Regional surveys in Victoria ? experiences and lessons

Abstract

The Victorian Government, through the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, is in the final year of a 3-year, $16.5 million program, the Victorian Initiative for Minerals and Petroleum (VIMP) to support the state's mineral and petroleum exploration industry. Projects being undertaken as part of the initiative include acquisition of airborne magnetic and radiometric data, gravity and regional seismic data, stratigraphic drilling, geophysical interpretation and geological mapping. Major airborne survey areas are in the northwestern part of the state, the eastern highlands and the Otway Basin. Since 1992, major changes have taken place in legislation, quality of available data and government customer focus. This encouragement from government has resulted in a significant increase in exploration in Victoria. However, many areas still remain under-explored. For the first time, the explorer now has access to high-quality detailed regional scale datasets to include in a modern exploration program and to help determine mineral exploration targets. The VIMP program has led to an increased level of sophistication in survey and product requirements. Major developments in data acquisition and processing have taken place in the airborne survey industry partly as a result of the VIMP surveys. Government and industry require contractors to carry out surveys to obtain high quality data, in a timely and cost-effective manner. In addition, Government requires regionally consistent data and marketable products with a long shelf life.