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Geological information goes online soon
2017-09-18
G.Ider
It is widely accepted that potential foreign investors in the geological and mining sector will look for an improved legal environment and stable policies, but no less important is to allow them easy and detailed access to geological information. To this end, The Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority of Mongolia (MRPAM) has taken up the Mongolian Geological Information Catalogue System (MonGeoCat) project to prepare, according to international standards, an integrated geosciences database which will provide Mongolia’s geological information and data to investors and others interested in them. The Australia-Mongolia Extractives Program (AMEP) is financing the project, and also providing technical assistance, while a domestic geoscience IT company, Oyunii Tsomorlig Impex LLC, is developing the metadata catalogue system.
The MRPAM made a presentation on the project at a meeting on 18 August, which was attended by, among many others, G.Nandinjargal, State Secretary, John Langtry, the Australian Ambassador, the AMEP project team, representatives from the National Security Council, and D.Amarsaikhan, Advisor to Oyunii Tsomorlig Impex.
In his introductory remarks, B.Baatartsogt, Head of the MRPAM, expressed his gratitude to all who had contributed to the development of MonGeoCat. State Secretary Nandinjargal called it “a huge first step” and added that the database was the result of the dedicated work of generations of geologists. Ambassador Langtry highlighted the major role of AMEP in the project. He said Australia could attract “quality investment only by making geological information easily accessible to all”. He was happy that Australia had now shared its experience in this with Mongolia and hoped that the system would help make the mineral resources sector become the leverage for the country’s economic development.
All MonGeoCat information will be available in both English and Mongolian. At the moment, the cut-off date for contents of the database is March, 2017. The system will be inaugurated in the fourth quarter of 2017.
MonGeoCat provides access to the metadata on geology kept at the Mineral Resources Information Technology Centre (MRITC). This integrated system serves as an information catalogue and consists of two interfaces. The first is a web-based map interface which enables spatial searching with a WebGIS (geographic information system). It is based on the ArcGIS platform which is used for mapping and spatial analysis. The second interface is a metadata catalogue, which enables searching for basic characteristics of documents. It is based on GeoNetwork, catalogue application to manage spatially referenced resources.
The system contains over 8200 geological reports, some 200 geographic information systems and 30 information databases.
MRITC specialists described the possibilities the system opens up. For instance, it can make a spatial search in the Web GMS environment and provide information on various general map data, small and medium scale geological maps, satellite imagery, base-maps with toponyms, location of the mineral deposits, Google map data and other information.
The metadata catalogue of geological information can be accessed through a key word, thereby offering multiple choice tools to get a summary of the information, for instance, the author, owner, size, shape, language selection, how it is linked with other information, information related to exploration, whether it has topographic connection, the access level and other information.
The AMEP project paid for the software and hardware necessary for the development of the metadata catalogue, and facilitated several trainings for the staff of the MRITC on various aspects of the system.