Exploring for the Future (EFTF) is an eight year, $225 million Australian Government funded program which commenced in 2016. The program is delivering new geoscience data, knowledge and decision support tools to support increased industry investment and sustainable economic development across Australia. Further detail is available at http://www.ga.gov.au/eftf. The program’s objective over the four years from 2016-2020 was to provide a holistic picture of the potential mineral, energy and groundwater resources in northern Australia. Groundwater is a critical resource that accounts for most water used across northern Australia. The groundwater component of the EFTF program focused on addressing groundwater resource knowledge gaps, to support future opportunities for economic development via irrigated agriculture, extractive industries and increased security of community water supplies. Through collaboration with State and Territory partners, the program undertook targeted regional investigations of groundwater systems and assessments of groundwater potential more broadly across the region. The program's activities, implemented by Geoscience Australia, involved application of innovative geoscience tools to collect, integrate and analyse a range of data. It includes geological and hydrogeological data, airborne and ground-based geophysical and hydrogeochemical surveys, remote sensing data as well as stratigraphic drilling. The new data and better understanding of groundwater systems also helps inform decision making about groundwater use to protect environmental and cultural assets. These outcomes strengthen investor confidence in resources and agricultural projects by de-risking groundwater in northern Australia. Surface nuclear magnetic resonance (SNMR) is an electrical, geophysical technique that was adapted from magnetic resonance imaging techniques used in the medical field. This technique is gaining prominence in groundwater studies as it can be used to detect the presence of water and estimate hydraulic properties in the top 100m of subsurface. SNMR data can be acquired rapidly, cheaply and non-invasively. This is advantageous in Australian groundwater studies where drilling is often expensive and logistically challenging due to land access issues and environmental regulations. For the reasons described above SNMR has been one of the most important groundwater datasets acquired as part of the EFTF program. The derived estimates of water content have been used for several applications including; estimating hydraulic conductivity, mapping the water table surface, and defining aquifer architecture. The purpose of this document is to provide a description of the SNMR method and how the data are acquired, processed and inverted as part of the EFTF program.

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.

July 2020: The data in this product has been superseded, with the new dataset available here: <a href="https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/133388">https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/133388</a> However, the report in this product still presents valuable insights e.g., into the relationship between copper in the regolith and groundwater. The mineral resources of Tennant Creek and Mt Isa have contributed tremendously to the economic development the Northern Territory and Queensland. Vast areas of poorly known mineral potential remain under explored between and around these two mining centres, with prospective solid geology covered by a relatively thin layer of transported sediments. Hydrogeochemical surveys utilise groundwater as a passive sampling medium to reveal the chemistry of the underlying geology including hidden mineralisation. These surveys also provide regional baseline groundwater datasets that can inform environmental monitoring and decision making.

Exploring for the Future is a four-year $100.5 million programme to unveil new resource opportunities in Northern Australia and parts of South Australia. It is being conducted by Geoscience Australia in partnership with state and Northern Territory government agencies, CSIRO, and universities. This initiative, which is due for completion in 2020–2021, has started to deliver a suite of new products to help unveil new resource opportunities in Northern Australia. The programme has three inter-related elements: minerals, energy and groundwater, which collectively aims to: • provide baseline pre-competitive geoscience data to inform and encourage government, industry and community decision making about sustainable resources management to improve Northern Australia’s economic development • attract investment in resource exploration to Northern Australia • deliver an assessment of groundwater resources for irrigated agriculture and community water supplies as well as for mineral and energy development; and an assessment of the potential impacts of those developments. The minerals-focussed projects have been designed with a three-fold programme logic (Figure 1): 1) Northern Australia-wide projects, 2) focussed integrated studies, and 3) generic innovation and method development. The minerals-focussed project activities address a number of the highest and high priority themes identified by the mineral exploration industry in the UNCOVER Roadmap. 1) Northern Australia-wide projects This work programme will develop and use innovative tools and techniques to collect semi-continental a) geological, b) geochemical, and c) geophysical data on an unprecedented scale. The commencement of these projects is focussed on the region between Tennant Creek and Mt Isa (TISA). a) Geological projects Because one person’s cover is another person’s basement, a Northern Australia-wide series of time-based geological maps are being prepared. Building from the national 1:1 M scale Surface Geology Map of Australia, the Cenozoic, Mesozoic, Palaeozoic and Neoproterozoic layers will be successively removed to reveal a series of ‘solid geology’ maps at 1:1M scale. These maps will form the basis for subsequent 3D models and resource assessments. Extensive use is being made of national-scale potential field geophysical data and existing drillhole data. This has the combined effect of calibrating the geological interpretation of the geophysics with known rocks and attributing the interfaces with their actual depth (from drilling or geophysical estimates). Resultant 3D data are being stored in a new database called Estimates of Geological and Geophysical Surfaces (EGGS); this is a national repository for depth-determined geological information from any method (drilling or geophysical estimate). The EGGS’ database will form the depth-control points from which new 3D surfaces will be constructed and imported into a 3D geological model along with uncertainty. A new peak metamorphic map of Australia is also in production, with a subset available for Northern Australia in the first phase. This map is a compilation of quantitative and qualitative estimates of metamorphic conditions across Australia. The maps will provide important constraints on the crustal exhumation and (mineral) preservation history as well as thermo-barometric evolution of Australia. b) Geochemical projects An atlas of the surface of Northern Australia, as a subset of the national atlas, is in preparation. Geoscience Australia has time-series LANDSAT data from NASA extending back into the 1980s. Each pixel from each scene has been organised in Digital Earth Australia (DEA) so the archive can be ‘data-mined’ to extract pixels with the least vegetation and cloud-cover effects. Products of this work will be a new national Bare Earth image along with iron oxide, silica and clay mineral maps of the surface at 25 m resolution. The European Space Agency’s Sentinel 2 satellite system provides global coverage of multispectral earth-observation data at 10 m resolution from these data. A new cloud-free seamless Sentinel 2 national map will be produced at 10 m resolution. A suite of new machine learning codes has been produced in collaboration with DATA61. These codes are being deployed on the national whole rock and surface geochemical datasets to produce national surface maps of the major elements. An isotopic atlas for northern Australia is being prepared, consisting of a suite of map layers including Sm–Nd, Lu–Hf, U–Pb, Ar–Ar and Pb–Pb; it will be delivered in GIS form, and draped on the aforementioned 3D surfaces. In addition, selected age dating of geological units through U–Pb SHRIMP geochronology and various other dating techniques for direct dating of key mineral deposits are being undertaken. c) Geophysical projects The world’s largest airborne electromagnetic (AusAEM) survey and the most extensive long-period magnetotelluric (AusLAMP) survey are well underway. At the time of writing (February 2018), 20 600 line-km of the 60,000 planned AusAEM data have been flown and 155 new AusLAMP stations have been acquired. In addition, a new seismic tomographic velocity model will be constructed from historical earthquake data; these data form the basis of the Australia-wide AusARRAY project. Gravity data are being infilled at higher resolutions in areas where station spacing is >4 km using a mix of ground and airborne gravity and airborne gravity gradiometry. 2) Focused Integrated Studies (TISA) The region between Tennant Creek and Mt Isa (TISA) is the initial focus of all the above-mentioned activities plus a series of additional projects. This vast under cover region lies between the great mining centres of Tennant Creek (Cu, Au) and Mt Isa (Cu, Pb, Zn, Ag). The thickness of cover is variable and the underlying ‘basement’ geology is poorly known. The region lies at a key junction in Australian geology, with north-south striking domains in the east joining east-west and northwest-southeast striking domains in the west. The region showed unexplained base metal anomalism in the National Geochemical Survey of Australia (NGSA) and at depth, it has variable seismic velocity and Moho depths. The programme has collected 782 surface geochemical and 118 groundwater samples to augment the broad-spaced NGSA dataset; laboratory results are being modelled with the first products due for release in March 2018. The AusARRAY project deployed 120 passive seismic recorders that will remain in the TISA region until later this year. Two more deployments are expected in the life of the programme at locations to be confirmed. A total of 2724 ground gravity stations were collected; the data was released in 2017. A total of 1100 km of deep seismic reflection data have been acquired and processed (see Henson this volume), with processed data to be released in March 2018, and interpretation products to follow. The aim of focusing the activities into one region is to provide the best possible suite of data that will be integrated into an assessment of the undercover mineral potential of the TISA region. This assessment and the geological and mineral systems interpretations of the above data will be tested by a stratigraphic drilling programme in 2019. Assessments are underway for basin-hosted base metals (Cu, Pb, Zn) and for iron-oxide-copper-gold mineral systems. The basin assessment will draw on well-established petroleum systems approaches and apply them to these mineral systems. When the programme is complete, the TISA region will arguably be the best imaged and understood piece of lithosphere on the planet. 3) Innovation and Method Development To complement data acquisition, new big data management and data analytical methods, tools and platforms are being developed to maximise data value. Strategic collaborations have been established with world-leading experts at Australian universities and DATA61 to develop a suite of new geoscience-relevant computer codes and products that will be released in open source repositories (GitHub) and be incorporated into the Australian National Virtual Geophysical Laboratory (ANVGL). Given the vast range of activities being conducted, many of which are novel, effort is being made to share the generic lessons. This includes publishing software codes and standard operating procedures as well as developing an Explorer’s Guide for the TISA region that will have generic applicability elsewhere. Particular effort is being made to transfer knowledge and receive feedback from industry through a series of workshops that commenced in 2017. Conclusions Exploring for the Future, an exciting initiative in collaboration with state and NT partners, will: • Assist in securing an ongoing pipeline of new discoveries and help maintain Australia’s position as a major global mineral and energy exporter. • Determine the location, quantity and quality of groundwater resources to inform water management options, including infrastructure development and water banking. • Benefit the Mining Equipment, Technology and Services (METS) sector by drawing on private sector expertise in undertaking data acquisition and analysis.

To set out how Geoscience Australia will meet its vision for the Exploring for the Future program, we have summarised the ways our scientific activities, outputs and intended outcomes and impacts are linked, using the Impact Pathway diagram.

This double-sided A4 flyer promotes EFTF chronostratigraphic work in the NT, as well as the EFTF newsletter

<p>Dataset "Detailed surface geology – Upper Burdekin basalt provinces", downloaded from the Queensland Spatial Catalogue in April 2017 and clipped to the Upper Burdekin basalt provinces. <p>The polygons in this dataset are a digital representation of the distribution or extent of geological units within the area. Polygons have a range of attributes including unit name, age, lithological description and an abbreviated symbol for use in labelling the polygons. These have been extracted from the Rock Units Table held in Department of Natural Resources and Mines MERLIN Database. <p>© State of Queensland (Department of Natural Resources and Mines) 2017 Creative Commons Attribution

This report presents key results from hydrogeological investigations at Alice Springs, completed as part of Exploring for the Future (EFTF)—an eight year, $225 million Australian Government funded geoscience data and information acquisition program focused on better understanding the potential mineral, energy and groundwater resources across Australia. The Southern Stuart Corridor (SSC) project area within the Northern Territory extends in a north–south corridor from Tennant Creek to Alice Springs, encompassing four water control districts and a number of remote communities. Water allocation planning and agricultural expansion in the SSC is currently limited by a paucity of data and information regarding the volume and extent of groundwater resources and groundwater systems more generally. This includes recharge rates, surface water –groundwater connectivity, and the dependency of ecosystems on groundwater. Outside the proposed agricultural areas, the project includes numerous remote communities where there is a need to secure water supplies. Geoscience Australia, in partnership with the Northern Territory Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Power and Water Corporation, undertook an extensive program of hydrogeological investigations between 2017 and 2019. Data acquisition included helicopter airborne electromagnetic (AEM) and magnetic data, investigative groundwater bore drilling, ground-based and downhole geophysical data (including nuclear magnetic resonance for mapping water content and induction conductivity/gamma for defining geological formations), and hydrochemistry for characterising groundwater systems. This report investigates the hydrogeology across the Alice Springs focus area, which includes the Roe Creek and proposed Rocky Hill borefields, where five hydrostratigraphic units were mapped based on AEM interpretation and borehole geophysical information. The mapping supports the presence of a syncline, with a gentle parabolic fold axis that plunges westward, and demonstrates that the main Siluro-Devonian Mereenie Sandstone and Ordovician Pacoota Sandstone aquifers are continuous from Roe Creek borefield to the Rocky Hill area. Areas with the highest potential for recharge to the Paleozoic strata are where Roe Creek or the Todd River directly overlie shallow subcrop of the aquifer units. Three potential recharge areas are identified: (1) Roe Creek borefield, (2) a 3 km stretch of Roe Creek immediately west of the proposed Rocky Hill borefield, and (3) the viticulture block to the east of Rocky Hill. Analysis of groundwater chemistry and regional hydrology suggests that the rainfall threshold for recharge of the Paleozoic aquifers is ~125 mm/month, and groundwater isotope data indicate that recharge occurs rapidly. The groundwaters have similar major ion chemistry, reflecting similar geology and suggesting that all of the Paleozoic aquifers in the focus area are connected to some degree. Groundwater extraction at Roe Creek borefield since the 1960s has led to the development of a cone of depression and a groundwater divide, which has gradually moved eastward and is now east of the proposed Rocky Hill borefield. The majority of the groundwater within the focus area is of good quality, with <1000 mg/L total dissolved salts (TDS). The brackish water (7000 mg/L TDS) further to the east of the proposed Rocky Hill borefield warrants further investigation to determine the potential risk of it being captured by the cone of depression following the development of this borefield. This study provides new insight to the hydrogeological understanding of the Alice Springs focus area. Specifically, this investigation demonstrates that the Roe Creek and proposed Rocky Hill borefields, and a nearby viticulture area are all extracting from the same aquifer system. This finding will inform the future management and security of the Alice Springs community water supply. New groundwater resource estimates and a water level monitoring scheme can be developed to support the management of this vital groundwater resource.

Geoscience Australia commissioned reprocessing of selected legacy 2D seismic data in the East Kimberley, onshore Bonaparte Basin as part of the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program. Reprocessing of these data occurred between September 2017 and May 2018. Exploring for the Future (<a href="https://www.ga.gov.au/eftf/">https://www.ga.gov.au/eftf</a>) was a $100.5 million four-year (2016-20), Australian Government-funded program to provide a holistic picture of the potential mineral, energy and groundwater resources in northern Australia. The program has delivered new geoscience data, knowledge and decision support tools to support increased industry investment and sustainable economic development across the north. Groundwater is a critical resource that accounts for most water used across northern Australia. The groundwater component of the EFTF program focused on addressing groundwater resource knowledge gaps, to support future opportunities for economic development via irrigated agriculture, extractive industries and increased security of community water supplies. Through collaboration with State and Territory partners, the program undertook targeted regional investigations of groundwater systems and assessments of groundwater potential more broadly across the region. The program's activities, implemented by Geoscience Australia, involved application of innovative geoscience tools to collect, integrate and analyse a range of data. It includes geological and hydrogeological data, airborne and ground-based geophysical and hydrogeochemical surveys, remote sensing data as well as stratigraphic drilling. The new data and better understanding of groundwater systems also helps inform decision making about groundwater use to protect environmental and cultural assets. These outcomes strengthen investor confidence in resources and agricultural projects by de-risking groundwater in northern Australia. The package contains reprocessed data from ten surveys acquired between 1980 and 1997. In total 53 lines were reprocessed covering a fold area of approximately 618.9 line kilometres, with the objective to produce a modern industry standard 2D land seismic reflection dataset where possible from a selection of multiple legacy 2D data. The purpose of the reprocessing was twofold: 1) To image the near surface structural and stratigraphic configuration for linking to AEM data that is available in the Bonaparte Basin; and 2) To image the structure and stratigraphic architecture of the Paleozoic Bonaparte Basin. The dataset exhibits significant improvements in stack response in most of the reprocessed lines when final and legacy stacks were compared, especially in the shallow section. Optimum results were obtained from the noise attenuation workflows. A minimum processing flow was applied to BWA80, BWA81, and line BNT87-404 lines to avoid any signal leakage throughout the processing. Final data were delivered as minimum phase (care should be taken not to interpret zero crossings as geological boundaries), and final velocities produced a good match with the well checkshot velocities. The processing report from Down Under Geophysics is available for download with this release. Raw and processed data are available on request from <a href="mailto:clientservices@ga.gov.au&body=Ref: eCat 135578">clientservices@ga.gov.au</a> - Quote eCat# 135578. Processed stack SEG-Y files and ancillary data are available for download from this web page.

The onshore Canning Basin in Western Australia is the focus of a regional hydrocarbon prospectivity assessment being undertaken by the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program, an Australian Government initiative dedicated to increasing investment in resource exploration in northern Australia. This data release provides data from new digital photography, X-ray Computerised Tomography (XCT) scanning, unconfined compressive strength (UCS) testing, laboratory ultrasonic testing, and gas porosity and permeability experiments for six samples from the Geoscience Australia and Geological Survey of Western Australia drilled stratigraphic well Waukarlycarly 1. Additional low permeability tests were undertaken on four samples which were identified as being ultra-tight (permeability <1 µD). These samples were analysed at CSIRO Geomechanics and Geophysics Laboratory in Perth during May and June 2020.