The Palynology and Organic Petrology labs are housed in the historic Museum Building. The preparation laboratory contains modern 'washdown' fume cupboards for HF work and equipment for producing slides, polished thin sections and polished blocks. A new microwave sample processing system dissolves three rock samples in HF simultaneously within minutes.

Optical equipment includes Leitz and Nikon microscopes and cameras for transmitted light, fluorescence and 'Nomarski interference contrast' microscopy. Leitz MPV-1 and a Leica Image Analysis and Archiving system are used for vitrinite reflectance determination, organic petrology and palynofacies research.