D lithospere mapping. 13.Walter MR, Veevers JJ. Australian Neoproterozoic palaeogeography, tectonics, and supercontinental connections. 14.Davies GF. The mantle dynamical repertoire: plates, plumes, overturns and tectonic evolution.

Contents: 1.Draper JJ, Jensen AR. The geochemistry of Lake Frome, a playa lake in South Australia. 2.Wellman P, Tingey RJ. Gravity evidence for a major crustal fracture in eastern Antarctica. 3.Kemp EM. Early Tertiary pollen from Napperby, central Australia. 4.Glikson AY, Derrick GM, Wilson IH, Hill RM. Tectonic evolution and crustal setting of the middle Proterozoic Leichhardt River fault trough, Mount Isa region, northwestern Queensland. 5.Doutch HF. The Karumba Basin, northeastern Australia and southern New Guinea. 6.Jones PJ, Roberts J. Some aspects of Carboniferous biostratigraphy in eastern Australia: a review. 7.Rossiter AG. Stream-sediment geochemistry as an exploration technique in the Westmoreland area, northern Australia. 8.Chaproniere GCH. The Bullara Limestone, a new rock-stratigraphic unit from the Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia.

Contents: 1.Jacobson G, Vanden Broek PH, Kellett JR. Environmental geology for urban development - Tuggeranong, Australian Capital Territory. 2.Mayo W. Numerical techniques applied to the geochemistry of some estuarine sediments from Broad Sound, Queensland. 3.Exon NF, Willcox JB. Mesozoic outcrops on the lower continental slope off Exmouth, Western Australia. 4.Smart J. The nature and origin of beach ridges, western Cape York Peninsula. 5.Skwarko SK, Nicoll RS, Campbell KSW. The Late Triassic molluscs, conodonts, and brachiopods of the Kuta Formation, Papua New Guinea. 6.Davies PJ, Radke BM, Robison CR. The evolution of One Tree Reef, southern Great Barrier Reef, Queensland. 7.Pettifer GR, Smart J. Resistivity methods in the search for groundwater, Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. 8.Davies PJ, Stewart DB. Scuba-operated coring device. 9.Carter EK, Modrak K. The registry of stratigraphic names. 10.Callen RA. Tentative correlation of onshore and lacustrine stratigraphy, Lake Frome area. 11.. Fifth BMR Symposium.

Contents: 1.Black LP. A Rb-Sr geochronological study in the Proterozoic Tennant Creek Block, central Australia. 2.Derrick GM. Metasomatic history and origin of uranium mineralization at Mary Kathleen, northwest Queensland. 3.Kennewell PJ, Mathur SP, Wilkes PG. The Lander Trough, southern Wiso Basin, Northern Territory. 4.Bain JHC. Uranium mineralization associated with late Palaeozoic acid magmatism in northeast Queensland. 5.Robson DF, Sampath N. Geophysical response of heavy-mineral sand deposits at Jerusalem Creek, New South Wales. 6.Cook PJ, Colwell JB, Firman JB, Lindsay JM, Schwebel DA, von der Borch CC. The late Cainozoic sequence of southeast South Australia and Pleistocene sea-level changes. 7.Spies BR. Absolute electromagnetic scale modelling and its use in interpretation of TEM response. 8.Draper JJ. Environment of deposition of the Carlo Sandstone, Georgina Basin, Queensland and Northern Territory.