Geoscience Australia, then the Bureau of Mineral Resources, was established in 1946 to provide a national geological survey focus during the post war boom period. Since this time, the Organisation has been instrumental in the discovery of numerous mineral and petroleum deposits and continues to provide survey data and geological advice to government, industry and research institutions.
In the past Geoscience Australia's research has contributed to the discovery of numerous mineral deposits including:
- Manganese at Groote Eylandt, NT-one of the world's largest manganese deposits extending over 150km2. 152 million tonnes remains (1990). Geoscience Australia's geologists were the first to examine the deposit in detail.
- Geoscience Australia's geophysical data led to the discovery of Australia's first discovery of oil in commercial quantity at Moonie in Queensland in 1961.
- Uranium at Rum Jungle and Coronation Hill, NT-Rum Jungle area being the world's largest and richest uranium provinces. Geoscience Australia undertook the first systematic geological survey of the area.
- Panguna Copper deposit on Bougainville PNG-a huge copper-gold deposit with proven ore reserves in excess of 944 million tonnes.
More recently Geoscience Australia's aeromagnetic data was used to direct the exploratory drilling which led to the discovery of the Roxby Downs deposit in South Australia. Geoscience Australia's research into weathering profiles in the great Artesian Basin in south-western Queensland led to the discovery of significant extensions to the known opal fields in that region.
