The National Atlas of Mineral Resources, Mines and Processing Centres (the Atlas) is a dynamic and comprehensive on-line interactive national framework of spatial data, digital maps and information on the Australian minerals industry including the location of mineral and energy resources, mines and production/processing centres (existing and planned), and satellite imagery.
It replaces the paper based Atlas of Australian Resources - Geology and Minerals published by AUSLIG in 1988, and gives ready access to Geoscience Australia's OZMin database. The Atlas allows an in-depth look at the minerals industry: its sustainability; performance; and contribution to Australia's economic growth. It has three main sections:
- History of the minerals industry.
- Information about all the major and several minor mineral commodities.
- Map creation.
The Atlas enables users (interested parties, domestic and international) to search for information on mines and deposits and create maps with customised layers. The layers are extensive, including:
- topographic information (roads, rivers, airports and population centres)
- geoscience data (for example, geology, gravity, terrain and magnetics)
- mineral processing centres (existing and planned)
- ports
- major planned infrastructure projects
- satellite imagery
- Aboriginal land
- Defence-prohibited land
- federal electoral boundaries.
The Atlas also includes links to related sites on the Internet with up-to-date, real-time, regional data and visual information. The direct link to the Atlas website can be accessed from the National Atlas
website.