(Above) Daily briefing during a drilling expedition within the Giyani Greenstone Belt (Limpopo)

The Council for Geoscience (CGS) is one of the national science councils of South Africa. The CGS is the legal successor of the Geological Survey of South Africa, which was formed in 1912 through the amalgamation of three former surveys. The oldest of these was the Geological Commission of the Cape of Good Hope, founded in 1895. The Geoscience Act (100 of 1993), established the CGS in its present form. Today, the CGS is a modern institution, boasting excellent facilities and expertise and ranking among the best in Africa.

One of the mandates of the CGS is to render geoscience knowledge services and to advise the State to enable informed and scientifically based decisions on the use of the earth’s surface and its resources, within the territory of South Africa. This work is achieved through integrated data gathering and assessment programmes conducted at a national and regional scale. In addition, the CGS produces high-resolution 1:50 000-scale geological and geochemical maps, which are critical for target generation, with the objective of catalysing exploration investment in South Africa.

Given that all these projects are deployed in the national interest, the CGS strives to ensure compliance with SAMCODES in respect of all data collection and reporting regimes. Moreover, the CGS, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) and the SAMCODES Standard Committee (SSC) are working together closely to accomplish this objective

(Above) Mapping within the Aggeneys-Gamsberg district, Northern Cape