Project activity South Nicholson National Drilling Initiative
The South Nicholson National Drilling Initiative (NDI) Carrara 1 provides unique insights into the energy and mineral resource potential of this frontier region.
The NDI Carrara 1 stratigraphic drill hole was completed in late 2020, as a collaboration between Geoscience Australia, the Northern Territory Geological Survey (NTGS) and the MinEx CRC. NDI Carrara 1 is the first drill hole to intersect the as yet undifferentiated Proterozoic rocks of the newly discovered Carrara Sub-basin. NDI Carrara 1 is located on the western flanks of the Carrara Sub-basin on the South Nicholson seismic line (17GA-SN1), reaching a total depth of 1,751 m, intersecting ca. 630 m of Cambrian Georgina Basin overlying ca. 1,100 m of Proterozoic carbonates, black shales and minor siliciclastics.
Location of the NDI Carrara 1 stratigraphic drill hole and South Nicholson (L210) and Barkly (L212) seismic survey lines across the South Nicholson region
What we are doing
We are undertaking a range of investigations into the lithology, stratigraphy and geotechnical properties of NDI Carrara 1 based on wireline data, together with a range of analyses of over 400 physical samples distributed through the entire core. These analyses include geochronology, isotope studies, mineralogy, inorganic and organic geochemistry, petrophysics, geomechanics, thermal maturity, and petroleum systems investigations.
Outputs
During this project activity, Geoscience Australia and partners have collected:
- routine and planned targeted samples, including planned analyses, available in the downloadable spreadsheet [XLSX 84.1 KB]
- hylogger data, available on the Northern Territory Geological Survey’s Geoscience Exploration and Mining Information System (GEMIS) website
- sample and core photos, available on the Data Discovery Portal.
Collaboration
Related information
Sediment-hosted base metal mineral potential maps
Cloutier, J., Ford, A., Huston, D., Doublier, M., Schofield, A., Waltenberg, K., de Caritat, P., Fraser, G., Beyer, E., Bastrakov, E., Czarnota, K. (2023)
Exploring for the Future - Fluid Inclusion Petrology and Microthermometry on selected samples from NDI Carrara 1
Cowan, S., Hall, D., Phiukhao, W., Chao, J., Carson, C., Boreham, C. (2023)
Screening Australia’s Basins for CO2-Enhanced Oil Recovery
Tenthorey, E., Kalinowski, A. SSRN (2022)
