This service delivers data from Geoscience Australia's Petroleum Systems database, a compilation of information from summary reports on petroleum systems by basin across Australia, integrated with data from other Geoscience Australia databases including provinces, stratigraphy and boreholes. The data provided by this service is intended for use in the Petroleum Systems Summary tool on the Geoscience Australia Portal. The tool's aim is to provide high-level information of the current understanding of key petroleum systems for areas of interest and assist geological studies by summarising and interpreting key datasets related to conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon exploration. Each petroleum systems summary includes a synopsis of the basin and key figures detailing the basin outline, major structural components, data availability, petroleum systems events chart and stratigraphy, and a précis of the key elements of source, reservoir and seal.

This service delivers data from Geoscience Australia's Petroleum Systems database, a compilation of information from summary reports on petroleum systems by basin across Australia, integrated with data from other Geoscience Australia databases including provinces, stratigraphy and boreholes. The data provided by this service is intended for use in the Petroleum Systems Summary tool on the Geoscience Australia Portal. The tool's aim is to provide high-level information of the current understanding of key petroleum systems for areas of interest and assist geological studies by summarising and interpreting key datasets related to conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon exploration. Each petroleum systems summary includes a synopsis of the basin and key figures detailing the basin outline, major structural components, data availability, petroleum systems events chart and stratigraphy, and a précis of the key elements of source, reservoir and seal.

To improve exploration success undercover, the UNCOVER initiative identified high-resolution 3D seismic velocity characterisation of the Australian plate as a high priority. To achieve this goal, the Australian Government and academia have united around the Australian Passive Seismic Array Project (AusArray). The aim is to obtain a national half-degree data coverage and an updatable 3D national velocity model, which grows in resolution as more data become available. AusArray combines data collected from the Australian National Seismological Network (ANSN), multiple academic transportable arrays (supported by AuScope and individual grants) and the Seismometers in Schools program. The Exploring for the Future program has enable the unification of these datasets and a doubling of the national rate of data acquisition. Extensive quality control checks have been applied across the AusArray dataset to improve the robustness of subsequent tomographic inversion and interpretation. These data and inversion code framework allow robust national-scale imaging of the Earth to be rapidly undertaken at depths of a few metres to hundreds of kilometres. <b>Citation:</b> Gorbatov, A., Czarnota, K., Hejrani, B., Haynes, M., Hassan, R., Medlin, A., Zhao, J., Zhang, F., Salmon, M., Tkalčić, H., Yuan, H., Dentith, M., Rawlinson, N., Reading, A.M., Kennett, B.L.N., Bugden, C. and Costelloe, M., 2020. AusArray: quality passive seismic data to underpin updatable national velocity models of the lithosphere. 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. <b>Data for this product are available on request from clientservices@ga.gov.au (see data description) - Quote eCat# 135284</b>

This report presents key results from the Daly River groundwater project conducted as part of Exploring for the Future (EFTF), an Australian Government funded geoscience data and information acquisition program. The four-year (2016-20) program focused on better understanding the potential mineral, energy and groundwater resources in northern Australia. In this investigation we use models of sub-surface bulk electrical conductivity within the geological Daly Basin to model the depth of the interface between the Jinduckin Formation and the overlying Oolloo Dolostone. The Olloo dolostone is the most extracted aquifer in the Daly basin, while the Jinduckin Formation is an aquitard separating the Olloo from the lower Tindall Limestone aquifer. Airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data acquired across the basin were inverted with both deterministic and stochastic methods to generate a suite of bulk electrical conductivity models. Comparison with boreholes suggested that the Jinduckin Formation is significantly more conductive than the Oolloo Dolostone and this interface is well resolved in these AEM conductivity models. We developed an interactive plot for visualising the probability distribution of bulk conductivities for AEM points inverted with the stochastic inversion routine. We interpreted 389 AEM points using this approach and used interpolation to derive a new stratigraphic Olloo—Jinduckin surface. The new surface is generally deeper than current models of the interface, which were derived by interpolating stratigraphic picks from boreholes. In the data-sparse south-west of the Daly Basin the new geological surface is up to 390 m deeper than what is currently mapped. This new interface can be used to better constrain aquifer architecture in groundwater flow modelling and support groundwater management of this region. The method developed for interpreting stratigraphy directly from the posterior probability distribution of electrical conductivity is applicable for other geophysical interpretation tasks.

Australia has a significant number of surface sediment geochemical surveys that have been undertaken by industry and government over the past 50 years. These surveys represent a vast investment and have up to now only been able to be used in isolation, independently from one another. The key to maximising the full potential of these data and the information they provide for mineral exploration, environmental management and agricultural purposes is using all the surveys together, seamlessly. These disparate geochemical surveys not only sampled various landscape elements and analysed a range of size fractions, but also used multiple analytical techniques, instrument types and laboratories. The geochemical data from these surveys require levelling to eliminate, as much as possible, non-geological variation. Using a variety of methodologies, including reanalysis of both international standards and small subsets of samples from previous surveys, we have created a seamless surface geochemical map for northern Australia, from nine surveys with 15,605 samples. We tested our approach using two surveys from the southern Thomson Orogen, which demonstrated the successful removal of inter-laboratory and other analytical variation. Creation of the new combined and levelled northern Australian dataset paves the way for the application of statistical and data analytics techniques, such as principal component analysis and machine learning, thereby maximising the value of these legacy data holdings. The methodology documented here can be applied to additional geochemical datasets as they become available.

To meet the rising global demand for base metals – driven primarily by the transition to cleaner-energy sources – declining rates of discovery of new deposits need to be countered by advances in exploration undercover. Here, we report that 85% of the world’s sediment-hosted base metals, including all giant deposits (>10 Mt of metal), occur within 200 km of the edge of thick lithosphere, irrespective of the age of mineralisation. This implies long-term craton edge stability, forcing a reconsideration of basin dynamics and the sediment-hosted mineral system. We find that the thermochemical structure of thick lithosphere results in increased basin subsidence rates during rifting, coupled with low geothermal gradients, which ensure favourable metal solubility and precipitation. Sediments in such basins generally contain all necessary lithofacies of the mineral system. These considerations allow establishment of the first-ever national prospectus for sediment-hosted base metal discovery. Conservative estimates place the undiscovered resource of sediment-hosted base metals in Australia to be ~50–200 Mt of metal. Importantly, this work suggests that ~15% of Australia is prospective for giant sediment-hosted deposits; we suggest that exploration efforts should be focused in this area. <b>Citation:</b> Czarnota, K., Hoggard, M.J., Richards, F.D., Teh, M., Huston, D.L., Jaques, A.L. and Ghelichkhan, S., 2020. Minerals on the edge: sediment-hosted base metal endowment above steps in lithospheric thickness. 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.

This service delivers airborne electromagnetics (AEM) derived conductivity grids for depth intervals representing the top 22 layers from AEM modelling in the West Musgrave region (https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/147969). The grids were generated from the AEM conductivity models released as part of the Western Resource Corridor AusAEM survey (https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/147688), the Earaheedy and Desert Strip AusAEM survey (https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/145265) and several industry surveys (https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/146278) from the West Musgraves region. The AEM conductivity models resolve important subsurface features for assessing the groundwater system including lithological boundaries, palaeovalleys and hydrostatigraphy.

This web service provides access to datasets generated by the North Australian Craton (NAC) Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG) Mineral Potential Assessment. Two outputs were created: a comprehensive assessment, using all available spatial data, limiting data where possible to capture mineral systems older than 1500 ma, and; a coverage assessment, which is constrained to data that have no reliance on outcrop or age of mineralisation.

This report presents the results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses on 2 core samples from the GSWA Waukarlycarly 1 stratigraphic well drilled in the Canning Basin. The well was drilled as part of a co-funded collaboration between Geoscience Australia (GA) and the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA) aimed at gathering new subsurface data on the potential mineral, energy and groundwater resources in the southern Canning Basin. The collaboration resulted in the acquisition of the Kidson Deep Crustal Seismic Reflection Survey in 2018; and the drilling of deep stratigraphic well GSWA Waukarlycarly 1, located along the Kidson Sub-basin seismic line within the Waukarlycarly Embayment in 2019 (Figure 1). GSWA Waukarlycarly 1 reached a total depth of 2680.53 m at the end of November 2019 and was continuously cored through the entire Canning Basin stratigraphy. Coring was complemented by the acquisition of a standard suite of wireline logs and a vertical seismic profile. The work presented in this report constitutes part of the post well data acquisition. The purpose of the SEM analysis was to determine mineralogy and textural relationships between grains, verify the presence of organic material at the micro-scale, document i) the presence of diagenetic alterations to the detrital mineral assemblage and ii) eventual distribution of visible pores.

This report presents key results from the Western Davenport study conducted as part of Exploring for the Future (EFTF), an Australian Government-funded geoscience data and information acquisition program. The Western Davenport (WD) investigation used existing geological and hydrogeological data and new AEM data to develop a 3D hydrostratigraphic model of the central part of the study area. This was augmented by existing and newly acquired hydrogeological and hydrochemistry data to improve the understanding of groundwater in the area. The collection and interpretation of these datasets have enabled a correlation between hydrostratigraphic units in the Wiso and Georgina basins in the WD area. The hydrochemistry data shows that the central zone of the WD is characterised by good-quality groundwater (<1000 mg/L total dissolved solids), with the newly drilled bores identifying areas of low-salinity groundwater. These initial hydrochemistry results suggest groundwater in the WD could support irrigated agriculture. The hydrochemistry data has identified three zones of potentially higher recharge. The groundwater stable isotope dataset suggests that there is minimal evaporation of water prior to recharge and that groundwater recharge only occurs following heavy rainfall events. This preliminary information suggests recharge to groundwater is dominated by episodic recharge from floodouts and creeks rather than direct infiltration across the WD area from large rainfall events. However, more data are needed to better define the role of floodouts in recharge to the groundwater system and to determine the contribution of creek beds versus floodouts to recharge. Given the aridity of the area and the variable nature of recharge events, managed aquifer recharge could increase the security of groundwater resources in the area. The regolith mapping presented can assist in better understanding the surface and near-surface environments, and their influence on hydrogeological processes. This provides a tool with which to begin identifying potential areas for enhancing natural recharge processes to supplement existing groundwater resources. This mapping was possible because of the increasing availability of higher resolution digital elevation, airborne radiometric and Landsat satellite remotely sensed data. The improved understanding of geology and hydrogeology, coupled with managed aquifer recharge mapping undertaken as part of the EFTF program, provides new information to support groundwater management in the WD area.