Magnetotelluric (MT) measures the natural variations of the Earth' magnetic and electrical (telluric) fields. The Audio-Magnetotelluric method (AMT) samples signal frequencies in the range of 20k Hz down to ~1Hz and provides data pertaining to the upper few kilometres of the Earth' crust. Broadband MT (BBMT) measures frequencies ranging from ~400 Hz down to periods of ~5000 s, providing measures of the conductivity of the crust. AMT and BBMT data were acquired at 138 stations with an interval of 2.5-5.0 km along a 690 km transect extending from Four Ways to Longreach in the South-eastern Mount Isa region. Full-waveform time series data were acquired and processed into frequency-domain transfer functions. Remote reference was applied to eliminate uncorrelated noise. After quality assurance, processed data were exported to industry-standard EDI files containing site info, impedance tensor, apparent resistivity, phase and vertical transfer function.

Geoscience Australia (GA) and the Geological Survey of Queensland (GSQ) conducted the Cloncurry Magnetotelluric (MT) survey. MT data (0.001 s to 1000 s in period) at 476 sites with a grid spacing of 2km were acquired over an approximate 40km x 60km area in the Cloncurry region from July to November 2016. The survey area covers the eastern margin of the Mount Isa Block situated to the west of the Eromanga Basin. The MT data can image the thickness of cover, the basement architecture and the crustal architecture in this area that has high resource exploration potential. Data QA/QC were performed during the data acquisition stage of the survey. This release includes processed MT data and a data acquisiton report written by the contractor. Details on the data processing, data analysis, and modelling/inversion of the data will be released as a comprehensive report at a later date.

Zircon and xenotime U–Pb SHRIMP geochronology was conducted on samples from the South Nicholson Basin, and western Mount Isa Orogen. These samples were collected from outcrop and core from the Northern Territory and Queensland. The age data indicate the South Nicholson Basin was deposited after ca 1483 Ma but deposition most likely had ceased by ca 1266 Ma; the latter age likely represents post-diagenetic fluid flow in the area, based on U–Pb xenotime data. Geochronology presented here provides the first direct age data confirming the South Nicholson Group is broadly contemporaneous with the Roper Group of the McArthur Basin, which has identified facies with high hydrocarbon prospectivity. In addition, geochronology on the Paleoproterozoic McNamara Group provides new age constraints that have implications for the regional stratigraphy. The data obtained in this geochronological study allow for a comprehensive revision of the existing stratigraphic framework, new correlations and enhances commodity prospectivity in central northern Australia.

Interpretation of 2014–2015 deep crustal seismic reflection and magnetotelluric data has revised the architecture and geodynamic framework of western Queensland, with implications for the assembly and dispersal of the supercontinents Nuna, Rodinia and Gondwana. In the Mount Isa Province, crustal-scale boundaries of the Leichhardt River Domain, Kalkadoon-Leichhardt Domain and Eastern Subprovince are mapped in the third dimension. The Leichhardt River and Kalkadoon-Leichhardt domains have similar Nd isotopic T 2DM model ages to provinces to the west, indicating they were part of ancestral North Australian Craton (NAC); the Eastern Subprovince is a separate terrane, with the Pilgrim Fault a collisional suture. The Gidyea Suture Zone separates the Mount Isa Province from the subsurface Numil Seismic Province. To the east, the west-dipping Yappar Fault separates east-dipping structures in the west from west-dipping structures in the east, forming a classic doubly vergent orogen within the upper plate of a convergent margin. The northwestern boundary of the Bernfels Seismic Province, the Kynuna Fault, truncates the Gidyea Suture Zone, implying this seismic province was welded to the NAC prior to initial deposition of the Etheridge Province. The Cork Fault truncates the north-south grain of the Mount Isa Province; the easternmost part of the NAC has been excised, presumably during breakup of Nuna. The subsurface Brighton Downs Seismic Province, formerly part of the northern Thomson Orogen, is a discrete seismic province, located between the NAC and the Thomson Orogen, and welded to the NAC during the accretion of Rodinia. Basement to the Thomson Orogen is a collage of microplates, accreted to the Brighton Downs Seismic Province during the assembly of Gondwana. By 530 Ma, eastern Australia faced an open Pacific Ocean, with the Thomson Orogen in a backarc setting. Thus, northeastern Australia contains a record of repeated continental accretion and breakup over at least three supercontinent cycles. <b>Citation: </b>Russell J. Korsch, Michael P. Doublier, Dominic D. Brown, Janelle M. Simpson, Andrew J. Cross, Ross D. Costelloe, Wenping Jiang, Crustal architecture and tectonic development of western Queensland, Australia, based on deep seismic reflection profiling: Implications for Proterozoic continental assembly and dispersal, <i>Tectonophysics</i>, Volume 878, 2024, 230302, ISSN 0040-1951, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tecto.2024.230302.

The Paleo-Mesoproterozoic Isa Superbasin is located in northwestern Queensland and is part of the geologically complex and resource rich Mount Isa Province. Over the last five years, the Northern Lawn Hill Platform (NLHP) in the northern part of the Isa Superbasin has become a focus for frontier conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon exploration. Thick and extensive organic-rich shale units in the River and Lawn supersequences are of particular interest for unconventional shale gas exploration following a gas discovery in 2014 from the Lawn Shale at Egilabia-2 DW1. Potential shale gas resources in these stratigraphic intervals include 22.1 Tcf of prospective gas and 0.15 Tcf of contingent (2C) gas resources (Armour Energy, 2014 and 2015). Other conventional and unconventional plays may also occur in overlying stratigraphic units within the Isa Superbasin. However despite the increased interest in the region’s petroleum prospectivity, the data coverage across the Isa Superbasin is sparse and aspects of the regional geological framework remain ambiguous. This report presents an update to seismic and well interpretation in the Isa Superbasin originally undertaken in the late 1990’s as part of the North Australian Basins Resource Evaluation (NABRE) Project in the NLHP, the area with the greatest concentration of data and petroleum exploration activity. The NABRE Project focussed on developing an integrated structural and stratigraphic framework for the NLHP in the context of understanding and predicting sediment-hosted mineral deposits. However, the project did not produce depth-converted structure or isopach maps, which are required for assessing and mapping conventional and unconventional petroleum plays. Assessments of the area’s resource potential would also benefit by incorporating some key recently acquired data sets and published research with the original NABRE work. The original NABRE work has therefore been updated to include interpretations from new seismic and well data, and to generate depth-converted structure and isopach maps for eight key stratigraphic horizons of interest for petroleum exploration in the NLHP. Major sub-surface structures are also formally defined and named based on the depth-structure maps. The review of the Isa Superbasin geological framework presented here underpins work on two major federal government initiatives, the Exploring For The Future Program and Geological and Bioregional Assessment Program. Recommendations are included in this report on further value adding work that could supplement these programs to better inform prospectivity assessment.

Exploring for the Future (EFTF) is a four-year $100.5 million initiative by the Australian Government conducted by Geoscience Australia in partnership with state and Northern Territory government agencies, CSIRO and universities to provide new geoscientific datasets for frontier regions. As part of this program, Geoscience Australia acquired two new seismic surveys that collectively extend across the South Nicholson Basin (L120 South Nicholson seismic line) and into the Beetaloo Sub-basin of the McArthur Basin (L212 Barkly seismic line). Interpretation of the seismic has resulted in the discovery of new basins that both contain a significant section of presumed Proterozoic strata. Integration of the seismic results with petroleum and mineral systems geochemistry, structural analyses, geochronology, rock properties and a petroleum systems model has expanded the knowledge of the region for energy and mineral resources exploration. These datasets are available through Geoscience Australia’s newly developed Data Discovery Portal, an online platform delivering digital geoscientific information, including seismic locations and cross-section images, and field site and well-based sample data. Specifically for the EFTF Energy project, a petroleum systems framework with supporting organic geochemical data has been built to access source rock, crude oil and natural gas datasets via interactive maps, graphs and analytical tools that enable the user to gain a better and faster understanding of a basin’s petroleum prospectivity. <b>Citation:</b> Henson Paul, Robinson David, Carr Lidena, Edwards Dianne S., MacFarlane Susannah K., Jarrett Amber J. M., Bailey Adam H. E. (2020) Exploring for the Future—a new oil and gas frontier in northern Australia. <i>The APPEA Journal</i><b> 60</b>, 703-711. https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ19080

From June 23rd to November 4th 2016 Geotech Ltd. carried out a helicopter-borne geophysical survey over part of East Isa in Queensland (figure 1). Operations were based at Cloncurry, Queensland. The traverse lines were flown in an east to west (N 90° E azimuth) direction with 2km and 2.5km traverse line spacings, with three Tie lines flown perpendicular to the traverse lines. During the survey the helicopter was maintained at a mean altitude of 76 metres above the ground with an average survey speed of 90 km/hour. This allowed for an actual average EM Transmitter-receiver loop terrain clearance of 38 metres and a magnetic sensor clearance of 68 metres. The principal geophysical sensors included a versatile time domain electromagnetic (VTEMTMPlus) full receiver-waveform system, and a caesium magnetometer. Ancillary equipment included a GPS navigation system, laser and radar altimeters, and inclinometer. A total of 15697 line-kilometres of geophysical data were acquired during the survey. The electromagnetic system is a Geotech Time Domain EM (VTEMplus) with full receiver-waveform streamed data recording at 192 kHz. The "full waveform VTEM system" uses the streamed half-cycle recording of transmitter current and receiver voltage waveforms to obtain a complete system response calibration throughout the entire survey flight. The VTEM transmitter loop and Z-component receiver coils are in a concentric-coplanar configuration and their axes are nominally vertical. An X-component receiver coil is also installed in the centre of the transmitter loop, with its axis nominally horizontal and in the flight line direction. The receiver coils measure the dB/dt response, and a B-Field response is calculated during the data processing. In-field data quality assurance and preliminary processing were carried out on a daily basis during the acquisition phase. Preliminary and final data processing, including generation of final digital data products were undertaken from the office of Geotech Ltd. in Aurora, Ontario. A set of Conductivity Depth Images (CDI) were generated using EM Flow version 3.3, developed by Encom Technologies Pty Ltd. A total of forty-five (45) dB/dt Z component channels, starting from channel 4 (21 µsec) to channel 48 (10667 µsec), were used for the CDI calculation. An averaged waveform at the receiver was used for the calculation since it was consistent for the majority of the flights with minor deviation from the average. Digital data includes all electromagnetic and magnetic data, conductivity imaging products, mulitplots plus ancillary data including the waveform.

This record presents nine new Sensitive High Resolution Ion Micro Probe (SHRIMP) U–Pb zircon results obtained under the auspices of the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) Programme, a four year, federally funded initiative to better understand the mineral, energy and groundwater potential of northern Australia. The results presented here are derived from eight sedimentary samples and one probable tuffaceous sample together belonging to the Mount Isa Province, South Nicholson Basin and Georgina Basin.

The Exploring for the Future program Virtual Roadshow was held on 7 July and 14-17 July 2020. The Minerals session of the roadshow was held on 14 July 2020 and consisted of the following presentations: Introduction - Richard Blewett Preamble - Karol Kzarnota Surface & Basins or Cover - Marie-Aude Bonnardot Crust - Kathryn Waltenberg Mantle - Marcus Haynes Zinc on the edge: New insights into sediment-hosted base metals mineral system - David Huston Scale reduction targeting for Iron-Oxide-Copper-Gold in Tennant Creek and Mt Isa - Anthony Schofield and Andrew Clark Economic Fairways and Wrap-up - Karol Czarnota

This Record presents new Sensitive High Resolution Ion MicroProbe (SHRIMP) U-Pb zircon results from the Mount Isa Orogen obtained under the auspices of the Geological Survey of Queensland-Geoscience Australia (GSQ-GA) National Collaboration Framework (NCF) geochronology project between July 2016 and June 2017. New results are presented from eight samples collected as part of ongoing regional mapping and geoscientific programs in the Mount Isa Orogen. GA work presented here represents part of the federally funded Exploring for the Future Program. As a part of ongoing geological mapping in the Mount Isa Orogen, the Geological Survey of Queensland (GSQ) and Geoscience Australia (GA) have undertaken a geochronology program to enhance the understanding of the geological evolution of the province. There are two focus areas as a part of this Record. The first focus area is north of Mount Isa, in the Kalkadoon-Leichhardt and Sybella domains (Figure i), and includes geochronology results from three mafic to intermediate rocks. The second focus area is south of Cloncurry, in the Kuridala–Selwyn and Marimo–Staveley domains (Figure i), and includes geochronology results from one leucogranite and four sedimentary rocks. For ease of reporting, these two focus areas are split into two themes 1) ‘mafic rocks’ for the three geochronology results north of Mount Isa; and 2) ‘Kuridala–Selwyn corridor’ for the five geochronology results south of Cloncurry. <b>Bibliographic Reference:</b> LEWIS, C.J., WITHNALL, I.W., HUTTON, L.J., BULTITUDE, R.J., SLADE, A.P., SARGENT, S., 2020. Summary of results. Joint GSQ–GA geochronology project: Mount Isa region, 2016–2017. <i>Queensland Geological Record</i><b> 2020/01</b>.