The Geological Survey operates two drilling rigs; one rig is used for rotary coring and the other is used for auguring Quaternary samples.

The rotary coring rig is a Boart-Longyear LF90D mounted on a 6x6 Volvo FMX truck (pictured above). This rig has a depth capacity of 1,193m and can use BQ to PQ rods.

The Boart-Longyear is used for bedrock investigations. The operations of this rig are crucial to the Land Mapping programme's 1:50k work, and is used by the Groundwater programme on several different projects.

 
The Geological Survey's second rig is a Dando Geotech 7.5 mounted on a 6x6 Iveco truck. This rig is used for continuous flight augering as part of the Land Mapping programme's Quaternary mapping projects, although other programmes do use it to support ongoing projects.​