Workshop to Refine Aeromagnetic Survey Findings

A focus workshop is planned for the end of the month to refine information from an aerial geophysical survey of Northland's mineral resources.

The survey results were released to Iwi and mining industry interests at Waitangi last month and are now available freely to the public.

Far North economic development advisor Gary Gabbitas says the raw database yielded by the survey is huge, highly technical and not just of significance to mineral investigations.

“The next step is to tease out the relevance of the information across a wide range of applications by local government and the wider community,” he says.

The workshop will help establish what local government and industries such as farming, horticulture, fisheries, power generation and line networks need to know from the survey.

“You need to have a high level of technical understanding and knowledge for the database in its current format to have any real meaning. This level of complexity now needs to be unravelled.”

For example, the local government sector has a particular interest in the resource planning, roading, soil and water conservation implications of the survey.

Industries such as power generators would likely be interested in any geothermal fields identified.

“The workshop will establish the priorities to be addressed to analyse meaningful outcomes for the wider community and sector interests outside of mining.”

In the meantime, the public can freely access the raw data on the Exploration Database at https://data.nzpam.govt.nz/GOLD/system/mainframe.asp or by contacting NZ Petroleum & Minerals at nzpam@med.govt.nz

A broad outline of the survey is also in the Explore Northland Minerals brochure which is available on request from Far North District Council service centres.

“Because the database has been publicly funded, there are no restraints on accessing information.

“This is a huge advantage over other regions where similar surveys were carried out by the private sector and the outcomes considered commercially sensitive.”