DATA METALLOGENICA ORIGINAL

Uniformly organized collection of miniaturized rock/ore sets from ~3500 mineral deposits in ~85 countries permanently attached to aluminum plates held like library books (LITHOTHEQUE).

Data Metallogenica (DM) showroom in Glenside (Adelaide) during its happy days in early 2001. Original collection and system developed by Peter and Sarka Laznicka in Canada since 1970 relocated to Australia in 1999. It was installed at the Australian Mineral Foundation in Glenside (Adelaide suburb) under industry and some government organizations' sponsorship of over AUS$ 2 million, raised by Amira International (the replacement value of the collection when leaving Canada was between US$ 1.5 and 2 million). AMF, a world-class organization envied internationally, went under at the end of 2001. Amira became the sole DM owner, they dumped the expert staff, hired a $100k/year Manager, and in 2004 relocated the office to Melbourne. In November 2005 the new landlord, Maptek, evicted the physical collection and took over the premises (into which the South Australian Government invested $150k in 1999). DM was packed into shipping containers where it has been since (it is August 2009 now). PIRSA promised DM re-installation in Adelaide but we are still waiting. ACCESS TO THE PUBLIC (and sponsors) DENIED! In the meantime Amira International maintains the http://www.datametallogenica.com website staffed by Director, Manager and Assistant. No expert on staff, a generals' army without soldiers! Ask them a technical question!

On the left: portion of a set of 62 lithotheque plates from the Gawler Craton, South Australia, described in a report included in the SARIG website (www.minerals.pir.sa.gov.au); a 2005 project sponsored by the South Australian Government.

The DM project terminated before a complete update of its extensive holdings (over 3500 LITHOTHEQUE sets with explanation sheets in 2005, 400+ MACROTHEQUE drawers with hand samples organized by the Total Metallogeny system {read TotMet Geosites}; a library of photos, slides, field notes; over 1000 thin and polished sections, all locked in containers) and little has been done since. Most website database entries remain half-empty and unfinished  (most contain only a high-resolution photo of the lithotheque plate and often an out-of-date explanation sheet) as the Management appears unable to upgrade thousands of "strange" deposits about which they know little (these are the reason why DM came into existence in the first place!). Amira compensates by stuffing the website with full texts of randomly selected university theses (mere ~60 in 2009) that disrupt the DM mission for which the sponsors paid $2 million (DM was to be a rapid first-look realistic information source; the browsing public is hardly interested in reading 700 pages of scholarly tracts). DM, built as an instrument with international outlook based on original sources in >15 languages, rapidly degenerates into a cheap and local pedestrian database. DM started and was maintained for 29 years as a family funded work of love, with no public support. After 2001 it has been converted into mainly a means of providing comfortable employment to overpaid management. Data Metallogenica needs friends and supporters before it ends up on a garbage dump; please write to me. I have also, despite my advanced age, decided to go back to the original mission as DM Original (DMO), reverting to the original logo. I continue adding to the collection, upgrading the accumulated materials, lobby for DM re-installation and devise new practical applications. My 2006 book "Giant Metallic Deposits..." (Books;  Courses & lectures) includes some two thirds of deposit examples represented in DM, which a reader can instantly access by internet and, eventually, on foot.