Exploring for the Future (EFTF) is a four-year (2016-20) geoscience data and information acquisition program that aims to better understand on a regional scale the potential mineral, energy and groundwater resources concealed under cover in northern Australia and parts of South Australia. Hydrogeochemical surveys utilise groundwater as a passive sampling medium to reveal the chemistry of the underlying geology including hidden mineralisation. These surveys also potentially provide input into regional baseline groundwater datasets that can inform environmental monitoring and decision making. Geoscience Australia, as part of the Australian Government’s EFTF program, undertook an extensive groundwater sampling survey in collaboration with the Northern Territory Geological Survey and the Geological Survey of Queensland. During the 2017, 2018 and 2019 dry season, 224 groundwater samples (including field duplicate samples) were collected from 203 pastoral and water supply bores in the Tennant Creek-Mt Isa EFTF focus area of the Northern Territory and Queensland. An additional 38 groundwater samples collected during the 2013 dry season in the Lake Woods region from 35 bores are included in this release as they originate from within the focus area. The area was targeted to evaluate its mineral potential with respect to iron oxide copper-gold, sediment-hosted lead-zinc-silver and Cu-Co, and/or lithium-boron-potash mineral systems, among others. The 2017-2019 surveys were conducted across 21 weeks of fieldwork and sampled groundwater for a comprehensive suite of hydrogeochemical parameters, including isotopes, analysed over subsequent months. The present data release includes information and atlas maps of: 1) sampling sites; 2) physicochemical parameters (EC, pH, Eh, DO and T) of groundwater measured in the field; 3) field measurements of total alkalinity (HCO3-), dissolved sulfide (S2-), and ferrous iron (Fe2+); 4) major cation and anion results; 5) trace element concentrations; 6) isotopic results of water (δ18O and δ2H), DIC (δ13C), dissolved sulfate (δ34S and δ18O), dissolved strontium (87Sr/86Sr), and dissolved lead (204Pb, 206Pb, 207Pb, and 208Pb) isotopes; 7) dissolved hydrocarbon VFAs, BTEX, and methane concentrations, as well as methane isotopes (δ13C and δ2H); and 8) atlas of hydrogeochemical maps representing the spatial distribution of these parameters. Pending analyses include: CFCs and SF6; tritium; Cu isotopes; and noble gas concentrations (Ar, Kr, Xe, Ne, and 4He) and 3He/4He ratio. This data release (current as of July 2021) is the second in a series of staged releases and interpretations from the Northern Australia Hydrogeochemical Survey. It augments and revises the first data release, which it therefore supersedes. Relevant data, information and images are available through the GA website (https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/133388) and GA’s EFTF portal (https://portal.ga.gov.au/).

SHRIMP U-Pb zircon and monazite geochronology of magmatic, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks sampled from an undercover region informally referred to as ‘East Tennant’, located approximately 200 km east of Tennant Creek, has redefined our knowledge of the geology of this region. These results establish strong temporal links with rocks in the Au-Cu-Bi mineralised Tennant Creek region (Warramunga Province) and the Paleoproterozoic Murphy Province, approximately 270 km to the northeast. Detrital zircon U-Pb analyses of two metasedimentary samples show maximum depositional ages of ca. 1875 Ma and detrital zircon age spectra similar to Warramunga Formation metasedimentary rocks in the Warramunga Province. Additionally, three extrusive rocks and an intermediate intrusive rock have magmatic crystallisation ages of 1858–1849 Ma, synchronous with magmatism in the Warramunga Province associated with the 1860–1845 Ma Tennant Event. Monazite U-Pb analyses of two samples of metapelites from the East Tennant region and Murphy Province record metamorphism at ca. 1845 Ma, which is also synchronous with magmatism associated with the Tennant Event. These new results suggest that the undercover East Tennant region could represent an extension of the Warramunga Province and therefore be prospective for Au-Cu-Bi mineralisation. <b>Citation:</b> Cross, A.J., Clark, A.D., Schofield, A. and Kositcin, N., 2020. New SHRIMP U-Pb zircon and monazite geochronology of the East Tennant region: a possible undercover extension of the Warramunga Province, Tennant Creek. In: Czarnota, K., Roach, I., Abbott, S., Haynes, M., Kositcin, N., Ray, A. and Slatter, E. (eds.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts, Geoscience Australia, Canberra, 1–4.