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Integrated assessment of deep

sedimentary structures
Exploring groundwater resources in
the Perth Basin, Western Australia
Mike Trefry, CSIRO
 Acknowledgements
Thanks to the PERUMIN organizers!
CSIRO Minerals Down Under (MDU) Flagship
Colleagues in the Western Australian Geothermal
Centre of Excellence
 WAGCoE Colleagues
Klaus Regenauer-Lieb (Director), Nick Timms, Cedric Griffiths, Lynn Reid, Soazig Corbel,
Thomas Poulet, Ludo Ricard, Oliver Schilling, Heather Sheldon, Florian Wellmann,
Lionel Esteban, Jean-Baptiste Chanu, Paul Wilkes, Grant Douglas, Anna Kaksonen,
Dan Lester, Guy Metcalfe, Lucas Pimienta, Sebastian Gutbrodt, Stephanie Tressler,
Gemma Bloomfield, Cody Evans, Ali Karrech, Claudio Delle Piane, Remi Alix, Frank
Horowitz, Moyra Wilson, Katy Evans, Laura Sttenbecker, Shankar Israni, Joseph
Hamilton, Patricia Cope, Chris Dyt, Xiu Huang, Jacob Hopkins, David Champion,
Hugo Olierook, Steve Reddy, Brendan Florio, Dariush Nadri, Joel Sarout, Hui-Tong
Chua, Alex Christ, Peter Whittaker, Oliver Gaede, Christoph Schrank, Jie Liu, Lucy
Leyland, Len Baddock, Klaus Gessner, Liam OBryan, Libby Colgan, Tom Beckerling,
Allison Hortle, Sarah Glasson, JJ Leong, William Tran, Nathan White, Susan
Lissiman, Dylan Irvine, Aspasia Kouhsen, Cate Walker, Andrew Minto, Chris
Botman, Kristina Kazakoff, Lisa Miotti, Stephane Francois-Lubin, Guillaume Pons,
Charlotte Dos Santos, Sunil Varma, Sean Webb, Margaret Pryor, Melina Ielati
 Genesis
Western Australian Geothermal Centre of Excellence (2009-2012)
Tasked to map out hydrothermal resources in the Perth Basin of Western
Australia, down to 3 km depth and deeper
Developed an integrated geosciences workflow suitable for
mapping/characterizing groundwater, hydrocarbons and heat reservoirs

www.geothermal.org.au/Research.htm
 Outline
1. Water in mining basic context
2. Groundwater fundamentals
3. Integrated groundwater assessment in the Perth
Basin
4. Lessons to share
1. Water in Mining
 Water in Mining
Water is fundamental to mining used for heating, cooling,
dust suppression, processing and treatment
Water budgets are critical to below-ground and above-ground
operations (in situ recovery operations rely on groundwater)
Too much water, or too little, is a big problem
Managing water quality throughout the mine life is key to
efficient mining
Water is a major vector for environmental impact
 Managing Water
Too much water iron ore mining in the Pilbara
Mining is moving below the water table
60 GL/year fresh water to be produced (by one company)
Long way from population centres
 Providing Water
Not enough water Escondida in the Atacama
Groundwater supply is under stress
$3B seawater desalination plant to be built (2500 L/s)
Pipeline 160 km from the coast to the mine (+3 km altitude)
 Responsibility
Major mines need water strategy plans
A plan should show how a mine will operate profitably and
responsibly in cooperation with neighbouring water users
Strategies must be informed by sound understandings of the
local and regional hydrological resources
Groundwater is always problematic!
Where? How deep?
How much is there?
Is it useable? What is the water quality?
Is it replenished?
2. Groundwater Fundamentals
 Basic Terminology
Aquifer: a geological formation that yields water when
pumped
Groundwater: water that resides in an aquifer
Porosity: amount of void space per unit volume of aquifer
Permeability: measures the connectedness of pore spaces
Recharge: the rate of groundwater replenishment to an
aquifer, e.g. from rainfall.
 Aquifer Systems
Good Aquifer: high porosity/permeability and suitable water quality
Bad Aquifer: low porosity/permeability or unsuitable water quality
Unsustainable Aquifer: total groundwater loss exceeds the total recharge

Aquifer systems
can be complex

livingwatersmart.ca/water-act/groundwater.html
 3. Integrated Groundwater
Assessment in the Perth Basin
Sedimentary Basins in WA
 Perth Basin
Perth Basin is a deep (>10 km) half-graben feature filled with
sediments
Provides water for 90% of WA population
Groundwater resources below 1 km depth are largely
unexplored
Over-use of groundwater in the top 1 km, plus a drying
climate
Future industrial and urban development requires a sound
understanding of natural groundwater resources
 GW Resource Definition

Sufficient Volume
Porosity
Geological structure / architecture

Sufficient flow
Recharge
Interrelated!
Permeability structure

Sufficient water quality

Rock mineralogy
Fluid geochemistry
Environmental conditions
 Data Gaps
Perth Basin architecture Shallow formations

Aquifer permeability
 Building on the Past
How can we explore the deeper resources in the Perth Basin?
An integrated study approach
Compile, collate and QA/QC existing data
Build a quantitative basin geomodel using all the data
Assess uncertainties (structural, parametric)
Recommend future investigations to minimize geomodel
uncertainty
 Basic Approach
Data sources
Hydrogeological reports and water well data
Petroleum/gas exploration drilling logs and cores
Geophysics (gravity, aeromagnetics, seismics)
Surface geology
DEM topography and bathymetry
Depth to basement maps
Previous structural models

a new structural model

Legacy Data

Well data coverage

Integrating Data
Refine and Iterate

Calibration
Cross-validation
Assemble Structures

Faculty of Science and Engineering

Department of Applied Geology
Inspect Structures
 Populate!
Now we have an improved structural model, we need ...

Hydrogeological reports and water well data

Petroleum/gas exploration drilling logs and cores
Geophysics (gravity, aeromagnetics, seismics)
Surface geology
Sedimentology (depositional environment)
Petrophysics (rock properties)
Geochemistry and mineralogy

a new property model

Faulting
New Interpretations

Integrated fault interpretations

Fault Properties
Lithologies

Wide range of lithofacies types

Consistent with fluvial
depositional systems

Yarragadee Cattamarra Eneabba Lesueur

Formation Coal Measures Formation Formation

Faculty of Science and Engineering

Department of Applied Geology
Fine Stratigraphy

Heavily layered lithologies

Long sequences of fluvial
depositional processes
Mineral Occurrence
Poro-Perm
Forward Models

Forward Stratigraphic
Modelling with SEDSIM
Simulated Perms

Calibrated SEDSIM results

For the Yarragadee Formation
Basin-Scale Model

First whole-of-Basin
property model
 High-Resolution
Superficial
Aquifer
Leederville
Aquifer
Yarragadee
Aquifer
Perth metro
Perth property model

Vertical exaggeration
x10
Reservoir Analysis

Proposed faults
correlate with
groundwater
temperature @ 250 m
Uncertainty

Quantify structural
uncertainty via entropy
measures
Exploration Targets

Identify maximum
uncertainty in competing
structural models
 Summary
Re-analyzed legacy data sets
New geophysical data acquisition campaigns
Integrated, calibrated and cross-validated
New 3D structural and property models for Perth Basin
Easy computations of aquifer locations, volumes and
properties
Quantified uncertainty using entropy measures
Identified targets for subsequent investigation
4. Lessons to Share
 Lessons to share

Seismic studies can be expensive and difficult in populated

areas
Deep exploration drilling/coring may require more expensive
drilling technology than shallow groundwater drilling
Maximize the benefit of existing data by re-analyzing with
modern tools
Multidisciplinary approaches can help
Do the thinking before committing to major capital
expenditure on exploration
 Muchas Gracias!

Mike Trefry
Minerals Down Under Flagship
CSIRO
mike.trefry@csiro.au
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