Integrated interpretation applied to the Nardoo prospect, QLD.

Integrated interpretation plays a vital role in maximising the value from geoscience exploration datasets. In some cases, integrated interpretation refers to the idea of bringing a wealth of geological constraints, petrophysical constraints and geophysical datasets together into a common earth model. In other cases, particularly beneath cover, the availability of geological and petrophysical constraints is often limited, and geophysics plays a much larger role. The process of integrated interpretation then refers to the careful process of deciphering the key, often sparse, geological and petrophysical information, and determining how they relate to the geophysics, then capitalising on these relationships to develop a geological model consistent with all the geophysics and a priori information. The resulting model is less ambiguous than those that could have been derived from any of the input datasets considered in isolation. The purpose of this paper is to outline integrated interpretation concepts as applied to the Nardoo prospect in Queensland, approximately 215 kilometres north of Mt Isa. The area is covered by ground gravity, ground EM and airborne magnetic surveys. There is no outcrop within the area of interest, and at the time the work was completed, there was only a single drillhole (water bore) and no petrophysical data. The magnetic signatures appear to be affected by remanent magnetisation. Even in this adverse scenario, careful consideration of all the inputs and using the concepts behind integrated interpretation can lead to development of a geologically based exploration model. The resultant model explicitly incorporates cover, and magnetic basement domains, each attributed with magnetic remanence parameters derived through modelling and inversion.