In NSW all prospecting and mining activities must be carried out under an approved title granted under the Mining Act (NSW). The term ‘title’ refers to all exploration and mining authorities, authorisations, tenements, licences, leases, and claims. Acronyms are often used to describe a title, e.g. AUTH, EL, PEL, ML. An approved title gives the holder the right to conduct exploration activities or mining activities within a specified area according to the conditions defined in the Mining Act for each title type. A titleholder can be an individual, group of individuals, a company, or group of companies, and some titles are held by the NSW Government. ‘Current’ or ‘active’ titles are currently in force and include titles granted under older versions of the Mining Act. Some title type e.g. CMLs have been granted in the 1973 and 1992 versions of the Mining Act, leading to duplicate title identifications e.g. CML6 (1973) and CML6 (1992). The year of the Act is essential in understanding the legislation and conditions relevant to that particular title. When a title expires or is cancelled, suspended or revoked it becomes ‘inactive'/'historical’. At this time it is moved to the historic titles data set. Titles in this dataset are onshore titles only (onshore or within 3km of the NSW coastline). All other offshore titles are regulated by the Federal Government. As different exploration and mining activities can coexist over the same area, titles can overlap e.g. exploration for Group 1 minerals and exploration for Group 2 may occur in the same area under different title holders. Where this overlap occurs, a cooperation agreement must be in place between the coexisting title holders. Approval from the Minister for Regional NSW, or a department delegate, is required.

The Geological Survey of NSW developed a Seamless Geology of UTM Zone 56 during2014 as part of a project to develop a seamless vector geology dataset of the best available geological mapping data covering the whole of NSW.The overarching aims of the Statewide Seamless Geology Project were to: (i) compile the different original scales, formats and rock unit naming conventions into a consistent, statewide format; (ii) edge-match the geology across existing map sheets; and (iii) interpret the basement geology under cover. The resulting geodatabase comprises a series of layers which include: (i) solid basement geology; (ii) cover rocks (defined as undeformed and unmetamorphosed); (iii) Mesozoic igneous rocks; and (iv) Cenozoic sedimentary and igneous rocks. The project was divided into 3 major stages corresponding to the UTM zones which divide New South Wales. This dataset includes the seamless geology layers from the NSW portion of UTM Zone 56 (ie.east of 150 degrees longitude to the coast).