Access the drill core library

The Northern Territory Geological Survey (NTGS) has core libraries in Darwin and Alice Springs.

The libraries hold drill core and cuttings collected during government and industry mineral and petroleum industry exploration drilling.

You can search drill core and cuttings which are catalogued through the Core Library (COREDAT) spatial layer on STRIKE.

The STRIKE bookmark link displays the COREDAT layer as the active layer and shows the distribution across the NT. To search, use the search tab.

Viewing or sampling drill core and cuttings

Drill core and cuttings can be viewed and sampled by researchers in industry, government and research organisations.

You must make an appointment and obtain approval for any sampling prior to your visit.

To view or sample cores or cuttings, follow these steps.

Step 1. Fill in the form.

Request to examine/sample core PDF (181.8 KB)
Request to examine/sample core DOCX (68.5 KB)

Step 2. Email the form to core.facility@nt.gov.au.

Sampling process

As sampling usually results in destruction of the sample, you must provide raw data and details of analytical methods used in the sampling six months after sampling. The data is then made available to the public twelve months after sampling.

Sampling of core and cuttings will only be permitted if no similar analysis has been recently completed and there is sufficient sample available for the particular sample interval requested.

Read the core sampling policy DOCX (54.5 KB).

Core sample reports

You can search reports and data from studies on core and cuttings held in the NTGS core libraries in the core sample reports catalogue.

Water bore cuttings

Cuttings from water bores are also stored at the NTGS core libraries. Get the spreadsheet of water bore cuttings listing XLSX (1.4 MB).

Read more information about water bores.

Visit or contact the core facility

When visiting the core library, you must wear steel-capped boots.

The core libraries are open Monday to Friday from 8am to 4:15pm.

For location details and queries, get the geoscience contacts.