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.

This layer shows a depth slice from a 3D resistivity model of the crust derived from an inversion of the AusLAMP NSW long period MT data.

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.

Identifies areas in the Lightning Ridge Mineral Claims District and White Cliffs Mineral Claims District where the Department has declared reserves over which mineral claims cannot be granted, or can only be granted provided that special conditions are met, as defined by Part 17, Division 2, Section 367 of the Mining Act 1992 No 29.

The New South Wales 1:1 500 000 scale geology has been compiled from numerous geological maps and regional geological synthesis datasets from the Geological Survey of New South Wales and Geoscience Australia. As part of a project to produce a surface geology map of Australia, Geoscience Australia (Liu et al. 2005) undertook substantial simplification and generalisation of these datasets to produce a seamless geology dataset of New South Wales at 1:1 000 000. This 1:1 000 000 geology dataset has been further simplified, generalised and updated by the Geological Survey of New South Wales to produce the present data set at 1:1 500 000

Geothermal gradient model (2023) created by Geognostics with support from government and industry. The geothermal gradient describes how temperature increases with depth inside the Earth. It is expressed in degrees Celsius per kilometre (°C/km). The linear geothermal gradients are from the top of SEEBASE to the surface. These were calculated using the combined heat-flow contribution of multiple crustal heat sources including upper mantle, radiogenic upper crust, and sediment thickness. The highest calculated geothermal gradients are generally related to areas interpreted to be underlain by granitic intrusions in the basement. The composition and heat production characteristics of the granites are largely unconstrained by analyses

The NSW Mine Reuse project investigated the occurrence of critical metals in mining waste material. It involved a preliminary geochemical and mineralogical characterisation study across multiple metalliferous and coal sites on various waste material types, aiming to identify subsequent secondary prospectivity opportunities. The study was completed in collaboration between the Geological Survey of NSW, the Sustainable Minerals Institute at The University of Queensland, Geoscience Australia and RMIT University. The program consisted of hand-auger drilling and sample collection from various waste sources, including tailings, waste rock, slags, coal rejects and fly ash. Each sample then underwent a 48-element geochemical analysis, with targeted mineralogy and mineral chemistry conducted on selected samples to better understand the distribution of elevated critical elements.

AEM data has been acquired by the NSW government through NSW Exploration, Discovery 2000 and New Frontiers Initiative funding. Contained within this vector file is the location of AEMsurveys and acquisition parameters. The information contained in this publication is based on knowledge and understanding at time of writing (February 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.

Gravity gradiometry 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.