The legal consolidation of the Arizona Dept. of Mines and Mineral Resources with the Arizona Geological Survey became effective today. It was largely a non-event. AZGS took over management of the Mines Dept. assets in January when that agency ran out of funds. The staff were hired by AZGS and maintained most of their previous duties while the Legislature and Governor approved a formal consolidation.
AZGS was directed to digitize the extensive mining and mineral resource records and files amassed by ADMMR and put them online for public access. That project is underway but still gearing up. We've been able to win Data Preservation funds from the USGS to match state funds going into this
During our temporary custodianship, we made major progress in integrating accounting and finance systems, upgrading the ADMMR computers and network, carrying out a complete inventory of ADMMR assets, and transferring remaining external contracts to AZGS.
We now want to find more suitable (and publicly accessible) offices for the combined AZGS and ADMMR staff in Phoenix to establish a full-service AZGS branch office in the Phoenix valley to better serve our customers and stakeholders.