Surface Geochemistry Samples from Expired Mineral Licenses Since 1965

Australian surface geochemistry samples derived from company reports of expired mineral exploration and mining licenses. Data have been collected since 1965 and are managed by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action. The dataset includes soil and stream sediment samples, typically from weathered profiles, and is being superseded by a newer GEOCHEMISTRY dataset.

Use Cases

• Identify potential mineral exploration targets based on surface geochemistry anomalies.
• Analyze regional geochemical baselines for environmental studies using soil and sediment sample data.
• Train models for predicting subsurface geology from surface sample characteristics mentioned in the description.

Strengths

• Data collection spans a long temporal range, with reports included since 1965.
• Samples are explicitly defined, including soil and active stream bed sediments.
• Available under a permissive CC-BY-4.0 license.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset is noted as being superseded, which may affect its currency.

Provenance

Source

Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action

Collection Method

Derived from Minerals and Petroleum's SITES Oracle RDBMS, obtained from company reports.

Time Range

Since 1965

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-09 08:23:52.987133; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia (implied from data_gov_au platform and authoring department)