How to Make a Drill Results Map
To make a drill results map, import your drill collar CSV, map the latitude/longitude (or easting/northing) columns, assign the Drillholes role, add callout labels showing hole ID and best intercept, add the property boundary, then export as a Landscape 16:9 PNG or a news-release figure PDF.
What data you need
A drill results map is built from a collar table plus your headline intercepts. Gather:
- A drill collar CSV (one row per hole) with hole ID and coordinates
- Your best intercept per key hole (width × grade) for the labels
- A property/claims boundary file for context (GeoJSON, Shapefile, or KML)
- Your company logo and the program/map date
Required and recommended CSV columns
At minimum you need a hole ID and a coordinate pair. Everything else is preserved as feature properties you can show in callouts.
| Column | Required? | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hole ID | Required | DDH-24-012 | Used as the callout title |
| Latitude / Northing | Required | 50.12345 | Decimal degrees or UTM northing |
| Longitude / Easting | Required | -122.54321 | Decimal degrees or UTM easting |
| Total depth (m) | Recommended | 248.5 | Context in callouts/tables |
| Best intercept | Recommended | 15.2m @ 4.8 g/t Au | The headline label |
| Azimuth / Dip | Optional | 135 / -50 | If you note hole orientation |
Step 1: Import the drill collar CSV
Click the import button in the Layers section and select your collar CSV. The Column Mapper opens automatically — assign latitude and longitude. Columns named Lat, Long, Latitude, Longitude, Easting, or Northing are detected for you. Every other column (hole ID, depth, grade) is preserved and accessible when you click a hole.
Common coordinate issues (and fixes)
Most drill maps that come out wrong are a coordinate problem, not a styling problem.
- Lat/long swapped: if holes land in the wrong hemisphere, you've mapped longitude to latitude — re-map the columns
- UTM vs decimal degrees: easting/northing in the hundreds of thousands won't plot — convert to decimal degrees (WGS84) first, then import
- Sign dropped: western/southern coordinates must be negative (e.g. -122.5, not 122.5)
- Datum mismatch: NAD83 vs WGS84 is usually sub-metre, but a wrong datum or zone can shift holes by hundreds of metres — verify against a known landmark
Step 2: Assign the Drillholes role
Expand the layer card and select 'Drillholes' from the Role dropdown for standard dark circle markers. A marker size of 12–16 px reads well at most scales.
Step 3: Add hole-ID and intercept callouts
Click a hole to open the inline feature editor. Enter the hole ID as the title and the best intercept as the subtext — for example '15.2m @ 4.8 g/t Au' — then Add / Update Callout. For your top results, switch the callout type to 'Badge Label' and put the grade in the badge chip so the standout holes pop. Use the Priority field to keep labels from colliding on dense programs.
Presenting assay intercepts honestly
An intercept label is a compressed technical claim, and the compression is where figures get into trouble. The convention readers expect is width, grade and element — "32.0 m @ 6.1 g/t Au" — with the width stated as drilled core length unless you say otherwise.
Disclosure requirements for reporting exploration results sit with the issuer and its qualified person, not with a mapping tool. Where a figure supports a public disclosure, the QP determines what the figure has to state.
- Say "drilled width" or "core length" rather than implying true width unless true width is known
- Give the interval depth (from–to) in the release body even if the map label omits it for space
- Keep significant figures consistent between the map and the release text — a figure that disagrees with the body invites the wrong kind of attention
- Composite intervals should be identifiable as composites, not presented as single continuous hits
- If a hole is still pending, label it as pending rather than leaving it unlabelled and ambiguous
Callout discipline: label the story, not the dataset
The strongest instinct on a drill map is to label every hole, and it is the one worth resisting. A map with forty labels has no emphasis, so the reader supplies their own — usually by looking at whichever label is largest or closest to the middle.
- Badge the two to four holes that actually drive the news
- Leave the rest as plain collar symbols — the pattern is information on its own
- Put the label on the side of the collar with empty space, not the side with the target outline
- If two labels collide at the zoom you will export at, one of them is not important enough to keep
Step 4: Add the property boundary
Import your claims boundary as a second layer and assign the Claims role. This gives the drill pattern the property context investors and analysts expect to see.
Step 5: Frame and export for a news release
Activate Landscape 16:9 — the standard for news-release figures — and frame so all holes and key callouts fit. The Investor — Navy & White theme with a Light or Satellite basemap is the convention. Export PNG at 2× for email and web, or the News Release Figure PDF (6" × 4.5") for print-ready delivery.
Drill maps for a news release
In a junior mining news release the drill map is often the first thing a reader looks at, before the body text and frequently instead of it. That makes the figure the part carrying the result to anyone who skims, and it changes what the map has to do: it has to be legible to a non-technical audience at email and phone size.
Reuse the same figure in the investor deck and on the website so the story stays visually consistent across the release. A reader who saw the map on Tuesday should recognise it on Thursday. See making a professional exploration map for the layout elements, and the investor presentation guide for deck framing.
- Show the target outline and your claim boundaries so the holes are visibly testing the intended target, on your ground
- Use a clear basemap — satellite for setting, light for a report-style figure
- Title block with project, company and the release date
- Scale bar and north arrow, always
- Check legibility at the size it will appear, not at full screen
Example: a discovery-hole release
The release leads with one discovery hole and two strong step-outs. Plot all collars so the program reads as a program; badge only those three with width and grade; outline the target and the claim so the holes sit in context; switch to satellite so the setting is obvious; add a title block with the date; export Landscape 16:9 for the wire and the deck. Twelve holes, three labels, one point.
Example: a 12-hole discovery program
You've finished a 12-hole program with three standout intercepts. Import the collar CSV, map the coordinates, assign Drillholes, badge-label the three best holes with their grades, add plain callouts on the rest, drop in the claims boundary and your logo, switch to Satellite to show the ridge the holes follow, and export Landscape 16:9. That figure is ready to attach to the news release and reuse in the deck.
About the data and what to disclose
Cannot: validate assays, QA/QC, or that an intercept is true width. The map reflects the data you import — make sure your disclosure follows your QP's guidance and applicable securities rules.
Related guides
See the news-release figure section, the broad mining claims map guide, how to import CSV data, and how to lay out and export the figure.