What goes into and comes out of the databases that are important to the resources sector
| Date: | Monday, 29 April 2024 |
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The Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DEMIRS) manages many mining and energy industry databases in Western Australia.
Gathering, validating, importing, storing, maintaining and delivering the data to the public requires many resources to meet demand for data by the resources and other sectors and ensure legislative compliance.
Below are five databases that host and deliver the huge volumes of data collected from industry.
MINEDEX (Mines and Mineral Deposits) database is a textual and spatial database containing information on mines, mineral occurrences and mining infrastructure. It contains site locations, a site’s current operating status and operating history, including past and present owners.
MINEDEX contains commodity information including resource estimates, production data, map sheets and tenements, mining proposals and other related environmental as well as the Abandoned Mine Sites dataset.
Importantly, the database creates unique site and project codes for tracking past and present industry activity throughout DEMIRS with daily updates from other databases including EARS2, SRS, RMS, eMiTs and Tengraph.
MINEDEX allows comprehensive searching of the textual database. Spatial searching occurs through GeoView.WA and links back into the textual database. Custom reports and bulk downloads are also available in multiple file formats. Sites from MINEDEX are displayed in other DEMIRS spatial systems including TENGRAPH, Royalties online, and Safety Regulation System.
Western Australian Petroleum and Geothermal Information Management System (WAPIMS) is a petroleum exploration database containing data on wells, geophysical surveys, titles, and other related exploration and production data. The system also contains the Core Library (Perth and Kalgoorlie) database.
WAPIMS contains released data and all public information arising from petroleum exploration activities within Western Australia’s State jurisdiction (onshore and State territorial waters) together with Commonwealth offshore activities released prior to 1 January 2012.
Western Australian Mineral Exploration System (WAMEX) - Mineral explorers are required to report annually on their exploration projects under Western Australian legislation. After a period of confidentiality, the exploration reports and data, referred to as open-file reports, are made available to the public. These are stored in the Western Australian Mineral WAMEX database.
Spatial searching is available through GeoView and the external website WAMEX Geochem, where a copy of the complete database is also available. Full text searching of individual reports is through WAMEX Search.
DRILLHOLES – the Company Mineral Drillhole Database (MDHDB) – contains more than four million historic drillholes and more than 12 million surface samples from open-file reports. Many of the reports stored in WAMEX contain surface samples and drillhole data that are manually extracted and imported into the MDHDB. The data stored in the MDHDB are made available when the reports are released to the public.
Spatial searching is available through GeoView and through the external site Western Australia Exploration Geochemistry Online.
MAGIX is a register and repository of geophysical survey datasets curated by the geophysics area in the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA). Most of the datasets registered in MAGIX are from airborne geophysical surveys reported to the department by exploration companies under the requirements of Mining Act legislation. The repository also contains datasets from government-funded regional geophysical surveys and company-submitted ground geophysical surveys.
The MAGIX online platform allows users to submit geophysical datasets for registration in MAGIX and access publicly available datasets. Survey datasets in the repository are found in GSWA’s GeoVIEW.WA interactive map platform.
