The NSW Government has ruled out considering a significant proportion of the state’s coal regions for proactive release under the Strategic Release Framework for Coal and Petroleum Exploration. In these mapped areas, new coal exploration can continue to occur directly adjacent to an existing coal title, if an exploration licence applicant meets approval requirements. If a coal exploration licence is granted, an operator is not permitted to access the land unless they have an access arrangement with the landholder. The grant of a coal exploration licence is not a guarantee of mining. An operator would still need to obtain development consent under the planning framework.

The Competitive Allocation Pathway is designed to maximise the value of a suitable unallocated coal resource through a competitive process. The Department of Regional NSW’s (Regional NSW) Guideline for the Competitive Allocation of Coal (December 2020) sets out when the Competitive Allocation Pathway applies.

This layer shows the boundaries of each airborne gravity survey acquired by the NSW Government. Details on the spacing and age of the gravity data within each project area are in the attributes. The information contained in this publication is based on knowledge and understanding at time of writing (April 2017). Because of advances in knowledge, users are reminded of the need to ensure that information upon which they rely is up to date. The information contained in this publication may not be or may no longer be aligned with government policy nor does the publication indicate or imply government policy.

EM-IP-MT survey data has been reported to the NSW government and released under the requirements of the NSW Mining Act 1992. Contained within this vector file is the location of surveys and acquisition parameters.

The NSW Government has acquired hyperspectral data to aid geological interpretation. The location of hyperspectral coverage is contained within this layer. The information contained in this publication is based on knowledge and understanding at time of writing (April 2017). Because of advances in knowledge, users are reminded of the need to ensure that information upon which they rely is up to date. The information contained in this publication may not be or may no longer be aligned with government policy nor does the publication indicate or imply government policy.

The semi-transparent Bouguer gravity image is displayed using cooler colours (blue) to indicate lower gravity values and warmer colours (red) represent higher values. The underlying greyscale tilt-angle filtered total magnetic intensity image has been reduced to the pole (Tilt TMI RTP). The tilt-angle filter of the total magnetic intensity produces a local positive maximum (white) over a magnetic source and is zero near the edge of the source (grey), and is useful for tracing geological structure below variable depths of cover. Both image layers were generated using a histogram-equalised colour-stretch. Attention: Please ensure your version of the NSW gravity merges contains the date ‘2024-10-30’ in their filename. An update was made to remedy location errors in the initial release. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Ternary radioelement potassium(K)-thorium(Th)-uranium(U) channel data. The image was generated by merging many individual airborne surveys and is a red-green-blue (RGB) composite using a histogram-equalised colour-stretch for each of the three channels. The red, green and blue channels represent K, Th and U respectively. Mixed compositions are indicated by the proportional blend of the corresponding additive primary colours (e.g. yellow indicates the presence of both K and Th, magenta the presence of K and U while aqua indicates the presence of Th and U). Black indicates low concentrations and white represents high concentrations for all three radioelements. The distribution of radioelements reflects the geochemistry and mineralogy of the near-surface, which may constitute either bedrock or regolith materials. The NSW statewide grid DVD set includes K values in percent(%), Th values in parts per million (ppm) and U values in parts per million (ppm). This dataset is part of the Geological Survey NSW State Geophysics data set series.

AEM curtains are a set of cross-sections generated using geophysical inversion to convert AEM data to conductivity (m/S) versus depth below surface (m). These data represent the conductivity of soil and rocks to a depth of about 400 m. A pseudocolour-stretch has been applied to the data. Blue represents low conductivity values and red represents high values. The colours vary due to; (1) natural variations in the electrical properties of soils, rocks, minerals and groundwater, (2) man-made structures, radio-transmissions and lightning strike and (3) AEM system artefacts.

Please view Matthews and Sheldon (2024) for full description and instructions: Contact Sam at samuel.matthews@regional.nsw.gov.au if you have any difficulty accessing the paper.

Isostatic residual Bouguer gravity image overlain on tilt-filtered total magnetic intensity reduced to the pole (Tilt TMI RTP) image. The image is a partially-transparent pseudocolour layer of Isostatic residual Bouguer gravity, with a histogram-equalised colour-stretch, overlain on a greyscale intensity layer of the Tilt TMI RTP, with a histogram-equalised stretch. Bouguer gravity compensates for variations in latitude, 'free-air' elevation and Bouguer correction (assuming a crustal density of 2.67 T/m³). The isostatic correction removes the effect of variations in the thickness of the Earth’s crust due to changes in topography. The tilt-angle filter of total magnetic intensity produces a local positive maximum over a magnetic source and is zero near the edge of the source, and is useful for tracing geological structure below variable depths of cover.