Work Programs - Previous Projects

GGIPAC has overseen, implemented and is currently involved in a number of information and standards related projects;

  1. Digital company reporting standards

    State/Territory agencies are responsible for archiving statutory information submitted by mineral tenement holders for future access by explorers as this information plays a critical role in promoting effective and efficient mineral exploration in Australia. Acceptance of exploration data in digital format adds a new dimension to this role.

    The Australian requirements for the submission of digital exploration data was developed by GGIPAC members to provide a common requirement for the submission of digital mineral exploration data across States and Territories. This document presents a minimum National Standard for the receipt of digital data related to mineral exploration activities. Individual State/Territory agencies may have specialised individual requirements in addition to those in this Standard.

    The Standard addresses the future utility of digital files by requiring:
    • inclusion of metadata
    • submission of data in standard, widely used file formats including submission of drilling and geochemical tabular data in standardised non-proprietary ASCII format.

    In parallel with the reporting standards, the MinEx Report Template (MRT) software application has been developed, which allows generation of compliant exploration report files of tabular data including necessary metadata headers, and a listing of all the files in the report. This software is available to download free of charge from the Geological Survey of Western Australia Data and Software Centre - http://mapserver.mpr.wa.gov.au/datacentre.

    The standards have been designed to allow the future user maximum flexibility and ensure that critical metadata and supporting data are included. This standard is reviewed at least annually by GGIPAC as the rate of technology change is such that some of the recommended file formats may become redundant over time.

  2. Geoscience Portal

    The CGGC endorsed the principle of a national geoscience Internet portal in 2000 and the Australian government geoscience portal was launched in November 2001. The Australian government geoscience portal was to enhance the existing web presence of geoscience agencies and access to agency services and systems, and improve the promotion of Australian geoscience.

    Under GGIPAC's guidance, the portal has continued to evolve over the past five years in particular with the addition of a number of map services (Mineral Occurrences and Tenements Across Australia) and links to data delivery services (Geophysical Data Delivery System).

  3. Australian Government Geoscience Data Management Benchmarking 2005

    In 2004 the Government Geoscience Information Policy Advisory Committee (GGIPAC) conducted the first Australian Geoscience Data Management Benchmarking Survey at the request of the Chief Government Geologists Committee (CGGC). The comprehensive 2004 survey was summarised in a report for the Standing Committee of Officials (SCO) of the Ministerial Council of Mineral and Petroleum Resources in September 2004.

    The benchmarking survey was completed by all Australian geological surveys. Information collected includes basic organisational information on number of sites and full time equivalent (FTE) staff, as well as the information management, information systems, product availability and promotional activity details that were the main purpose of the survey.

    In 2005 CGGC requested an update to the benchmarking survey, which GGIPAC will complete by early 2007.

  4. XMML project

    The development of XMML was sponsored by a number of mining and service companies, CSIRO, MERIWA and GGIPAC. XMML, the eXploration and Mining Markup Language, is an XML based encoding for geoscience and exploration information, intended to support exchange of exploration information in a wide variety of contexts. In this context, XMML developments were delivered in the AUSIndustry geochemistry demonstrator project.

    The XMML implementation is based on Geography Mark-up Language (GML), developed by Open GIS Consortium (OGC) and currently undergoing standardisation as ISO 19136. XMML has been incorporated into the GeoScience Mark-up Language (GeoSciML) and will be standardised through the CGI-IUGS Interoperability Working Group. The XMML code is freely available from the website http://www.seegrid.csiro.au/xmml