Services

Geophysics

• Airborne surveys (high density)
• Modelling and interpretation
• Ground surveys (all techniques)
• Determination of physical properties
• Palaeomagnetic measurements
• Reconstruction of old data
• Groundwater exploration (borehole siting)
• Groundwater pollution plume mapping

Seismology

• Seismic-hazard assessment
• Seismic-risk assessment
• Seismological research into safety at mines
• Operation of the South African National Seismograph Network (SANSN)
• Participation in the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty

Geochemistry

• Regional geochemical mapping on a sampling-density grid of one soil (or stream-sediment) sample per km2. Samples are analysed on a Simultaneous X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer (SXRF) for As, Ba, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe2O3T %, MnO %, Nb, Ni, Pb, Rb, Sb, Sc, Sn, Sr, TiO2 %, Th, U, V, W, Y, Zn and Zr.
• Regional geochemical trends are mapped.
• Small- to medium-sized outcropping ore bodies are identified.

Minerals Development

• Mapping and sampling of ore deposits
• Mineralogical and physical characterisation
• Mineral-commodity reports and maps for specific purposes
• Assistance to small-scale miners
• Industrial minerals
• Maintenance of the COREDATA and COAL databases
• Maintenance of the SAMINDABA mineral-deposits database

Engineering Geosciences

• Engineering-geological and geotechnical expertise
• Engineering-geological site investigations aimed at dams and dam safety, tunnels, pump stations and reservoirs
• Construction-material investigations
• Slope-stability investigations
• Structure or Urban Development plans
• Engineering-geological Database (ENGEODE)
• Regional engineering-geological mapping
• Research, focusing on understanding the dolomitic environment and its stability

Water Geoscience

• Planning and assessment of rural water-supply systems
• Groundwater resource assessments (quantification, flow determination and water quality studies)
• Groundwater sustainability studies for both resources and water supply schemes
• Management of groundwater resources, including exploration
• Groundwater- and contaminant-transport modelling
• Management of groundwater contamination (e.g. impact of mining, as well as of waste and sanitation facilities)
• Hydrogeological mapping
• Environmental Management Programme Reports (EMPRs)
• Specialist environmental drilling services (direct push methods, as well as gas and water sampling)

Environmental Geoscience

• Environmental investigations
• Environmental Impact Assessments
• Mine Environmental Management Plans
• Pollution investigations
• Risk assessment
• Laboratory Services
• Batch and Kinetic leach testing

Marine Geoscience

• Marine geophysical surveying
• Near-shore and continental-shelf mapping
• Resource surveys of heavy minerals, marine placer diamonds, potash and phosphate
• Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs)
• Marine geoscience database
• Wreck surveys
• Marine engineering-site surveys
• Coastal- and estuarine-sediment dynamics
• Scientific diving surveys

Other services include:

• Regional geological mapping at various scales for national and international clients
• Site-specific geological mapping assisting Applied Geosciences
• Sedimentological studies and basin analysis
• Soil and palaeosol classification and mapping
• Structural, metamorphic and igneous investigations in complex metamorphic terranes
• Compiling national and international thematic maps
• Petrographic investigations
• Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis
• Geohydrology and groundwater investigations at catchment scale
• Coastal Geology and recent geological changes
• Mineral assessment and development and metallogenic mapping
• Sedimentology of estuarine and coastal environments
• Palaeoseismic investigations for critical facilities
• Regional structural analysis of intensely deformed terranes
• Structural assessment of groundwater aquifers
• Petrology of high-grade metamorphic and igneous rocks
• Thermobarometry of metamorphic terranes
• Metallogenesis of ore deposits using petrographic and geochemical analysis
• Regolith characterisation and mapping for infrastructure development and mineral exploration
• Landslide and mass movement susceptibility mapping
• Engineering-geological mapping and site investigations
• Development-potential geotechnical assessment and mapping
• Cemetery site investigations and planning
• Environmental Impact Assessments and Environmental Management
• Programmes for prospecting, quarry development and mining
• Specialist geoscientific contributions for environmental impact assessment processes
• Advanced structural and microstructural analysis
• Thermobarometric analysis of metamorphic terranes
• The provision of authoritative checking and standardisation of all stratigraphic terminology used by the secretariat of the South African Committee for Stratigraphy (SACS)
• The maintenance of the SACS database, which is used to record and administer the stratigraphic terminology for South African stratigraphy
• Palaeontological research specialising in: biostratigraphy, sedimentary stratigraphy, the reconstruction of depositional environments, Palaeoichthyology, Permo-Triassic mammal-like reptiles, and Plio-Pleistocene mammals