This fact sheet sets out the goals, vision and benefits of the Exploring for the Future program, as well as the ways we conduct fieldwork and what the information gathered is used for.

The Exploring for the Future program Showcase 2022 was held on 8-10 August 2022. Day 1 (8th August) included a talk on: - Exploring for the Future - The value of precompetitive geoscience - Dr Andrew Heap Showcase Day 1 https://youtu.be/M9jC_TyovCc

This service delivers the base of Cenozoic surface and Cenozoic thickness grids for the west Musgrave province. The gridded data are a product of 3D palaeovalley modelling based on airborne electromagnetic conductivity, borehole and geological outcrop data, carried out as part of Geoscience Australia's Exploring for the Future programme. The West Musgrave 3D palaeovalley model report and data files are available at https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/149152.

Exploring for the Future is an Australian Government program led by Geoscience Australia that aims to drive investment in the resources and agricultural sectors by providing industry and land and water managers with pre-competitive data about potential mineral, energy and groundwater resources. The Australian Government invested $100 million in the first phase of the Exploring for the Future program in 2016. In June 2020, the Australian Government announced a $125 million extension and expansion of the program, bringing their total investment to $225 million to date. Exploring for the Future is building on Geoscience Australia's deep domain knowledge to generate new science and challenge the frontiers of resource exploration. Eight new projects will include the southern half of the continent, with a focus on two potentially resource-rich corridors that stretch across the country. Unlocking these new resource corridors will provide ongoing economic and employment growth across a wide range of regional areas.

This web service provides access to groundwater raster products for the Upper Burdekin region, including: inferred relative groundwater recharge potential derived from weightings assigned to qualitative estimates of relative permeability based on mapped soil type and surface geology; Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) used to map vegetation with potential access to groundwater in the basalt provinces, and; base surfaces of basalt inferred from sparse available data.

This data release presents regional scale groundwater contours developed for the Upper Burdekin Groundwater Project in North Queensland, 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. The Upper Burdekin Groundwater Project is a collaborative study between Geoscience Australia and the Queensland Government. It focuses on basalt groundwater resources in two geographically separate areas: the Nulla Basalt Province (NBP) in the south and the McBride Basalt Province (MBP) in the north. This data release includes separate, regional-scale groundwater contour datasets for the Nulla and McBride basalt provinces developed by Geoscience Australia in: Cook, S. B. & Ransley, T. R., 2020. Exploring for the Future—Groundwater level interpretations for the McBride and Nulla basalt provinces: Upper Burdekin region, North Queensland. Geoscience Australia, Canberra, https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/135439. As detailed in that document, the groundwater contours were drawn by hand based on: - Groundwater levels from monitoring bores measured mostly on 17 February 2019 following extensive rainfall. - Surface topography. - Surface water features (rivers and springs). - Remote sensing data. The inferred groundwater contours were used in various Upper Burdekin Groundwater Project components to frame hydrogeological discussions. It is important to note that they were drawn following a wet period; groundwater contours are temporally variable and those presented in this data release therefore only represent part of the regional groundwater flow system.

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 web service provides access to datasets produced by the mineral potential assement of iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) mineral systems in the Tennant Creek – Mt Isa region. The mineral potential assessment uses a 2D, GIS-based workflow to qualitatively map four key mineral system components: (1) Sources of metals, fluids and ligands, (2) Energy to drive fluid flow, (3) Fluid flow pathways and architecture, and (4) Deposition mechanisms, such as redox or chemical gradients. For each of these key mineral system components theoretical criteria, representing important ore-forming processes, were identified and translated into mappable proxies using a wide range of input datasets. Each of these criteria are weighted and combined using an established workflow to produce the final map of IOCG potential.

Exploring for the future presentation- The structure and stratigraphy of the South Nicholson region – implications for resource prospectivity; Insight from the EFTF geochronology and deep reflection seismic programs

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.