1954
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Details and results are given of a seismic refraction survey made at the request of the Hydro-Electric Commission of Tasmania, to investigate the proposed site for a power station with penstock lines and tail race. The power station is part of the Wayatinah "A" project. The object of the survey was to determine the thickness of the alluvial gravel formation on the river flat, the weathered section of the sandstone and the dolerite, and to indicate the presence of shear zones. Three traverses parallel to the proposed penstock line, and 100 feet apart, and three cross traverses were surveyed in January and February, 1954. After completion of the original survey two additional traverses were surveyed on the location chosen for the power station, penstock lines and tail race site.
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Operations of the Radioactive Section have been restricted during this quarter due to the "wet" season and lack of staff. Drilling operations at the Ella Creek Prospect were completed and operations commenced at the Edith River Prospect. No encouraging results were disclosed at either prospect. Other work has been limited to inspection of reported new discoveries and geophysical work in the Rum Jungle area.
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During the 1953 field season geochemical prospecting techniques were employed as an additional tool in the search for ore deposits in the Northern Territory. Areas of particular interest were those at which radio-active minerals had already been discovered or at which radiometric anomalies were being investigated. The work thus included the already proved Rum Jungle field as well as the new prospects at Brodribb, Waterhouse, Edith River, and Coronation Hill. A direct chemical test for uranium in soils was not used, the discovery of the radio-active areas being left to the sensitive ratemeters now in use. The close association between copper and uranium was used to advantage as it is present at many of the uranium prospects in the Northern Territory. It is a logical step to use the geochemical techniques to locate new copper mineralization, and then to carry investigations further by attempting to locate uranium in the vicinity of the copper, particularly in areas covered by deep soils where ratemeters are of no use. A field test for cobalt, a metal often closely associated with both copper and uranium, was developed, but of the many samples tested for this element only one gave a positive test. It is possible that the cobalt, an element which is extremely mobile in the oxidized zone, has been completely leached and dispersed from the radio-active minerals.
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The reconnaissance field work of Reeves (1949) had apparently established that all the sedimentary rocks in the vicinity of Gregory's Salt Sea and along the upper reaches of Sturt Creek (Mt Bannerman, Mt. Muller) belong to the Permian System. However, while there can be no doubt that Permian rocks are present in this area, it is now equally certain that, in places, they form only a thin veneer over older Palaeozoic beds. This discovery is the result of a study of some specimens in the collection of fossils made by Reeves and his colleagues on behalf of the Vacuum Oil Company in 1948. The collection was presented to the Geology Department, University of Melbourne, by the Vacuum Oil Company. C. Teichert had originally examined the material, and a list of the fossils identified by him is found as an appendix in Reeves' report (1949). The critical specimen (No. 556 of Reeves' collection) is 9 miles from the Pallotine Mission on a bearing of 80 degrees, near Gregory's Salt Sea. In Teichert's list it appears as "Lepidodendron? impression". After the departure to America of C. Teichert the junior author of this report, while sorting out specimens belonging to the University from those that belong to the Bureau of Mineral Resources, noticed that specimen No. 556 looked somewhat different from the common types of plant remains he knew from Carboniferous and Permian rocks of the Carnarvon Basin area. Not being familiar with the identification of plant fossils he then consulted the senior author.
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A review of volcanic activity in the Territory of Papua-New Guinea, and the Solomon and New Hebrides Islands, 1951-53. Observations are recorded for each of the individual localities under review.
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This report is an account of geological and geophysical investigations of the Burrundie Radioactive Prospect, which is located three and a half miles west-south-west of Burrundie Siding on the North Australian Railway.
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The results of the first detailed survey of the Cotter River and Uriarra Area are recorded. This work was undertaken to provide a detailed geological map of the Cotter River Uriarra area. Certain problems arising from a previous regional survey of the area were investigated in detail. These were: (a) determination of the nature and extent of the Cotter "porphyry"; (b) division of "undifferentiated" Silurian lavas, tuffs and porphyries into units; (c) the location of the continuation of the Murrumbidgee Fault, if present, in the lower Cotter River area.
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A geophysical survey, comprising self-potential and electromagnetic methods, was made during the 1952 and 1953 field seasons at the Labour Victory Copper Mine, about 7 miles north-north-west of the Mt. Elliott Copper Mine, near Selwyn, Northern Queensland. The self-potential survey covered an area of 2,400 feet x 900 feet, but owing to other operational commitments during the 1953 season, the electromagnetic survey was confined to the southern part of the area. The primary object of the work was to determine the extent of the mineralisation associated with the known lode, which strikes north-south through the centre of the surveyed area. The self-potential survey revealed a well-defined anomaly nearly 1,000 feet long, in the northern part of the area. The axis of this anomaly is parallel to, but about 75 feet west of, the known lode. The disused main shaft of the now idle mine is at the southern end of the anomaly, which in this vicinity deviates slightly towards the south-east, i.e. towards the known lode. No workings exist in the area of the indication, and no outcrops were found, the rock formations being hidden for the most part by alluvium. The electromagnetic results confirmed those of the self-potential survey, but the electromagnetic indication extends farther to the south. The results suggest that the indication may be caused by lenticular bodies and that these are disturbed by cross faults. No mineralised deposits were indicated by the electrical results in the southern part of the area. It is recommended that some trenching and geological and geochemical work be done in the area of the strong electrical indication. If the results of the testing show that the indication is not due to graphitic or pyritic schists, it is recommended that a number of diamond drill holes be put down. Suggested locations for five such drill holes are given. If the anomaly is due to ore the geophysical results suggest an ore body of considerable size.
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Legacy product - no abstract available
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The earliest recorded geological work on the area covered by the Minilya four-mile sheet was that of Woodward (1907) who examined the country north of the Minilya River and noted the limestone on the west flank of the Giralia anticline. In 1909 A. Gibb Maitland described the Carboniferous and Permian succession in the area drained by the Gascoyne, Lyons, Minilya and Lyndon Rivers, but referred the whole sequence to the Carboniferous. Geologists of Oil Search Ltd., under D. Dale Condit, examined the Carnarvon Basin in 1932, 1934 and 1935. Raggatt (1936) described the stratigraphy of the Permian in some detail and subdivided the Cretaceous sequence. Raggatt and Fletcher (1937) examined the fauna of the Permian of the Carnarvon Basin. Teichert did detailed stratigraphic work in the Wandagee area from 1938 to 1940. Geologists of the Bureau of Mineral Resources mapped the Minilya Sheet from 1948 to 1951, using R.A.A.F. aerial photographs. The present sheet is entirely the result of the mapping of the Bureau geologists although much of the stratigraphic nomenclature is adapted from Raggatt's and Teichert's work.