Report Format

Report Title Page

All reports (including reports of no activity) under the NT Mining Act must contain a title page with certain mandatory data, specifically:

• titleholder
• project operator under the Mining Act (if different from above)
• report title including the report type (using the specific terms group, annual, final surrender, partial relinquishment, etc) and the titles/tenements involved
• dates of reporting periods for annual reports as a from and to date or as the year ending on a specific date (avoid saying the xth annual report or the report for 2007)
• either a corporate, or personal author, or both, plus digital contact details (email or phone) MUST be supplied. This should be the person(s), be it the titleholder, contractor, operator or the agent, to whom technical enquiries, requests for further information, data or clarification will be directed; if necessary, separate contacts should be given for those responsible for the expenditure form
• a date of compilation and/or submission
• the names of the standard NT 1:100 000- and 1:250 000-scale mapsheets
• confirmation of the GDA 94 datum and either zone 52 or 53 as relevant.
• for partial relinquishments One and five minute graticular block

Examples of suitable title pages. These can be used as a guide.

Report Content

The report must contain a brief text-only Executive Summary or Abstract. This will be transferred verbatim into the Department’s database. The summary should include discussion of the tenure history; refer to any named prospects (historical or otherwise), exploration rationale, commodity sought, geology, exploration conducted and the main results and conclusions. A report on grouped titles must specify which titles were worked and which were not, with reasons. No tables or figures are to be included in, or referenced from, the summary. The summary must not contain headings, references, hyperlinks, paragraph breaks, bullet points or other special characters such as @, ® or ±. Expenditure is discussed at the author’s discretion; it is not mandatory in the summary. However, it is essential to clearly quantify the work undertaken, eg, the wording “RAB drilling was undertaken” should instead be “Drilling consisted of 25 RAB holes for 804 m and 1200 samples”. Aerial geophysical surveys should be described with the total line kilometres and percentage in each title. Line spacing and flight height should be specified.

Reports must not include any information, language, names or images that may be culturally sensitive, offensive or in confidence to Traditional Owners (eg no AAPA reports, locations or images of sacred sites, no photos or names of persons recently deceased and so on).

Reports of No Activity

If there was no work on a title and obviously no data collected (a “nil report”), it is permissible for a title page as above, a summary and, if relevant, the expenditure form to constitute the entire report or group technical report. A nil report must be a standalone document with sufficient detail to become part of the Departmental records. The report must detail the target commodities, exploration rationale and indicate why no work was completed and when work is expected to recommence. Be particularly wary of the first annual report, it is easy to say that no work was undertaken because of Native Title issues etc, but forget to explain the exploration rationale and target commodities. The document must be submitted as a text .pdf (see below). Hardcopy, image .pdf or email text is not acceptable. It cannot be combined with a Variation of Covenant as a single document. Note that this is the minimum requirement; single page letters, lacking the details above, are not acceptable.

Data Unavailable as of Reporting Deadline

Delays in analytical laboratories or the length of time taken to process geophysical data may mean that such data cannot be presented as part of the statutory report. It is not acceptable to delay submission of data until the next annual report. In the case of assay data, the sample locations must be supplied in the prescribed digital format to accompany the normal report. The full data set of locations and assays must be submitted once it is available. For geophysical surveys, the acquisition details and a digital location map must be provided in the relevant report and the data forwarded as soon as possible thereafter. The Department will not deem any report satisfactory until all outstanding data have been received. If only a short delay of no more than a few months is expected, please apply for an extension as described above.

Digital Formats

Digital reporting is now mandatory, unless prior consent has been granted. This means that hard-copy reports are normally no longer required. The required formats follow Federally-endorsed guidelines. These guidelines are available from Geoscience Australia to enable more consistent and complete reporting of activities by companies that operate in a number of Australian jurisdictions. Failure to comply with the required formats for media or files may result in a Notice of Outstanding Matters under the Mining Act.

The Department will accept the following media:

• Email
• Over-the-counter delivery using portable storage devices
• 650 MB or 700 MB CD-R
• 4.2 GB, 4.7 GB or 8.5 GB DVD-R

Other forms of media will no longer be accepted. Discs must be read-only full-sized disks, compatible with the Windows operating system, and must be supplied in a hard protective cover. All media should be individually labelled with the company name, title number and numbered discs (eg 1/5). A full index of all files should be included in the report. The operator should keep an exact duplicate back-up copy for at least a year after submission to cover the possibility of physical damage, data loss or corruption during transit or within the Department.

In the case of large reports, the text may be emailed and the data sent on one or more discs. Note however, that the Department will not have deemed to have received the report until the total information is received. For this reason and to avoid multiple handling by the Department it is preferable to send all material for large reports (including the expenditure form if relevant) on disc(s) rather than email part. Conversely, if a complete report including all data has been submitted by email, it is not necessary to send a disc.

Use of third-party or Government file transfer sites will only be accepted with prior permission from geoscience.info@nt.gov.au.

In accordance with national guidelines, text documents should be a text (not image) PDF (portable document format) with thumbnails. This type of file can be created using Adobe Acrobat or similar software (freeware is available on the internet). Do not embed any files as attachments within the text .pdf. All associated files must be separate. Hotlinks are acceptable, but unnecessary, as they may not work if the Department separates files onto different servers. Security must be set to allow copying from, but not editing of, the document. Individual PDF files should not exceed 10 MB. Recent versions of the PDF format can easily handle plans up to and exceeding A0 in size (841 mm x 1189 mm). Any particularly high-quality graphics or geo-referenced maps should be submitted as individual stand-alone image files (see below).

All reports should contain a scaled location map showing sample points or surveys in relation to title boundaries and eastings and northings. The use of outcrop and core photographs in reports is encouraged. Stand-alone images can be in PDF, GEOTIFF, TIFF, JPEG (Q=95), GIF, PNG or EPS formats. Images should be reproducible at the original size with a minimum of 300 dpi. A geo-locatable image must be accompanied by the datum and projection.

Compression software should be used only if absolutely necessary and either be self-extracting or accompanied by the appropriate decompression software if it is not industry standard.

The same standards (below) apply to legacy data captured by the titleholder as well as new data acquired.

Numerical and tabular data must be submitted in ASCII format with a suffix of .txt. They should be tab, not comma, delimited. All units should follow the SI system or an accepted industry standard if SI is not applicable. Mixed units such as ounces or pounds per metric tonne are not acceptable. Ensure that any ASCII analytical data has headers that include the units of measure for each column.

All location data must use the Geocentric Datum of Australia 1994. This and the relevant zone should be clearly stated in the header to the actual data.

If the geology is described using codes, these must be supplied with each report.

Drillhole data

Minimum acceptable digital (ASCII) drillhole data must include:

• the type(s) of drilling (eg percussion/diamond coring) and depth ranges
• collar location and total drilled depth
• hole orientation data for non-vertical holes.

Ensure that sample numbers for downhole analytical data can be related to the corresponding drillhole and interval in the same spreadsheet.

Geochemical data

Geochemical analyses must be accompanied by a written statement of the sample preparation and analytical techniques (in addition to the proprietary codes from the laboratory), the limits of detection, and the standards and blanks used. Location and analytical data must be provided together in the same file. Assay results below the limit of detection should be reported as the negative of that limit or otherwise clearly identifiable. Job numbers provided by the analytical laboratory are to be supplied. If there has been any renumbering of the samples, this needs to be clarified. Multiple assays of the same element using different techniques need to be in separate data files, but replicates or repeats of the same element with the same technique can be in the same file and the element suffixed _1 etc.

Geophysical data

Petrophysical and geophysical log data, such as wireline and MWD data, should be in DLIS, LIS, LAS or ASCII formats. PIMA data or similar maybe submitted in propriety file formats (eg FOS) only if accompanied by equivalent generic ASCII.

Airborne and ground geophysical data must be located and levelled, and in standard ASCII code. A digital location plan is required which shows the boundaries of the data acquired in relation to the GDA 94 datum and title boundaries. This can be a georeferenced TIFF or MapInfo files. The data must be presented in GDF format which includes a DES file explaining the data. Gridded data is required in either ASEG-GXF or ER Mapper gridded format. A mandatory standard for hyperspectral data will also be enforced. In the case of EM data, the processed data, from which pseudo-sections etc are produced, is required in GDF. Raw EM data is not required.

Seismic data should be in SEGY or SEGD format; navigation data in UKOOA P1/90 or SPS, and processed sections in CGM with metadata. File names must include the line number.

GIS Data

GIS can be submitted in MapInfo or ArcView format. Ensure that MapInfo data is submitted as standalone individual layers not just workspaces.

The preferred vector format is MicroStation or DXF. Raster layers can be in ASEG-GXF format, to which ER Mapper .ERS files comply.

Last Updated: 2 April 2009