Geoscience Australia commissioned reprocessing of selected legacy 2D seismic data in the Pedirka-Simpson Basin in South Australia-Northern Territory as part of the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program. 34 Legacy 2D seismic lines from the Pedirka Basin were reprocessed between May 2021 and January 2022 (phase 1). An additional 54 legacy 2D seismic lines (34 lines from Pedirka Basin, South Australia and 20 lines from Simpson Basin, Northern Territory) were reprocessed between November 2021 and June 2022 (phase 2). Geofizyka Toruń S.A. based in Poland carried out the data processing and Geoscience Australia with the help of an external contractor undertook the quality control of the data processing. The seismic data release package contains reprocessed seismic data acquired between 1974 and 2008. In total, the package contains approximately 3,806.9 km of industry 2D reflection seismic data. The seismic surveys include the Beal Hill, 1974; Pilan Hill, 1976; Koomarinna, 1980; Christmas Creek, 1982; Hogarth, 1984; Morphett, 1984; Colson 2D, 1985; Etingimbra, 1985; Fletcher, 1986; Anacoora, 1987; Mitchell, 1987; Bejah, 1987; Simpson Desert, 1979, 1984, 1986, 1987; Forrest, 1988; Eringa Trough, 1994; Amadeus-Pedirka, 2008 and covers areas within the Amadeus Basin, Simpson Basin, Pedirka Basin, Warburton Basin and Cooper Basin in South Australia and Northern Territory. The objective of the seismic reprocessing was to produce a processed 2D land seismic reflection dataset using the latest processing techniques to improve resolution and data quality over legacy processing. In particular, the purpose of the reprocessing was to image the structure and stratigraphic architecture of the Neoproterozoic to Late Palaeozoic Amadeus Basin, Triassic Simpson Basin, Cambrian–Devonian Warburton Basin, Permian–Triassic Pedirka Basin and Cooper Basin. All vintages were processed to DMO stack, Pre-stack Time Migration and Post-Stack Time Migration. <b>Data is available on request from clientservices@ga.gov.au - Quote eCat# 146309</b>

<div>This study investigates the feasibility of mapping potential groundwater dependent vegetation (GDV) at a regional scale using remote sensing data. Specifically, the Digital Earth Australia (DEA) Tasseled Cap Percentiles products, integrated with the coefficient of greenness and/or wetness, are applied in three case study regions in Australia to identify and characterise potential terrestrial and aquatic groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDE). The identified high potential GDE are consistent with existing GDE mapping, providing confidence in the methodology developed. The approach provides a consistent and rapid first-pass approach for identifying and assessing GDEs, especially in remote areas of Australia lacking detailed GDE and vegetation information.</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><strong>Output Type: </strong>Exploring for the Future Extended Abstract</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Short Abstract:</strong> Under the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program, Geoscience Australia staff and collaborators engaged with land-connected stakeholders that managed or had an interest in land comprising 56% of the total land mass area of Australia. From 2020 to 2023, staff planning ground-based and airborne geophysical and geological data acquisition projects consulted farmers, National Park rangers and managers, Native Title holders, cultural heritage custodians and other land-connected people to obtain land access and cultural heritage clearances for surveys proposed on over 122,000 parcels of land. Engagement did not always result in field activities proceeding. To support communication with this diverse audience, animations, comic-style factsheets, and physical models, were created to help explain field techniques. While the tools created have been useful, the most effective method of communication was found to be a combination of these tools and open two-way discussions.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Citation: </strong>Sweeney, M., Kuoni, J., Iffland, D. &amp; Soroka, L., 2024. Improving how we engage with land-connected people about geoscience. In: Czarnota, K. (ed.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. https://doi.org/10.26186/148760</div>

<div>Geochemical and mineralogical analysis of surficial materials (streams, soils, catchment samples, etc) can provide valuable information about the potential for mineral systems, and the background mineralogical and geochemical variation for a region. However, collecting new samples can be time consuming and expensive, particularly for regional-scale studies. Fortunately, Geoscience Australia has a large holding of archived samples from regional- to continental-scale geochemical studies conducted over the last 50 years, the majority collected at high sampling densities that would be cost-prohibitive today. Although all these samples have already been analysed, their vintage can mean that analyses were obtained by a variety of analytical methods, are of variable quality, and often only available for a small number of elements. As part of the Australian government’s Exploring for the Future program, funding was dedicated to re-analyse ~9,000 samples from these legacy surveys. They were re-analysed for 63 elements (total content) at a single laboratory producing a seamless, internally consistent, high-quality dataset, providing valuable new insights.</div><div><br></div><div>A large number (7,700) of these legacy samples were collected from north Queensland, predominantly in the Cape York – Georgetown area (5,472) — an area with both a wide-range of existing deposit types and known potential for many critical minerals. The sample densities of these studies, up to 1 sample per ~2.5 km2 for Georgetown, makes them directly applicable for determining local- and regional-scale areas of interest for mineral potential. Early interpretation of the Cape York – Georgetown data has identified several locations with stream sediments enriched in both heavy and light rare earth elements (maximum 4000 and 31,800 ppm, respectively), demonstrating the potential of this dataset, particularly for critical minerals. The greater sampling density means that these samples can also provide much more granular geochemical background information and contribute to our understanding of the lower density data commonly used in regional- and national-scale geochemical background studies.</div><div><br></div><div>In addition to the geochemical re-analysis of legacy surface samples, Geoscience Australia has also been undertaking mineral analysis of legacy continental-scale geochemical samples. The National Geochemical Survey of Australia (NGSA) sample archive has been utilised to provide a valuable new dataset. By separating and identifying heavy minerals (i.e., those with a specific gravity >2.9 g/cm3) new information about the mineral potential and provenance of samples can be gained. The Heavy Mineral Map of Australia (HMMA) project, undertaken in collaboration with Curtin University, has analysed the NGSA sample archive, with~81% coverage of the continent. The project has identified over 145 million individual mineral grains belonging to 163 unique mineral species. Preliminary analysis of the data has indicated that zinc minerals and native elements may be useful for mineral prospectivity. Due to the large amount of data generated as part of this HMMA project, a mineral network analysis tool has been developed to help visualise the relationship between minerals and aid in the interpretation of the data. Abstract presented to the Australian Institute of Geoscientists – ALS Friday Seminar Series: Geophysical and Geochemical Signatures of Queensland Mineral Deposits October 2023 (https://www.aig.org.au/events/aig-als-friday-seminar-series-geophysical-and-geochemical-signatures-of-qld-mineral-deposits/)

<div>Templates and User Guide to provide airborne geophysical data to non-technical people. The template includes a description of the project, survey method, how the data can be used, and what the data can show you. The template is internal use only</div><div>1. Airborne Electromagnetic Survey</div>

<div>A document outlining how geoscience data can be useful for natural resource managers and engagement tool for geoscientists interacting with these people.</div><div><br></div>

<div>A document outlining how geoscientific data can be useful for farmers and engagement tool for geoscientists interacting with farmers and pastoralists.</div>

<div>Although heavy mineral exploration techniques have been successfully used as exploration vectors to ore deposits around the world, exploration case studies and pre-competitive datasets relevant to Australian conditions are relatively limited. The Heavy Mineral Map of Australia (HMMA) project is a novel analytical campaign to determine the abundance and distribution of heavy minerals (SG>2.9 g/cc) in 1315 floodplain sediment samples collected from catchments across Australia during Geoscience Australia’s National Geochemical Survey of Australia (NGSA) project. Archived NGSA samples, which originated from, on average, 60 to 80 cm depth in floodplain landforms, were sub-sampled and subjected to dense media separation and automated SEM-EDS analysis in the John de Laeter Centre at Curtin University. Mineral assay data from all 1315 drainage samples will be publicly released by the end of 2023. </div><div><br></div><div>An initial data package released in August 2022 contains mineralogical assay data for 223 samples from the Darling–Curnamona–Delamerian (DCD) region of south-eastern Australia. That package identified over 140 heavy minerals from 29 million individual mineral observations. The number of mineral observations generated during the project required development of a novel Mineral Network Analysis (MNA) tool to allow end users to discover, visualise and interpret mineral co-occurrence relationships, potentially useful in exploration vectoring and targeting. The MNA tool can also be used to rapidly search the heavy mineral database to locate observations of potential economic significance. The co-occurrence of Zn-minerals indicative of high-grade metamorphism of base metal mineralisation (e.g., gahnite (Zn-spinel), ecandrewsite (Zn-ilmenite) and zincostaurolite (Zn-aluminosilicate)) from the region surrounding Broken Hill demonstrated the utility of the method. Zn-mineral co-occurrences not associated with known mineralisation were also noted and may represent targeting opportunities. </div><div><br></div><div>Heavy mineral data from parts of Queensland are scheduled for a separate public release in December 2022 and will be presented at the conference.&nbsp;</div> This Abstract was submitted/presented to the 2023 Australian Exploration Geoscience Conference 13-18 Mar (https://2023.aegc.com.au/)

<div>NDI Carrara 1 is a deep stratigraphic borehole that was drilled in 2020 under the MinEx CRC’s National Drilling Initiative (NDI) program in collaboration with Geoscience Australia and the Northern Territory Geological Survey. NDI Carrara 1 is the first stratigraphic test of the recently described Carrara Sub-basin, a Proterozoic aged depocentre located in the South Nicholson region of northwest Queensland and the Northern Territory. The borehole was drilled to a total depth of 1751 m and penetrated a succession of Cambrian aged Georgina Basin carbonate and siliciclastic rocks that unconformably overly a thick succession of Proterozoic age siliciclastic and carbonate-rich sediments. Although drilled on the western flank of the Carrara Sub-basin, NDI Carrara 1 did not penetrate to basement. Interpretation of the L210 deep-crustal seismic survey suggests that further Proterozoic sedimentary packages known from the northern Lawn Hill Platform in northwest Queensland are likely to be found underlying the succession intersected in NDI Carrara 1. The borehole was continuously cored from 283 m to total depth, and an extensive suite of wireline logs was acquired. Geoscience Australia and partners have undertaken an extensive analytical program to understand the depositional, structural, and diagenetic history of the sediments intersected in NDI Carrara 1. This program includes a targeted geomechanical study that aims to characterise the physical properties of these Proterozoic rocks through laboratory analysis of core samples, the results of which are summarised in this data release.</div><div><br></div><div>This data release provides data from new unconfined compressive strength (UCS), single-stage triaxial testing, and laboratory ultrasonic testing for 36 sample plugs from NDI Carrara 1. These tests were performed at the CSIRO Geomechanics and Geophysics Laboratory in Perth, during January to June 2022. The full results as provided by CSIRO to Geoscience Australia are provided as an attachment to this document.&nbsp;</div>