BGS Metallic Minerals of Wales
This dataset provides digital spatial information on the location and distribution of metallic mineral occurrences in Wales at a scale of 1:50 000. While the broader term ‘mineral resources’ encompasses a wide range of geological materials, this dataset focuses solely on metallic minerals. These are defined in accordance with international mineral resource standards to include both geological characteristics and potential economic considerations. The dataset is based primarily on mapped geology, with limited assessment of economic viability, and is intended to show the distribution and extent of metallic mineral occurrences rather than potential extraction areas or mineral reserves. The Welsh Assembly Government recognised the importance of managing mineral resources at a national level to maintain an appropriate balance between mineral supply and demand. In response, the British Geological Survey (BGS) was commissioned in 2009 (contract 252/2009/09) to provide a comprehensive and accessible information base to support sustainable mineral resource management across the 25 Unitary and Mineral Planning Authorities of Wales. This work formed part of the National Minerals Map of Wales and Aggregate Safeguarding Map of Wales, funded through the Welsh Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund and co-funded by the BGS Sustainable Mineral Solutions project. This metallic minerals dataset is a thematic subset of the wider Welsh mineral resources dataset and was derived using the same methodology. Data production was completed in 2010, with minor revisions to geometry and attributes undertaken in 2020. The dataset enables users to visualise broad patterns in the distribution of metallic mineral occurrences across Wales and to consider their spatial relationship with other land-use designations, infrastructure, environmental constraints and conservation data. It is suitable for regional-scale planning and safeguarding assessments but does not indicate economically viable reserves, designate extraction areas, or confer planning status. Only onshore mainland occurrences are included. The data quality varies spatially and reflects the availability and resolution of underlying geological mapping. The presence of a metallic mineral occurrence does not imply current working, planning permission, or economic viability. Point data for metallic mineral occurrences have historically been included within related resource mapping; however, occurrence-level information is more comprehensively represented in other BGS datasets, such as the BGS BritPits database of mines and quarries. This dataset should therefore be used as a regional-scale spatial planning and safeguarding tool rather than as a definitive inventory of all recorded metallic mineral sites in Wales.
Simple
- Date (Creation)
- 2010
Distributor
British Geological Survey
-
Enquiries
0115 936 3276
Environmental Science Centre, Nicker Hill, Keyworth
,
NOTTINGHAM
,
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
,
NG12 5GG
,
United Kingdom
0115 936 3143
0115 936 3276
Point of contact
British Geological Survey
-
Enquiries
0115 936 3276
Environmental Science Centre, Nicker Hill, Keyworth
,
NOTTINGHAM
,
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
,
NG12 5GG
,
United Kingdom
0115 936 3143
0115 936 3276
- Maintenance and update frequency
- asNeeded As needed
- GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
- BGS Thesaurus of Geosciences
-
- Minerals
- Digital data
- Economic geology
- dataCentre
- Keywords
-
- NERC_DDC
- Access constraints
- otherRestrictions Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- license
- Use constraints
- otherRestrictions Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- The copyright of materials derived from the British Geological Survey's work is vested in the Natural Environment Research Council [NERC]. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a retrieval system of any nature, without the prior permission of the copyright holder, via the BGS Intellectual Property Rights Manager. Use by customers of information provided by the BGS, is at the customer's own risk. In view of the disparate sources of information at BGS's disposal, including such material donated to BGS, that BGS accepts in good faith as being accurate, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the quality or accuracy of the information supplied, or to the information's suitability for any use. NERC/BGS accepts no liability whatever in respect of loss, damage, injury or other occurence however caused.
- Other constraints
- The dataset is made available to external clients under BGS Digital Data Licence terms and conditions. Revert to the IPR Section (iprdigital@bgs.ac.uk ) if further advice is required with regard to permitted usage.
- Spatial representation type
- vector Vector
- Denominator
- 50000
- Metadata language
- EnglishEnglish
- Topic category
-
- Geoscientific information
- Geographic identifier
-
WALES [id=170000]
- Date (Creation)
- 1979
- Geographic identifier
-
WLS
- Date (Revision)
- 2009
N
S
E
W
- Begin date
- 2009
- End date
- 2010
- Unique resource identifier
- OSGB 1936 / British National Grid (EPSG::27700)
- Distribution format
-
-
ESRI Shapefile (.shp)
()
-
ESRI Shapefile (.shp)
()
Distributor
British Geological Survey
-
Enquiries
0115 936 3276
Environmental Science Centre, Nicker Hill, Keyworth
,
NOTTINGHAM
,
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
,
NG12 5GG
,
United Kingdom
0115 936 3143
0115 936 3276
- OnLine resource
-
BGS Homepage
(
WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link
)
The BGS Homepage is an entry point to the BGS data services.
- Hierarchy level
- dataset Dataset
- Other
- dataset
Conformance result
- Date (Publication)
- 2011
- Explanation
- See the referenced specification
- Pass
- No
Conformance result
- Date (Publication)
- 2010-12-08
- Explanation
- See http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:323:0011:0102:EN:PDF
- Pass
- No
- Statement
- The dataset was produced using the following methodology, consistent with the wider Welsh mineral resources project: 1. Important mineral occurrences were selected using expert judgment and existing literature on the location of mines and mineralised areas 2. Draft maps were shared with stakeholders for comment. 3. Approved maps were collated and prepared in GIS for dataset creation. 4. Data for metallic mineral commodities were merged into a regional file.
- File identifier
- 4b2b2d41-656d-7963-e063-3050940afcf9 XML
- Metadata language
- EnglishEnglish
- Hierarchy level
- dataset Dataset
- Date stamp
- 2026-05-06
- Metadata standard name
- UK GEMINI
- Metadata standard version
- 2.3
Point of contact
British Geological Survey
The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South
,
EDINBURGH
,
LOTHIAN
,
EH14 4AP
,
United Kingdom
+44 131 667 1000
- Dataset URI
- http://data.bgs.ac.uk/id/dataHolding/13608642
Overviews
Spatial extent
N
S
E
W
Provided by
Associated resources
Not available
NERC Data Catalogue Service