The Exploration Data Centre (EDC) at 68 Pineapple Street Zillmere houses a major store of geoscientific information collected from the mid-1800s to the present.

The collections include drill core and cuttings from both Departmental and company exploration programs, and rock/geochemical samples and petrographic slides from Geological Survey mapping fieldwork. These are available for observation. These services are priced (PDF, 9 kB) to support exploration, mining and research.

The extensive hard copy company exploration reports collection is now available as scanned documents in QDEX.

Core and cuttings

The EDC holds 180 000 boxes (about 380 000m) of core and cuttings, representing samples from nearly 8000 holes.

The basis of the collection is core from the Government's own stratigraphic and coal drilling programs between the mid-1950s and 1990. There is also core from earlier work (some dating back to the 1890s), and material is continually acquired from companies as a condition of exploration permits.

The Department aims to develop a core collection which illustrates the complete stratigraphic succession in all of the State's provinces and major geological formations, and which provides a representative sample of all of the important mineral deposits (including coal and petroleum basin strata), from which their geoscientific and geotechnical features, and resource potential, can be determined.

The EDC is continually seeking material to add to its collection, particularly core from mineral exploration. Apart from the legislative requirements, the department is interested to hear of any core that companies may wish to provide for the collection, particularly when it may otherwise be discarded. To assist you with providing core, a submission form (PDF, 355 kB) with associated guidelines (PDF, 411 kB) are attached, along with a metadata file (Attachment 1) (PDF, 40 kB) an explanatory dictionary (Attachment 2) (PDF, 345 kB) and delivery guidelines (Attachment 3) (PDF, 448 kB).

Core is available for inspection in a purpose-built all-weather courtyard. Covered footware is required at all times. The EDC requires at least 24-hours notice to lay out core. Requests to sample should be made in writing to the Manager. Sampling and slabbing can be undertaken for clients by EDC staff. Acid, sample bags, tags and geology picks/hammers are supplied.

Geophysical Data

The Centre is the official repository for all seismic data submitted under legislation. It stores digital field and processed seismic survey data as well as support data and scanned and original sepia sections. Enquiries should be made to the Seismic Data Officer Ph: 07 3863 8714 or 07 3035 5243.

HyLogger^TM data

The Centre houses HyLogger^TM non-destructive scanning technology developed by CSIRO that offers cost-effective means of capturing detailed mineralogical data along with a high-resolution digital image of the drill core in their original trays, thus digitising the whole core-logging process.

Regional core storage

The Department has regional drill core facilities in Mount Isa and Mount Morgan. Core from a range of prospects and mine sites in Northern and Central Queensland have been added to these facilities.

Contact the Northern Regional Geologist Rick Spence (07 4799 7669, or 0467 748 197) for Mount Isa, Central Region Geologist (07 4936 0368) for Mount Morgan, or Exploration Data Centre Manager Mark Livingstone (07 3863 8710 ) to arrange to view core or to discuss submission of core for the collection.

For more information contact:

Geological Survey of Queensland
Level 10, 119 Charlotte St
Brisbane 4000

or the Geological information hotline
+61 7 3006 4666 (9.00am to 4.00pm EST working days)

or email the Geological Information Hotline