Legacy product - no abstract available

Executive Summary. During 2-20 February 1998 the SNTD consortium of AGSO, USC, MAFRI, MARBOT and CBL conducted a survey to sample the major sediment types of Moreton Bay and the Brisbane River. The work was conducted to complete the SNTD Tasks. This Final Report discusses data from the February survey, and incorporates data collected on previous surveys (where appropriate) to provide this advanced perspective on sediment -water interactions and fluxes of metabolites,(notably nitrogen and phosphorus) across the sediment water interface. All Tasks for SNTD, S2R2 have been completed. Key findings are summarised below. ? A sedimentary and biogenic framework was developed for the Moreton Bay. Several Bio-geozones were identified from the facies mapping. These are ( including the areas of each): (i) Oceanic sands with seagrasses, 596 km2 (ii) Mixed muds and sands, 1009 km2 (iii) sewage impacted mixed muds and sands of western MB, 170 km2 (iv) Mangrove sediments, 62 km2, and (iv) the Upper and Lower Brisbane River sediments, 8.5 km2. Within each of these zones we identified key processes controlling nutrient concentrations and fluxes across the sediment-water interface. ? Oceanic sands with seagrasses. N fixation rates are highest in seagrass sediments. DIN fluxes (ammonia + nitrogen oxides) fluxes from the sediments to overlying waters are low. Coupled sedimentary nitrification and denitrification is active and efficient (>90%), and these sediments appear to be very efficient recyclers of sedimentary N. Sedimentary nitrification and denitrification are probably enhanced by oxygen fluxes through the root systems of seagrasses. P fluxes are low in seagrass sediments. Sulphate reduction is not important. Bioirrigation to shallow depths is evident. ? Ocean sands with seagrasses and `Lyngbya?. N fixation is low and DIN fluxes from sediments to overlying waters are low.

National Environmental Science Programme (NESP) Project C3 Summary Report

No abstract available

Australia's Identified Mineral Resources is an annual national assessment that takes a long-term view of Australian mineral resources likely to be available for mining. 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.

Since 2012, Geoscience Australia has been providing spatial support and advice to the Crisis Coordination Centre (CCC) within Emergency Management Australia (EMA) as part of our collaboration with the Attorney-General's Department. The GA Exposure Report was developed to provide timely exposure information for emergency response and decision-making. The Exposure Report is generated by extracting relevant demographic, building, business, agriculture, institution and infrastructure attributes from the National Exposure information System (NEXIS) in an event footprint, geographical boundary or area of interest.

In 2001, Australia's economic demonstrated resources (EDR) of bauxite, copper, gold, lead, magnesite, ilmenite, zircon, nickel, phosphate, PGM, tantalum, silver, vanadium and zinc increased, while those of black coal, diamonds, iron ore, lithium, manganese ore and uranium decreased. EDR of brown coal was maintained at levels similar to those reported in 2000. The reductions in EDR were due mainly to ongoing high levels of production; with low commodity prices a subsidiary factor. EDR of gold, nickel and mineral sands reached record levels. Gold EDR rose by 4% and was over 80% of total demonstrated resources, this increase in resources continuing the established long-term growth trend for gold. In recent years that trend has continued despite falling exploration expenditure reflecting an increasing trend to concentrate exploration efforts in brownfields regions in response to the sustained period of depressed gold price. Australia, continues to rank as one of the world's leading mineral resource nations. It has the world's largest EDR of lead, mineral sands, nickel, silver, tantalum, uranium and zinc. In addition, its EDR is in the top six worldwide for bauxite, black coal, brown coal, cobalt, copper, gold, iron ore, lithium, manganese ore, rare earth oxides and gem/near gem diamond. Mineral exploration expenditure rose by 1% to $683.3 million in 2000-01, which was the first increase in annual exploration spending since 1996-97. However spending for calendar year 2001, based on the sum of ABS four-quarter figures, was down by $12 million to $664.4 million. Production of many mineral commodities again reached record levels in 2000-01, and overall mine production is projected by ABARE to rise in the five years to 2006-07 with the exception of gold which they forecast will fall by 6%. ABARE have projected a very high growth of some 60% for mine production of nickel in this period. Increases are also forecast for mine production of coal (+17%), copper (4%), lead (3%), zinc (12%), bauxite (17%) and iron ore (19%).

In 1996, Australia's Economic Demonstrated Resources (EDR) of cobalt, gold, nickel, phosphate rock and tantalum increased substantially, while EDR of bauxite, lead, lithium, platinum group metals (PGM), silver and zinc rose slightly. There was a significant reduction in EDR of gem and near gem diamond and industrial diamond due to ongoing high levels of production. Magnesite and tin EDR were also significantly reduced as a result of depletion due to production and reassessment of deposits. EDR of all other commodities remained unchanged or had minor reductions. Australia continues to rank highly as one of the world's leading mineral resource nations. It has the world's largest EDR of bauxite, lead, mineral sands (ilmenite, rutile and zircon), silver, tantalum, uranium and zinc. In addition, its EDR is in the top six worldwide for black coal, brown coal, cobalt, copper, gold, iron ore, lithium, manganese ore, nickel, rare earth oxides, gem and near gem diamond and industrial diamond. Mineral exploration expenditure rose by 7.5% in 1995-96 to $960.2 million from $893.3 million in the previous year. Increases were recorded in all states and the Northern Territory. Gold was again the main target, accounting for 57% of the total expenditure. In 1995-96 mineral resources exports increased to a new record of $34.7 billion (thousand million), a rise of 12.7% over the previous fiscal year. These export earnings comprised 60% of Australia's commodity exports, 45% of merchandise exports and 35% of the country's total exports of goods and services. The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) forecast export earnings to set a further record in 1996-97, rising by nearly 4% to over $36 billion.

Assessment of undiscovered resources is an important task as it allows government to make policy decisions on petroleum exploration and production aswell as other related issues such as land use. The assessment of undiscovered resources is currently achieved by the use of an in-house computer program called AUSTPLAY. This report is essentially an audit of AUSTPLAY and compares it with other assessment methods. AUSTPLAY has had its successes in forecasting butmany aspects of the program are a mystery to many of AGSO's staff who may use its outputs.

Undiscovered hydrocarbon resource assessment at AGSO is currently calculated using the AUSTPLAY program. This program has not been continually developed to take advantage of advances in computingtechnology and software. While the program can still produce an assessment, there are many shortcomings that make the program unmanageable. AUSTPLAY outputs are suitable for input to hydrocarbon production forecasts but the results of the assessment do not represent an estimate of the ultimate recoverable resource. The USGS (2000) has recently published the results of a worldwide assessment of undiscovered resources and their methodology gives a better estimate of the ultimate recoverable. Powell (2001) advocates the use of the USGS assessment to become Australia's undiscovered hydrocarbon resource assessment with the caveat that we now need to evaluate the results produced by the USGS.