MinEx CRC Mundi Airborne Electromagnetic Survey, NSW, 2021: XCITE® AEM data and conductivity estimates

The package contains processed data from the “MinEx CRC Mundi Airborne Electromagnetic Survey” that was flown over the Curnamona Orogen and overlying Eromanga and Lake Eyre basins, north of Broken Hill, in Western New South Wales. The 2,940 line regional survey was flown east-west at 2.5 km nominal line spacing in 2021 by New Resolution Geophysics Pty Ltd (NRG) using the XCITE® airborne electromagnetic system.

The Geological Survey of New South Wales commissioned the survey as part of the MinEx Cooperative Research Centre’s (MinEx CRC) National Drilling Initiative (NDI), the world’s largest mineral exploration collaboration. It brings together industry, government, research organisations and universities to further our understanding of geology, mineral deposits and groundwater resources in areas where rocks aren’t exposed at earth’s surface. The Geological Survey of New South Wales is a major participant in the NDI program, committing $16 million to the program over 10 years. In NSW, the program focuses on five areas in the state’s central and far west, where metallic minerals potentially exist under a layer of younger barren geology. These areas are North Cobar, South Cobar, Broken Hill (Mundi), Forbes and Dubbo.

Geoscience Australia is also a major participant in the NDI, committing $50 million Australia-wide over the ten years of the MinEx CRC. Geoscience Australia partly funded the survey by providing funds for an additional 940 line kilometres of data acquisition to broaden the geographical reach of the survey under the Exploring for the Future Darling-Curnamona-Delamerian Project. Additionally, Geoscience Australia provided in-kind support to the project by managing the survey data acquisition and processing, undertaking the quality control of the survey and generating one of the two inversions and associated derived products that are included in the data package.

The data release package comntains

1. A data release package summary PDF document.

2. The survey logistics and processing report and XCITE® system specification files

3. ESRI shape files for the flight lines and boundary

4. KML (Google Earth) files of the flight lines

5. Final processed point located dB/dt electromagnetic, magnetic and elevation data

- in ASEG-GDF2 format

- in Geosoft GDB format

6. Final processed point located BField electromagnetic, magnetic and elevation data

- in ASEG-GDF2 format

- in Geosoft GDB format

7, Multiplots

-graphical (PDF) multiplot profiles and estimated conductivity sections (NRG inversion) for each flight line

8. Conductivity estimates generated by NRG’s inversion

-point located line data output from the inversion in ASEG-GDF2 format

-point located line data output from the inversion in Geosoft GDB format

-graphical (JPEG) multiplot conductivity sections and profiles for each line

-georeferenced (PNG) conductivity sections (suitable for pseudo-3D display in a 2D GIS)

-GoCAD™ S-Grid 3D objects (suitable for various 3D packages)

-Curtain image conductivity sections (suitable 3D display in GA’s EarthSci)

-grids generated from the NRG inversion in ER Mapper® format (layer conductivities, depth slices, elevation slices)

-georeferenced TIFF images generated from the grids above with accompaning world files for georegerencing (layer conductivities, depth slices, elevation slices)

-images generated from the grids above (layer conductivities, depth slices, elevation slices)

9. Conductivity estimates generated by Geoscience Australia's inversion

-point located line data output from the inversion in ASEG-GDF2 format

-graphical (JPEG) multiplot conductivity sections and profiles for each line

-georeferenced (PNG) conductivity sections (suitable for pseudo-3D display in a 2D GIS)

-GoCAD™ S-Grid 3D objects (suitable for various 3D packages)

-Curtain image conductivity sections (suitable 3D display in GA’s EarthSci)

-grids generated from the NRG inversion in ER Mapper® format (layer conductivities, depth slices, elevation slices)

-georeferenced TIFF images generated from the grids above with accompaning world files for georegerencing (layer conductivities, depth slices, elevation slices)

-images generated from the grids above (layer conductivities, depth slices, elevation slices)

Directory structure

├── report

├── shapefiles

├── kml

├── line_data_dbdt

├── line_data_bfield

├── multiplots

├── contractor_inversion

│   ├── multiplot_sections

│   ├── earthsci

│   │   └── Contractor-Inversion

│   │   ├── jpeg

│   │   ├── geometry

│   │   └── MinEx_CRC_Mundi_AEM_Contractor-Inversion

│   ├── georef_sections

│   ├── gocad_sgrids

│   ├── grids

│   │   ├── layers

│   │   ├── depth_slice

│   │   └── elevation_slice

│   ├── images

│   │   ├── layers

│   │   ├── layers_northwest_sunangle

│   │   ├── depth_slice_northwest_sunangle

│   │   ├── depth_slice

│   │   ├── elevation_slice

│   │   └── elevation_slice_northwest_sunangle

│   ├── line_data

│   │   ├── geosoft

│   │   └── aseggdf2

│   └── georef_images

│   ├── layers_northwest_sunangle

│   ├── layers

│   ├── depth_slice

│   ├── depth_slice_northwest_sunangle

│   ├── elevation_slice_northwest_sunangle

│   └── elevation_slice

├── ga_inversion

   ├── georef_sections

   ├── gocad_sgrids

   ├── grids

   │   ├── depth_slice

   │   ├── layers

   │   └── elevation_slice

   ├── images

   │   ├── layers

   │   ├── layers_northwest_sunangle

   │   ├── depth_slice

   │   ├── elevation_slice_northwest_sunangle

   │   ├── elevation_slice

   │   └── depth_slice_northwest_sunangle

   ├── multiplot_sections

   ├── line_data

   ├── earthsci

   │   └── GA-Inversion

   │   ├── geometry

   │   ├── jpeg

   │   └── MinEx_CRC_Mundi_AEM_GA-Inversion

   └── georef_images

   ├── layers

   ├── layers_northwest_sunangle

   ├── depth_slice_northwest_sunangle

   ├── depth_slice

   ├── elevation_slice

   └── elevation_slice_northwest_sunangle