<p>The Exploring for the Future program is an initiative by the Australian Government dedicated to boosting investment in resource exploration in Australia. The four-year program led by Geoscience Australia focusses on northern Australia and parts of South Australia to gather new data and information about the potential mineral, energy and groundwater resources concealed beneath the surface. As part of the Exploring for the Future program, this study aims to improve our understanding of the petroleum resource potential of northern Australia. As a component of this project, collaboration between the Onshore Energy Systems Branch of Geoscience Australia, the Geological Survey of Queensland (GSQ) and Northern Territory Geological Survey (NTGS) is designed to produce pre-competitive information to assist with the evaluation of the petroleum prospectivity of onshore Northern Territory basins. <p>This data release contains X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) data of 600 samples selected from 12 drill cores from the South Nicholson Basin and Isa Superbasin that are housed in GSQ’s Brisbane core repository and NTGS’s Darwin core repository. These samples covered nine formations: the Mesoproterozoic Mullera Formation (n = 11) and Constance Sandstone (n = 91) of the South Nicholson Basin, in addition to the Paleoproterozoic Lawn Hill Formation (n = 210), Doomadgee Formation (n = 34), Termite Range Formation (n = 36), Riversleigh Siltstone (n = 96), Mount Les Siltstone (n = 32), Lady Loretta Formation (n = 3) and the Walford Dolostone (n = 66) of the Isa Superbasin. This data was generated at the Inorganic Geochemistry Laboratory at Geoscience Australia as part of the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program. The results demonstrated that 23 different minerals were identified in the entire region. Out of these minerals there were seven dominant minerals; quartz, kaolinite, microcline, muscovite, dolomite, calcite and siderite. These dominant mineral components were highly variable between all formations analysed in this study, demonstrating the utility of high resolution XRD to determine mineral compositions and variability through sedimentary successions. <p>This publically available dataset is provided in preparation for future work to generate statistics quantifying the spatial distribution and composition of sedimentary rocks, providing information to de-risk resource decision making and investment of northern Australian basins.

<p>In this study, a total of 53 surface outcrop samples were analysed for both inorganic and organic whole-rock geochemistry as part of Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program, a government initiative undertaken by the Australian Government to boost investment in resource exploration and development in northern Australia. The samples were collected during two EFTF funded field seasons conducted in May 2017 (18 samples, GA job number 33004) and May 2018 (35 samples, GA job number 33228). <p>This data release contains the results of elemental analyses including X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), Inductively Coupled Plasma- Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), iron titration (FeO), Loss-On-Ignition (LOI) and Rock-Eval pyrolysis on 53 outcrop samples collected across two seasons of fieldwork in the South Nicholson region. This data release are provided to facilitate establishment of important baseline assessments and whole rock characterisation of regional sedimentary rocks for insight into the resource prospectivity of northern Australian basins. These data was generated at the Geochemistry Laboratories at Geoscience Australia as part of the Exploring for the Future program

NDI Carrara 1 is a deep stratigraphic drill hole (~1751m) completed in 2020 as part of the MinEx CRC National Drilling Initiative (NDI) in collaboration with Geoscience Australia and the Northern Territory Geological Survey. It is the first test of the Carrara Sub-basin, a depocentre newly discovered in the South Nicholson region based on interpretation from seismic surveys (L210 in 2017 and L212 in 2019) recently acquired as part of the Exploring for the Future program. The drill hole intersected approximately 1100 m of Proterozoic sedimentary rocks uncomformably overlain by 630 m of Cambrian Georgina Basin carbonates. This report presents quantitative X-ray diffraction data undertaken by Geoscience Australia on selected rock samples, collected at roughly 4 m intervals.

<div>The Birrindudu Basin is a region of focus for the second phase of the Exploring for the Future program (EFTF; 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.</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, Geoscience Australia, in collaboration with the Northern Territory Geological Survey and CSIRO is acquiring a range of datasets as part of phase two of EFTF. </div><div><br></div><div>This data release presents XRD results from 79 bulk core samples from the Birrindudu and McArthur basins. This report and the associated analyses were conducted by CSIRO, under contract to Geoscience Australia.</div>

<div>As part of the Data Driven Discoveries program, Geoscience Australia and the Geological Survey of Queensland collaborated to re-examine legacy well cuttings for a chemostratigraphic study. The aim was to identify opportunities for resource discovery in the Devonian-aged Adavale Basin in south-central Queensland by conducting a chemostratigraphic study to define regional stratigraphic correlations in a structurally complex basin with limited well penetrations. A total of 1,489 cutting samples were analysed for whole-rock geochemistry, as well as subsets of samples for whole-rock mineralogy and/or carbonate carbon and oxygen isotopes, from a whole-rock sample. The purpose was to establish new chemostratigraphic correlations across the basin independently, using data from 10 wells that sampled the Adavale Basin.</div>