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Geodivining is a unique geoprospecting method developed by the British South African geologist and water diviner, Doug Bates, who came to Scotland in 1991 with valuable and broad geological experience gained in Southern Africa where he worked for Tg Exploration (a subsidiary of Texasgulf Inc. USA). Working in Scotland, he extended his knowledge to include the richly varied geological environments of Scotland, England and Wales, and combined it with his interest in (and ancestral history of) the ancient intuitive art of water divining, or "dowsing".

This unique synthesis of the science of geology and the art of divining found a ready market in Scotland, and led to the foundation of Geodivining International in 1994. Since then the business has developed rapidly, expanding into mineral and oil exploration, and developing international markets.

Working with all the major water well drillers in Scotland, in our first four years we successfully found new good quality water supplies for over 200 clients, ranging from domestic drinking water supplies to large scale irrigation and industrial developments. We have now been going for 10 years with over 1000 clients.

Recent successes include a 120m deep 180,000 litre/hour borehole for a natural mineral water bottling development near Dumfries; a 140m deep 72,000 l/hr test borehole at Longannet Power Station in Fife; Two 108m deep boreholes at Gleneagles Hotel and Golf Courses with a combined yield of 70,000 l/hr; a 100m deep 100,000 l/hr irrigation borehole (cover photograph) at Burnside of Boysack, Arbroath, which has the strongest artesian flow ever found in Scotland; and many farm irrigation wells in the dry East coast regions of Angus, Fife, and Lothian, yielding 45,000 to 90,000 l/hr of high quality ground-water, often in places where general hydrological prospects were poor, and where previous single or multiple drilling attempts had been unsuccessful.

Even in the hard non-porous igneous and metamorphic rocks of the Highlands and Islands and Grampian regions we regularly find good quality domestic, agricultural, and industrial water supplies, in boreholes of 30 - 90m depth yielding 500 to 50,000 l/hr proven in many places where ordinary hydrological advice was not to drill, and where previous drilling attempts had failed. In one such example, for Sangs (Banff) Ltd, Geodivining accurately pinpointed and assessed a source that yields a constant supply of 11,700 l/hr from a 60m well in the Precambrian Macduff slate formation, in a half-hectare hilltop site that had previously been drilled, to the same depth, 8 times without success!

All of these failed boreholes were in close proximity to the successful well; two of them within 10m! This example is one of many that serve to graphically demonstrate the distinct advantages of our accurate geoprospecting techniques; particularly the degree of precision that is possible and necessary to be sure of a successful outcome in this type of environment.

The Sangs borehole being drilled, August 1995… Doug located an intersection of 2 deep near-vertical faults or fractures and carefully marked an exact drilling site for optimum productivity. He forecast a sustainable yield of 2600 gallons/hour (11700 l/hr) from a productive zone intersecting both fractures between 150ft and 200ft (45 to 60m). Drilling intersected the first productive fracture at 150-165ft and the second at 186-195ft, and proved a 30 day test yield of 3000 gall/hr and a sustainable yield of 2600 gall/hr.

Our unique combination of geoscientific know-how and intuitive water divining skill has resulted in an extraordinary track record of success and a reputation in the water development industry second to none. Our results prove unequivocally that even in this technological age, the human mind-brain-body trinity is still the most sensitive, versatile and accurate remote-sensory geophysical instrument known to man.

"Basic water divining like this will work for most people who give it half a chance," says Doug; "It's an innate ability that we all have to some degree, but like all skills it takes long and dedicated practice to perfect the art."

One of the most amazing aspects of advanced water divining is its goal-oriented nature.

Doug has repeatedly demonstrated his ability to screen out unwanted signals and selectively locate the highest yielding source in a given area, the nearest source capable of producing a given minimum yield, or the best source in a given depth range; and to selectively measure and forecast drilling depths and yields.

We owe our remarkable success to these unique survey methods which almost infallibly identify the best drilling locations even in the most difficult geological environments; principally on major vertical or sub-vertical geostructural aquifers such as faults, joint fissures, fracture zones, and sometimes dyke margins, which act as major conduits for groundwater flow in nearly all rock formations, and are most favourably disposed for productive intersection by vertical boreholes.

We do not pick and choose our customers. In fact, we have never turned down a job, however small, distant, or difficult; and naturally it is in areas where water is most difficult to find that our Geodivining services are most frequently in demand. For the service we provide our fees are modest; and most clients consider us to be good value for money. Clients in the U.K. are offered the option of paying an hourly rate, or buying a money-back guarantee. Our guaranteed survey fees are fairly and affordably linked to the minimum yield requirements of each client, catering for all jobs from domestic supplies as little as 100 l/hr, to large agricultural and industrial supplies up to a maximum guaranteeable yield of 100,000 l/hr.

No survey job is too small, too large, too distant, or too difficult for us to tackle efficiently and economically.
We aim always to locate and delineate the best available sources of groundwater in terms of both yield and quality, and to assess their productive depth range and their continuously sustainable yield potential, also taking into account many environmental, logistical and convenience factors, before careful selection of the exact drilling positions. This enables us to match water sources to our clients' water supply requirements, thus fully satisfying their needs with a single borehole in over 80% of cases.

No other hydrogeological consultancy in the U.K. offers such a high degree of commitment to getting it right, and responsibility for occasionally getting it wrong. Our guaranteed commitment to no-nonsense realism and precision in assessing groundwater prospects ensures that we always give our clients the best possible advice; and although we often confidently recommend drilling where others might not dare, or have already failed, this self-regulating duty of care is reflected in our remarkable and continuous record of successful groundwater development.

Associated development costs are among the lowest in the industry. Conventional hydrogeological prospecting, even employing the extensive use of time-consuming and often costly geophysics, is generally not able to deliver the kind of detailed site-specific information that Geodivining routinely discovers, until a number of test boreholes have been drilled; and even then, the best sources may sometimes remain undiscovered. Because Geodivining is so accurate and goal-oriented, test drilling is seldom necessary on developments surveyed in this way, and our production boreholes typically achieve higher yields for less drilling, than most conventionally sited boreholes. Geodivining is therefore an excellent stand-alone survey method for all groundwater developments where budgetary constraints prevent the use of geophysical surveying and the conventional test-drilling approach.

On most groundwater developments, savings on drilling and other development costs can be quite substantial, justifying our survey fees many times over, even where thorough geological and geophysical surveying has already been planned or completed. We do not mean to imply that conventional surveying is of less value than Geodivining. On the contrary, the broader base on which conventional methods operate is essential for larger scale aquifer assessment and development, and achieves a great deal that our selective goal-oriented methods do not.

The two methods overlap, but are also distinctly different in their approach, execution, and results, and for the best results they should ideally be used together. The whole idea of Geodivining is to achieve this union between geoscience and the art of divining and apply it to the benefit of all our clients.

The implications for large projects and regional development programs are enormous. Our consistently high success rate and high yield to depth ratios generally enhance project productivity at least two-fold, and sometimes four or five fold, effectively saving large sums of money and enabling much more productive work to be done within a given budget. (We have a separate 11-page article by Doug Bates, originally published in the water forum of the Global Water Partnership. Copies are available by request or on the internet at http://www.gwpforum.org under the heading of "general discussion"; which gives a brief history of water divining, some illustrative examples, and detailed discussion of the practical and economic benefits to government organisations and N.G.Os.)

The commercial value of Geodivining to Mining companies and Oil & Gas companies is likewise enormous. The combination of conventional and unconventional exploration techniques that we can bring to bear in the search for these natural resources is a powerful tool for increasing productivity in all stages of exploration and resource development work. (We also have separate articles by Doug Bates, on the subjects of Mineral Exploration and Oil Exploration, available by request to companies and individuals involved in these industries.)

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