Australia remains underexplored or unexplored, boasting discovery potential in the mineral, groundwater, and energy resources hidden beneath the surface. These “greenfield” areas are key to Australia’s future prosperity and sustainability. Led by Geoscience Australia, Australia’s national government geoscience organisation, the Exploring for the Future program was a groundbreaking mission to map Australia’s mineral, energy, and groundwater systems in unparalleled scale and detail. The program has advanced our understanding of Australia’s untapped potential. Over the course of 8 years, the Exploring for the Future program provided a significant expansion of public, precompetitive geoscience data and information, equipping decision-makers with the knowledge and tools to tackle urgent challenges related to Australia’s resource prosperity, energy security, and groundwater supply.

The Exploring for the Future program Showcase 2024 was held on 13-16 August 2024. Day 4 - 16th August talks included: <b>Session 1 – Deep Dives into the Delamerian</b> <a href="https://youtu.be/09knAwPnD7s?si=acdu6pQgIj7DNlnj">Scaffold to success: An overview of the Delamerian Orogen, and its crustal and lithospheric architecture</a> - Chris Lewis <a href="https://youtu.be/5GQC5f5IkWc?si=rLPqxoZFkxGAEPEf">Only time will tell: Crustal development of the Delamerian Orogen in space and time</a> - David Mole <a href="https://youtu.be/PhdIYE49eqU?si=d7acyv5rbTW_wTiO">Is it a big deal? New mineral potential insights of the Delamerian Orogen</a> - Dr Yanbo Cheng <b>Session 2 – Deep dives into Birrindudu, West Musgrave and South Nicholson–Georgina regions</b> <a href="https://youtu.be/DEbkcgqwLE8?si=sBKGaMTq_mheURib">Northwest Northern Territory Seismic Survey: Resource studies and results</a> - Paul Henson <a href="https://youtu.be/k9vwBa1fM9E?si=VOG19nBC1DAk-jGH">Tracing Ancient Rivers: A hydrogeological investigation of the West Musgrave Region</a> - Joshua Lester <a href="https://youtu.be/Du1JANovz8M?si=1XEOF87gxhSP9UF3">Water's journey: Understanding groundwater dynamics in the South Nicholson and Georgina basins, NT and QLD </a>- Dr Prachi Dixon-Jain <b>Session 3 – Groundwater systems of the Curnamona and upper Darling-Baaka River</b> <a href="https://youtu.be/nU8dpekmEHQ?si=WygIzefKNzsU4gUA">Groundwater systems of the upper Darling-Baaka floodplain: An integrated assessment</a> - Dr Sarah Buckerfield <a href="https://youtu.be/AKOhuDEPxIA?si=ebradAT6EBwHhPQ_">Potential for a Managed Aquifer Recharge Scheme in the upper Darling-Baaka floodplain: Wilcannia region</a> - Dr Kok Piang Tan <a href="https://youtu.be/epUdD8ax2FQ?si=_aMO_e_ZDZESgLOR">Aquifer alchemy: Decoding mineral clues in the Curnamona region</a> - Ivan Schroder Exploring for the Future: Final reflection – Karol Czarnota Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity – Andrew Heap View or download the <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/149800">Exploring for the Future - An overview of Australia’s transformational geoscience program</a> publication. View or download the <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/149743">Exploring for the Future - Australia's transformational geoscience program</a> publication. You can access full session and Q&A recordings from YouTube here: 2024 Showcase Day 4 - Session 1 - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nuIQsl71cY">Deep Dives into the Delamerian</a> 2024 Showcase Day 4 - Session 2 - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N3dIZRAcHk">Deep dives into Birrindudu, West Musgrave and South Nicholson–Georgina regions</a> 2024 Showcase Day 4 - Session 3 - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ddvLAnUdOI">Groundwater systems of the Curnamona and upper Darling-Baaka River</a>

<div>This report presents the results of petrographic and X-ray Diffraction analysis undertaken by Microanalysis Australia under contract to Geoscience Australia, on rock samples collected from selected drill holes across the Proterozoic Birrindudu Basin and underlying metamorphic basement.</div><div><br></div>

<div>The Exploring for the Future program, led by Geoscience Australia, was a $225 million Australian Government investment over 8 years, focused on revealing Australia’s mineral, energy, and groundwater potential by characterising geology.&nbsp;&nbsp;This report provides an overview of activities, results, achievements and impacts from the Exploring for the Future program, with a particular focus on the last four years (2020-2024). &nbsp;</div>

These conductivity grids were generated by gridding the top 22 layers from the airborne electromagnetics (AEM) conductivity models from the Western Resource Corridor AusAEM survey (https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/147688), the Earaheedy and Desert Strip AusAEM survey (https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/145265) and several industry surveys (https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/146278) from the West Musgraves. The grids resolve important subsurface features for assessing the groudnwater system including lithologial boundaires, palaeovalleys and hydrostatigraphy.

This report presents groundwater level information collected during Geoscience Australia’s Musgrave Palaeovalley Project. The Musgrave Palaeovalley Project was conducted as part of Exploring for the Future (EFTF), an Australian Government funded geoscience data and information acquisition program. The eight-year, $225 million program aims to deliver new geoscience data and knowledge to inform decision-making by government, community, and industry on the sustainable development of Australia's mineral, energy, and groundwater resources.</div><div>Groundwater level data was collected during two hydrogeochemical surveys undertaken in March and May 2023 based around the remote communities of Warburton, Kaltukatjara, Wanarn, Blackstone and Jameson in Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Sixteen bores were measured for their groundwater levels. The results are contained herein and within the attached CSV file.

<div>This report presents the rock strength and elastic properties, as tested on selected rock samples from the Birrindudu and McArthur basins. Testing was conducted by CSIRO Energy, under contract to Geoscience Australia. The tests produced parameters including:&nbsp;1) unconfined compressive strength (UCS), 2) stress-strain-time curves for UCS and repeat single-stage triaxial (STXL) experiments, 3) static elastic properties, Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio, and 4) failure envelopes (Mohr circles) for STXL tests. This work was conducted as part of the Exploring for the Future Program.</div>

Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future program provides precompetitive information to inform decision-making by government, community and industry on the sustainable development of Australia's mineral, energy and groundwater resources. By gathering, analysing and interpreting new and existing precompetitive geoscience data and knowledge, we are building a national picture of Australia’s geology and resource potential. The Paleo to Mesoproterozoic Birrindudu Basin is an underexplored frontier basin located in northwestern Northern Territory and northeastern Western Australia. The Birrindudu Basin is a region of focus for the second phase of the EFTF program (2020–2024) as it contains strata of similar age to the prospective McArthur Basin, South Nicholson region and Mount Isa Province, but remains comparatively poorly understood. Geoscience Australia have undertaken (via the service provider, FIT, Schlumberger) stratigraphic reconstructions of bulk volatile chemistry from fluid inclusions from an mineral exploration drillhole LBD2, Birrindudu Basin, located in the northwest Northern Territory This ecat record releases the final report and raw data files (*.LAS) by FIT Schlumberger. Company reference number FI230005a.

<div>Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program provides precompetitive information to inform decision-making by government, community and industry on the sustainable development of Australia's mineral, energy and groundwater resources. By gathering, analysing and interpreting new and existing precompetitive geoscience data and knowledge, we are building a national picture of Australia’s geology and resource potential. This leads to a strong economy, resilient society and sustainable environment for the benefit of all Australians. This includes supporting Australia’s transition to a low emissions economy, strong resources and agriculture sectors, and economic opportunities and social benefits for Australia’s regional and remote communities. The Exploring for the Future program, which commenced in 2016, is an eight year, $225m investment by the Australian Government.</div><div><br></div><div>As part of the program, Geoscience Australia (GA) provides a range of established techniques to capture precompetitive geoscience data across underexplored regions to stimulate industry investment in frontier regions of Australia. The Paleo to Mesoproterozoic Birrindudu Basin is an underexplored frontier basin located in northwestern Northern Territory and northeastern Western Australia. The Birrindudu Basin is a region of focus for the second phase of the EFTF program (2020–2024) as it contains strata of similar age to the prospective McArthur Basin, South Nicholson region and Mount Isa Province, but remains comparatively poorly understood. Furthermore, much of the age of the stratigraphy of the Birrindudu Basin, particularly the younger stratigraphic units, and regional correlations to the greater McArthur Basin remains provisional and speculative. Interpretation of industry seismic data indicates that Proterozoic strata in the western Beetaloo Sub-basin and eastern Birrindudu Basin are continuous in sub-surface.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>In order to provide an improved understanding of the stratigraphy, basin architecture and resource potential of the Birrindudu Basin and surrounding region, GA, in collaboration with the Northern Territory Geological Survey, is acquiring geophysical, geochronological, isotopic, geochemical and geomechanical data as part of phase two of EFTF. The data and results will be released, as they are available, through GA’s eCat Product Catalogue.</div><div><br></div><div>This report presents SHRIMP U-Pb zircon geochronology results on a single igneous sample taken from exploration drillhole LBD2, located in the Birrindudu Basin, intersecting both Paleoproterozoic Limbunya Group and underlying low-grade basement metamorphic rocks.</div>

<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)