This conference is one of a number of conferences that form part of The AusIMM's Towards 2000 initiative on resource and reserve estimation issues which will eventually form a Monograph in their own right. This particular conference organised by the Illawarra Branch of The Institute focused on the data used to interpret orebodies. It examined the definition of the resource database its validation geological interpretation and auditing the resource database. Transcriptions of the Q&A sessions are also included.