Airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data are being acquired by Geoscience Australia (GA) under the Australian Government's Onshore Energy Security Program (OESP) in areas considered to have potential for uranium or thorium mineralisation. In contrast to deposit-scale investigations carried out by industry these surveys are designed to reveal new geological information at a regional scale. The Frome AEM survey shown in Figure 1 was flown by Fugro Airborne Surveys for GA, using the TEMPESTTM time-domain system. The survey was conducted with the aims of reducing exploration risk, stimulating exploration investment and enhancing prospectivity within the region primarily for uranium, but also for other commodities including copper, gold, silver, lead, zinc, iron ore and potable groundwater. The Frome AEM survey was primarily designed to be a regional mapping program for mapping surface and subsurface geological features that may be associated with sandstone-hosted uranium systems. The data are also capable of being interpreted for landscape evolution studies within the flanks of the tectonically active Curnamona Province and Flinders Ranges of South Australia. In this article we present an enhanced set of conductivity estimates which are now available from the GA website free of charge. These conductivity estimates reveal new geological information

Airborne Electromagnetic data are being acquired by Geoscience Australia in areas considered to have potential for uranium or thorium mineralisation under the Australian Government's Onshore Energy Security Program (OESP). The surveys have been managed and interpreted by Geoscience Australia's Airborne Electromagnetic Acquisition and Interpretation project. In contrast to industry style deposit scale investigations, these surveys are designed to reveal new geological information at regional scale. The Paterson airborne electromagnetic data were acquired at line spacings of between one and six kilometres, a total of 28 200 line km and covers an area of 47 600 km². The outcomes of the Paterson AEM survey include mapping of subsurface geological features that are associated with unconformity-related, sandstone-hosted and palaeovalley-hosted uranium mineralisation. The data are also capable of interpretation for other commodities including metals and potable water as well as for landscape evolution studies. The improved understanding of the regional geology resulting from the Paterson survey results will be of considerable benefit to mining and mineral exploration companies. This Data Package is for Archive to the internal area of the CDS and contains all data, grids, images, mxd, shape files, documentation, licenses, agreements, interpretations and scripts used to create the Paterson deliverables. At the projects completion (2012) all directories are required to be moved off the NAS. The reason to keep all the files is that more work is to be done on this data in the 2012-2015 period and these files may be needed in this future work.

Short article describing detection of interpreted unconformity between Coolbro Sandstone and Rudall Complex rocks near the Kintyre uranium deposit, Western Australia

A brief summary fo the highlights of the Paterson AEM survey and planned future work of Geoscience Australia's Airborne EM Project.

Australia's ancient river networks are substantially obscured by dunefields. The depths of incision of the river valleys into bedrock, the nature of sedimentary infill, and the palaeoenvironmental and geomorphic evolution of these fluvial systems are little known for much of the continent. The fluvial systems are defunct and the valleys are now typically disconnected chains of salt lakes with the relict valleys governed by groundwater processes. The palaeovalley sediments represent important aquifers in widespread parts of the Australian semi-arid to arid zone. They commonly contain the only available water resources to support mining activities, remote Aboriginal communities, the pastoral industry, and groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs). In Western Australia, investigations are underway in two regions to assess palaeovalleys and their groundwater resources: the Paterson Province in the Great Sandy Desert, and the Murchison Province of the Archean Yilgarn Craton. A variety of technologies have been applied to provide a regional context for more detailed analysis.

At present calcrete-hosted uranium deposits constitute only 1% of Australia's uranium resources. Most known deposits (nine out of eleven) are associated with Cenozoic drainage systems in the Yilgarn Craton, and similar drainage systems in the Gascoyne Province and Ngalia Basin. In the Paterson region calcrete-hosted uranium mineralisation has been reported only in the Lake Waukarlycarly area but no major deposit of this type has yet been found.

Airborne Electromagnetic data are being acquired by Geoscience Australia in areas considered to have potential for uranium or thorium mineralisation under the Australian Government's Onshore Energy Security Program (OESP). The surveys have been managed and interpreted by Geoscience Australia's Airborne Electromagnetic Acquisition and Interpretation project. In contrast to industry style deposit scale investigations, these surveys are designed to reveal new geological information at regional scale. The Frome Embayment AEM survey was acquired using the TEMPESTTM AEM system by Fugro Airborne Surveys under contract to GA. The survey covers a total of 32 300 line km and an area of 95 450 km2, the largest AEM survey by area ever flown in Australia. Phase-1 data, that is, contractor quality-controlled and quality-assessed data for the Frome survey, were released during March 2011. Phase-2 data, that is Geoscience Australia layered earth inversion (GA-LEI) data and derived products are included in this data release. The data and products described in this report are available from the GA AEM website, and are contained on the accompanying DVD.

Data acquired as part of the Kombolgie VTEMTM Airborne Electromagnetic Survey have been inverted using a layered earth inversion algorithm. Interpretation products have been derived from the inversion results. The inversion results and derived products have been released by Geoscience Australia as a digital data package. The survey was funded under the Australian Government's Onshore Energy Security Program, and was managed and interpreted by Geoscience Australia's Airborne Electromagnetic Acquisition and Interpretation Project. The Kombolgie survey area, in the Pine Creek Orogen of the Northern Territory, covered sections of the Cobourg Peninsula, Junction Bay, Alligator River, Milingimbi, Mount Evelyn, Katherine, and Urapunga 1:250 000 map sheets. It covered a total of 8 800 line km and an area of 32 000 km2. The data were acquired under contract by Geotech Airborne Pty. Ltd. using its VTEMTM helicopter-borne electromagnetic system. The inversions were carried out using the GA-LEI layered-earth inversion software developed at Geoscience Australia. Products include the layer conductivities, depth and elevation slices, and sections. The products are in digital form in both point-located and gridded formats. They are available for download from the Geoscience Australia website.

Airborne Electromagnetic data are being acquired by Geoscience Australia in areas considered to have potential for uranium or thorium mineralisation under the Australian Government's Onshore Energy Security Program (OESP). The surveys have been managed and interpreted by Geoscience Australia's Airborne Electromagnetic Acquisition and Interpretation project. In contrast to industry style deposit scale investigations, these surveys are designed to reveal new geological information at regional scale. The Frome Embayment AEM survey was acquired using the TEMPEST^TM AEM system by Fugro Airborne Surveys under contract to Geoscience Australia. The survey covers a total of 32 300 line km and an area of 95 450 km², the largest AEM survey by area ever flown in Australia. Phase-1 data, that is, contractor quality-controlled and quality-assessed data for the Frome survey, were released during March 2011. Phase-2 data, that is Geoscience Australia layered earth inversion (GA-LEI) data and derived products to 400m were released in July 2011. This data package contains GA-LEI data and derived products to 200m. Data and products described in this report are available from the GA AEM website.

The Capricorn 2013 AEM TEMPEST® survey, conducted as part of the Western Australia Exploration Incentive Scheme and managed by Geoscience Australia on behalf of the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA), is a $2.5 million contribution to the Distal Footprints of Giant Ore Systems: UNCOVER Australia. The Capricorn 2013 AEM survey is Stage 1 of the WA Reconnaissance Airborne Electromagnetic Survey (WARAEM) 2013-20 National Geoscience Agreement project, designed to provide broad-acre, wide line-spacing, airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data over the approximately 70% of the area of Western Australia that is underlain by Precambrian rocks that occur at or within about 300 m of the surface. The Capricorn Orogen is a geologically complex area, the surface expression of which has a surface extent of approximately 240,000 square kilometres (approximately 9 per cent of the area of the State). It is prospective for potentially large discoveries of gold, copper, and other base metals. The Capricorn 2013 AEM TEMPEST data release includes the final contractor supplied (Phase 1) datasets from the TEMPEST® time domain AEM survey as well as a set of GSWA-produced imagery made from the data. The data release package includes: - Point-located, computed B-field EM time-series channel data in ASEG-GDF2 (ASCII) format (also TMI and terrain data) - Point-located computed conductivity and terrain data in ASCII format - Data multiplots (EM x- and z-component time series, CDI sections, TMI, altimeter and monitor channels) in PDF format - CDI stacked sections in PDF format - Gridded data: EM time constant (x- and z-components); selected conductivity-depth slices (in ER Mapper format, 1 km cell size) - Geo-referenced images of gridded EM data in JP2 format - Geo-referenced images of gridded TMI, Ternary Radiometrics, Bouger Gravity and DEM data in JP2 format - Flight path map in ESRI shapefile format - Survey operations report in PDF format - Metadata and License files