Core Library Services
Supervisor:
John McMullin, B. Sc., Geologist, Phone: 902-752-4842, FAX: 902-755-7186, mcmulljm@gov.ns.ca
The Province's Drill Core Library, consisting of five buildings totalling 43,000 square feet, is situated near the geographic centre of Nova Scotia in Stellarton, Pictou County. The Core Library serves as an archive and a client service facility, providing drill core, geological sample material and information relating to exploration and development drilling carried out in the Province.
A total of more than 650,000 metres of core representing about 7500 drill holes from all over the province provides a diverse geological suite from Precambrian to Cretaceous. Of particular interest to oil and gas companies is the very large collection of core from the Carboniferous Basins. Most core is stored in wooden boxes on pallets which are stacked in the storage areas. Core derived from mineral exploration, resource evaluation and geological investigation is almost entirely non-confidential.
The Core Library also holds cores and cuttings from most onshore oil, gas and coalbed methane wells dating from 1959 to present, as well as a series of holes drilled for coal in offshore Cape Breton. 136 offshore hydrocarbon exploration wells dating from 1967-1993 are represented by approximately 72,600 samples of washed cuttings in vials.
The Drillholes database provides information on a majority of the recorded onshore drillholes, while the Drill Core database, with about 7500 records, provides search capabilities for the archived core.
Mineral exploration assessment reports submitted by industry are available for consultation on-site either as microfiche or hard copy. These reports provide information on onshore mineral exploration and development as well as some of the earlier onshore hydrocarbon wells . Of a total of more than 6500 non-confidential assessment reports , about 33% contain drilling information. Mineral exploration reports are normally held confidential for 2 years following filing. Confidentiality of oil and gas data, cuttings and core is as specified by the Department of Energy. A library area provides access to microfiche records and to hard copies of most of the Mineral Resources Branch publications and maps.
Two large core layout/examination rooms totalling about 4000 square feet are available clients use. Outdoor core viewing is also available. Equipment includes diamond saws, core splitters, ultraviolet lamps and binocular microscopes. Sampling may be permitted upon request ; all surviving sample material and results must be returned to the Core Library. |
