Definition(s)
Prospecting For Minerals Which Are To Be Extracted By Boreholes
This includes all exploratory drilling operations for minerals existing in their natural strata, which are to be extracted by boreholes, eg oil, natural gas, coal bed methane etc. It also includes all work ancillary to a drilling operation at a borehole site, such as assembly and installation of drilling equipment on the site, drilling, borehole logging, mud pumping, well surveying, fracturing, perforating and well testing etc. It also includes any prospecting work carried out at an existing borehole site even though no drilling operations are being carried out in association with that prospecting.
Source: A Guide to the Borehole Sites and Operations Regulations 1995, Guidance on Regulations (UK HSE L72), Second Edition, 2008. Regulatory Guidance