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.

In 1994 the Lightning Ridge Mining Board determined that the title ‘Preserved Fields’ would be applied to older mining areas which would not be returned to their previous land use, adopting less strict rehabilitation standards.

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.

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.

This is the mineral subset of the NSW drilling dataset available from Geoscientific Data Warehouse. The drillhole data has been compiled over time from various sources including mineral exploration reports and departmental records.It provides drill collar information for mineral drillholes and associated data including classification of drilling purpose, drill type, licencee/driller information, date the hole was drilled and depth of hole drilled, azimuth/dip and references. This data is part of the New South Wales Geoscientific Data Warehouse (NSW GDW) series.

Pseudocolour image of the concentration of uranium in parts per million within in the upper 20 centimetres of the ground. Cooler colours indicate lower abundances of uranium and warmer colours represent higher abundances. Variations in uranium values are caused by varied mineral compositions in host rocks and soils. This statewide image was generated by merging many individual airborne radiometric surveys.

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.

The Critical Mineral Analysis Project data set contains the analysis of a representative collection of the Geological Survey of New South Wales (GSNSW) existing rock and analytical powder collections to support the exploration for critical minerals. Existing pulps and powders from whole rock igneous rocks and mine dump samples were submitted for geochemical analysis to ensure the application of modern analytical techniques with significantly improved precision, detection limits for an extended range of trace elements, including the full complement of rare earth elements. Suites of mineral and rock samples from the Economic Rock and Mineral Collection were also selected for analysis from a variety of deposits, deposit types and regions across NSW. These comprise mineralised rocks and drillcore billets, and aggregates of ore minerals.

Identifies Opal Prospecting Blocks in the State of NSW as defined by Part 10, Division 1, Section 224 of the Mining Act 1992 No. 29.

Pseudocolour image of isostatic residual Bouguer gravity with a histogram-equalised colour stretch. Cooler colours indicate lower Bouguer gravity values and warmer colours represent higher values. The intensity layer is the Bouguer gravity greyscale image enhanced by a 3x3 sun filter with the sun illumination set at 45 degrees elevation and 90 degrees azimuth. 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 isostatic effect is particularly strong under the Great Dividing Range.