Airborne Electromagnetic acquisition in uranium mineral provinces

Geoscience Australia (GA) has initiated a program of Airborne Electromagnetic (AEM) acquisition under the Australian Government's Energy Security Initiative (2007 - 2011), to provide new data in geological provinces relevant for uranium exploration. The focus of this acquisition is directed at geologic architecture indicative of unconformity-related and paleochannel-hosted uranium potential. Three regional-scale projects have been established, Paterson, Pine Creek, and Frome Embayment-northwest Murray Basin.


The Paterson project is centred on the Kintyre uranium deposit, and covers much of the surrounding exposed and near surface Proterozoic. Kintyre is hosted by Paleoproterozoic Rudall Complex which is unconformably overlain by Neoproterozoic sediments of the Yeneena Basin. Approximately 28 000 line km of TEMPEST data were acquired at line spacings of between 200 and 6000 m. Preliminary interpretation indicates contrasts in AEM response between outcropping Rudall Complex and formations of the Yeneena Basin. Interpretation of inverted AEM data will seek to map the unconformity in the sub surface. Gamma ray data indicate that the Rudall Complex and regionally extensive ferruginous duricrust contain above background uranium (>7 ppm U). Erosion and weathering of these sources has possibly moved substantial uranium into younger paleovalleys, some of which are evident in the acquired AEM data. These valleys have potential to host sandstone uranium and calcrete uranium deposits.


The Pine Creek project is directed at AEM characterisation of Paleoproterozoic rocks, particularly graphitic units adjacent to Archean granite domes, and tracing these in regions of cover (e.g., the Woolner Granite area). The project will also attempt to map key sub-surface unconformities, and structures that may have controlled mineralisation. Acquisition for Geoscience Australia in the project area is at line spacings of 1.66 km and 5 km. VTEM acquisition in the east over the Pine Creek Orogen and overlying Kombolgie Subgroup has been completed. Acquisition of TEMPEST data farther west should be completed by mid June 09.


The Frome Embayment - Murray Basin project will provide regional AEM data over a large area (80 000 km2) including known paleochannel-type uranium at the Beverley, Four Mile and Honeymoon deposits. Proposed infill flying at 1.66 km will be undertaken over the NW Murray Basin to test whether similar channel settings occur south of high-uranium granites and uranium occurrences in the Olary Province. The infill area also plans to map strand lines of the Murray Basin which may be prospective for thorium rich heavy mineral sands.

Simple

Identification info

Date (Publication)
2009-01-01T00:00:00
Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/68584

Cited responsible party
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Author

Whitaker, A.J.

 1
Point of contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Custodian

MNHD
Owner

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Custodian

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice
Topic category
  • Geoscientific information

Extent

N
S
E
W


Maintenance and update frequency
Unknown

Resource format

Title

Product data repository: Various Formats

Protocol

FILE:DATA-DIRECTORY

Name of the resource

Data Store directory containing the digital product files

Description

Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes

Keywords

  • PowerPoint

Theme

  • AEM

Keywords

  • AU-NT

  • AU-SA

  • AU-WA

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

  • Earth Sciences

Keywords

  • Published_External

Resource constraints

Title

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Alternate title

CC-BY

Edition

4.0

Website

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

Access constraints
License
Use constraints
License

Resource constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified
Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Distribution Information

Distributor contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Distributor

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice
OnLine resource

Download the file (pdf)

Download the file (pdf)

Distribution format

  • pdf

Resource lineage

Statement

Unknown

Hierarchy level
Non geographic dataset
Other

PowerPoint

Description

Source data not available.

Metadata constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/a05f7892-dbfc-7506-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Title

GeoNetwork UUID

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice

Type of resource

Resource scope
Document
Name

nonGeographicDataset

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

Citation identifier
eCatId/68584

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/a05f7892-dbfc-7506-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Date info (Revision)
2018-04-20T06:23:10
Date info (Creation)
2009-02-02T00:00:00

Metadata standard

Title

AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-3

Title

Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014

Edition

Version 2.0, September 2018

Citation identifier
https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551

 
 

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

AEM

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Access to the portal

Associated resources

Not available