Part of 4th March, as well as 5th March, were spent at Carcoar, New South Wales, in inspecting the radioactive deposits in that locality and in observing the use of a helicopter, loaned by the R.A.A.F., as a means of prospecting for radioactive minerals. The writer was accompanied by R.S. Matheson of the Geological Section of the Bureau, and J. Daly and a party of geophysicists were also present at Carcoar at the time of this inspection. The present note is supplementary to the report by R.S. Matheson (1952/65) which includes plans of the Carcoar area and the radioactive deposits, and should be read in conjunction with that report.

Australia's Identified Mineral Resources is an annual nationwide assessment which takes a long term view of mineral resources likely to be available for mining. The highest category in the national inventory is Economic Demonstrated Resources (EDR), which in essence, combines the Joint Ore Reserve Committee (JORC) Code categories of ore reserves and most of the Measured and Indicated Resources. JORC Code ore reserves of commodities are included for comparison, which provide a short to medium-term view of mineral stocks. The assessment also includes evaluations of long-term trends in mineral resources, world rankings, summaries of significant exploration results, and brief reviews of mining industry developments.

Australian mineral exploration spending in 2006-07 rose by 38% to a record $1,714.6 million of which 36% was spent on the search for new deposits. Spending rose in all States and the Northern Territory with South Australia up by 78% to $260.7 million while Western Australia dominated with 49% of Australian mineral exploration spending. The base metal group was the dominant target accounting for 32% of exploration spending overtaking gold (27%) for the first time since 1983. Exploration results were announced for a wide range of commodities from across the country with the most significant being the announcement of a 38% increase in contained copper in the Olympic Dam deposit, South Australia, and of an initial 4 Moz resource in the Tropicana gold deposit, Western Australia.

This project was set up to demonstrate how geochemistry is able add-value to exploration. The project has produced improved total system ore genesis models, a comprehensive up-to-date database and associated software tools for hydrothermal geochemistry modelling.

The principal objective of the H4 Project was to evaluate existing techniques and develop new enabling technologies in geochronology and isotope geoscience to significantly improve our ability to constrain the timing of ore formation and, therefore, expand predictive capabilities. A fundamental goal was the evaluation of existing dating methods and interpretations, particularly with respect to gold deposits in low grade terrains, and to investigate potential new dating methods such as 40Ar/39Ar laser probe analyses of mica-bearing pyrite linked to gold mineralisation. A second major goal of the H4 project was to initiate development of halogen/noble gas geochemistry technology and expertise within the pmd *CRC to enable this unique geochemical method to be applied to ore deposits in the flagship terrains in the second stage programme of pmd *CRC.

Uranium exploration expenditure in Australia has increased progressively since 2003 mainly because of the significant increases in spot market uranium prices in recent years. In 2007-08, uranium exploration expenditure increased to a record level of $231.6 million , which is approximately double the 2006-07 expenditure ($111.4 million). The majority of expenditure was in South Australia (51%), followed by the Northern Territory (21%), Queensland (16%) and Western Australia (12%). Uranium exploration expenditure in the 2008 September quarter ($56.7 million) was above the 2007 September quarter ($50 million). However the difference is the expenditure trend from the June quarter to the September quarter, in 2007 expenditure grew by $6.7 million whereas in 2008 expenditure reduced by $6.0 million. This reduction may reflect that the current global economic crisis is affecting the level of uranium exploration spending. Geoscience Australia prepares annual estimates of Australia's uranium resources within categories used for international reporting by the Uranium Group (a joint initiative of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency). The estimates are for resources of recoverable uranium after losses due to mining and milling have been deducted. As of December 2008, Australia's Reasonably Assured Resources (RAR) recoverable at costs of <US$80/kg U were estimated to be 1,111,000 t U. This represents an increase of 12% over the estimates for the previous year, mainly due to large increase in both reserves and resource estimates for Olympic Dam deposit (South Australia) and transfer of resources from Inferred in RAR. This means Australia's share of the world's total RAR of uranium recoverable at <US$80/kg U has increased to about 37% . <truncated>

This Record contains the abstracts for the oral and poster papers presented at the Broken Hill Exploration Initiative Conference, 29 September to 1 October 2009. Supplement contains abstract of 'Structural evolution of the mineralised system at Broken Hill' by A.E. Webster.

The map shows iron ore resources of Australia

The maps show Australian manganese resources by regions and deposit types

The map contains two sheets. Sheet 1 shows resources by regions and Sheet 2 shows uranium deposit types