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Overview

Under Geoscience Australia's Onshore Energy Security Program (OESP), Airborne Electromagnetic (AEM) data is being acquired in areas considered prospective for unconformity-related and palaeochannel-hosted uranium deposits. The program is aimed at reducing exploration risk and promoting exploration activity.

The surveys, which are part of the Airborne Electromagnetic Acquisition and Interpretation project, are designed to reveal new information about regions by acquiring the AEM data at line spacings of one to six kilometres over relatively large areas. The improved understanding of the regional geology resulting from the surveys will be of considerable benefit to mining and mineral exploration companies, which can obtain more detailed data over a specific area of interest by contributing additional funds to the acquisition cost.

As well as enhancing the search for uranium and other energy sources, the survey results will be relevant in exploration for a variety of commodities and other resources, including groundwater. Three priority projects emerged from mineral systems analysis and discussions with the State and Northern Territory Geological Surveys. They are:

1. Paterson Province (Western Australia)
2. Pine Creek (Northern Territory)
3. Frome Embayment (South Australia)

Project 1 - Paterson Province, Western Australia

The Paterson project area is centred on the Kintyre uranium deposit and provides AEM data coverage over those areas where Paleoproterozoic Era Rudall Complex and Neoproterozoic Era sediments of the Yeneena Basin either outcrop or are expected to lie beneath less than 500 metres of cover. The area also includes the Telfer gold deposit, the Nifty copper deposit, the Woodie Woodie manganese deposit and others.

Objectives

• To map unconformities and paleochannels which may be prospective hosts for uranium mineralisation
• To support geological mapping of lithologies and structures in the subsurface
• To improve depth to basement estimates
• To map alteration, mineralisation or host horizons for other commodities including gold, copper and manganese.

Other products

In addition to the AEM data and inversion products linked in Table 1, several additional products are available for the Paterson area. These include:

• A drill hole database with explanatory notes for the Paterson TEMPEST AEM survey area. This contains digital data, including geological logs, for more than 4300 public domain historical drill holes
• The Paterson 3D VRML model of the Cottesloe Syncline region in the northwest Paterson Orogen created using 3D GeoModeller. 3D GeoModeller is an emerging technology which constructs 3D volumetric models based on a range of geological information
• A Geoscience Australia interpretation record summarising the AEM data, processing, inversions, interpretation and implications for exploration for uranium and other commodities.
• A logistics report and down-hole conductivity log data for the Paterson AEM Survey area. This report contains down-hole conductivity log data acquired by Geoscience Australia on 14 drill holes within the Paterson survey area.
  

Project 2 - Pine Creek, Northern Territory

The goal of the Pine Creek AEM survey is to characterise the electromagnetic response of Paleoproterozoic rocks, particularly graphitic units adjacent to Archean granite domes, and map these units in regions of extensive cover, such as the Woolner Granite, and Daly River Basin areas. The project will also attempt to map key sub-surface unconformities and structures which may have influenced mineralising fluids.

Objectives

• To map unconformity and palaeochannel uranium host rocks
• To map the thickness of Kombolgie Subgroup rocks (depth to prospective interface)
• To map graphitic basement conductors
• To map the thickness of regolith cover.

Progress update: November 2011

• Contractor supplied data has been released online
• Integrated geological and geophysical interpretation will be completed late 2011
• Interpretation record released November 2011.

Other products

In addition to the AEM data and inversion products linked in Table 1, several additional products are available for the Pine Creek area.  These include:

• A Geoscience Australia interpretation record summarising the AEM data, processing, inversions, interpretation and implications for exploration for uranium and other commodities
  
• A logistics report and down-hole conductivity log data for the Pine Creek AEM Survey area.  This report contains down-hole conductivity log data acquired by Geoscience Australia on 24 drill holes within the Pine Creek survey area
• Pine Creek AEM Survey NT Workshop - overview
• Pine Creek Airborne Electromagnetic Data and Proceedures for AEM data
• Geological interpretation of the regional Pine Creek airborne electromagnetic survey
• Major Mineral Systems in the PCO: Implications of AEM Data for Uranium Mineral Systems
  

Project 3 - Frome Embayment-Murray Basin, South Australia

The Frome Embayment-Murray Basin project will provide regional AEM data over a 95 000 square kilometre area between the Flinders Ranges and the State border in South Australia. Extensive Mesozoic to Cenozoic cover blankets the highly prospective area, which hosts major palaeochannel-type uranium deposits at Beverley, Four Mile, Honeymoon and Goulds Dam.

Objectives

• To map palaeochannels which may host uranium deposits
• To map Beverley Sands/Alpha Mudstone
• To map thick channels of the Eyre Formation
• To map faults and fault blocks
• To map depth to cratonic basement, especially over the Benagerie ridge southeast of Lake Frome
• To map alteration or mineralisation involving other commodities including gold, copper, lead and zinc
• To map Murray Basin strand lines.

Progress update: November 2010

• Survey flown between May 2010 and October 2010
• Phase 1 (contractor-supplied) data released March 2011.

Other products

In addition to the AEM data and inversion products linked in Table 1, several additional products are available for the Frome Embayment-Murray Basin area. These include:

• A logistics report and down-hole conductivity log data for the Frome AEM Survey area. This report contains down-hole conductivity log data acquired by Geoscience Australia on 5 drill holes within the Frome survey area.
• The Frome Airborne Electromagnetic Survey.
• Interpretations from the Frome airborne electromagnetic survey.

Available data

AEM data collected from the surveys and models resulting from them can be downloaded using the links in Table 1.

• AEM survey boundary and flight path shape files