News Room

Central Australia Home To The Territory's Largest Gravity Survey

[ 12/05/2008 ]

Mines and Energy Minister Chris Natt today said mining in the Territory is set to get even better with the start of the Territory’s largest gravity survey.

"The total value of mineral and energy production is expected to increase by 34.3 per cent next financial year to $7.5 billion – boosting jobs and our strong economy," Mr Natt said.

"The Territory is a vast land of future opportunities - we want to realise those opportunities.

"The Northern Territory Government is working hard to boost mining activity in the Territory.

"That is why we recently increased funding for our Bringing Forward Discovery initiative by $2.4 million – meaning Bringing Forward Discovery is now worth $14.4 million over four years.

"A key component of Bringing Forward Discovery is a 110,000sqkm gravity survey – the largest in the Territory’s history – beginning today in central Australia.

"The gravity survey is particularly important to central Australia and is designed to encourage mining exploration investment in the region.

"My Department has engaged Atlas Geophysics to undertake the survey and Geoscience Australia will undertake the project management task for this survey.

"Central Australia contains a number of exciting mining prospects but remains under-explored, and we believe it has the potential for many more new discoveries.

"The gravity survey – which involves helicopters landing at regular intervals to measure subtle changes in the Earth’s gravity - measures the density of buried rock units and provides industry with a better understanding of what lies beneath the surface.

"This data can be used to generate a three-dimensional image of the underground geology, which can be used to target future exploration.

"This data acquisition is a flagship component of Bringing Forward Discovery at a cost of about $3 million over 4 years.

"The information will be made freely available to interested parties that are looking for new areas to explore, with the program expanded to other parts of the Territory in the future."