2015 broken hill resources investment symposium - university of wollongong - neil williams

AAS Haddon Forrester King Lecture 2015

Mineral exploration under cover – seeing the elephant.

Neil Williams


Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Annual Conference 1968, Broken Hill

75th Anniversary of the AusIMM

AAS Haddon Forrester King Lecture 2015 http://www.emeraldinsight.com/content_images/fig/1060220401001.png

The Blind Men and the Elephant


Broken Hill district 1970 – “I can’t see the elephant!”


Old style airborne magnetic output

http://www.ga.gov.au/corporate_data/13792/Rec1980_006.pdf


AMIRA – The Australian Mineral Industry Research Association

Project P179: INTEGRATED DATA ANALYSIS USING IMAGE PROCESSING CONCEPTS (May 1984 to May 1986) – CSIRO Division of Mineral Physics and Mineralogy – NSW)

“Software was developed for the geometric correction of airborne scanner data and the manipulation of geophysical data, particularly airborne magnetics and radiometrics.” AMIRA 28th Annual Report,1986-1987


New style airborne magnetic output

Fig. 2 AGSO Record 2000/02 – width of image = 50 km


An early 1985 output from AMIRA P179

•  Mudgee area, NSW

•  Contours – airmag

•  Solid colour – airborne radiometrics

•  Blue = Potassium

•  Red = Uranium

•  Green = Thorium


Airborne magnetic coverage of Australia October 1994

•  Red = Good – line spacing 500m or closer

•  Blue = Not so good – line spacing 1.6 to 3.2 km


Chief Government Geologist’s Committee Central Australia 2004

Tasmania

Victoria

Queensland

Commonwealth

Western Australia

Northern Territory

NSW

Northern Territory

South Australia


Different views of the geology of Australia

Magnetics Gravity

Topography Outcrop Geology

Radiometrics


The Curnamona Province

“The extent of the Curnamona Province is most easily delineated from aeromagnetic data, which show it as completely fringed by younger mobile belts”

R.S. Robertson, Preiss, W.V., Crooks, A.F., Hill, P.W., & Sheard, M.J., Sheard I, 1998; AGSO Journal of Australian Geology & Geophysics, 17(3), 169- 182


THANK YOU

The Curnamona Province – lots of sheep, but where are the elephants?

2015 broken hill resources investment symposium - university of wollongong - neil williams

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