Authors / CoAuthors
de Caritat, P. | Cooper, M. | Lambert, I.B.
Abstract
In late 2006, the Australian Government announced its Energy Security Initiative, allowing Geoscience Australia to initiate, among others, a major program of onshore activities [1]. An ambitious National Geochemical Survey of Australia (NGSA) project was launched in January 2007 as part of this program because until then Australia lacked a complete geochemical data coverage. Such a dataset informs on the concentrations and distributions of chemical elements in the near-surface environment. Building on methods developed during precursor pilot projects [2], NGSA targets catchment outlet (overbank) sediments as a uniform sampling medium. A shallow and a deeper level are being collected in 1390 catchments covering 91% of the country. Sampling is carried out by State and Northern Territory geoscience agencies following protocols described in a detailed Field Manual [3] and practiced during in-field training; all equipment and consumables are provided centrally. Dry and moist Munsell colours, soil pH, digital photographs and GPS coordinates are recorded in the field. In the laboratory, these transported, fine-grained regolith materials are dried and a split is archived for future use. Electrical conductivity and pH of 1:5 (soil:water) slurries, laser particle size distribution and infrared spectroscopy are measured on the remaining split. This split is further sieved into two grain-size fractions (<2 mm and <75 mm) for analysis by x-ray fluorescence (XRF), inductively-coupled mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) after total digestion (multi-element) as well as after aqua regia digestion (multi-element, including low level gold), and by specialised methods for platinum group elements, fluorine and selenium. As at February 2009, 78% of the samples have been collected and most analyses have been completed for the first 25% of samples. The project will contribute fundamental knowledge to the energy and mineral resources exploration industry by its completion in June 2011. This pre-competitve knowledge, used in combination with other datasets, can reduce exploration cost/risk by helping target more detailed activities. Spin-offs into other applications are also expected.
Product Type
nonGeographicDataset
eCat Id
68595
Contact for the resource
Custodian
Point of contact
Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
ACT
2601
Australia
Keywords
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- External PublicationAbstract
- ( Theme )
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- regolith
- ( Theme )
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- geochemistry
- ( Theme )
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- mineral exploration
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- AU
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
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- Earth Sciences
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- Published_Internal
Publication Date
2009-01-01T00:00:00
Creation Date
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Purpose
Maintenance Information
unknown
Topic Category
geoscientificInformation
Series Information
Lineage
Unknown
Parent Information
Extents
[-44.0, -10.0, 112.0, 154.0]
Reference System
Spatial Resolution
Service Information
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Source data not available.