UK sand and gravel database

The UK Sand and Gravel Database was compiled during the production of the Industrial Mineral Assessment Reports. The Department of the Environment commissioned this Report series from the British Geological Survey. Data collection extended from the first IMAU report in 1969 to the last report in 1990. The dataset is complete and is derived from reports with some additional boreholes that were never published. Standard procedures were adopted for whole project. Each report studied the sand and gravel resources of an area of between one hundred and two hundred square kilometres. Specially commissioned boreholes on a one kilometre grid basis were used in conjunction with existing geological knowledge to make a resource level assessment of the volume and quality of sand and gravel resource available. A total of 12,563 boreholes were drilled, 53,721 Lithological units described and 54,128 samples collected and graded. This information is presented in the appendixes of the individual reports and as a single database. Data collection is complete. Only factual corrections to the data are occasionally made. The dataset includes the borehole location, total depth, unit thickness, unit lithologies, and grading information.