About
The DNR Drill Core Library in Hibbing, MN is a repository with more than 3 million feet of publicly accessible drill core from more than 8,000 drill holes collected over a 100 year time period. Historical assays and geochemical analyses on this archived core are documented in a variety of published and unpublished documents. The majority of these records exist as hard-copies in the DNR's public assessment file system, and as scanned image files at DNR's Minarchive. While some of these assays and geochemical results have been compiled into electronic databases that are limited in geographic or temporal scope (e.g. Englebert and Hauck, 1991, NRRI/TR-91/12), a geodatabase that includes all available records from all of the archived core is lacking.
The DNR is presently conducting a pilot project to evaluate the scope of compiling a comprehensive chemical database for the entire archive of core in the Drill Core Library. This pilot project involves the compilation of assays and geochemical analyses from drill core and outcrop samples from Koochiching County.
The raw geochemical data from greater than 4,000 samples of drill core and outcrops has been compiled from public records into a very rough electronic spreadsheet. This includes historical data and the DNR's recently released new drill core assays results from the International Falls Area granite-greenstone terrane.