For over a decade Geoscience Australia has adopted a practice of releasing the processed seismic reflection data, together with an initial interpretation, as soon as possible after the completion of data acquisition. This policy reflects recognition that new data and ideas are a valuable resource for both researchers and the exploration industry, and that seismic data often provides new and quantitative insights into the structure of the crust at depth. This data and interpretation release is normally done in a workshop that is open to all comers, and with an understanding that not all ideas are fully developed.
The Curnamona Project is a collaborative project between PIRSA Minerals and Energy Resources, Geoscience Australia and the predictive mineral discovery Cooperative Research Centre (pmd*CRC) using the seismic acquisition facilities of the Australian National Seismic Imaging Resource (ANSIR). The aim of the Curnamona survey was to provide information on the crustal architecture of the southern Curnamona Province in both the highly prospective Palaeo- and Mesoproterozoic rocks and the overlying Neoproterozoic and Cambrian sequences. A particular objective was the imaging of the deeper crust and major structural features that may have influenced hydrothermal fluid flow and hence mineralisation.
The Curnamona seismic workshop is the first public display and discussion of data and results of the Curnamona seismic survey commenced in 2003 and completed in 2004 after being washed out by floods. Feedback on the seismic results back to GA and PIRSA project staff at this workshop is as valuable as the information flow to the workshop attendees, because it helps flesh out the geological understanding that is emerging from the seismic data.
Usually a quantity of seismic data, such as presented at this workshop, takes time to analyse and develop ideas as well as test hypotheses. At a detailed level, we have to continue to examine what the seismic data tells us about the minerals systems that operated within the Curnamona Province and how this knowledge may be used in minerals exploration. The complexity of the work requires collaboration and does not just rely on the expertise of seismic interpreters. Data processing, sequence stratigraphy, structural geology, tectonics, minerals systems, geochronology, and local and regional geology must all be taken into account.
The seismic results show us a crustal architecture for the Curnamona Province of eastern South Australia that provides important information on basement architecture that will enhance investment and targeting strategies for mineral explorers in the province. One example is the observation that the Kalkaroo prospect appears to be related to second order faults associated with hanging wall anticlines above a major bounding east-dipping fault at depth, opens up the possibility for further mineral deposits associated with other hanging wall anticlines above east-dipping faults.
