This collection contains mineral specimens from locations of economic mineral importance in NSW>

Pseudocolour image of the percentage of potassium (K%) in the upper 20 centimetres of the ground. Cooler colours indicate lower abundances of potassium and warmer colours represent higher abundances. Variations in potassium values are caused by varied mineral compositions in host rocks and soils. This statewide image was generated by merging many individual airborne radiometric surveys.

Descriptions and photos of microscope slides of rock samples. These are closely associated with Field Observations.

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 NSW Seamless Geology Project was originally a five-year initiative of the Geological Survey of New South Wales which commenced in late 2013 and aimed to provide a statewide compilation of the best available digital geological mapping data in an internally consistent format. The overarching aims of the NSW 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. Due to the size of the project, the work was divided into UTM zones, starting in the east with Zone 56, then moving west to Zone 54, and finishing with Zone 55. The western half of Zone 55 was completed in 2018, after which the results were merged with the previously completed Zones to produce version 1 of the NSW Seamless Geology dataset. Completion of this stage saw the end of phase 1 of the Seamless Geology Project, but it is intended that the Seamless Geology dataset will be continually updated and refined as new digital geological mapping data becomes available. Updates to the Seamless Geology dataset generally occur on an annual basis. Version 2.5 is the 7th major update to the NSW Seamless Geology and was released in May 2025. This release includes: a new layer to capture Cenozoic ‘sub-basaltic gravels and deep leads’; significant upgrades to the mapping of numerous areas in the Lachlan Orogen (particularly the Coolac Serpentinite Belt, Gilmore Fault Zone, and the Eden-Merimbula area); a major update to the mapping of the Gunderbooka 1:100,000 map sheet area and the Port Macquarie–Laurieton area; and attribute updates, data additions, and minor error fixes to all layers. NOTE: A substantial amount of overlay, erase and intersect geoprocessing of the original multi-layered Seamless Geology was undertaken to produce the single layer surface NSW Seamless Geology dataset. Due to small tolerance differences between different layers in the Seamless Geology dataset, this has, in some places, created small “sliver” polygons between boundaries common to more than one layer of the original multi-layered NSW Seamless Geology. This is a known issue with the current single layer Seamless Geology dataset and while some attempt has been made to resolve these issues, a number of small “sliver” polygons remain. Users are cautioned to be aware of this problem when using this dataset at high zoom levels (ie. under 1:1,000 scale) and to refer to the full Seamless Geology dataset for clarification.

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 NSW Seamless Geology Project was originally a five-year initiative of the Geological Survey of New South Wales which commenced in late 2013 and aimed to provide a statewide compilation of the best available digital geological mapping data in an internally consistent format. The overarching aims of the NSW 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. Due to the size of the project, the work was divided into UTM zones, starting in the east with Zone 56, then moving west to Zone 54, and finishing with Zone 55. The western half of Zone 55 was completed in 2018, after which the results were merged with the previously completed Zones to produce version 1 of the NSW Seamless Geology dataset. Completion of this stage saw the end of phase 1 of the Seamless Geology Project, but it is intended that the Seamless Geology dataset will be continually updated and refined as new digital geological mapping data becomes available. Updates to the Seamless Geology dataset generally occur on an annual basis. Version 2.6 is the 8th major update to the NSW Seamless Geology and was released in 2026. This release includes major remapping of the northern Rockley–Gulgong Volcanic Belt; a significant upgrade to the mapping of Broughton Island; significant updates to the Lachlan Orogen and Cenozoic Sedimentary Province in the Canbelego 1:100,000 map sheet area; and attribute updates, data additions, and minor error fixes to all layers. Murray Basin During editing for version 2.1 of the Seamless Geology, the Cenozoic Murray Basin of southwest NSW was divided into its constituent units (formation or group level), with particular emphasis on the Loxton Sands, an economically significant unit containing numerous heavy mineral sand placer deposits and a number of mines producing rutile, zircon, and ilmenite. The Murray Basin linework was edited to reconcile the data with mapping in the existing NSW Seamless Geology dataset. See the lineage section for further details.

The petrophysics dataset contains petrophysical (rock physical properties) data acquired by the Geological Survey of NSW. It stores measurements of samples and mapping sites collected under the Field Observations database, including from drillholes. It currently covers the following techniques: mass properties, electrical, radiometric, seismic rock physics, magnetic susceptibility and magnetic remanence. It contains raw readings and calculated results, from field and laboratory environments. Vector and tensor magnetic properties (remanence and anisotropic magnetic susceptibility (AMS)) are oriented to in-situ (geographic) and fold-corrected (stratigraphic) co-ordinates where sample and bedding orientation are known.

Surface sample geochemistry that has been reported by title holders to the department as part of the mineral exploration reporting requirements. The data is provided annually in the form of exploration data files and stored with the relevant report in DIGS. Data mining of digital exploration data files stored in DIGS is largely complete for the period 2001 to present. Data mining continues for DIGS reports earlier than 2001 using OCR (optical character recognition) software to convert raster data into digital files for loading. Validation of data is an ongoing process. Data available to the public and industry is restricted to DIGS open file reports.

Operating mines in NSW is a small subset of sites taken from the NSW Mineral Occurrence dataset which represent an active mining operation. An operation is a deposit or group of deposits of similar style within the same district, operated by a common operator. Generally an operation will have a single common processing plant. An operation is considered to be ‘operating’ (active mine) if ore is being produced and a royalty paid from at least one of its deposits. The Operating status of each deposit is maintained in the MetIndex database and based on the following definition. Operating Mines Layer: For the purpose of an operating mines layer for metallic minerals, an operating mine is a mining operation where production is on a continuous or intermittent basis. Operation: An Operation is a deposit or a group of deposits of a similar style within the same district, operated by a common operator. Generally an operation will have a single common processing plant. Operating status: Operating status is continuous where there is reported production at least twice in a 12 month period, operating mines with less reported production are classified as intermittent.