Strontium isotopes (87Sr/86Sr) are useful in the earth sciences (e.g., recognising geological provinces, studying geological processes) as well in archaeological (e.g., informing on past human migrations), palaeontological/ecological (e.g., investigating extinct and extant taxa’s dietary range and migrations) and forensic (e.g., validating the origin of drinks and foodstuffs) sciences. Recently, Geoscience Australia and the University of Wollongong have teamed up to determine 87Sr/86Sr ratios in fluvial sediments selected from the low-density National Geochemical Survey of Australia (www.ga.gov.au/ngsa). The initial study targeted the northern parts of the Northern Territory and Queensland in Australia. The samples were taken from a depth of ~60-80 cm depth in floodplain deposits at or near the outlet of large catchments (drainage basins). A coarse grain-size fraction (<2 mm) was air-dried, sieved, milled then digested (hydrofluoric acid + nitric acid followed by aqua regia) to release total strontium. Preliminary results demonstrate a wide range of strontium isotopic values (0.7048 < 87Sr/86Sr < 1.0330) over the survey area, reflecting a large diversity of source rock lithologies, geological processes and bedrock ages. Spatial distribution of 87Sr/86Sr shows coherent (multi-point anomalies and gradients), large-scale (>100 km) patterns that appears to be consistent, in many places, with surface geology, regolith/soil type and/or nearby outcropping bedrock. For instance, the extensive black clay soils of the Barkly Tableland define a >500 km-long northwest-southeast trending low anomaly (87Sr/86Sr < 0.7182). Where carbonate or mafic igneous rocks dominate, a low to moderate strontium isotope signature is observed. In proximity to the outcropping Proterozoic metamorphic provinces of the Tennant, McArthur, Murphy and Mount Isa geological regions, high 87Sr/86Sr values (> 0.7655) are observed. A potential link between mineralisation and elevated 87Sr/86Sr values in these regions needs to be investigated in greater detail. Our results to-date indicate that incorporating soil/regolith strontium isotopes in regional, exploratory geoscience investigations can help identify basement rock types under (shallow) cover, constrain surface processes (e.g., weathering, dispersion), and, potentially, recognise components of mineral systems. Furthermore, the resulting strontium isoscape can also be utilised in archaeological, paleontological and ecological studies that aim to investigate past and modern animal (including humans) dietary habits and migrations.

Internationally, the number of carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects has been increasing with more than 61 new CCS facilities added to operations around the globe in 2022, including six projects in Australia (GCCSI, 2022). The extraction of reservoir fluid will be an essential component of the CCS workflow for some of projects in order to manage reservoir pressure variations and optimise the subsurface storage space. While we refer to reservoir fluid as brine throughout this paper for simplicity, reservoir fluids can range from brackish to more saline (briny) water. Brine management requires early planning, as it has implications for the project design and cost, and can even unlock new geological storage space in optimal locations. Beneficial use and disposal options for brine produced as a result of carbon dioxide (CO2) storage has been considered at a regional or national scale around the world, but not yet in Australia. For example, it may be possible to harvest energy, water, and mineral resources from extracted brine. Here, we consider how experiences in brine management across other Australian industries can be transferred to domestic CCS projects.

The Exploring for the Future program Showcase 2023 was held on 15-17 August 2023. Day 2 - 16th August talks included: Highways to Discovery and Understanding Session AusAEM - Unraveling Australia's Landscape with Airborne Electromagnetics – Dr Yusen Ley Cooper Exploring for the Future Data Discovery Portal: A scenic tour – Simon van der Wielen Towards equitable access to regional geoscience information– Dr Kathryn Waltenberg Community engagement and geoscience knowledge sharing: towards inclusive national data and knowledge provision – Dr Meredith Orr Foundational Geoscience Session The power of national scale geological mapping – Dr Eloise Beyer New surface mineralogical and geochemical maps of Australia – Dr Patrice de Caritat Imaging Australia’s Lithospheric Architecture – Dr Babak Hejrani Metallogenic Potential of the Delamerian Margin– Dr Yanbo Cheng You can access the recording of the talks from YouTube here: <a href="https://youtu.be/ZPp2sv2nuXI">2023 Showcase Day 2 - Part 1</a> <a href="https://youtu.be/dvqP8Z5yVtY">2023 Showcase Day 2 - Part 2</a>

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. This leads to a strong economy, resilient society and sustainable environment for the benefit of all Australians. This includes supporting Australia’s transition to net zero emissions, strong, sustainable 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. The name ‘Birrindudu Basin’ was first introduced by Blake et al. (1975) and Sweet (1977) for a succession of clastic sedimentary rocks and carbonates, originally considered to be Paleoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic in age, and overlain by the Neoproterozoic Victoria Basin (Dunster et al., 2000), formerly known as the Victoria River Basin (see Sweet, 1977).

The Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program is an Australian government initiative to boost investment in resource exploration and development in Australia, and is committed to supporting a strong economy, resilient society and sustainable environment for the benefit of Australians. There are a number of interrelated projects within the EFTF, including the Australia’s Resources Framework (ARF) project. The latter is a continental-scale project aimed at laying the foundations for a national view of Australia’s surface and subsurface geology, to underpin our understanding of the continent’s mineral, energy and groundwater potential. The ARF project involves new, large-scale data acquisition, advances in big data analytics and tailored resource assessments, to support the resource sector, agriculture, remote communities and the environment, and contribute to community safety. As part of ARF, Geoscience Australia has been undertaking studies of Australian basins that are prospective for, or have potential for, basin-hosted base metal mineral systems (Pb-Zn, Co-Cu), as part of the basins module. The first component of this module (2016-2020) investigated the Paleoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic greater McArthur Basin system, Northern Territory and western Queensland (Champion et al., 2020 a, b, c; Huston et al. 2020). The 2020-2024 module is focusing on the Neoproterozoic part of the Stuart Shelf region of the Adelaide Superbasin, South Australia. The Paleo- to Mesoproterozoic sedimentary and volcanic sequences of the Mount Isa–McArthur Basin region of Northern Territory and Queensland are host to a range of world class mineral deposits (Hutton et al., 2012) and include the basin-hosted base metal deposits of the North Australian Zinc Belt, the world’s richest belt of zinc deposits (Huston et al., 2006; Large et al., 2005). These syngenetic (and epigenetic) basin-hosted mineral deposits include McArthur River (formerly HYC) and Century lead-zinc (Pb-Zn) deposits, the Walford Creek Zn-Pb-Cu-Ag deposit (Rohrlach et al., 1998; Large et al., 2005; Hutton et al. 2012) and the Redbank Cu deposit (Knutson et al. 1979). The Neoproterozoic sedimentary sequences of the Stuart Shelf, and their continuation into the Torrens Hinge Zone and Adelaide Rift Complex (Adelaide Superbasin), South Australia, are host to, or form an integral part of, a number of, often historically important, deposits, including the first copper mining region in Australia. These include, amongst others, the Kapunda, Mt Gunson, Cattle Grid, MG14, Windabout, Myall Creek, and Emmie Bluff copper deposits (Lambert et al. 1980, 1984, 1985 1987; Knutson et al. 1983; Coda Minerals 2020, 2021). These deposits are hosted within the Neoproterozoic sediments or along the basal unconformity with older Mesoproterozoic clastic sedimentary rocks (Lambert et al. 1987). This report contains reanalysed geochemical data, and associated sample metadata, for legacy samples collected by the Baas Becking laboratories in the 1970’s from deposits and surrounds in the MacArthur Basin and Stuart Shelf region. This includes samples (mafic igneous rocks, mineralised samples and sedimentary rocks) from the Redbank Cu deposit and surrounds in the McArthur Basin, partly documented in Knutson et al. (1979); samples (sediments, mafic igneous rocks including basement volcanic units (Gawler Range Volcanics), and mineralised samples) from the Mt Gunson deposit and surrounds (Mt Gunson-Lake Dutton area) documented in Knutson et al. (1983, 1992); and a small subset of five samples (sediments, variably mineralised) from the Myall Creek prospect, documented in Lambert et al. (1984). The great majority of these samples are from drill core, with the full list of samples analyses and metadata listed in Appendix A and summarised in Table 1. This data release also includes 52 samples from the Killi Killi Hills regions and surrounds, Tanami, Northern Territory (jobno 9004424), collected by the NTGS and GA, and originally analysed, in the early 1990’s and early 2000’s. These samples included a subset of P2O5-Sr-HREE-enriched Gardiner Sandstone samples from the Killi Killi Hills prospect. These samples are not directly related to the basins project but have been included as they were analysed at the same time as the Stuart Shelf and Redbank samples, and they increase the number of samples and the range of rock types analysed, and so help with statistics for QA/QC purposes. All geochemical data are provided in the appendices, listed by batch. The data can be downloaded via the Geoscience Australia EFTF portal (https://portal.ga.gov.au/persona/eftf).

As part of the Exploring For the Future program 2022 showcase, Geoscience Australia (GA) in collaboration with the Australian Institute of Geoscientists held an Airborne Electromagnetics (AEM) workshop in Perth on 11th August 2022. The workshop comprised the following: - An introduction to GA's 20 km spaced continent-wide AusAEM program, by Karol Czarnota - How the Western Australia government has successfully used 20 km spaced AEM data, by Klaus Gessner - An introduction to AEM, surveying, and quality control given by Yusen Ley-Cooper - An introduction to inverse theory presented by Anandaroop Ray - Hands-on AEM modeling and inversion using HiQGA.jl by Anandaroop Ray - Integrating geophysics and geology in subsurface interpretation, by Sebastian Wong - Avoiding the 10 most common pitfalls in AEM interpretation according to Neil Symington YouTube video from the workshop, as well as data and code to follow along with the videos can be found on GA's GitHub at <a href=https://github.com/GeoscienceAustralia/HiQGA.jl/tree/workshop><u>this link.</u></a>

The Exploring for the Future program Showcase 2023 was held on 15-17 August 2023. Day 3 - 17th August talks included: Geological Processes and Resources Session Large scale hydrogen storage: The role of salt caverns in Australia’s transition to net zero – Dr Andrew Feitz Basin-Hosted Base Metal Deposits – Dr Evgeniy Bastrakov Upper Darling Floodplain: Groundwater dependent ecosystem assessment – Dr Sarah Buckerfield Atlas of Australian Mine Waste: Waste not, want not – Jane Thorne Resource Potential Theme National-scale mineral potential assessments: supporting mineral exploration in the transition to net zero – Dr Arianne Ford Australia’s Onshore Basin Inventories: Energy – Tehani Palu Prioritising regional groundwater assessments using the national hydrogeological inventory – Dr Steven Lewis Assessing the energy resources potential in underexplored regions – Dr Barry Bradshaw You can access the recording of the talks from YouTube here: <a href="https://youtu.be/pc0a7ArOtN4">2023 Showcase Day 3 - Part 1</a> <a href="https://youtu.be/vpjoVYIjteA">2023 Showcase Day 3 - Part 2</a>

Exploring for the Future (EFTF) is a multiyear (2016–2024) initiative of the Australian Government, conducted by Geoscience Australia. This program aims to improve Australia’s desirability for industry investment in resource exploration of frontier regions across Australia. This paper will focus on the science impacts from the EFTF program in northern Australia derived from the acquisition and interpretation of seismic surveys, the drilling of the NDI Carrara 1 and also complementary scientific analysis and interpretation to determine the resource potential of the region. This work was undertaken in collaboration with the Northern Territory Geological Survey, the Queensland Geological Survey, AuScope and the MinEx CRC. These new data link the highly prospective resource rich areas of the McArthur Basin and Mt Isa Province via a continuous seismic traverse across central northern Australia. The Exploring for the Future program aims to further de-risk exploration within greenfield regions and position northern Australia for future exploration investment. [Carr] The Sherbrook Supersequence is the youngest of four Cretaceous supersequences in the Otway Basin and was deposited during a phase of crustal extension. This presentation shows how a basin-scale gross depositional environment (GDE) map for the Sherbrook SS was constructed, the significance of the map for the Austral 3 petroleum system, and why GDE mapping is important for pre-competitive basin studies at Geoscience Australia. [Abbott]

Short abstract: The Delamerian Orogen is spatially and temporally extensive, covering five states in central and eastern Australia. The orogen records the transition from Proterozoic Australia to the Phanerozoic Tasmanides, starting with rifting of the Rodinian supercontinent and transition to a passive margin from ca. 830 to 530 Ma, then developing as a convergent eastern Gondwanan margin from ca. 530 Ma that was terminated by the mid-to-late Cambrian Delamerian Orogeny. The orogen was later impacted by younger geodynamic events, particularly in the Ordovician-Silurian-Devonian. Due to the paucity of exposure, in particular in its central segment, and the complex cover sequences, significant parts of the Delamerian Orogen remain poorly documented. The orogen is also underexplored for resources despite demonstrated potential for magmatic-hydrothermal and other mineral systems. As part of the Exploring for the Future program, the Darling-Curnamona-Delamerian project is working to improve geodynamic framework and mineral systems knowledge through a range of activities including; analysis of legacy drill core, new stratigraphic drilling and major geophysical data acquisition campaigns (airborne electromagnetic, deep crustal seismic reflection, magnetotelluric). Significant first results reveal the existence of a corridor of Siluro-Devonian igneous rocks flanked by Cambrian igneous rocks within the Loch Lilly-Kars Belt, possibly related to an episode of rifting or extension, with potential for rift-related and magmatic-hydrothermal mineral systems of that age. <b>Citation:</b> Gilmore P.J., Roach I.C., Doublier M.P., Mole D.R., Cheng Y., Clark A.D. & Pitt L., 2023. From The Delamerian Orogen: exposing an undercover arc. In: Czarnota, K. (ed.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts, Geoscience Australia, Canberra, https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/148679

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a central component of many proposed pathways to reach net zero CO2 emissions by 2050. Even under conservative estimates, successful deployment of CCS projects at scale will require a substantial investment in the selection and development of new sequestration sites. While several studies have considered the potential costs associated with individual sequestration projects, and others have evaluated the costs of capture and sequestration in a generic manner, few have examined how regional differences in transport distances and reservoir properties may affect the overall costs of sequestration projects. In this abstract, we outline a new model to assess the costs associated with new carbon sequestration projects. The model evaluates the cost of CCS projects accounting for regional variations in transport distance and cost and well the storage properties of individual reservoirs. We present preliminary results from the modelling tool, highlighting potential opportunities for new CCS projects.