September 2017

A monthly online newsletter with product news, data releases and project highlights relating to the minerals and energy exploration industries.

1. Southern Thomson Project: Update on stratigraphic drilling
2. Critical commodities in Australia
3. Update on geophysical data release
4. About Minerals Alert

1. Southern Thomson Project: Update on stratigraphic drilling

The Southern Thomson Project (the Project) is a collaboration between Geoscience Australia (GA) and its state partners; the State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment, Geological Survey of New South Wales ¿ GSNSW) and the State of Queensland (Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Geological Survey of Queensland ¿ GSQ). The Project sits within the national UNCOVER Initiative, which aims to reverse the decline in Australia's known mineral reserves by providing new information to explorers about undercover regions.

The Thomson Orogen is a major component of the Paleozoic Tasmanides of eastern Australia that extends through large portions of central and southwest Queensland and northwest New South Wales. The rocks of the Thomson Orogen are potentially prospective for copper, lead¿zinc, gold and other useful metals, however very little is known about them because much of the Thomson Orogen is buried underneath younger sediments of the Eromanga Basin. The Southern Thomson Project initially acquired and analysed airborne and ground-based geophysical surveys and undertook surface geochemical sampling, field mapping and satellite image analysis to define areas of interest within this vast region (300 km by 300 km).

A program of boreholes testing distinctive basement signatures in the aeromagnetic data (locations in Figure 1) recommenced in July 2017 after a false start in August 2016. Adding to the two holes drilled in 2016, seven new boreholes have been successfully drilled using a combination of rotary mud drilling through cover sequences and diamond drilling of underlying basement rocks to provide a minimum of 50 metres of representative core samples from each site (core photos in Figure 2). Boreholes are constructed according to Australian best practice, following the guidelines for constructing water bores within the Great Artesian Basin.  Wireline geophysical logs are being run in the holes prior to casing. It is anticipated that a further three boreholes will be completed for the Project. Preliminary drilling details to date are summarised below:

Figure 1: Location of Southern Thomson Orogen boreholes and proposed boreholes in
the Cunnamulla ¿ Hungerford ¿ White Cliffs ¿ Bourke region of Queensland and New South Wales.

The number and range of basement materials already sampled give Project scientists a new range of materials to analyse and better place the southern Thomson Orogen into the wider context of eastern Australian geodynamics and mineral prospectivity. The drilling program is now set to continue in the Cunnamulla area of Queensland and the Enngonia area of New South Wales.

Figure 2: Greenschist facies metasediments from GSQ Eulo 1 (first), Altered intermediate volcanics
from GSQ Eulo 2 (second), Rhyodacite from GSNSW Milcarpa 1 (third), Metasedimentary schist
from GSNSW Euroli 1 (fourth), Granodiorite from GSNSW Tongo 1 (fifth), Siliclastic turbidite
from Laurelvale 1 (sixth), Granite from Janina 1 (seventh), Metasediments from GSQ Eulo 3 (eighth),
Intermediate-mafic porphyry intrusive from GSQ Eulo 4 (ninth).

All cores will be comprehensively sampled for mineralogy, geochemistry and geochronological analysis as well as being scanned by the Hylogger ¿. Final results will be made publicly available through the GA, GSNSW and GSQ websites and presented at Southern Thomson Project workshops.

For further information, email clientservices@ga.gov.au or phone 1800 800 173.

2. Critical commodities in Australia

Geoscience Australia has released Record 2017/14, "Critical commodities in Australia ¿ an assessment of extraction potential from ores" https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/search#!ab20a170-c48f-4ed7-9811-31c7c326b2ac that documents the distribution of critical commodities in Australian ores. Critical commodities are defined as metals, non-metals and minerals that are both economically important and have a high risk of supply disruption and include rare-earth elements, platinum group elements, tungsten, tin, tantalum, lithium, antimony, chromium, cobalt, gallium, cadmium, bismuth, selenium, tellurium, vanadium, molybdenum, rhenium, niobium, indium, and germanium.

Although Australia is not a major consumer of critical commodities, it is or has potential to be an important supplier of some of these commodities. Many critical commodities are enriched in different types of Australian ores; some are presently extracted from Australian ores and concentrates, either domestically or overseas, whereas others are not currently extracted due to unfavourable economics or impediments to metallurgical processing.

To better exploit critical commodity resources, additional information is required, including more data on the concentration of critical commodities in ores and concentrates, more information on existing and possible processes whereby critical commodities can be recovered, and a better understanding of the markets for critical commodities. The resource industry should consider the presence, tenor and metallurgy of critical commodities during resource exploration and feasibility studies.

For further information, email clientservices@ga.gov.au or phone 1800 800 173.

3. Update on geophysical data release

Geoscience Australia is managing the geophysical data acquisition programs in Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory on behalf of the state/territory geological surveys

The current status of Geoscience Australia's geophysical survey data acquisition is available in a comprehensive table.

For further information, email clientservices@ga.gov.au or phone 1800 800 173.

4. About Minerals Alert

For more information, please email clientservices@ga.gov.au; or phone 1800 800 173.