<div>This study is part of the Mineral Potential Assessment (MPA) module of Geoscience Australia's Darling-Curnamona-Delamerian (DCD) project, a deep-dive project within the Exploring for the Future Program (EFTF) 2020-2024. An objective of the DCD project is to further the understanding of the geological architecture of the Delamerian Orogen into a cohesive framework enable a regional mineral potential assessment of this under-explored and mostly under cover Orogen. The MPA module is one of eight modules under the umbrella of the DCD project. To facilitate assessment of the mineral potential of the project area, the mineral potential assessment study has 3 key scientific objectives: (1) Defining the characteristics of the mineral systems / prospects. (2)&nbsp;&nbsp;Evaluating the temporal framework of the formation of mineral systems / prospects; and (3) Understanding the regional magma fertility. This study delivers Objective 1, i.e., outlining the principle geological and metallogenic characteristics of reported mineral prospects in the project area.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Legacy drill cores best demonstrating metallogenic features of different mineral system types at key prospects across the project area were selected for viewing and sampling following review of historical exploration reports and assay results. Four sets of data are included in the appendices of this report: (1)&nbsp;&nbsp;HyLogger spectral images of 20 drill holes of 8 prospects in New South Wales. (2)&nbsp;&nbsp;143 high-resolution scan files of legacy drill core samples across the project area. (3)&nbsp;&nbsp;16 microscopic images of thin sections for 4 prospects of the Loch Lilly-Kars Belt, New South Wales. (4)&nbsp;&nbsp;53 Backscattered Electron (BSE) images and 53 Advanced Mineral Identification and Characterization System (AMICS) high-resolution mineral maps of 53 samples from 18 prospects across the whole Delamerian Margin.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Metallogenic characteristics of samples from four different mineral deposit types were studied, along deposits of uncertain affiliation (referred here as undefined systems), including (1) Porphyry-epithermal mineral systems. (2)&nbsp;&nbsp;Volcanic hosted massive sulfide (VHMS) mineral systems. (3)&nbsp;&nbsp;Orogenic gold mineral systems. (4)&nbsp;&nbsp;Mafic-ultramafic Cu-Ni-PGE mineral systems. (5)&nbsp;&nbsp;Metallogenetically undefined systems. Detailed metallogenic characteristics of the samples from 22 key prospects in Delamerian Orogen are documented in this report.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>This is the first systemic study on the essential metallogenic characteristics of the mineral systems in Delamerian. The characterisations outlined in this report are foundational for understanding the regional metallogenesis and assessing the potential of multiple types of mineral systems in the Delamerian Belt, which should be useful in both academic and the mineral exploration sector.</div><div><br></div><div>The high-resolution BSE and AMICS mineral maps are available at Geoscience Australia. Please reach out to the senior author of this GA Record, Dr. Yanbo Cheng (Yanbo.cheng@ga.gov.au). </div>

This web service delivers data from an aggregation of sources, including several Geoscience Australia databases (provinces (PROVS), mineral resources (OZMIN), energy systems (AERA, ENERGY_SYSTEMS) and water (HYDROGEOLOGY). Information is grouped based on a modified version of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2021 Indigenous Regions (IREG). Data covers population centres, top industries, a regional summary, groundwater resources and uses, energy production and potential across six sources and two energy storage options. Mineral production and potential covers 36 commodities that are grouped into 13 groups.

<div>GeoInsight aims to communicate geological information to non-geoscience professionals and guide users to datasets with ease via a web-based interface. The 18-month pilot project was developed as part of Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future Program (2016–2024) using a human-centred design approach in which user needs are forefront considerations. Interviews and testing with users found that a simple and plain-language experience that provided packaged information with channels to further research is the preferred design. Curated information and data from across Geoscience Australia help users make decisions and refine their research approach quickly and confidently. </div><div><br></div><div>Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future program provides precompetitive information to inform decision-making by government, community and industry on the sustainable development of Australia's mineral, energy and groundwater resources. By gathering, analysing and interpreting new and existing precompetitive geoscience data and knowledge, we are building a national picture of Australia’s geology and resource potential. This leads to a strong economy, resilient society and sustainable environment for the benefit of all Australians. This includes supporting Australia’s transition to net zero emissions, strong, sustainable resources and agriculture sectors, and economic opportunities and social benefits for Australia’s regional and remote communities. The Exploring for the Future program, which commenced in 2016, is an eight year, $225m investment by the Australian Government. </div><div><br></div><div>In the first iteration of GeoInsight, products were selected for minerals, energy, water and complementary information from Geoscience Australia’s Data Discovery Portal and Data and Publications Catalogue. These products were examined to (1) gauge the relevance of the information they contain for non-geoscientists and (2) determine how best to deliver this information for effective use by non-technical audiences. </div><div><br></div><div>This record documents the methodology used to summarise mineral commodities for GeoInsight. The method was devised to provide a straightforward snapshot of mineral production at the time of publication and future production/extraction potential based on Geoscience Australia datasets extrapolated to the regional scale across Australia. </div><div><br></div><div>The initial developmental stage has been dedicated to producing a workable foundation intended to evolve and incorporate more nuanced content centred on user feedback. Initial stages focused on extraction of data from databases across the widest possible breadth of commodities which could be supported by existing workflows and automation. A recommendation for future development is to incorporate the more nuanced information available from Geoscience Australia into future iterations of the GeoInsight platform. A wide range of information related to mineral potential is delivered by Geoscience Australia, very little of which is captured in the current version of GeoInsight. </div><div><br></div><div>Any updates to the methodology used in GeoInsight will be accompanied by updates to this document, including a change log.</div>

This web service delivers data from an aggregation of sources, including several Geoscience Australia databases (provinces (PROVS), mineral resources (OZMIN), energy systems (AERA, ENERGY_SYSTEMS) and water (HYDROGEOLOGY). Information is grouped based on a modified version of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2021 Indigenous Regions (IREG). Data covers population centres, top industries, a regional summary, groundwater resources and uses, energy production and potential across six sources and two energy storage options. Mineral production and potential covers 36 commodities that are grouped into 13 groups.

<div>The mineral potential toolkit (aka minpot-toolkit) provides tools to facilitate mineral potential analysis, from spatial associations to feature engineering and fully integrated mineral potential mapping.</div>

In the first half of 2019, a collaborative mineral potential mapping project was undertaken between the Geological Survey of New South Wales (GSNSW) and Kenex to examine the mineral potential in the eastern Lachlan Orogen (ELO; Ford et al., 2019b). This project was part of a broader state-wide study that utilised the high quality publicly available geoscience data provided by the GSNSW to generate data-driven mineral potential maps using the weights of evidence (WofE) technique for different mineral systems in key metallogenic districts within NSW (Ford et al., 2019a). The aim of this collaborative project was to deliver a product that could be used to provide justifiable land use planning advice to key government stakeholders, as well as to highlight the exploration potential for key mineral systems at a regional scale. One key mineral system that was included in the 2019 ELO study was the porphyry Cu-Au mineral system, which was constrained to the Macquarie Arc. The results of the WofE mineral potential mapping for this porphyry model were broadly successful in terms of predicting the location of both the training data used in the WofE model, as well as a separate set of validation porphyry Cu-Au occurrences. However, the model failed to predict the location of one of the training points, Kaiser, in the prospective area. This failure to predict Kaiser led to a re-evaluation of the data using a variety of different machine learning techniques, in particular random forests (RF; Ford, 2020) and neural networks (NN). No additional or updated data was incorporated, and the maps used in the machine learning were the same maps made as part of the initial WofE study in 2019. The results show that the use of input maps that have been pre-classified to determine optimal thresholds outperform input maps that have had no favourability criteria applied when typical benchmarks for exploration targeting are considered. In addition, the NN analysis shows strong evidence of overfitting to the training data when a large number of input maps are used. A moderate degree of success for targeting under cover was achieved when only geophysical maps were included in the models. Abstract presented at the 8th Mines & Wines Conference 2022 (https://www.aig.org.au/events/8th-mines-wines-conference-2022/)

The Exploring for the Future program Showcase 2024 was held on 13-16 August 2024. Day 3 - 15th August talks included: <b>Session 1 – Hydrogen opportunities across Australia</b> <a href="https://youtu.be/pA9ft3-7BtU?si=V0-ccAmHHIYJIZAo">Hydrogen storage opportunities and the role of depleted gas fields</a> - Dr Eric Tenthorey <a href="https://youtu.be/MJFhP57nnd0?si=ECO7OFTCak78Gn1M">The Green Steel Economic Fairways Mapper</a> - Dr Marcus Haynes <a href="https://youtu.be/M95FOQMRC7o?si=FyP7CuDEL0HEdzPw">Natural hydrogen: The Australian context</a> - Chris Boreham <b>Session 2 – Sedimentary basin resource potential – source rocks, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and groundwater</b> <a href="https://youtu.be/44qPlV7h3os?si=wfQqxQ81Obhc_ThE">Australian Source Rock and Fluid Atlas - Accessible visions built on historical data archives</a> - Dr Dianne Edwards <a href="https://youtu.be/WcJdSzsADV8?si=aH5aYbpnjaz3Qwj9">CO2: Where can we put it and how much will it cost?</a> - Claire Patterson <a href="https://youtu.be/Y8sA-iR86c8?si=CUsERoEkNDvIwMtc">National aquifer framework: Putting the geology into hydrogeology</a> - Dr Nadege Rollet <b>Session 3 – Towards a national inventory of resource potential and sustainable development</b> <a href="https://youtu.be/K5xGpwaIWgg?si=2s0AKuNpu30sV1Pu">Towards a national inventory of mineral potential</a> - Dr Arianne Ford <a href="https://youtu.be/XKmEXwQzbZ0?si=yAMQMjsNCGkAQUMh">Towards an inventory of mine waste potential</a> - Dr Anita Parbhakar-Fox <a href="https://youtu.be/0AleUvr2F78?si=zS4xEsUYtARywB1j">ESG mapping of the Australian mining sector: A critical review of spatial datasets for decision making</a> - Dr Eleonore Lebre View or download the <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/149800">Exploring for the Future - An overview of Australia’s transformational geoscience program</a> publication. View or download the <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/149743">Exploring for the Future - Australia's transformational geoscience program</a> publication. You can access full session and Q&A recordings from YouTube here: 2024 Showcase Day 3 - Session 1 - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho6QFMIleuE">Hydrogen opportunities across Australia</a> 2024 Showcase Day 3 - Session 2 - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePZfgEwo0m4">Sedimentary basin resource potential – source rocks, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and groundwater</a> 2024 Showcase Day 3 - Session 3 - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjsZVK4h6Dk">Towards a national inventory of resource potential and sustainable development</a>

To meet the rising global demand for base metals – driven primarily by the transition to cleaner-energy sources – declining rates of discovery of new deposits need to be countered by advances in exploration undercover. Here, we report that 85% of the world’s sediment-hosted base metals, including all giant deposits (>10 Mt of metal), occur within 200 km of the edge of thick lithosphere, irrespective of the age of mineralisation. This implies long-term craton edge stability, forcing a reconsideration of basin dynamics and the sediment-hosted mineral system. We find that the thermochemical structure of thick lithosphere results in increased basin subsidence rates during rifting, coupled with low geothermal gradients, which ensure favourable metal solubility and precipitation. Sediments in such basins generally contain all necessary lithofacies of the mineral system. These considerations allow establishment of the first-ever national prospectus for sediment-hosted base metal discovery. Conservative estimates place the undiscovered resource of sediment-hosted base metals in Australia to be ~50–200 Mt of metal. Importantly, this work suggests that ~15% of Australia is prospective for giant sediment-hosted deposits; we suggest that exploration efforts should be focused in this area. <b>Citation:</b> Czarnota, K., Hoggard, M.J., Richards, F.D., Teh, M., Huston, D.L., Jaques, A.L. and Ghelichkhan, S., 2020. Minerals on the edge: sediment-hosted base metal endowment above steps in lithospheric thickness. In: Czarnota, K., Roach, I., Abbott, S., Haynes, M., Kositcin, N., Ray, A. and Slatter, E. (eds.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts, Geoscience Australia, Canberra, 1–4.

Rapid, efficient, and accurate prediction of mineral occurrence that takes uncertainty into 20 account is essential to optimise defining exploration targets. Traditional approaches to mineral 21 potential mapping often fail to fully appreciate spatial uncertainties of input predictors and their 22 spatial cross-correlation. In this study a stochastic technique based on multivariate 23 geostatistical simulations and ensemble tree-based learners is introduced for predicting and 24 uncertainty quantification of mineral exploration targets. The technique is tested on a synthetic 25 case inspired by the characteristics of a hydrothermal mineral system model and a real-world 26 dataset from the Yilgarn Craton in Western Australia. Results from the two cases proved the 27 superior performance and robustness of the proposed stochastic technique, especially when 28 dealing with high dimensional and large data sets. <b>Citation:</b> Talebi, H., Mueller, U., Peeters, L.J.M. et al. Stochastic Modelling of Mineral Exploration Targets. <i>Math Geosci </i>54, 593–621 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11004-021-09989-z

This web service provides access to datasets produced by the mineral potential assement of iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) mineral systems in the Tennant Creek – Mt Isa region. The mineral potential assessment uses a 2D, GIS-based workflow to qualitatively map four key mineral system components: (1) Sources of metals, fluids and ligands, (2) Energy to drive fluid flow, (3) Fluid flow pathways and architecture, and (4) Deposition mechanisms, such as redox or chemical gradients. For each of these key mineral system components theoretical criteria, representing important ore-forming processes, were identified and translated into mappable proxies using a wide range of input datasets. Each of these criteria are weighted and combined using an established workflow to produce the final map of IOCG potential.