Six scout drilling holes totalling 1020 feet of drilling were sunk by the Bureau in the Stony Pinch and Thornton Area, about 6 miles south-south-east of the City of Maitland in the Hunter Valley of N.S.W. The bores penetrated the Four Mile Creek beds and the Buttai Sandstone of the Tomago "Stage" of the "Upper" Coal Measures. In the absence of reliable stratigraphical control, the seams cannot be correlated with much certainty. Bore BMR 4 Stony Punch indicated that Donaldson's Seam(?) is thin and much banded; the coal, excluding bands, has an ash content of about 15% and calorific value of 12,300 B.Th.U/lb. This same bore showed that the basal 7 feet 3 inches of the Big Ben Seam had an ash content of about 25% and calorific value of 10,600 B.Th.U/lb. if 8 inches of non-coal bands are excluded. The general results of the drilling were that the coal seams were heavily banded, variable and high in inherent ash. Accordingly the prospecting was halted after drilling six holes.

The refraction seismic tests described in this report were made at the request of the Victorian Railways Department. The work was located within the railway reserve between the outskirts of Wodonga township and the River Murray, and consisted of the shooting of five refraction traverses, set out approximately parallel to the railway line and covering in detail a total length of 4,800 feet. The aim of the seismic work was two-fold. Firstly an investigation was required of the subsurface formations in the vicinity of the bridges which carry the railway across several creeks intersecting the Murray flood plain. The subsurface information is required in connection with the design of the foundations of new bridges which will be constructed to replace the existing ones. The second purpose of the work was to test whether the refraction seismic method would be suitable for adoption by the Railways Department engineers as a standard routine method for investigating foundation conditions. To fulfil this purpose ideally, the method would need to be applicable generally to all the foundation problems encountered by the Department and to completely eliminate the necessity for test drilling of sites. The flood plain of the Murray, on which the seismic measurements were made, is composed of Recent alluvium, probably underlain by Tertiary river deposits and is crossed by several creeks and anabranches of the main stream. The outcrops in the vicinity of Wodonga show the bedrock to be granite and metamorphic sediments. The field work was done between February 26th and March 12th, 1953. The field party comprised two geophysicists and three field assistants provided by the Railways Department.

A first order radioactive anomaly discovered by an airborne scintillometer survey has been examined on the ground by geological, geophysical and geochemical methods. Counts of more than 10,000 per minute, and of 6,000 per minute, have been recorded from two shallow pits sunk on small areas which registered 9 and 6 times background readings respectively, on the surface. A total length of 700 feet of costeans has been bulldozed. No uranium mineralization has been observed either on the surface or in pits and costeans. Inspections by ultra-violet lamp have failed to reveal any fluorescent minerals.

In response to applications by the Tasmanian Department of Mines and the interested company, Eagle Metal and Industrial Products Pty. Ltd., Tasmania, a geophysical investigation, including self-potential, electromagnetic and magnetic surveys, has been made over the copper-nickel deposits of the North Dundas Field, situated about 5 miles north-east of Zeehan, Tasmania. The nickel ore occurs in the foot-wall of north-striking ultrabasic dykes. The ore shoots already worked had proved very rich but quite small. Important results were obtained in the Cuni North Area only. Conductive indications which appear to be due to mineralization extend over a length of 800 to 1000 feet. The line of mineralization is intersected by cross faults. Drilling targets for five short diamond drillholes are given. Further exploration should be confined mainly to this area. The geophysical results indicate that mineralization farther south is limited in extent and perhaps of no economic interest.

A little torbernite, reported to be associated with cassiterite, was discovered at the Yenberrie prospect, late in 1952, by Messrs. R. Young and S. Mazlin, members of a syndicate operating a battery to treat tin ore, near Mt. Todd. The area was mapped during May 1953, on a scale of 100 feet to an inch, by D.E. Gardner and N.O. Jones. The prospect was tested for radioactivity with an Austronic ratemeter, and count rates exceeding three times the local background were obtained at four localities along the main shear zone over a length of 250 feet. Samples were obtained from shallow pits and shafts sunk at three of the four localities. A plan of the area and locality maps accompany this report.

Wave Hill Station, a cattle station in the north-western portion of the Northern Territory, is situated between the 15 in. and 20 in. isohyets of annual rainfall. This Station has a large area of grassland on volcanic downs which cannot be fully utilised because of the lack of surface waters: supplies of underground water are essential for the expansion of the pastoral industry in this area. Bore records up to 1949 show that at least 30 bores have been sunk of which more than half are useless and only a very few produce a sufficient yield.

The Brodribb deposit, located 13 miles north of the Rum Jungle mine was located by an aerial scintillometer survey in September 1952. A ground examination revealed an order of radioactivity sufficient to warrant geological and radiometric surveys. A total of 1026 feet of costeaning was bulldozed. The increase of radioactivity with little depth and the satisfactory sample values justify exploratory drilling and possibly underground development, which will be started in 1953. The information available to date places the Brodribb deposit in an entirely different geological category from that of the Rum Jungle deposit. Even if the Brodribb deposit proves to be only of very low grade uranium, an entirely new and extensive province for uranium exploration will be opened.

During the past three to five years small amounts of oxidized copper ore have been reported from various localities in the James Ranges to the west of Alice Springs. During a visit to Alice Springs in July of this year information on these deposits was obtained from the Resident Geologists, A.D.M. Bell, and it is considered that potentially they may be of considerable importance and Bell has been instructed to investigate them further. The deposits are briefly discussed in the monthly report by Bell dated 3rd July, 1953. In this report he states that the rocks to the west of Alice Springs, where limestones are developed only on a comparatively small scale, are not likely to contain ore deposits to the extent of those to the east of Alice Springs where extensive limestone deposits occur. This concept is discussed below. [A supplementary note is enclosed which describes an inspection of the area which was conducted in September 1953].

To date the Mosquito Creek field appears primarily to be a good gouger's prospect. It could carry one Company operating a small plant but not as at present three or four Companies. However, the whole of the exposed granite rock has not been prospected, and the possibilities of the field not realised. It is possible that lodes of payable width, i.e. 3 ft or more, may be located in the future. The veins proved to date are thin but are numerous, persist over long distances and carry value at depth. Valuation of scheelite ground is by no means as simple as has been reported in the press. Wind and rain have concentrated the ore in the surface soil covering these numerous veins, over widths up to 20 feet. These areas of quartz-scheelite are easily located by the use of an ultra-violet lamp and could be stripped by bulldozers. The obvious action for any company interested in this field would be [as follows]. 1. To satisfy themselves by trial of the commercial value of the strippings. 2. To carry out active exploration and cover by mining lease large areas of scheelite veined granite. 3. To consider the thickest reefs so exposed at a later date. The existing companies have not been alive to the possibilities of the field, have purchased at high cost small leases and exuded a great deal of hot air. The further possibilities of the field are reasonably good and depend primarily on the recovery of scheelite by bull-dozing to shallow depth veined granite.

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