The Greenland Mineral Resources Portal has swung open. The newest version of the online database, launched in April, provides even more information – much of it completely free – to the public.

The interactive GIS map may be the portal’s crown jewel. Users can overlay data from eight categories including mineral occurrences, licences and the geological environment. The site also features other useful resources such as backgrounders on relevant regulations and licences, which are available on the portal’s front page next to databases for documents and technical data.

“It’s very important for companies to get easy access to high-quality geological data,” said Mikael Pedersen, head of the GIS section at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS).

“It’s common sense that companies expect to be able to find everything on the Internet,” he said. “We know very much what their needs are.”

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GEUS and Greenland’s Ministry of Mineral Resources have developed and funded the portal since mid-2011. Previous versions of the portal had fewer data types and less data freely available.

“We used to charge for a lot of the data,” Pedersen said. “When we did the project in the beginning, we put [up] what we could do at the time. We showed a map so [people] could explore what kind of data was available at our institutions, and then they got a phone number where you could call to get the data.” Now people interested in buying the data can pay for it online with their credit card or download it straight from the website.

Pedersen presented the most recent update to the portal at PDAC in Toronto in March, but he said more changes are on the horizon. “We’re adding more and more data,” Pedersen noted. “We’re also making sure that the data on the portal are quality controlled. If we find something that’s not good enough, we improve the data. This is a continuously developing thing.”