b'Geophysics in the surveysNewsGeological Survey of New South Wales: Geophysical data acquisition in 2022 and 2023The Geological Survey of New South Wales (GSNSW), as part of the Mining, Exploration and Geoscience Division of the Department of Regional NSW, is conducting six geophysical surveys, totalling $5.8 million in 2022 and 2023. The surveys will cover an area of over a sixth of the State with new geophysical data. The data acquired will support numerous projects, such as:The NSW Critical Minerals Strategy. GSNSW will acquire geophysical data around Cobar, Forbes to Dubbo and in the New England Orogen, as these areas are highly prospective for critical minerals and improved geophysics will aid mineral discoveryThe NSW Governments Future Ready Regions strategy. GSNSW will be looking for deep groundwater for use in times of drought. Our programme focuses on Devonian sandstones in the Bancannia and Yathong troughs and small Devonian basins in the greater Dubbo to Forbes region Figure 1.Map of proposed geophysical surveys.The MinEx Collaborative Research Centre (CRC), which is working to310-350 km of roads and tracksof magnetic, radiometric, gravity, and improve exploration in mineralisedaround Cobar. elevation products, such as:terrain under cover. GSNSW will acquire geophysical data over theAll data will be made publicly availableTotal Magnetic Intensity (TMI)greater Forbes to Dubbo region andthrough MinView throughout 2023. TMI Reduced to the Pole (TMI RTP)around Cobar to support mapping1st Vertical Derivative of TMI RTPand drilling as part of MinEx CRC Geophysical imagery upgrades 2nd Vertical Derivative of TMI RTPOur ongoing mission to provideTilt Angle filter of TMI RTPprecompetitive geophysical data toGSNSW is continually updating itse K%encourage mineral exploration. Youstate-wide geophysical imagery. Ine Th ppmcan access all our open-file geophysicalthe past few years, releases of thee U ppmdata through MinView, the link hereinstate-wide magnetic and radiometricK-Th-U Radiometric Ternaryhas all geophysical data layers pre- merges have seen large improvementsRadiometric ratios (U2/Th, U/Th, U/K, loaded. in data density, merge quality, and gridTh/K)cell size, resulting in leading qualityIsostatically corrected Bouguer GSNSW is collaborating withproducts. GravityGeoscience Australia to acquire manyDEM (LiDAR derived)of the planned surveys. AirborneIn addition to state-wide products, electromagnetic (AEM) data will beGSNSW is also working on regional scaleIn addition to the regional merge acquired at 2.5 km line spacing. AEMmerges at an even higher resolutionproducts, GSNSW is working on acquisition has been completedover central NSW (scheduled forupdating our 1:250 000 map sheet over the Bancannia Trough with datarelease in May 2023 at Exploration ingeophysical packages. The procedure released in February 2023. The NSWthe Gallery). Where state-wide productsfor creation of these products is slightly Department of Customer Serviceare generated at 25 m grid cell size, thisdifferent to the state-wide and regional Spatial Services (DCS-SS) is acquiringpackage will be generated at best to 10merges; instead, the existing high quality airborne gravity over the entire statem, resulting in resolution roughly fivemerged data is clipped and stretched of NSW at 2.5 km spacing to improvetimes denser. This is made possible byto the specific 1:250 000 map sheets. the NSW geodetic model. GSNSW isthe wealth of high-resolution companyThe reason behind this procedure is collaborating with DCS-SS to infillsurveys in the region, flown at 50 m linedue to the nature of stretching colour coverage over the New Englandspacing or closer, as shown in Figure 2. bars across a dataset as vast as the Orogen to 1.25 km spacing. GSNSWentire state of NSW. Certain areas can will conduct a deep-crustal reflectionIncluded within this merge package willbe quite heavily muted as a result, and seismic survey over approximatelybe grids and images of the standard suitewhen clipped and stretched to display 27 PREVIEW FEBRUARY 2023'