The Geochemical Sample Archive at Our Customers` Service
Some of the physical samples collected at geological surveys and at raw material resource assessments are retained for later use. One large part of this is the archive of geochemical samples, which is located at the drill core depot at Loppi, Southern Finland. The archive of geochemical samples continuously increases, and these new sample materials are mainly pulps from drill cores assays. At present, the archive contains more than 2.5 million geochemical samples. Inventory and data quality improvements of old materials in the sample archive is nearing completion and this allows us to better serve our customers.
The customer may have a need for new and different analyses and interpretations of previously studied material. For example, samples collected in the 1970´s and 1980´s were analysed for a lesser number of elements using analytical methods of the era. Even though there sometimes are only a few grams, or in the best cases a few tens of grams, left of the sample material, this is commonly sufficient for modern assay methods.
Most of the material in the geochemical archive are soil samples of till (fractions <0.06 mm and 0.06-0.50 mm) collected during various mapping programs since the 1970´s. These are totalling more than 1.1 million samples. In addition, the collections include assay pulps from bedrock samples, originating from both drill cores and mapping samples (grab samples), in total these exceed 800,000 samples. Stream sediment samples collected during the regional geochemical mapping program (1971-1985) and geochemical samples originating from Outokumpu Oy´s exploration activities are also included. The samples received from Outokumpu Oy total more than 650,000 samples.
The materials at the geochemistry sample archive are available for new studies and analyses according to GTK’s terms and conditions. New data to be incorporated in the geodatabases is also continuously collected. The original assay results of the samples and studies have been stored in GTK’s data warehouses, and more information about them is available from the Hakku service.
More information about the geochemical sample archive and other geological sample materials can be found on our website or by contacting geodata@gtk.fi.
Additional info and contact
Geological Survey of Finland, Information Solutions, geodata@gtk.fi
