Speaking at the Beattie Government's community Cabinet meeting in Moranbah on April 21, Robertson said the 15,000km airborne survey to begin next week would be centred around Moranbah and involve low-level sorties by specially-equipped aircraft.
"The aircraft will fly grid patterns 400 metres wide at a height of 80 metres and collect about 41,250 line kilometres of magnetic and radiometric data during the survey which is expected to take six to eight weeks to complete.
"Instruments aboard the aircraft will measure the region's natural radioactivity as well as distortions in the earth's magnetic field caused by geology in the environment.
"This data will help identify the nature of rocks present that may host coal and other mineralisation and hopefully provide key indicators to the presence of new coal reserves and other mineral deposits," he said.
Robertson said the survey - to be conducted by Fugro Airborne Surveys P/L - was part of a joint research project being conducted by the Queensland Government and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO) of Japan.
"The Northern Bowen Basin was chosen for the airborne survey because of the intense interest in coal geology of the area.
"The Bowen Basin has about 30 coal mines and is the major coal-producing area of the state. It has the potential for the discovery of new coal resources and deposits of other minerals," he said.
Robertson said the survey reinforced the Beattie Government's support of exploration in Queensland, and the data would be valuable to the coal, petroleum and mineral industries, and to coal seam gas exploration.
The radiometric data collected would also be useful for soil studies.
"This new survey extends the airborne geophysical survey coverage of the state and may result in the discovery of new coal resources to underpin further employment and economic growth in Central Queensland," he said.
The Department of Natural Resources and Mines has surveyed key prospective areas in Queensland since it started airborne geophysical surveying in 1990. The last survey was the Mt Isa-Georgetown survey in 2000.
