Open File Data

Papua New Guinea

In 2002 Terra Search Pty Ltd was awarded Contract No. GIS02-02 “Technical Assistance for the management of data capture for the development of a Digital Geological Information Systems Dataset for the Department of Mining”. This was a sub-component of the World Bank Mining Sector Institutional Strengthening Project in PNG. The Project commenced in July 2002 for an original period of 3 years. The project was extended in June 2005 for a four month period until October 2005.

The principal objective of the project has been the capture of a significant proportion of the point data held in the Geological Survey of PNG library into a digital format.

In the period from July 2002 – October 2005, Terra Search Pty Ltd,  using PNG geologists and GIS staff, compiled stream sediment , soil, rock chip and drillhole ( locations, assays, surveys and geological descriptions) data,  into our Explorer 3 database and delivered it to the PNG Government. Several projects were carried out extending successively across the islands and mainland of PNG. The data were compiled from hard copy reports filed within the Geological Survey of PNG library.

Click to enlarge image

PNG Rock Chips

PNG S.Seds

PNG Soils

The project has completed compiling around 50% of the Open File data from the country. This has resulted in over 450,000 data records in the database, covering all aspects of minerals exploration.

  • Surface Samples : 310,246
  • Drill Hole Data : 141,008 data points including assays, surveys and geology logs.

The Department of Mines was consulted early in the project to set the priorities for the compilation. The decision was made to concentrate on the islands of PNG prior to moving on to the mainland at Milne Bay and moving up the Peninsular to the Highlands. The compilation commenced with Manus Island before moving to New Ireland and the Lihir- Feni Trend. New Britain was completed subsequently and then the Papuan Islands and lastly the mainland. To the end of program the compilation completed  collection of all data from the Papuan Peninsular through to the Wau-Bulolu area.

It resulted in the compilation of

  • 119,850 stream sediments
  • 107,452soil samples
  • 82,396 rock chip samples
  • 5,033 drillholes (various types) and their associated assays (114,870), surveys (7,654) and geological data.

The data compiled by Terra Search Pty Ltd is the intellectual property of the PNG Government and is available on request to the Department of Mines in PNG. Terra Search Pty Ltd retains copies of the data in our Explorer 3 Data Management system.