Northern Territory Geological Survey – Drilling and Geochemistry

Part of the Northern Territory’s Strategic Plan is to attract, de-risk and support investment in resource exploration development in the Northern Territory and provide geoscience-based advice to the government and community.

Collaborating with the Northern Territory Government, WGA was engaged to digitise and consolidate historical data into the Geochemistry and Drillhole Database (NTGS Database).

Dating back to the 1960’s, geochemistry data was extracted from drillhole and surface samples from over 120 historical reports. The extraction process utilised the integration of WGA’s Geology, GIS and Data Analytics teams to combine subject matter experts for quality and accuracy.

The collaboration and distribution of responsibilities was a great success, with the help of an agile project management system developed using MS Planner, Teams Approvals and Power Automate. This allowed report resources and tasks to be easily passed between teams through the data extraction workflow, with smooth progress tracking.

To maximise efficiency, advanced automation was implemented using Cloud based AI text readers to extract and organise data from each report. Each report was subjected to data validation scripts for comprehensive quality control. This approach reduced manual effort and duplication at all levels of aggregation and guaranteed efficient upload to the NTGS database. Developed workflows were designed to be reused, meaning their efficiency benefits can be applied to the extraction of future reports.

NTGS provided WGA with excellent feedback for the project, highlighting the quality in delivered data and great communication throughout execution.