MinEx CRC Cobar Airborne Electromagnetic Survey, NSW, 2019: XCITE® AEM data and conductivity estimates

The accompanying data package, was released on 30 April 2020 by the Geological Survey of New South Wales (GSNSW) and Geoscience Australia (GA).

The package contains processed data from the “MinEx CRC Cobar Airborne Electromagnetic Survey” that was flown over the Cobar–Lake Cargelligo area of Central West New South Wales . The regional survey was flown at 2.5 and 5 km nominal line spacings and entails approximately 5,900 line kilometres of new geophysical data. The survey was flown in 2019 by New Resolution Geophysics Pty. Ltd. (NRG) using the XCITE® airborne electromagnetic system. NRG also processed the data.

The survey also included a further 800 line kilometres of infill flying that was funded by private exploration companies, in certain blocks within the survey area. The data from these infill blocks are not part of this data release due to confidentiality agreements but will be released to the public after a 12 month moratorium.

GSNSW commissioned the survey as part of the MinEx Cooperative Research Centre’s (MinEx CRC), the world’s largest mineral exploration collaboration. It brings together industry, government, research organisations and universities to further our understanding of geology, mineral deposits and groundwater resources in areas where rocks aren’t exposed at Earth’s surface.  GSNSW is a major participant in the NDI program, committing $16 million to the program over 10 years. In NSW, the program focuses on five areas in the state’s central and far west, where metallic minerals potentially exist under a layer of younger barren geology. These areas are North Cobar, South Cobar, Broken Hill (Mundi), Forbes and Dubbo.

GA managed the survey data acquisition and processing contract and the quality control of the survey on behalf of GSNSW. GA also contributed by generating one of the two inversion products included in the data package.


The data release package comntains

1.   A data release package summary PDF document.

2.   The survey logistics and processing report and XCITE® system specification files

3.   ESRI shape files for the flight lines and boundary

4.   KML (Google Earth) files of the flight lines

5.   Final processed point located line data in ASEG-GDF2 format
    -final processed dB/dt electromagnetic, magnetic and elevation data
    -final processed BField electromagnetic, magnetic and elevation data

6.   Conductivity estimates generated by NRG’s inversion 
    -point located line data output from the inversion in ASEG-GDF2 format
    -graphical (PDF) multiplot conductivity sections and profiles for each flight line
    -graphical (JPEG) conductivity sections for each line
    -georeferenced (PNG) conductivity sections (suitable for pseudo-3D display in a 2D GIS)
    -GoCAD™ S-Grid 3D objects (suitable for various 3D packages)
    -Curtain image conductivity sections (suitable 3D display in GA’s EarthSci)
    -Grids generated from the NRG inversion in ER Mapper® format (layer conductivities, depth slices, elevation slices)
    -Images generated from the grids above (layer conductivities, depth slices, elevation slices)

7.   Conductivity estimates generated by Geoscience Australia's inversion 
    -point located line data output from the inversion in ASEG-GDF2 format
    -graphical (JPEG) conductivity sections for each line
    -georeferenced (PNG) conductivity sections (suitable for pseudo-3D display in a 2D GIS)
    -GoCAD™ S-Grid 3D objects (suitable for various 3D packages)
    -Curtain image conductivity sections (suitable 3D display in GA’s EarthSci)
    -Grids generated from Geoscience Australia's inversion in ER Mapper® format (layer conductivities, depth slices, elevation slices)
    -Images generated from the grids above (layer conductivities, depth slices, elevation slices)

Directory structure

├── report
│   ├── line_data
│   ├── shapefiles
│   ├── kml
│   ├── contractor_inversion
│   │   ├── line_data
│   │   ├── multiplots
│   │   ├── sections
│   │   ├── georeferenced_sections
│   │   ├── gocad_sgrids
│   │   ├── earthsci
│   │   │   └── MinExCRC_Cobar_AEM_Contractor_Regional
│   │   ├── images
│   │   │   ├── layers
│   │   │   ├── depth_slice
│   │   │   └── elevation_slice
│   │   └── grids
│   │       ├── layers
│   │       ├── depth_slice
│   │       └── elevation_slice
│   └── ga_inversion
│       ├── line_data
│       ├── sections
│       ├── georeferenced_sections
│       ├── gocad_sgrids
│       ├── earthsci
│       │   └── MinExCRC_Cobar_AEM_GA-Inversion_Regional
│       ├── images
│       │   ├── layers
│       │   ├── depth_slice
│       │   └── elevation_slice
│       └── grids
│           ├── layers
│           ├── depth_slice
│           └── elevation_slice

Tags: EARTH SCIENCES, ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING, GEOPHYSICS, Published_External
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data