News New Exploring for the Future results confirm NT as exciting exploration frontier

New data from Geoscience Australias Exploring for the Future program has once again confirmed the excellent geological potential of previously underexplored parts of the Northern Territory.

Released today at the Annual Geoscience Exploration Seminar (AGES) in Alice Springs, Geoscience Australias Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division Chief, Dr Andrew Heap said further analysis of data from the MinEx CRCs National Drilling Initiative (NDI) East Tennant and South Nicholson campaigns confirms these regions as exciting frontiers in Australia for explorers.

Over the past 12 months, our team in partnership with the Northern Territory Geological Survey and MinEx CRC, has been working to develop new knowledge about the previously unknown geological history of the underexplored East Tennant region of the Northern Territory and understand its potential to host mineralisation, Dr Heap said.

"Through its participation in the MinEx CRC, Geoscience Australia has been able to leverage cutting-edge isotopic, geochemical and geochronology analyses through partnering with university researchers.

This work has demonstrated that the East Tennant region has a similar geological history to other prospective areas of northern Australia, including Tennant Creek, with the results pointing to elevated concentrations of both gold and base metals.

Its pleasing to see that early exploration results are confirming Geoscience Australias initial interpretations of the prospectivity of this area and re-affirming the value of investing in pre-competitive geoscience.

Were also seeing some great results coming out of the NDI Carrara 1 drill hole in the newly discovered Carrara Sub-basin. Combined with what we already know from data collected through the Exploring for the Future program, the new results indicate the drill hole intersected rocks that directly correlate with known highly prospective rocks in western Queensland.

These rocks, prospective for base metals and hydrocarbons, are similar to the rocks in the former world-class Century Mine - which was Australia's largest open pit zinc mine until open-cut mining operations ceased in 2015.

The National Drilling Initiative is one of three research programs run by MinEx CRC.

It aims to overcome the technical challenges of exploring for mineral deposits in prospective rocks concealed under the cover of younger rocks and sediment through new exploration tools and techniques.

In December 2020, MinEx CRC, Geoscience Australia and the Northern Territory Geological Survey completed their first NDI stratigraphic drilling campaigns in an area extending approximately 200 kilometres from east of Tennant Creek to close to the border with Queensland.

This area had been overlooked for mineral exploration in past decades because of the geological uncertainty, technical risk and expense of exploring through the overlying sediment and rock of the Barkly Tablelands, Dr Heap said.

Our identification and analysis of this region also shows significant hydrocarbon potential within the Carrara Sub-basin.

The Carrara Sub-basin was discovered as a result of a seismic survey of the South Nicholson Basin across the Barkly Tableland region of the Northern Territory in 2017 and was one of the most significant discoveries made during the first phase of the $225 million Exploring for the Future program.

The National Drilling Initiative also completed the first deep stratigraphic hole, a 1,750-metre-deep drill hole in the Carrara Sub-basin in December 2020.

New data from both NDI campaigns are publicly available through the online Exploring for the Future Data Discovery Portal.

The team from Geoscience Australia is on the ground in Alice Springs for AGES and always looks forward to discussing our work and results with industry, our fellow researchers, and the community, Dr Heap said.