The Drill Down on Drill Core An asset of much significance

Susan Faulkner, Coal Geoscientist, Geological Survey of Queensland . 1962 find a suitable drill site . 1965 selected site . Another 5 years of construction and preparations . Drilling began in 1970. . Depth of “SG-3” reached 12,262 km (7.6 miles) in Kola Peninsula, 1994. north-west portion of Russia . New drilling methods proved quite inventive. A plethora of information from SG-3 drill core

• Rock mechanics • Water • Microscopic marine single cell fossils

• He, H, N, CO2 gases • Last of the core dated to about 2.7 billion years old. Rock from a depth of 12,260 metres. Samples from the SG3.

The project officially closed in 2005 and in 2008 the site was abandoned Photo credit: Rakot13 / Wikimedia Commons

The Kola Superdeep Borehole is still a scientifically useful site, and research there is ongoing. The huge repository of core samples are housed at Zapolyarniy, about 10 kilometers south of the borehole One metre can hold 500 years of information

The Main Archive Freezer at the U.S. National . Past and atmospheric concentrations of Laboratory carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.

. Past temperatures reconstructed by analysing

proposition of isotopic deuterium water (2H2O).

. Sodium, calcium and sulphates provide information on past sea salt concentration, , dust, marine life as as volcanic activity Antarctic Ice-Core Stations

Most ice cores come from Greenland and Antarctica where the longest extend to 3.7km (over 2 miles) in depth ( Vostok). Greenland Antarctica NGRIP – 123,000 year record (3,085 m) Dome C – 800,000 year record (3,190 m) Vostok – 400,000 year record (3,769 m) Law Dome – 2,000 year record (1,200 m) Commenced in 1990, a Russian team had broken through to the lake for the second time. Issues . Old ice cores were drilled to look for evidence of past climates, rather than for life. . Drilling equipment not sterilised. . Contamination . Verify findings from another subglacial system, or drill another hole. (New Scientist)

An ice core from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide project. The dark band is a layer of volcanic ash that settled on the ice sheet approximately 21,000 years ago. Credit: Heidi Roop, NSF (National Science ) 29 April, 2015. Glacier sites worldwide from which glaciologists have obtained ice cores . Map compiled by the Byrd Polar Research Centre, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. Charters Towers

Miles

All boreholes Coal CSG Mineral Stratigraphic Core, cuttings, sidewall held Exploration Data Centre aka EDC, Zillmere

As part of the GSQ’s Future Resources Program 2013 -16, $5million was allocated to construct a new storage warehouse adjacent the present facility in Zillmere. Construction commenced in January 2016 with completion this week. . Purpose build in 1979

. 4000+ tonnes of drill core

. 700+ km of core

. Core, cuttings & sidewall core from over 11,600 boreholes stored and catalogued

. Represents in excess of 2.8 million metres of drilling

. Value (cost of redrilling only) in excess of $3.5 billion

. Stratigraphic, mineral, coal, CSG and petroleum exploration drilling

. Earliest drilling conducted at the end of the 19th century

We’re here to help you . Publically available for inspection and sampling • EDC also collects and provides access to: . 36000 Hardcopy company exploration reports . 23000 Seismic survey sections . Field logistics for the GSQ Geological Survey of Queensland collections:- . Sales products . 37000 rock thin sections . 15000 reference rocks . 4000 geochem samples . 6000 geochem powders Mark Livingstone . 19000 slide blocks Phone: +61 7 3096 6810 Fax: +61 7 3096 6886 Mobile: 0408 887 685 Email: [email protected] The John Campbell Miles Drill core Storage Facility, Mount Isa

Randal Thorpe Phone: +61 7 4743 0078 Mobile: +61 459 822 434 Fax: +61 7 4743 0156 Email: [email protected] • Purpose built in 2010

• 890 + tonnes of drill core

• 60 + linear kilometres of core

• Core and cuttings from nearly 1,400 boreholes

Represents in excess of 60,000 metres of drilling John Campbell Miles • Memorial Clock, Mount Isa

• Value (cost of redrilling only) in excess of $100 million

• Earliest date of drill core held September 1967

• Drill core from Charters Towers moved to Mount Isa in 2011 Hylogger . Non-destructive, quick testing of core

. High resolution colour digital photography

. Repeatability in data

. Mineralogy using 3 spectrometers and The Spectral Geologist (TSG) software

. Colour-coded mineralogy for easy interpretation

. Provide interpretation of minerals for the full length of the core

. The ability to view locations of HyLogged holes in MinesOnlineMaps

Hylogging along with the Spectral Geologist Software packages were developed by the CSIRO Catch of the week

[------4.7 cm------]

Actionopterygiid fish (GSQ F13122), Allaru Mudstone core sample What our customers say

"...to get a new interpretation of the , structure, permeability etc. you have to go back to the original drill core (usually stored at the EDC). Old core is hot property… This highlights the importance of having drill core storage facilities in the State to assist and attract exploration"

- Dr Jochen Kassan, Consultant Geologist, at the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia, Queensland Symposium, 2002 The fossiliferous “crater”, Rewan Station, 2015 Driving the geology from the Surat Basin, between Roma via the Roma Taroom (A5) to Theodore and Banana in the Bowen Basin. 2011 Some success stories . The Dawson West coal precinct in the Bowen Basin discovery was in some part due the Department’s DRD 7 core, held at EDC.

. The coal drilling programs conducted by the then Mines Dept. (core held at EDC) led to major coal mines at Ensham, Minerva, Lake Vermont, Collinsville, Curragh and others accounting for roughly 30% of current coal production in Queensland.

. Ross Wecker of Innamincka Petroleum spent a lot of time at the EDC examining material prior to the Flax and Juniper oil discovery.

. In more recent times the CSG industry benefited from legacy drilling by the Mines Dept. and core held.

. Presently with the increase of , cores are being requested for their tight and potential. The graph below shows the sporadic nature of requests and a general trend at the end of each calendar year (EDC) Susan Faulkner Thank you [email protected] 07 3035 5245