Geological Survey of Ethiopia


Date of Establishment

The Geological Survey of Ethiopia (GSE) was set up in 1968 as a Department within the Ministry of Mines (MM), and became the Ethiopian Institute of Geological Surveys (EIGS) in 1984, an autonomous federal government agency accountable to MM. It was recently renamed GSE.
Mandate and Activities

Clients Being Served

Staffing
The GSE has 794 staff members. Of these there are 183 geoscientists, 22 chemists, 9 engineers and 2 computer programmers.
Departments (Technical Services)
To facilitate its work GSE is supported by the following technical services:

Mapping

Regional Geology and Geochemistry Department

The Regional Geology and Geochemistry Department of the Survey has been carrying out the basic geological mapping at a scale of 1:250,000 for the last 30 years. To date, geological mapping at the specified scale covers a third of the country’s landmass. Priority has been given to the southern, northern and western parts of the country where Precambrian metamorphic rocks are exposed, these being expected to host economic mineral deposits. Parts of these areas have also been covered by regional reconnaissance geochemical surveys.

Mineral Exploration Departments

    Economic Mineral Exploration and Evaluation Department

    Hydrogeology, Engineering and Geothermal Department

    Geophysics Department

The GSE through the various technical departments and project offices explores for solid and fluid mineral resources, delineate the potential areas and assess the viable reserves for further development. The major activities are on: precious, base and ferrous metals, industrial minerals, groundwater, hydrothermal resources, hydrocarbons, and basic exploration activities for petroleum promotion. Two departments-Economic Mineral Exploration and Evaluation; Hydrogeology, Engineering and Geothermal are actively involved in the exploration program. The above mineral exploration activities are strongly supported by the Department of Geophysics applying ground geophysical exploration techniques. It also conducts gravity geophysical surveys.

Central Geological Laboratory (CGL)

This service is involved in the chemical analysis of geological, hydrogeological and geothermal fluids, petroleum and natural gas samples using “wet classical” analysis methods (i.e., gravimetry, colorometery, volumetry, electrogravimetry, etc.). Instrumental methods applied by the CGL consist optical emission spectrophotometry, X-ray fluorescence, atomic absorption spectrophotometry, optical spectrophotometry, ion analyzers and electric fire assay analyzer. Mineralogical and petrographic methods for mineral identification, physical tests of industrial and construction minerals are also carried in the CGL.

Drilling Department

Projects that search for the minerals, ground water, and geothermal resources require the support of drilling. These services are efficiently carried out by the Drilling Department and the drilling unit in the Geothermal Project.

Geoscience Information Center

The raw and interpreted data of GSE are collected, processed and stored using computers and these data can be accessed, exchanged and disseminated easily and efficiently using new technologies. The acquired information is related to geoscience and/or to the survey’s administrative data. These jobs are carried out by the Geoscience Information Center.

Cartography and Surveying Service

The production of standardized large-scale topographic maps and digital surveying data and other surveying activities are carried out on request from technical departments and project offices. In addition, based on sketch drawings submitted by geoscientists, camera ready maps are prepared and processed by Cartography and Surveying Service for monochrome and multi-color production before they reach printing stages.

Scientific Equipment Maintenance Service

Maintenance for scientific, communication and laboratory equipment is taken care of by Scientific Equipment maintenance Service.

Facilities

The main facilities at the central Geological Laboratory include atomic absorption; XRF, emission spectrography, microscopes and equipment to carry out complete chemical and physical analysis of samples.

The Drilling Department has various types of drilling rigs. The maximum annual core drilling capacity is 8,000m. to a depth of 500 m. The Geothermal Division has two rotary type, trailer mounted oil field rigs that can drill to a maximum depth of 2,500m with 8.5” diameter tricone bits.

The Geophysics Department employs different geophysical scientific instruments to execute its works and is equipped with up-to-date equipment such as induced-polarization, resistivity meter, electromagnetic unit, magnetometers, gravimeter, radiometric and seismic refraction units.

GSE is equipped with computers, printers, digitizing boards, scanners, plotters and different earth science software used for data handling and image processing.
The Cartographic and Surveying Service has various photographic, printing, reproduction and surveying equipment.

Consultancy and other services

The GSE is the only organization in Ethiopia, which renders consultancy, and other services in the field of metalic mineral exploration, industrial minerals and construction mineral raw materials. Hydrological investigation for the assessment of groundwater for domestic, industrial and agricultural use and consultancy services for geotechnical investigation for big civil engineering projects is also being provided by the GSE.


The fields of specialization GSE can assist the mining investors community are:

General Manager

Mr. Ketema Tadesse

E-mail: geology.institute@telecom.net.et

Tel.: 251-1-46-33-25

Fax: 251-1-46-33-26

Chief Geologist

Mr. Amenti Abraham

E-mail: Survey@telecom.net.et

Tel.: 251-1-46-33-21

Fax: 251-1-46-33-26

Geoscience Information Center

Mr. Sisay Tesfaye

E-mail: Survey@telecom.net.et

Tel.: 251-1-46-33-29

Fax: 251-1-46-33-26