Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Sample Collection Database
Summary
The Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology (NBMG) Sample Collection Database (also known as CORECUT) is the index of rock samples held by the NBMG. The database contains about 12,000 entries of which over 11,000 entries have locations in longitude and latitude (the on-line database includes only these). Access is through the NBMG main website at http://www.nbmg.unr.edu, followed by clicking on 1). "Collections", and 2). "Geologic Specimen and Geochemical Database". In 2019, NBMG began a project to photograph and scan thin sections under standard and cross polarized light. When applicable, these are now noted in the metadata records. All of the cores and cuttings are now also available in a new map web application http://nbmg.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=2b2fc33d346 [...]
Summary
The Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology (NBMG) Sample Collection Database (also known as CORECUT) is the index of rock samples held by the NBMG. The database contains about 12,000 entries of which over 11,000 entries have locations in longitude and latitude (the on-line database includes only these). Access is through the NBMG main website at http://www.nbmg.unr.edu, followed by clicking on 1). "Collections", and 2). "Geologic Specimen and Geochemical Database". In 2019, NBMG began a project to photograph and scan thin sections under standard and cross polarized light. When applicable, these are now noted in the metadata records. All of the cores and cuttings are now also available in a new map web application http://nbmg.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=2b2fc33d34614f6bab40b8e87bae6df6. Sample entries contain the original descriptions, and those that have been analyzed are noted. This database is a work in progress and needs a quality assurance review. The database contains samples from several large collections and a number of small collections. The largest collection, Nevada Mineral Inventory (informally called the Tingley collection), consists of over 5500 hand samples taken from mines and prospects mostly during mineral inventory surveys of the various U. S. Bureau of Land Management resource areas in the 1980s and early 1990s. The samples were numbered consecutively from 1 onward, described, and analyzed at U.S. Geological Survey laboratories. The descriptions and data from most of these samples were originally published in a number of NBMG open file reports, most of which are on-line, through the NBMG website. Other large collections include the following. The collection of mineral exploration samples contains mostly core and some chips from over 1400 drill holes from over 100 exploration projects, some dating back to the 1960s. While some projects only have poor location information, most have good location maps, and many have logs and assays. The Keith Papke combined collections contain 717 samples from industrial minerals sites for most of which were used in the compilation NBMG bulletins on barite, clay, fluorite, gypsum, talc, and zeolite. One or more sets of cuttings and some core are from almost 600 oil wells and over 300 geothermal wells. The State of Nevada requires oil and geothermal companies to submit two sets of cuttings for each well drilled. Cuttings are kept confidential for 6 months for oil wells and 5 years for geothermal wells. The Nolan Collection contains 435 hand samples and thin sections collected by U.S. Geological Survey geologist Thomas Nolan from the Tonopah District around 1930. Many of these samples were from underground mine locations no longer accessible. The Geochemical Sampling and Characterization Project contains 418 thin sections and billets of samples taken from unmineralized outcrops around the Winnemucca 1:100,000 scale quadrangle. The samples were petrographically described and geochemically analyzed. The Robert Coats Elko County mapping project contains 185 thin sections from samples collected by U.S. Geological Survey geologist Robert Coats during geologic mapping of the Jarbidge area in the mid-1950s. The remaining samples are from collections containing from a couple of dozen to less than 200 samples from the Round Mountain Mine; Shoal Project site; dimension stone, molybdenum, tungsten, and uranium occurrences; and miscellaneous other sites.
