<div>The National Geochemical Survey of Australia (NGSA) is Australia’s only internally consistent, continental-scale geochemical atlas and dataset. The present dataset contains additional mineralogical data obtained on NGSA samples selected from the Barkly-Isa-Georgetown (BIG) region of northeastern Australia for the second partial data release of the Heavy Mineral Map of Australia (HMMA) project. The HMMA project, a collaborative project between Geoscience Australia and Curtin University underpinned by a pilot project establishing its feasibility, is part of the Australian Government-funded Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program.</div><div>One-hundred and eighty eight NGSA sediment samples were selected from the HMMA project within the EFTF’s BIG polygon plus an approximately one-degree buffer. The samples were taken on average from 60 to 80 cm depth in floodplain landforms, dried and sieved to a 75-430 µm grainsize fraction, and the contained heavy minerals (HMs; i.e., those with a specific gravity > 2.9 g/cm3) were separated by dense fluids and mounted on cylindrical epoxy mounts. After polishing and carbon-coating, the mounts were subjected to automated mineralogical analysis on a TESCAN® Integrated Mineral Analyzer (TIMA). Using scanning electron microscopy and backscatter electron imaging integrated with energy dispersive X-ray analysis, the TIMA identified 151 different HMs in the BIG area. The dataset, consisting of over 18 million individual mineral grains, was quality controlled and validated by an expert team. The data released here can be visualised, explored and downloaded using an online, bespoke mineral network analysis (MNA) tool built on a cloud-based platform. Preliminary analysis suggests that copper minerals cuprite and chalcopyrite may be indicative of base-metal/copper mineralisation in the area. Accompanying this report are two data files of TIMA results, and a minerals vocabulary file. </div><div>When completed in 2023, it is hoped the HMMA project will positively impact mineral exploration and prospectivity modelling around Australia, as well as have other applications in earth and environmental sciences.</div>

<div>The Petroleum Systems Summary database stores the compilation of the current understanding of petroleum systems information by basin across Australia. The Petroleum Systems Summary database and delivery tool provide high-level information of the current understanding of key petroleum systems for areas of interest. For example, geological studies in the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program have included the Canning, McArthur and South Nicholson basins (Carr et al., 2016; Hashimoto et al., 2018). The database and tool aim to 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. Standardisation of petroleum systems nomenclature establishes a framework for each basin after Bradshaw (1993) and Bradshaw et al. (1994), with the source-reservoir naming conventions adopted from Magoon and Dow (1994).&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>The resource is accessible via the Geoscience Australia Portal&nbsp;(https://portal.ga.gov.au/) via the Petroleum Systems Summary Tool (Edwards et al., 2020).</div>

<div>Disruptions to the global supply chains of critical raw materials (CRM) have the potential to delay or increase the cost of the renewable energy transition. However, for some CRM, the primary drivers of these supply chain disruptions are likely to be issues related to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) rather than geological scarcity. Herein we combine public geospatial data as mappable proxies for key ESG indicators (e.g., conservation, biodiversity, freshwater, energy, waste, land use, human development, health and safety, and governance) and a global dataset of news events to train and validate three models for predicting “conflict” events (e.g., disputes, protests, violence) that can negatively impact CRM supply chains: (1) a knowledge-driven fuzzy logic model that yields an area under the curve (AUC) for the receiver operating characteristics plot of 0.72 for the entire model; (2) a naïve Bayes model that yields an AUC of 0.81 for the test set; and (3) a deep learning model comprising stacked autoencoders and a feed-forward artificial neural network that yields an AUC of 0.91 for the test set. The high AUC of the deep learning model demonstrates that public geospatial data can accurately predict natural resources conflicts, but we show that machine learning results are biased by proxies for population density and likely underestimate the potential for conflict in remote areas. Knowledge-driven methods are the least impacted by population bias and are used to calculate an ESG rating that is then applied to a global dataset of lithium occurrences as a case study. We demonstrate that giant lithium brine deposits (i.e., >10&nbsp;Mt Li2O) are restricted to regions with higher spatially situated risks relative to a subset of smaller pegmatite-hosted deposits that yield higher ESG ratings (i.e., lower risk). Our results reveal trade-offs between the sources of lithium, resource size, and spatially situated risks. We suggest that this type of geospatial ESG rating is broadly applicable to other CRM and that mapping spatially situated risks prior to mineral exploration has the potential to improve ESG outcomes and government policies that strengthen supply chains. <b>Citation:</b> Haynes M, Chudasama B, Goodenough K, Eerola T, Golev A, Zhang SE, Park J and Lèbre E (2024) Geospatial Data and Deep Learning Expose ESG Risks to Critical Raw Materials Supply: The Case of Lithium. <i>Earth Sci. Syst. Soc. </i>4:10109. doi: 10.3389/esss.2024.10109

<div>A regional hydrocarbon prospectivity assessment has been undertaken of the offshore Otway Basin by the Offshore Energy Systems Section. This program was designed to produce pre-competitive information to assist with the evaluation of the hydrocarbon resource potential of the offshore Otway Basin and attract exploration investment to Australia. The inboard part of the basin is an established hydrocarbon province with onshore and shallow-water offshore discoveries, whereas the outboard deep-water region, where water depths range from 500 to 6300&nbsp;m, is comparatively underexplored and considered a frontier area.</div><div><br></div><div>As part of this program, molecular and noble gas isotopic analyses were undertaken by Smart Gas Sciences, under contract to Geoscience Australia on available gas samples from the Waarre Formation in the Shipwreck Trough in the offshore eastern Otway Basin, with data from these analyses being released in this report. This report provides additional compositional information for gases in the Waarre Formation reservoirs and builds on previously established gas-gas correlations and gas-oil correlations. Noble gas isotopic data can be used in conjunction with carbon and hydrogen isotopic data to determine the origin of both inorganic and organic (hydrocarbon) gases. This information can be used in future geological programs to determine the source and distribution of hydrogen and helium in natural gases and support acreage releases by the Australian Government.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>

Herein the results of a global compilation of rare earth element (REE) deposits (available in Excel format) are presented. The deposits were selected as they have substantial endowment (i.e., pre-mining mineral resource) and/or detailed geological information is available. For each deposit (or, in some cases, district) the dataset includes information on: 1. Name (including synonyms) and location; 2. Tectonic province that hosts the deposit; 3. Type(s) and age(s) of mineralising events that produced/affected the deposit (including metadata on ages); 4. The metal/mineral endowment of the deposit; 5. Host rocks to the deposit; 6. Spatially and/or temporally associated magmatic rocks; 7. Spatially and temporally associated alteration assemblages (mostly proximal, but, in some cases, regional assemblages); 8. Rare earth element mineralogy; 9. The Fe-S-O minerals present in the deposit and relative abundances where known; 10. Sulfate minerals present; 11. Peak metamorphic grade; 12. Data sources; and 13. Comments. This document presents more detailed descriptions of the metadata presented in the compilation. The dataset is presented in Appendix A.

<div>Critical minerals are the minerals and elements essential for modern technologies, economies and national security. However, the supply chains of these minerals may be vulnerable to disruption thereby making the study of these minerals, from source to product, of primary importance. </div><div><br></div><div>The global transition to net-zero emissions is driving accelerated consumption of critical minerals, particularly driven by the increase in demand for technologies such as solar photovoltaics (PV) and semiconductors (Department of Industry, Science and Resources [DISR], 2022; 2023). In parallel, the phasing out of, for example, traditional machinery and manufacturing processes reliant on hydrocarbon resources (Ali et al., 2017; Bruce et al., 2021; International Energy Agency [IEA], 2021; 2023; Skirrow et al., 2013) is further adding to the global demand. High Purity Quartz (HPQ) forms just one of these critical minerals, and is the primary raw material for the production of High Purity Silica (HPS) and Silicon (Si) for use in products ranging from solar PVs to semiconductors. </div><div><br></div><div>The current list of minerals classified as critical is now up to 31 (Department of Industry, Science and Resources [DISR], 2022; 2023). This diversity of critical minerals is also promoting a new focus on the exploration for i) new styles of mineralisation that might host sufficient volumes of critical minerals, and ii) a re-examination of existing minerals systems knowledge in order to help mineral explorers make new discoveries to help support the increasing demand. </div><div><br></div><div>At present, the main global suppliers of HPQ are the United States, Canada, Norway, Brazil, Russia and India (Pan et al., 2022). In Australia, there has been a paucity of exploration and development of HPQ mineral deposits and, despite the potential that Australia holds for the exploration and discovery of potentially significant HPQ occurrences, Simcoa Operations Pty Ltd. (Figure 1) represents the only operator currently mining HPQ, and the only manufacturer of high purity silicon in Australia (Simcoa, 2020). </div><div><br></div><div>Australia is well-positioned to incentivise the exploration, discovery and supply of raw materials, and significantly expand onshore silicon production capacity (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2022). Research presented here highlights the opportunity that Australia has in making a positive contribution to meeting the global demand for HPQ required for high-technology applications and the transition to a net zero economy.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div>Abstract presented at the 2024 Annual Geoscience Exploration Seminar (AGES)

<div>As a resource to enhance exploration in the offshore Otway Basin, Geoscience Australia (GA) has produced a new well folio that extends the scope of a previous release by including 32 key wells from the central and southeast regions. This folio covers the areas from Normanby 1 on the Normanby Terrace, through the Shipwreck Trough and Nelson Sub-basin, to Whelk 1 in the south. The previous well composites included wireline logs for petrophysical analysis, interpreted lithology, organic geochemistry and organic petrology data, and well markers. This folio includes all of these attributes with the addition of core-based depositional environment (DE) and gross depositional environment (GDE) interval interpretations which were subsequently used to constrain wireline interpretation away from core control. The core/wireline lithological interpretation along with further seismic and biostratigraphic data informed well marker locations and enabled a better regional correlation across the basin. The folio provides the complementary datasets used to construct each well composite. Presented at the Australian Energy Producers (AEP) Conference & Exhibition (https://energyproducersconference.au/conference/)

<div><strong>Conclusions</strong>&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>The NW NT Seismic Survey (L214) was designed to image the underexplored Proterozoic Birrindudu Basin and adjacent regions, including the highly prospective Tanami region. In an area of very limited seismic coverage, the acquisition of ~900km of deep crustal seismic data has vastly improved the seismic coverage through this region. &nbsp;The new dataset will be available as both raw and processed data files from the Geoscience Australia website in the future.</div><div><br></div>Abstract presented at the 2024 Annual Geoscience Exploration Seminar (AGES)

<div>This study was commissioned by Geoscience Australia (GA) to produce a report on seal capacity of select samples from the deep stratigraphic hole NDI Carrara 1, located in the Proterozoic Carrara Sub-basin in the Northern Territory. Plugs were taken from depths of interest and analysed via mercury injection capillary pressure testing. Results were provided as two reports, Part A and Part B and demonstrate that the analysed samples are capable of sealing very large columns of both methane and carbon dioxide.</div>

<div>The architecture of the lithosphere controls the distribution of thermal, compositional and rheological interfaces. It therefore plays a fundamental role in modulating key ore-forming processes including the generation, transport, fractionation, and contamination of melts.&nbsp;Recognition of its importance has led to renewed efforts in recent years to incorporate constraints on lithospheric structure into the targeting of prospective regions for mineral exploration. One example is a suggested relationship between the genesis of porphyry copper deposits – known to be associated with evolved, silica-rich magmas – and the thickness of the crust.&nbsp;Here, using a new compilation of spot measurements, we explore the utility of crustal thickness as an exploration tool for porphyry copper deposits.</div> This Abstract was submitted & presented at the 2022 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting 12-16 December (https://www.agu.org/Fall-Meeting-2022)