Paterson TEMPEST AEM Survey, Western Australia, 2010 Final Inversion Data and Conductivity Models

Airborne Electromagnetic data are being acquired by Geoscience Australia in areas considered to have potential for uranium or thorium mineralisation under the Australian Government's Onshore Energy Security Program (OESP). The surveys have been managed and interpreted by Geoscience Australia's Airborne Electromagnetic Acquisition and Interpretation project. In contrast to industry style deposit scale investigations, these surveys are designed to reveal new geological information at regional scale. The Paterson airborne electromagnetic data were acquired at line spacings of between one and six kilometres, a total of 28 200 line km and covers an area of 47 600 km2. The outcomes of the Paterson AEM survey include mapping of subsurface geological features that are associated with unconformity-related, sandstone-hosted and palaeovalley-hosted uranium mineralisation. The data are also capable of interpretation for other commodities including metals and potable water as well as for landscape evolution studies. The improved understanding of the regional geology resulting from the Paterson survey results will be of considerable benefit to mining and mineral exploration companies. Phase-1 data, that is, contractor quality-controlled and quality-assessed data, were released during 2009. Phase-2 data, that is Geoscience Australia layered earth inversion (GA-LEI) data and derived products, are included in this data release. The data and products described in this report are contained on the accompanying DVD. The main products from the AEM survey are conductivity depth slices and sections, conductance grids and an AEM Depth of Investigation grid. The data is provided in formats which can be viewed on most computers systems. They include, JPEG (.jpg) with associated world files for easy use in geographic information system (GIS) packages, ER Mapper grids (.ers), ESRI shape files (.shp) of the flight path, and point-located ASCII data with relevant metadata for derived products.