<div>As part of the first phase (2016-2020) of the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program, Geoscience Australia deployed 119 broad band seismic stations in northern Australia. This deployment was part of the Australian Passive Seismic Array (AusArray) Project. Data from these stations were used to image the seismic structure using various techniques, including ambient noise tomography (ANT). The first ANT model (Hejrani et al, 2020) was focused on a narrow range of frequencies and used the Hawkins and Sambridge (2019) approach to estimate dispersion curves. This new approach starts from the original work by Aki (1957) to estimate phase velocity in the frequency domain, and then takes a step further to ensure a smooth curve is achieved. In Hejrani et al., (2022), using minimum Signal-to-Noise-Ratio (SNR) threshold of 2, about 4,000 data points (out of 7,000+) were used to generate surface wave velocity maps at a resolution of 1 degree at four frequencies (sensitive to different depths). This model was subsequently updated in September 2021 by using all 7,000+ data points (no SNR threshold) of phase velocity measurements across AusArray year one to provide a 0.25 degree resolution model. All dispersion curves regardless of their quality were utilized. A number of artefacts were identified in that model, which motivated further investigations. During 2022, I developed a new automated and scalable approach to estimate dispersion curves, which was completed in December 2022. This new method starts from the original idea by Aki (1957), but takes a different approach to stabilize the dispersion curves and to avoid cycle skipping. </div><div>This record represents the preferred 2D velocity models for AusArray year one data based on the newly estimated dispersion curves and a comparison with previous models and interpretations; is an update from Hejrani et al. (2020) and should be read in conjunction. Work is currently under way to invert these 2D surface wave models to obtain 3D velocity models for the crust and mantle. Such 3D velocity models would be suitable for joint interpretations with other data such active seismic, gravity and magnetic. The code will be made publicly available at the conclusion of EFTF.</div>

Alkaline and related rocks are a relatively rare class of igneous rocks worldwide. Alkaline rocks encompass a wide range of rock types and are mineralogically and geochemically diverse. They are typically though to have been derived by generally small to very small degrees of partial melting of a wide range of mantle compositions. As such these rocks have the potential to convey considerable information on the evolution of the Earth’s mantle (asthenosphere and lithosphere), particularly the role of metasomatism which may have been important in their generation or to which such rocks may themselves have contributed. Such rocks, by their unique compositions and or enriched source protoliths, also have considerable metallogenic potential, e.g., diamonds, Th, U, Zr, Hf, Nb, Ta, REEs. It is evident that the geographic occurrences of many of these rock types are also important, and may relate to presence of old cratons, craton margins or major lithospheric breaks. Finally, many alkaline rocks also carry with them mantle xenoliths providing a snapshot of the lithospheric mantle composition at the time of their emplacement. Accordingly, although alkaline and related rocks comprise only a volumetrically minor component of the geology of Australia, they are of considerable importance to studies of lithospheric composition, evolution and architecture and to helping constrain the temporal evolution of the lithosphere, as well as more directly to metallogenesis and mineralisation. This contribution presents data on the distribution and geology of Australian alkaline and related rocks of Mesozoic age. The report and accompanying GIS document the distribution, age, lithology, mineralogy and other characteristics of these rocks (e.g., extrusive/intrusive, presence of mantle xenoliths, presence of diamonds), as well as references for data sources and descriptions. The report also reviews the nomenclature of alkaline rocks and classification procedures. GIS metadata are documented in the appendices.

Alkaline and related rocks are a relatively rare class of igneous rocks worldwide. Alkaline rocks encompass a wide range of rock types and are mineralogically and geochemically diverse. They are typically though to have been derived by generally small to very small degrees of partial melting of a wide range of mantle compositions. As such these rocks have the potential to convey considerable information on the evolution of the Earth’s mantle (asthenosphere and lithosphere), particularly the role of metasomatism which may have been important in their generation or to which such rocks may themselves have contributed. Such rocks, by their unique compositions and or enriched source protoliths, also have considerable metallogenic potential, e.g., diamonds, Th, U, Zr, Hf, Nb, Ta, REEs. It is evident that the geographic occurrences of many of these rock types are also important, and may relate to presence of old cratons, craton margins or major lithospheric breaks. Finally, many alkaline rocks also carry with them mantle xenoliths providing a snapshot of the lithospheric mantle composition at the time of their emplacement. Accordingly, although Alkaline and related rocks comprise only a volumetrically minor component of the geology of Australia, they are of considerable importance to studies of lithospheric composition, evolution and architecture and to helping constrain the temporal evolution of the lithosphere, as well as more directly to metallogenesis and mineralisation. This contribution presents the first part of an ongoing compilation of the distribution and geology of alkaline and related rocks throughout Australia. The report and accompanying GIS document alkaline and related rocks of Archean age. All are from the Pilbara and Yilgarn Cratons of Western Australia. The report also reviews the nomenclature of alkaline rocks and classification procedures. GIS metadata is documented in the appendices.

<div>Alkaline igneous and related rocks are recognised as a significant source of the critical minerals essential for Australia’s transition to net-zero. Understanding these small but economically significant group of poorly mapped rocks is essential for identifying their resource potential. The Australian Alkaline Rocks Atlas aims to capture all known occurrences of these volumetrically minor, but important, igneous rocks in a national compilation, to aid understanding of their composition, distribution and age at the continental scale. The Atlas, comprises five, stand-alone data packages covering the Archean, Proterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. Each data package includes a GIS database and detailed accompanying report that informs alkaline rock nomenclature, classification procedures, individual units and their grouping into alkaline provinces based on common age, characteristics and inferred genesis. The Alkaline Rocks Atlas will form a foundation for more expansive research on related mineral systems and their corresponding economic potential being undertaken as part of the EFTF program. To illustrate the use of the Alkaline Rocks Atlas, a mineral potential assessment using a subset of the Atlas has been undertaken for carbonatite-related rare earth element mineral systems that aims to support mineral exploration and land-use decision making that aims to support mineral exploration and land-use decision making.</div>

<div>Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future (EFTF) 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>This record contains geological notes on layered geology interpretation of twenty-nine 1:250 000 Sheet areas in eastern Queensland. The geology maps generated as part of this work were not released as a separate product but incorporated into the national layered geology product of Sanchez et al. (2024). There are five layers interpreted; pre-Neoproterozoic, Neoproterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic. Preparation of these layers involved figuratively peeling off successively older rocks and identifying and outlining the rocks thereby revealed. The notes provide comments on the rocks comprising each layer, and explain how the identity of the revealed rocks was arrived at where this is not obvious. The Cenozoic time slice was extracted from the 1:1 000 000 scale outcrop geology (Raymond et al., 2012) after removing the surficial deposits and without further interpretation.&nbsp;</div>

<div>This record one in a series of reports detailing the geochemical and mineralogical results of sampling collected at mine waste sites across Australia as part of Geoscience Australia's Exploring for the Future program. It presents new data and information regarding the tenor rare earth elements, ore commodities (lead, zinc and silver) and other trace metals, at the Cannington silver and lead mine located in Queensland’s Northwest Minerals Province.</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>Geochemistry of soils, stream sediments, and overbank sediments, plays an important part in informing geochemical environmental baselines, mineral prospectivity, and environmental management practices. Australia has a large number of such surveys, but they are spatially isolated and often used in isolation. First released in 2020, the Levelled Geochemical Baseline of Australia focused on levelling such surveys across the North Australian Craton, so that they could be used as a seamless dataset. This data release acts as an update to the Levelled Geochemical Baseline of Australia by changing the focus to national scale and incorporating recently reanalysed legacy samples.</div><div><br></div><div>This work was undertaken as part of the Exploring for the Future program, an eight-year program by the Australian government. The 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, was an eight year, $225m investment by the Australian Government.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>

<div>Maps showing the potential for iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) mineral systems in Australia. Each of the mineral potential maps is a synthesis of four component layers (source of metals, fluids and ligands; energy sources and fluid flow drivers; fluid flow pathways and architecture; and ore depositional gradients). The model uses a hybrid data-driven and knowledge driven methodology to produce the final mineral potential map for the mineral system. An uncertainty map is provided in conjunction with the mineral potential maps that represents the availability of data coverage over Australia for the selected combination of input maps. Uncertainty values range between 0 and 1, with higher uncertainty values being located in areas where more input maps are missing data or have unknown values. The input maps and mineral deposits and occurrences used to generate the mineral potential map are provided along with an assessment criteria table which contains information on the map creation.</div>

<div>Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future program (EFTF) 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>One main component of the EFTF program is the Australian Lithospheric Architecture Magnetotelluric Project (AusLAMP), which is a collaborative national survey by federal government, state and territory governments, and research organizations since late 2013. The project acquires long-period magnetotelluric data on a half-degree grid spacing across Australia and provides first order electrical conductivity/resistivity structure of the Australian continental lithosphere. This reconnaissance dataset improves the understanding of lithospheric structures and tectonic evolution of Australian plate. It provides a framework and a bottom-up approach to identify newly resource potential regions for infill surveys and further study. The dataset also uses for assessment and prediction of geomagnetic storm’s nature hazards. </div><div><br></div><div>This data release contains a 3D resistivity model and site locations. The 3D model was derived from publicly available AusLAMP data in Australia (excluding western Australia). The model was projected to GDA94 MGA Zone 54 and was converted into SGrid/ASCII format and geo-referenced TIFF format.</div><div><br></div><div>We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the country where the data were collected. We also acknowledge the support provided by individuals and communities for land access and data acquisition, without whose cooperation these data could not have been collected. The 3D model was produced on the National Computational Infrastructure, which is supported by the Australian government.</div><div><br></div>

<div>The production of rare earth elements (REEs) is critical to the global transition to a low carbon economy. Carbonatites represent a significant source of REEs, both domestically within Australia, as well as globally. Given their strategic importance for the Australian economy, a national mineral potential assessment has been undertaken as part of the Exploring for the Future program at Geoscience Australia to evaluate the potential for carbonatite-related REE (CREE) mineral systems. Rather than aiming to identify individual carbonatites and/or CREE deposits, the focus of the mineral potential assessment is to delineate prospective belts or districts within Australia that indicate the presence of favourable criteria, particularly in terms of lithospheric architecture, that may lead to the formation of a CREE mineral system.</div><div><br></div><div>This study demonstrates how national-scale multidisciplinary precompetitive geoscience datasets can be integrated using a hybrid methodology that incorporates robust statistical analysis with mineral systems expertise to predictively map areas that have a higher geological potential for the formation of CREE mineral systems and effectively reduce the exploration search space. Statistical evaluation of the relationship between different mappable criteria that represent spatial proxies for mineral system processes and known carbonatites and CREE deposits has been undertaken to test previously published hypotheses on how to target CREE mineral systems at a broad-scale. The results confirm the relevance of most criteria in the Australian context, while several new criteria such as distance to large igneous province margins and distance to magnetic worms have also been shown to have a strong correlation with known carbonatites and CREE deposits. Using a hybrid knowledge- and data-driven mineral potential mapping approach, the mineral potential map predicts the location of known carbonatite and CREE deposits, while also demonstrating additional areas of high prospectivity in regions with no previously identified carbonatites or CREE mineralisation.</div> Presented at the AusIMM Critical Minerals Conference 2023.