Drill Core Libraries

The Mineral Resources Division of the Department of Primary Industries has several drill core storage facilities throughout the state.

The Department of Primary Industries main Core Library, the W B Clarke Geoscience Centre at Londonderry in Sydney's west, is one of the most modern and comprehensive of its kind in the world with a highly mechanised and efficient retrieval system. The Core Library is managed by the Geological Survey and is open for inspection and sampling of drill core by industry and research geoscientists.

The E C Andrews Drill Core Facility located at Broken Hill was officially opened by the Minister for Mineral Resources on 6 October 2006. The new centre is located at 42-56 Pinnacles Place, Broken Hill.

Coal core libraries located at Gunnedah, Gulgong, Wyee Bay and Yerrinbool are under control of the Coal & Petroleum Resources Branch.

For further information, please contact Geological Survey of NSW.

AuScope National Virtual Core Library (NVCL)

A new program to operate from 2007-08 is the AuScope National Virtual Core Library (NVCL) project, resulting from a successful application for $43 million of Commonwealth funds by the AuScope consortium under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). AuScope has been established to develop a national geoscience and geospatial research and applied science infrastructure system, with co-investment by state government agencies and research institutions. Part of this infrastructure will be contributed by the NVCL project, planned to facilitate research into Australian mineral systems through the increased knowledge gained by extensive hyperspectral logging and imaging of stored drill core.

$2.6 million of the NCRIS funding, plus co-investment from each State and Territory, will be directed towards the construction of Hylogger systems by CSIRO for each jurisdiction. A system is expected to be installed at the Londonderry facility during 2007-08 and be re-located to Broken Hill from time to time. Data thus generated will be supported by CSIRO-developed software and be accessible via web- enabled databases on the AuScope GRID.

Reference collections

The Division of Mineral Resources is custodian of the State Economic Mineral Reference Collection (containing about 24,000 specimens) and the Palaeontological Reference Collection (containing about 45,000 fossils). Further information on these collections is available from the Specialist Geological Services (SGS) Section at the Mineral Resources facility at Londonderry.