Industry

Title: Advanced geomodelling to reveal buried deposits

Presenter: Addison Tu

Date and time: Wednesday, 24th April 2024 at 1800 (NSW)

Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_uVDLEHa8TFOByizyPdGRAQ

Abstract:

Porphyry deposits are of important societal significance as critical sources of copper. 

Copper demands are projected to increase significantly to supply the transition to net-zero, but discoveries have dwindled in recent decades. The finite number of deposits exposed at the surface are nearing depletion, and advancements to exploration techniques must target buried deposits. Here we present a workflow which incorporates machine learning predictions for deposit formation within the crust, with a highly calibrated landscape evolution model to track the vertical motion of deposits through geological time. The results inform where deposits may be preserved and at what depth, or where deposits have been destroyed by erosion. We tested this approach on the mountains of New Guinea, which feature abundant volcanism responsible for deposit formation at depth and extreme erosion to exhume deposits toward the surface. Our approach identified high prospectivity in accordance with the spatial extents of known surface deposits, identified several highly prospective regions for near-surface deposits and where deposits have been destroyed by erosion. Our workflow provides a region-scale prospecting tool to de-risk the economic and environmental cost of field-based exploration. Importantly, the workflow is open-source, scalable to other regions and even adaptable to other mineral systems (with constraints on the depth of formation

Bio:

Addison is a PhD student and Research Assistant within the Earthbyte group, working closely with Dr. Sabin Zahirovic and Dr. Tristan Salles. His research focuses on Eastern Australia, particularly concerning the eastward accretion of microcontinents and volcanic arc-islands since the Cambrian. Geological events in this region and period involve the formation of mountains and the closing of seaways, with many implications for climate, past landscapes and environments, and the formation and preservation of economic deposits.

Addison utilises landscape evolution modelling, tectonic models, and thermochronology with a focus on linking Earth’s surface processes and evolution to other Earth Systems such as the tectonics, climate and the ocean. He also has experience developing landscape evolution models and landform design tools within industry.

Title: DAS Reflection Seismic For Mineral Exploration in Harsh Environments

Presenter: Prof Milovan Urosevic

Date and Time: Thursday, May 2 · 1730 AWST

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/aseg-wa-tech-night-prof-milovan-urosevic-tickets-879313268657

Abstract:

A number of hyper-saline lakes across Western Australia are known to overlie substantial and diverse mineral resources. Exploring those by means of the application of conventional equipment is limited and prone to significant hardware issues and equipment damage. In contrast such an environment seems appropriate for the application of the DAS technology. This technology originated in the 1980s and its practical potential in seismic sensing was developed in the 1990s, as described in the historical review of Hartog (2018). Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) uses strain-induced optical distortion effects to re-purpose optical telecommunication fibres as multi-channel seismic arrays. In this study, we present the evaluation and application of DAS for seismic exploration of mineral resources over the years, through several field studies. We show that DAS has the potential to replace surface geophones in such environment. Further test were oriented towards implementation of a reflection mode DAS in a dry hard ground surface as typically found in mineral exploration. To implement DAS in the reflection mode we have developed automated DAS underground installation using a plough attached to a variety of different utility vehicles. The key aspects of the new super-effective 3D seismic exploration with DAS technology are discussed in our presentation. The results of 3D DAS seismic experiment is giving us confidence that implementation of DAS for mineral exploration has a bright future.

Bio:

Milovan Urosevic received a BSc (Hons) in geophysics from the University of Belgrade in 1980, an MSc in geophysics from the University of Houston in 1985 and a PhD in geophysics from Curtin University in 2000. He held leading roles in several major Australian cooperative research centres such as APCRC, CO2CRC, DETCRC, and MinEx CRC. His main interest is utilising new seismic technologies to advance the exploration of natural resources. Milovan is an Emeritus professor at Curtin University, Perth, WA and co-founder of HiSeis, a world-leading hard rock seismic company. He is a member of ASEG, EAGE and AGES.

ASEG-WA Sponsors:

Thanks to all our valuable 2023 Sponsors. Invites for 2024 sponsorships have been released. If you are interested in sponsoring, please contact: wapresident@aseg.org.au

ASEG WA Special Tech Night

Title: New Methods for Constraining Geology from Geophysics

Presenter: Prof. Mark Jessell

Date and time: Starts on Thursday, March 28 · 1730 AWST

Location: The Shoe Bar and Cafe, 376 - 420 Wellington Street Perth, WA 6050

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/aseg-wa-special-tech-night-prof-mark-jessell-tickets-833955733047

Zoom registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KilBYcouQHuOaPhEGpserA

Abstract: 

In this presentation we present some of the activities from the MinEx CRC/Loop Consortium/DARE ITTC work on building 3D geological models using geophysical data. The talk will briefly highlight the following areas:

Integration of automatic implicit geological modelling in deterministic geophysical inversion (https://doi.org/10.5194/se-15-63-2024)

Some results from the Tomofast-x inversion platform, with its ability to use detailed petrophysical statistics as constraints on gravity/mag inversion (https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2243, https://doi.org/10.1190/geo2019-0633.1)

The use of a massive library of synthetic 3D geological models and their gravity and magnetic response as a Machine Learning training set (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cageo.2021.104701, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-381-2022) and

Our latest work on navigating regional geophysical data using a combined feature extraction/non-linear dimensionality reduction technique method.

Bio:

Mark Jessell is a Professor at the Centre for Exploration Targeting at The University of Western Australia. His scientific interests revolve around the tectonics and metallogenesis of the West African and Guyanese Cratons (WAXI & SAXI) microstructure studies (the Elle platform), and integration of geology and geophysics in 3D (the Loop project). He returned to Australia from France on a Western Australian Fellowship focused on improving the links between geological and geophysical data analysis in 3D via analysis of the geological and topological uncertainty. In 2013 he was awarded the Geological Society of Australia Hobbs Medal for major contributions in structural geology. He is a director of the not-for-profit Agate Project Ltd which supports higher education in the Earth Sciences in Africa.

More info:

Drinks and nibbles will be available from 5:30pm - 6:15pm. The talk will commence promptly at 6:15pm. ASEG would like to thank our sponsors for their continued support.

CPP Parking offer cheap parking close to the venue. Additional cheap parking may also be found nearby the State Library.

More information coming soon!

More information to be shared soon.

ASEG WA Present: Student & Networking Night

The WA Branch of the Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists invites you to join us to start 2024 with the Perth geophysical community - a relaxed Student and Young Professional Networking Night where you can mingle and share your story!

Drinks and foods will be available shortly after from 5:30pm.

Location: Mayfair Lane
Address:  72 Outram Street West Perth, WA, 6005
Date:       Feb 8, 2024
When:      5:30 PM

Register here.

Title: Storage of Carbon Dioxide in Saline Aquifers

Presenter: Phil Ringrose

Location: Ayre’s House, 288 North Tce, Adelaide

Date: Thursday 8th February

Cost: ASEG members use coupon code PESA-ASEGMEMBER for SEG membership rates for the course

Please register for this event at: https://seg.org/shop/product/?id=b1b051ba-bfb3-ee11-a569-00224822f0a9

It is my pleasure to invite you to the upcoming SEG Distinguished Instructor Short Course, on Thursday 8th February at Ayres House, 288 North Tce, Adelaide.

We have Phil Ringrose speaking on “Storage of Carbon Dioxide in Saline Aquifers”

PESA will be hosting the SEG Distinguished Instructor Short Course (DISC) on “Storage of Carbon Dioxide in Saline Aquifers – Building Confidence by Forecasting and Monitoring” presented by Phil Ringrose. This one-day short course will be held in Adelaide on Thursday, February 8^th 2024. In this course, the science and technology underpinning CO2 storage in deep saline aquifer formations is reviewed using insights from several industrial-scale projects. The main factors, which limit storage capacity are analyzed - constraints governed by flow dynamics, injectivity, pressure development, and geomechanics. Then, this physical basis provides a framework for determining how to optimize monitoring methods.

All those interested in understanding the state of play in saline aquifer CO2 storage technology will benefit from this course. The primary target audience is multi-disciplinary subsurface teams, and the content covers relevant aspects of geoscience, geophysics, and reservoir engineering.

Philip S. Ringrose is a Specialist in reservoir geoscience at Equinor and Adjunct Professor in CO2 Storage at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He has been engaged with many CCS project developments over the last 15 years and has published widely on reservoir geoscience and fluid flow in rock media, including the textbooks Reservoir Model Design and How to Store CO2 underground.

Ringrose holds a BSc in geology from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD in applied geology from University of Strathclyde in Scotland.  He is a member of SEG, EAGE, and the Geological Society (London), and was the 2014-2015 President of the EAGE. In 2018 he was appointed as Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh and in 2020 he was elected as a member of The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters (DKNVS).

Title: Modern use of electromagnetics in Nickel exploration

Presenter: Andrew Fitzpatrick

Location: Thomas Cooper Room, Coopers Alehouse, 316 Pulteney St, Adelaide

Date: Tuesday 13th February

Time: 5:30 pm for a 6:15 pm start

Cost: Members & students free, non-members $10, includes finger food & drinks

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/aseg-sant-branch-technical-talk-andrew-fitzpatrick-february-13th-tickets-804479448687?aff=oddtdtcreator

Overview:

The talk will cover the use of ground and airborne electromagnetic (EM) techniques in the search for magmatic Nickel deposits in Australia. The talk will cover several examples of how EM can be used.  1) The talk will show examples of airborne EM being used as a first pass targeting technique across belt scales. 2)  Provide an empirical study on how deep ground EM sees through conductive regolith cover. 3) methods to increase the depth investigation of ground methods, and 4) a feasibility forward modelling study of deploying an underground transmitter loop within a mine.

Bio:

Andrew Fitzpatrick (PhD) is the exploration project manager for Northern Australia at IGO. He joined IGO in 2017 as chief geophysicist and now manages the greenfields nickel projects across Australia. Andrew has over 20 years’ experience in the application of geophysics for mineral/groundwater exploration in government, academia, applied research, and the private mining sector. Andrew is also an Adjunct Associate Professor in Exploration Geophysics at Curtin University.

Title: My Journey in Geophysics

Speaker: 

Roger Miller / Geoscience Australia

Ravin Deo/ Geoscience Australia

Date and Time: 5:00pm (AEDT time), 30th Nov 2023

Biography:

Roger Miller graduated from University of Leicester (UK) with BSc (Hons) in Geophysics (Geological) in 1993 at the height of an industry downturn in Europe. After 2 years of temporary work he got his first role in the geophysics industry as a field geophysicist acquiring CSAMT, TDEM and MT, before travelling to Australia and finding employment as a Geophysical Project Manager, responsible for safe operations of geophysical field crews, often in remote areas and overseas. He has predominantly worked in industry with Fugro Ground Geophysics, Fugro Engineering Services, Fugro Airborne Surveys, Seabed Geosolutions and Petronas Carigali before joining Geoscience Australia in October this year. He has over 25 years’ experience in the interpretation and integration of multiple geophysical, geological and supplementary datasets, specialised in hydrocarbon and mineral exploration and shallow geophysics, utilising a combination of gravity gradiometry (FTG and FALCON), gravity, magnetic, marine CSEM/MT, seismic, airborne TDEM and well log data.

Ravin Deo recently joined Geoscience Australia as a geophysicist and comes from academia with experiences in Fiji and Australia. His experiences from the wider applied physics field imparts in him skills to approach a complex and technically challenging problem from various perspectives simultaneously. He has experience in numerical modelling and developing instrumentation and sensors for measurement and assessment and has strong expertise in geophysical systems for practical near-surface applications.   

ASEG WA Branch AGM and networking dinner. Have your say on the future of the ASEG! Treasurer vote for office bearers for 2024.

ASEG WA is looking for committee members for 2024. All EOI need to contact Michel Nzikou at wapresident@aseg.org.au. Also, we will be voting for the treasurer role as the current one is leaving us this year end. So, if your interest is in the treasurer role, please let us know as well.

Drinks and nibbles will be available from 5:30pm - 6:15pm. The committee report will commence promptly at 6:15pm. ASEG would like to thank our sponsors for their continued support.

CPP Parking offer cheap parking fee and it is very close to the venue. Also, the Parking by the State Library is nearby and is cheap too.

Register here.