In a warehouse just outside Nottingham, vast racks of geological core are carefully curated and stored in climate-controlled conditions. Part of the collections held within BGS National Geological Repository (NGR), this core is quietly energising the UK’s economy, supporting the nation growth agenda and energy transition aspirations.

Understanding our subsurface environment requires both direct observation, through samples such as drill core, and indirect observation, through sensors and monitoring. These observations are the basis on which we build models that constrain and test hypotheses explaining the Earth, its composition and its many processes. Such knowledge is critical for determining how society is affected by or can safely interact with the ground beneath our feet.

Saving cost, reducing risk and accelerating project timelines

Drilling new core is expensive. The cost of drilling just one new offshore borehole can be in the region of £20 to £30 million, around 20 times more than the annual operational costs for the NGR. Access to existing core can therefore significantly streamline the process for new infrastructure projects; it allows both public and private sector project managers to plan with a greater degree of certainty and better mitigate risk. More informed planning can result in drilling fewer new boreholes and a shorter project timeline. This not only saves significant costs; it also reduces any associated environmental impact.

Digital scanning has unlocked new opportunities … with limitations

Digitisation of rock samples and core is a powerful tool for the modern-day geologist. Improvements in analytical techniques, including core scanning and 3D imagery, allow cores to be re-studied and preserve a record of the original material prior to sampling. These advancements are providing scientists with better opportunities to investigate changes in physical properties such as porosity (the free space inside a rock that fills with fluids).

An array of scanning technologies, including X-rays and hyperspectral imaging, allows scientists to extract more data than ever before from samples. Collectively, this data, sourced from different analytical techniques, can be compiled into digital geo-specimens that enable exciting opportunities through machine learning and artificial intelligence tools. However, there is a cost associated with scanning and digitisation. With the size of the core archive, these activities need to be targeted to deliver the largest benefit to the UK.

Although geological observations and digital samples have significant long-term value, they are limited by the context in which they were collected and the technologies available at the time. Discarding physical samples after digitising risks losing the ability to re-examine them with new techniques and technologies as they emerge in future. Digitisation enhances the samples, makes them more discoverable, and increases their value, but is not a replacement for holding physical specimens.

Safeguarding for the future

What society needs from the subsurface changes over time. The academic and commercial relevance of core varies and does so in ways that can be hard to predict. Many of the reservoir cores from the Southern North Sea gas fields, which were drilled in the 1960s and 1970s, are now being re-studied to assess their potential for carbon dioxidestorage. Sites that were once prized for their coal reserves are now being revisited for geothermal potential. These uses were almost certainly never envisaged when the core was originally drilled.

In some cases, the core may be unique and irreplaceable, especially where land has since been developed or reclassified (for example, as a Site of Special Scientific Interest). Maintaining a reference library of boreholes enables future research to take place using new techniques, saving time, reducing costs and limiting the environmental impact. Crucially, it also supports reproducible and repeatable science.

Physical space within the NGR is always a consideration. It is not possible to retain every specimen we are offered. Material is selected based on its value to inform the geological record. Sometimes, materials may be discounted or discarded where there is an abundance of material from a particular area or where samples have deteriorated, but such instances are rare. BGS is actively exploring funding opportunities to expand this national facility, so that we can continue to ingest materials critical to the UK economy.

Over the last two decades, it is estimated that the NGR has saved the UK economy at least  Â£1.5 billion in avoided drilling and analysis costs alone. The importance of this facility can only increase as we maximise the potential of geological ‘super regions’ for renewable energy technologies.

As demand for natural resources grows and the effects of climate change intensify, so does the need for geological data to address the economic and societal challenges. All indications are that the most important phase of the NGR is yet to come.

The National Geological Repository (NGR) is a gateway to our shared subsurface. It is the UK most comprehensive collection of geological materials, consisting of over 16 million specimens and assembled over 200 years. The collection acts as both an evidence base of previous scientific endeavours and a resource for new and future research. 

The economic analysis shows that the NGR saves major energy and infrastructure projects significant costs through access and re-use of pre-drilled rock core:

• £1.5 billion in avoided drilling and analysis costs for major energy and infrastructure projects over the last 20 years
• Up to 36 times return on investment based on costs of maintaining the facility
• Time-savings of around three years per infrastructure project through access to legacy core samples
  

These returns are underpinned by the high costs of drilling new boreholes. It can cost more to drill an onshore borehole than run the NGR for a year and this can rise by a factor of 20 for offshore drilling.

Located at BGS headquarters in Keyworth, the NGR is home to the UK largest core storage and examination facility. Of particular value to industry and infrastructure projects are over 600 km of pre-drilled core from around the UK, which provide considerable cost and time-saving benefits.

“The BGS’ core facility (the National Geological Repository) is invaluable in enabling researchers to use legacy geological materials and data for new purposes in the transition to low-carbon energy.�

Gary Hampson, Professor of Sedimentary Geology, Imperial College London

“These cores were acquired at significant expense (often multiple hundreds of thousands of pounds per core) from offshore wells, specifically targeting areas of fundamental uncertainty in subsurface geology. Their preservation offers substantial economic and environmental value, as the cost of re-sampling or drilling new cores is prohibitively high. Moreover, the carbon footprint associated with new drilling can be significantly reduced by utilising these existing core samples for further research and decision-making, aligning with sustainability and Net Zero ambitions.�

Nick Terrell, Industry Co-Chair, Subsurface Task Force

The facility is trusted by government, regulators and industry to enable faster, better-informed decisions and is poised to enable UK clean energy infrastructure projects, including geothermal and carbon capture and storage.

As well as quantifying the impact of the NGR, the report also highlights a series of constraints that could limit the facility ability to deliver increased public value in future. Expansion will be required to accommodate further core acquisitions. This is vital as many present-day drilling operations are occurring in areas with potential for net zero technologies or mineral prospectivity, meaning the opportunity to re-use the core is high. Further potential lies in digitising the collection, as only a fraction of the physical holdings has been digitised to date, limiting the facility ability to deliver comprehensive remote access.

51ÁÔÆæ is exploring investment opportunities to secure and enhance the NGR long-term future and national value.

Digital scans of over 500 historical plans of abandoned mines (non-coal) have been released by the National Geoscience Data Centre (NGDC) as part of BGS’s commitment to providing more open, accessible data for its users.   

In the late 1800s, the Coal Mines Regulation Act and Metalliferous Mines Regulation Act created the statutory requirement for the deposition of plans of abandoned mines by mine owners to the Secretary of State. In 1980, the BGS Edinburgh office was appointed as the statutory place of deposit for plans of abandoned non-coal and oil shale mines in Scotland. These plans have been preserved and managed by the NGDC, which is NERC’s Environmental Data Service designated geoscience data centre that is hosted by BGS. NGDC collects and preserves geoscientific data and information, making them available for the long term to a wide range of users and communities.

To reflect the BGS commitment to more open, accessible data for its users, the decision was taken to make scans of these non-coal mine abandoned plans digitally accessible to the public. This decision comes at an important time when there is increased interest in the potential of mine water for developing geothermal energy technologies. Having these plans openly accessible means they can be used in desk-based studies for those working in the public and private sectors doing site investigations, hazard assessments or further academic research. 

NGDC is committed to providing findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable data (FAIR data) and this includes reviewing access to legacy datasets. The release of over 500 plans demonstrates our commitment to being a trusted provider of geological data and knowledge.

Alison Steven, BGS Data Operations and Governance Manger (NGDC).

The plans can be viewed via the and can be filtered by selecting ‘Abandonment plan’ from the plan type drop-down menu.

These abandoned mine plans are part of a collection of over 70 000 plans delivered through the viewer, including sixteen different plan types such as open cast, quarry and cave plans. The portal can be searched by geographical area, mineral or mine name. The information returned includes mine name, mineral, geographical area, plan date (where available), whether a digital copy of the plan is available and who to contact to purchase copies of a scanned plan. 

More information

Abandoned mines plans for Northern Ireland can be accessed via the .

Further information on the history of non-coal mining plans is available through the BGS website.

Please contact the for any enquiries relating to coal mine plans in Scotland, England and Wales – or visit their .

Over 8000 technical reports have been released by BGS’s National Geoscience Data Centre (NGDC), comprising internal unpublished works created outside the formal publishing and distribution system. They pre-date the current report series and, for any given title, only a few copies were produced for deposit in BGS libraries or offices, making them traditionally hard to find and access. They cover the full spectrum of BGS activities and subjects, including:

• onshore geology, including the important ‘geological notes and local details’ (essentially, sheet descriptions for 1:10 560/1:10 000 maps)
• marine geology
• minerology and petrology
• mineral resources
• global seismology
• geomagnetism

The 16 series and just under 100 subseries can now be navigated via the ; more detailed notes on this complex set of reports are available on . A search facility for authors and titles is also available in the application. The file sizes of technical reports are much smaller than formal BGS publications, so they have been made available as PDF downloads only.

This first technical report release represents BGS’s non-confidential reports. A second project is underway to review confidential reports with a view to a future release.

The release of these reports demonstrates BGS’s continued commitment to providing open access to geoscience data of value to the nation. These reports, created by BGS during the latter half of the past century and now all in digital form, contain a wealth of geological information and knowledge that is now easier to access and utilise.

Alison Steven, data operations and governance manager (NGDC).