Exploration for mineral wealth from the air is poised for a leap into the 21st Century with the development by Australian scientists of the world's most sophisticated airborne prospecting instrument.

Called CERBERUS after the keen-eyed guardian of the Classical Underworld, the device is being developed by the Perth-based World Geoscience Corporation Ltd (WGC) in collaboration with CSIRO Exploration and Mining and the CRC for Australian Mineral Exploration Technologies.

The $12 million project, which is scheduled for completion in 2000, is one of the first to receive funding under the Commonwealth Government's new START research and development program.

The CERBERUS system is expected to significantly expand the use of airborne exploration technologies and keep Australia at the forefront of the field.

In a single flight, CERBERUS will collect exploration information æ electromagnetic, magnetic, radiometric and spectral æ which would otherwise require three separate airborne surveys.

Designing an airborne system capable of accommodating different types of highly sensitive instruments æ which would normally interfere with one another æ is a major scientific and technical challenge. So too is the need to develop instruments small enough to fit in a single aerial survey aircraft.

As part of the strategy, new and more compact mineral mapping spectrometers and electromagnetic systems are being specifically designed to operate in the same aircraft as conventional magnetics and radiometrics instrumentation.

Production of a prototype high resolution spectrometer, which will give detailed information on surface minerals such as clays and iron oxides, is already well under way, with separate funding to CSIRO and WGC from the Commonwealth Department of Industry, Science and Tourism. Test flights for the new spectrometer are planned for mid-1998.

Advanced processing software is being developed to ensure that exploration companies can make the most of the vast quantities of information collected by CERBERUS. The final products will include a three-dimensional image of the area surveyed.

This next generation airborne geophysics technology will also have the potential to cost-effectively gather and process information for use in the environmental management of marine and land-based resources.

More information:
Dr Andy Gabell 08-9273 6474
Judy Thomson 02-9490 8757