Geoscience Projects

Program themes

Integrated and collaborative projects designed to improve the geoscience data coverage and knowledge in targeted areas of the Northern Territory.

Resourcing the Territory program themes:

  • Providing competitive grants to stimulate exploration success
  • Underpinning exploration success through enhanced geophysics
  • Accelerating resource development in known mineral provinces
  • Attracting and supporting resource development in frontier areas
  • Applying geoscience to support a low emissions future
  • Modernising geoscience data to support a digitally enabled industry
  • Promoting the Territory’s prospectivity and investment potential.

Providing competitive grants to stimulate exploration success

Three million dollars is available annually to co-fund selected eligible industry projects that address geoscientific knowledge gaps, advance exploration activity, and support the discovery and development of resources in the Territory. For more details on the Geophysics and Drilling Collaborations (GDC) program see exploration grants.

Underpinning exploration success through enhanced geophysics

A major project has begun reviewing existing regional-scale government-acquired aeromagnetic and radiometric data to modernise these foundational datasets under FAIR principles.  The review will assist in designing and prioritising future acquisition programs.

The NTGS Pedirka Ground Gravity Survey has acquired over 11, 000 gravity readings at 2 and 4km station spacing in the southeast of the Northern Territory. The survey covers an area of approximately 61,000km2 stretching from the NT, QLD and SA borders to almost 150km southeast of Alice Springs.

The preliminary data is now available for download from NTGS' FTP site.  Final data and products will be released at a later stage once final quality assurance has been completed.

Geoscience Australia and NTGS have collaboratively acquired the Northwest Northern Territory Seismic Survey (L214) across the Birrindudu Basin and into the northern Tanami region. The survey was collected in 2023 and comprises a total of 900-line kilometres over four lines. For the latest on release dates, go to the Geoscience Australia's website.

The expanded exploration grants program supports acquisition of higher resolution regional-scale geophysics or innovative camp- to prospect-scale geophysics.

Accelerating resource development in known mineral provinces

New projects will deliver an improved understanding of the geological framework of the polymetallic Pine Creek Orogen providing context to the diverse mineral systems and commodity potential. These projects will redefine stratigraphy and tectonic evolution of the Province plus assessing the potential for secondary prospectivity at historic mines across the Pine Creek region.

Future collaborative projects in the Tennant Creek mineral field will fingerprint mineral chemistry of fertile gold and copper systems and apply this technique to the prospective undercover East Tennant region.

The expanded exploration grants program supports brownfields diamond drilling projects testing conceptual targets in areas.

Attracting and supporting resource development in frontier areas

Key projects to understand the sedimentological and stratigraphic correlations across the greater McArthur Basin are currently underway; and planned for the Birrindudu Basin.

Geological outcrop mapping will continue across the Amadeus Basin with the commencement of mapping on the 2nd edition Rodinga 1:250 000 geological series mapsheet, which will also culminate in the release of the East Amadeus Basin 1:500 000 interpreted geology map.

Geological outcrop mapping continues in the Aileron and Irindina provinces with the publication of 1st edition Jinka 1:100 000 geological map and explanatory notes and the upcoming Huckitta 1:250,000 outcrop map documenting the geology of these polymetallic terrains.

NTGS will collaborate with Geoscience Australia and the South Australia Department for Mines and Energy to provide improved data and interpretation of the stacked Neoproterozoic to Palaeozoic Warburton, Pedirka and Eromanga basins.

The expanded exploration grants program supports greenfields drilling.

Applying geoscience to support a low emissions future

Collaborative research projects are proposed to improve our understanding of key critical minerals, including understanding of lithium, caesium, tantalum (LCT) pegmatites in the Pine Creek Orogen, Aileron and Irindina provinces; cobalt and bismuth rich systems in the Tennant region, and potentially rare earth elements in phosphorites in the Georgina Basin. NTGS recently released its first guide to Critical Minerals in the Northern Territory.

CSIRO is being commissioned to undertake a desktop screening study of key Northern Territory onshore basins to assess for CO2, H2 and compressed air storage capacity.

The expanded exploration grants program supports the re-analysis of existing samples for untested commodities such as critical minerals.

Modernising geoscience data to support a digitally enabled industry

Findable Accessible Interoperable Reusable (FAIR) principles inform decision making

Work is underway to implement FAIR principles across the acquisition and delivery of online systems and databases.

Industry data capture

The major program to capture all remaining legacy open-file exploration drilling and geochemistry data across the Northern Territory (NT), commenced with the McArthur Basin, Tennant Creek and Barkly regions, and has moved into the Pine Creek Orogen.

More than one million legacy exploration data points from more than 3,600 company reports have now been captured and released digitally since the Resourcing the Territory program commenced in 2018. The total legacy exploration data released under the Resourcing the Territory program now includes more than 126,000 drillhole collars, 629,000 drill hole samples and 314,000 surface geochemical samples from across the Tennant Creek, Barkly and Gulf regions.

The captured data is providing explorers with immediate access to a complete and spatially located dataset of all historic drilling and geochemistry in the area. This is an important pre-competitive dataset to allow industry to rapidly assess and interpret past exploration in the area. With data capture across the Tennant Creek, Barkly and Gulf regions nearly complete, the program is now focussing on the Pine Creek region.

Data is progressively released as part of the Territory-wide Drilling and Geochemistry GIS datasets available for download in MapInfo tab, KML, ESRI shapefile and csv file formats through STRIKE, the NTGS Digital Information Package DIP001 or via the NT-wide geoscience datasets webpage.

Promoting the Territory’s prospectivity and investment potential

NTGS hosts the Territory's premier technical exploration conference Annual Geoscience Exploration Seminar (AGES) held every April in the Alice Springs. To find out more about NTGS presence and participation at other events, visit events and presentations.

NTGS promotes the mineral and energy potential of the Territory with up-to-date newsfactsheets, data and publications and industry activity.

NTGS provides high-quality geoscience data and publications free-of-charge to explorers through GEMIS and STRIKE.

For more information on our core business

NTGS undertakes geoscience programs targeted towards a better understanding of the Territory’s geological framework and prospectivity. Our client-focussed team also manages and delivers pre-competitive geoscientific data, industry reports, and actively promotes the exploration potential of the Territory.

NTGS manages a large range of online resources, including online systems and databases, geological products, mineral industry reporting requirements and petroleum industry reporting.