<div>Exploring for the Future (EFTF) is an Australian Government program led by Geoscience Australia, in partnership with state and Northern Territory governments, and aimed at stimulating exploration now to ensure a sustainable, long-term future for Australia through an improved understanding of the nation’s minerals, energy and groundwater resource potential. </div><div>The EFTF program is currently focused on eight interrelated projects, united in growing our understanding of subsurface geology. One of these projects, the Barkly–Isa–Georgetown project, will deliver new data and knowledge to assess the mineral and energy potential in undercover regions between Tennant Creek, Mount Isa and Georgetown. Building on the work completed in the first four years of the Exploring for the Future program (2016-2020), the project undertook stratigraphic drilling in the East Tennant and South Nicholson regions, in collaboration with MinEx CRC and the Northern Territory Geological Survey (NTGS). This work tests geological interpretations and the inferred mineral and energy potential of these covered regions. Geoscience Australia is undertaking a range of analyses on physical samples from these drill holes including geochemistry and geochronology. </div><div>The South Nicholson National Drilling Initiative (NDI) Carrara 1 drill hole is the first drillhole to intersect the Proterozoic rocks of the Carrara Sub-Basin, a depocentre newly discovered in the South Nicholson region based on interpretation from seismic surveys acquired as part of the EFTF. It is located on the western flanks of the Carrara Sub-basin on the South Nicholson Seismic line 17GA-SN1, reaching a total depth of 1751 m, intersecting ca. 630 m of Cambrian Georgina Basin overlying ca. 1100 m of Proterozoic carbonates, black shales and minor siliciclastics.</div><div>The NDI BK10 drill hole is the tenth drill hole drilled as part of the East Tennant project aimed to constrain the East Tennant basement geology and calibrate predictive mineral potential maps to further our understanding of the prospectivity of this region. NDI BK10 reached a depth of 766 m and intersected basement at 734 m. Overlying these basement metasediments of the Alroy Formation, the drillhole intersected about 440 m of Proterozoic rocks underlain by ca. 300 m rocks of Cambrian age from the Georgina Basin.</div><div>During coring of NDI Carrara 1 and NDI BK10, cores containing oil stains were identified and sent for geochemical analysis to Geoscience Australia. This report presents the geochemical data from these oil stains including biomarker and isotopic data.</div>

A regional hydrocarbon prospectivity study was undertaken in the onshore Canning Basin in Western Australia as part of the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program, an Australian Government initiative dedicated to driving investment in resource exploration. As part of this program, significant work has been carried out to deliver new pre-competitive data including new seismic acquisition, drilling of a stratigraphic well, and the geochemical analysis of geological samples recovered from exploration wells. A regional, 872 km long 2D seismic line (18GA-KB1) acquired in 2018 by Geoscience Australia (GA) and the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA), images the Kidson Sub-basin of the Canning Basin. In order to provide a test of geological interpretations made from the Kidson seismic survey, a deep stratigraphic well, Barnicarndy 1, was drilled in 2019 in a partnership between Geoscience Australia (GA) and the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA) in the Barnicarndy Graben, 67 km west of Telfer, in the southwest Canning Basin. Drilling recovered about 2100 m of continuous core from 580 mRT to the driller’s total depth (TD) of 2680.53 mRT. An extensive analytical program was carried out to characterise the lithology, age and depositional environment of these sediments. This data release presents organic geochemical analyses undertaken on rock extracts obtained from cores selected from the Barnicarndy 1 well. The molecular and stable isotope data carbon and hydrogen will be used to understand the type of organic matter being preserved, the depositional facies and thermal maturity of the Lower Ordovician sedimentary rocks penetrated in this well. This information provides complementary information to other datasets including organic petrological and palynological studies.

<div>Indicator minerals are those minerals that indicate the presence of a specific mineral deposit, alteration or lithology[1]. Their utility to the exploration industry has been demonstrated in a range of environments and across multiple deposit types including Cu-Au porphyry[2], Cu-Zn-Pb-Ag VMS[3] and Ni-Cu-PGE[4]. Recent developments in the field of SEM-EDS analysis have enabled the rapid quantitative identification of indicator minerals during regional sampling campaigns[4,5].</div><div>Despite the demonstrated utility of indicator minerals for diamond and base metal exploration in Canada, Russia and Africa, there are relatively few case studies published from Australian deposits. We present the results of an indicator mineral case study over the Julimar exploration project located 90 km NE of Perth. The Gonneville Ni-Cu-PGE deposit, discovered by Chalice Mining in 2020, is hosted within a ~30 km long belt of 2670 Ma ultramafic intrusions within the western margin of the Yilgarn Craton[6].</div><div>Stream sediments collected from drainage channels around the Gonneville deposit were analysed by quantitative mineralogy techniques to determine if a unique indicator mineral footprint exists there. Samples were processed and analysed for heavy minerals using a workflow developed for the Curtin University-Geoscience Australia Heavy Mineral Map of Australia project[7]. Results indicate elevated abundances of indicator minerals associated with ultramafic/mafic magmatism and Ni-sulfide mineralisation in the drainages within the Julimar project area, including pyrrhotite, pentlandite, pyrite and chromite. We conclude that indicator mineral studies using automated mineralogy are powerful, yet currently underutilised, tools for mineral exploration in Australian environments.</div><div>[1]McClenaghan, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1144/1467-7873/03-066 </div><div>[2]Hashmi et al., 2015. https://doi.org/10.1144/geochem2014-310 </div><div>[3]Lougheed et al., 2020. https://doi.org/10.3390/min10040310 </div><div>[4]McClenaghan &amp; Cabri, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1144/1467-7873/10-IM-026 </div><div>[5]Porter et al., 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oregeorev.2020.103406 </div><div>[6]Lu et al., 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.35768.47367 </div><div>[7]Caritat et al., 2022. https://doi.org/10.3390/min12080961 </div> This Abstract was submitted/presented to the 2023 Australian Exploration Geoscience Conference 13-18 Mar (https://2023.aegc.com.au/)

The National Geochemical Survey of Australia (<a href="http://www.ga.gov.au/ngsa" title="NGSA website" target="_blank">NGSA</a>) is Australia’s only internally consistent, continental-scale <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/Record.2011.020" title="NGSA geochemical atlas and dataset" target="_blank">geochemical atlas and dataset</a>. The present dataset contains additional mineralogical data obtained on NGSA samples selected from the Darling-Curnamona-Delamerian (<a href="https://www.ga.gov.au/eftf/projects/darling-curnamona-delamerian" title="DCD website" target="_blank">DCD</a>) region of southeastern Australia for the first partial data release of the Heavy Mineral Map of Australia (HMMA) project. The HMMA, a collaborative project between Geoscience Australia and Curtin University underpinned by a pilot project establishing its feasibility, is part of the Australian Government-funded Exploring for the Future (<a href="https://www.ga.gov.au/eftf" title="EFTF website" target="_blank">EFTF</a>) program. The selected 223 NGSA sediment samples fall within the DCD polygon plus an approximately one-degree buffer. The samples were taken on average from 60 to 80 cm depth in floodplain landforms, dried and sieved to a 75-430 µm grainsize fraction, and the contained heavy minerals (HMs; i.e., those with a specific gravity >2.9 g/cm³) were separated by dense fluids and mounted on cylindrical epoxy mounts. After polishing and carbon-coating, the mounts were subjected to automated mineralogical analysis on a TESCAN® Integrated Mineral Analyzer (TIMA). Using scanning electron microscopy and backscatter electron imaging integrated with energy dispersive X-ray analysis, the TIMA identified over 140 different HMs in the DCD area. The dataset, consisting of over 29 million individual mineral grains identified, was quality controlled and validated by an expert team. The data released here can be visualised, explored and downloaded using an online, bespoke mineral network analysis tool (<a href="https://geoscienceaustralia.shinyapps.io/mna4hm/" title="MNA website" target="_blank">MNA</a>) built on a cloud-based platform. Accompanying this report are a data file of TIMA results and a mineralogy vocabulary file. When completed in 2023, it is hoped the HMMA project will positively impact mineral exploration and prospectivity modelling around Australia, as well as have other applications in earth and environmental sciences.

Petroleum geochemical datasets and information are essential to government for evidence-based decision making on natural resources, and to the petroleum industry for de-risking exploration. Geoscience Australia’s newly built Data Discovery Portal (https://portal.ga.gov.au/) enables digital discoverability and accessibility to key petroleum geochemical datasets. The portal’s web map services and web feature services allow download and visualisation of geochemical data for source rocks and petroleum fluids, and deliver a petroleum systems framework for northern Australian basins. The Petroleum Source Rock Analytics Tool enables interrogation of source rock data within boreholes and field sites, and facilitates correlation of these elements of the petroleum system within and between basins. The Petroleum Systems Summary Assessment Tool assists the user to search and query components of the petroleum system(s) identified within a basin. The portal functionality includes customised data searches, and visualisation of data via interactive maps, graphs and geoscientific tools. Integration of the petroleum systems framework with the supporting geochemical data enables the Data Discovery Portal to unlock the value of these datasets by affording the user a one-stop access to interrogate the data. This allows greater efficiency and performance in evaluating the petroleum prospectivity of Australia’s sedimentary basins, facilitating and accelerating decision making around exploration investment to ensure Australia’s future resource wealth <b>Citation:</b> Edwards, D.S., MacFarlane, S.K., Grosjean, E., Buckler, T., Boreham, C.J., Henson, P., Cherukoori, R., Tracey-Patte, T., van der Wielen, S., Ray, J. and Raymond, O., 2020. Australian source rocks, fluids and petroleum systems – a new integrated geoscience data discovery portal for maximising data potential. In: Czarnota, K., Roach, I., Abbott, S., Haynes, M., Kositcin, N., Ray, A. and Slatter, E. (eds.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts, Geoscience Australia, Canberra, 1–4.

Geoscience Australia currently uses two commercial petroleum system modelling software packages, PetroMod https://www.software.slb.com/products/petromod and Zetaware http://www.zetaware.com, to undertake burial and thermal history modelling on wells in Australian sedimentary basins. From the integration of geological (age-based sedimentary packages, uplift and erosional events), petrophysical (porosity, permeability, and thermal conductivity) and thermal (downhole temperature, heat flow, vitrinite reflectance, and Tmax) input data, to name the most significant, a best-fit model of the time-temperature history is generated. Since the transformation of sedimentary organic matter (kerogen) into petroleum (oil and gas) is a chemical reaction, it is governed by chemical kinetics i.e. time and temperature (in the geological setting, pressure is of secondary importance). Thus, the use of chemical kinetics associated with a formation-specific, immature potential source rock (where available) from the basin of interest is considered a better practical approach rather than relying on software kinetic defaults, which are generally based on the chemical kinetics determined experimentally on Northern Hemisphere organic matter types. As part of the Offshore Energy Systems program hydrocarbons from the Lower Cretaceous Eumeralla Formation were selected where available from onshore wells; compositional kinetics (1-, 2-, 4- and 14-component (phase) kinetics) were undertaken by GeoS4, Germany. The phase kinetics approach is outlined in Appendix 1. This report provides the compositional kinetics for potential source rocks from the Lower Cretaceous Otway Group, Otway Basin, Australia. The kinetic data were used in the offshore petroleum system modelling reported in Schenk et al. (2021).

<p>The Roebuck Basin on Australia’s offshore north-western margin is the focus of a regional hydrocarbon prospectivity assessment being undertaken by the North West Margin Energy Studies Section (NWMES). This offshore program is designed to produce pre-competitive information to assist with the evaluation of the hydrocarbon resource potential of the central North West Shelf and attract exploration investment to Australia. <p>The recent oil and gas discoveries at Phoenix South 1 (2014), Roc 1 (2015-16), Roc 2 (2016), Phoenix South 2 (2016), Phoenix South 3 (2018) and Dorado 1 (2018) in the Bedout Sub-basin demonstrate the presence of a petroleum system in Lower Triassic strata. The current study aims to better understand this new petroleum system and establish its extent. <p>As part of this program, TOC and Rock-Eval pyrolysis analyses were undertaken by Geoscience Australia on selected rock samples from the well Roc 2 to establish their hydrocarbon-generating potential and thermal maturity.

The Neoproterozoic to Middle Ordovician sediments of the Officer Basin, Australia are difficult to correlate, in part because biostratigraphic studies of acritarchs and stromatolites are localised, isotopic studies are rare, and seismic models are technically challenged by the occurrence of basaltic and halite prone-sections. Hence, the chemostratigraphic framework presented here provides an independent stratigraphic model for the Neoproterozoic to Middle Ordovician sediments of the Officer Basin. A total of six chemostratigraphic mega-sequences have been geochemically defined and assigned to the stratigraphy; these have been further subdivided into twenty-eight chemostratigraphic sequences. The chemostratigraphic zonation has been established upon elemental changes attributed to provenance and climatic variation which can be used for correlation as they convey regional, rather than local, changes in sedimentation. The elemental data reveals that there is lateral variation within the established lithostratigraphy (e.g., within the members of the Observatory Hill and Hussar formations), which is suggestive of localised sediment source input to different areas of the basin. Presented to the 2022 Central Australian Basins Symposium IV (CABS) 29-30 August (https://agentur.eventsair.com/cabsiv/)

Multi-element geochemical surveys of rocks, soils, stream/lake/floodplain sediments, and regolith are typically carried out at continental, regional and local scales. The chemistry of these materials is defined by their primary mineral assemblages and their subsequent modification by comminution and weathering. Modern geochemical datasets represent a multi-dimensional geochemical space that can be studied using multivariate statistical methods from which patterns reflecting geochemical/geological processes are described (process discovery). These patterns form the basis from which probabilistic predictive maps are created (process validation). Processing geochemical survey data requires a systematic approach to effectively interpret the multi-dimensional data in a meaningful way. Problems that are typically associated with geochemical data include closure, missing values, censoring, merging, levelling different datasets, and adequate spatial sample design. Recent developments in advanced multivariate analytics, geospatial analysis and mapping provide an effective framework to analyze and interpret geochemical datasets. Geochemical and geological processes can often be recognized through the use of data discovery procedures such as the application of principal component analysis. Classification and predictive procedures can be used to confirm lithological variability, alteration, and mineralization. Geochemical survey data of lake/till sediments from Canada and of floodplain sediments from Australia show that predictive maps of bedrock and regolith processes can be generated. Upscaling a multivariate statistics-based prospectivity analysis for arc related Cu-Au mineralization from a regional survey in the southern Thomson Orogen in Australia to the continental scale, reveals a number of regions with similar (or stronger) multivariate response and hence potentially similar (or higher) mineral potential throughout Australia. <b>Citation:</b> E. C. Grunsky, P. de Caritat; State-of-the-art analysis of geochemical data for mineral exploration. <i>Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis</i> 2019; 20 (2): 217–232. doi: https://doi.org/10.1144/geochem2019-031 This article appears in multiple journals (Lyell Collection & GeoScienceWorld)

We describe a vision for a national-scale heavy mineral (HM) map generated through automated mineralogical identification and quantification of HMs contained in floodplain sediments from large catchments covering most of Australia. The composition of the sediments reflects the dominant rock types in each catchment, with the generally resistant HMs largely preserving the mineralogical fingerprint of their host protoliths through the weathering-transport-deposition cycle. Heavy mineral presence/absence, absolute and relative abundance, and co-occurrence are metrics useful to map, discover and interpret catchment lithotype(s), geodynamic setting, magmatism, metamorphic grade, alteration and/or mineralization. Underpinning this vision is a pilot project, focusing on a subset from the national sediment sample archive, which is used to demonstrate the feasibility of the larger, national-scale project. We preview a bespoke, cloud-based mineral network analysis (MNA) tool to visualize, explore and discover relationships between HMs as well as between them and geological settings or mineral deposits. We envisage that the Heavy Mineral Map of Australia and MNA tool will contribute significantly to mineral prospectivity analysis and modeling, particularly for technology critical elements and their host minerals, which are central to the global economy transitioning to a more sustainable, lower carbon energy model. The full, peer-reviewed article can be found here: Caritat, P. de, McInnes, B.I.A., Walker, A.T., Bastrakov, E., Rowins, S.M., Prent, A.M. 2022. The Heavy Mineral Map of Australia: vision and pilot project. Minerals, 12(8), 961, https://doi.org/10.3390/min12080961