The British Columbia Geological Survey (BCGS)continued to play a leading role in the creation of athriving, safe, and sustainable mining industry in BritishColumbia (BC) in 2010. This was accomplished byproviding world-class geoscience expertise and data to government, industry, and the general public. A new multi-year rare metals project started under the auspices of the renewed Targeted GeoscienceInitiative program (TGI-4). This rare metals project is anational initiative co-lead by George Simandl of theBCGS. Its overall objective is to develop new explorationmethodologies and technologies in the search for rare earth and rare metal deposits. Rare metals are important in the manufacturing of automobiles and many high-tech products such as cell phones and computers.
British Columbia Geological Survey Activities in 2010 by S.M. Rowins, L. Jones, D.V. Lefebure and J. Fredericks INTRODUCTION The British Columbia Geological Survey (BCGS) continued to play a leading role in the creation of a thriving, safe, and sustainable mining industry in British Columbia (BC) in 2010. This was accomplished by providing world-class geoscience expertise and data to government, industry, and the general public. These diverse groups use our expertise and data in different ways, but an underlying interest of all groups is to see the province position itself as a favoured destination for investment by the mineral exploration and mining industry. A great attribute of the BCGS in the fast-paced world of today is its ability to consistently deliver standardized high quality geological maps, geoscience reports, and online interactive geoscience databases in a very short timeframe. All geoscience products are made available online via MapPlace, the award-winning internet portal of the BCGS. The mineral exploration and mining industry continued to perform well throughout the 2008-10 recession and helped lead the economic recovery in BC. Exploration expenditures in 2010 are estimated between $220 and $300 million, a significant increase over the $154 million spent in 2009. Nevertheless, funding levels for the BCGS in 2010 were similar to those in 2009. This resulted in the BCGS continuing to focus on creating new geoscience products from existing data and developing innovative programs that involved cooperative partnerships with universities, industry, and other public geoscience agencies. The BCGS continued its long collaboration with the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) by participating in four joint field projects in 2010. Three field mapping projects were delivered as part of the GSC’s Geo-mapping for Energy and Minerals (GEM) program and a new multi-year rare metals project started under the auspices of the renewed Targeted Geoscience Initiative program (TGI-4). This rare metals project is a national initiative co-lead by George Simandl of the BCGS. Its overall objective is to develop new exploration methodologies and technologies in the search for rare metal deposits. Rare metals are important in the manufacturing of automobiles and many high-tech This publication is also available, free of charge, as colour digital files in Adobe Acrobat ® PDF format from the BC Ministry of Forests, Mines and Lands website at http://www.empr.gov.bc.ca/Mining/Geoscience/PublicationsCat alogue/Fieldwork. products such as cell phones and computers. Other important BCGS partners included Geoscience BC (GBC). In 2010, the BCGS and GBC collaborated on the delivery of a surficial mapping and till sampling program southeast of Houston in the Tahtsa Lake district of west- central BC. Finally, as in past years, university students were employed as co-op interns and geoscience assistants throughout the year. Their help with the delivery of our field programs and work on improving our digital geoscience databases is greatly appreciated. BCGS FIELD ACTIVITIES A main priority of the BCGS is to generate new geoscience data and products, including bedrock and surficial geology maps and targeted mineral deposit studies. The locations of the 2010 field projects are shown in Figure 1. Projects are typically chosen with the objective of helping to diversify local economies by attracting mineral exploration activity that may lead to the opening of new mines. In many parts of the province, mineral exploration and mining are essential drivers of local employment and tax revenue, and directly support the development of regional infrastructure. Field mapping studies (Figure 1) continued in the North Coast (Nelson et al., this volume), Iskut River (Mihalynuk et al., this volume), and Tahtsa Lake (Ferbey, this volume) areas of the province. A new two-year GEM “Edges” project in northern British Columbia started in 2010 with mapping in the Kutcho Creek area near the Kutcho Creek volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit (Schiarizza, this volume). In addition to these 2010 mapping projects, several other mineral deposit-related studies were brought to completion. These include age determinations of mineralization and porphyritic intrusive rocks at the Brenda and Woodjam porphyry Cu-Mo (Au) deposits (Logan et al., this volume), the creation of a new Mineral Deposit Profile for carbonate-hosted, nonsulphide Zn-Pb deposits in BC (Paradis and Simandl, this volume), a preliminary study of nickeliferous minerals in the Cassiar asbestos deposit (Hora et al., this volume), an investigation of placer gold nuggets with implications for bedrock sources from the Atlin placer camp (Mihalynuk et al., this volume), a study of the mineral potential of the western Liard Basin in northeastern BC (Ferri et al., this volume) and a discussion of the geochemistry of Permo- Triassic volcanic rocks of the southern Nicola Group west Geological Fieldwork 2010, Paper 2011-1 1
Transcript
British Columbia Geological Survey Activities in 2010
by S.M. Rowins, L. Jones, D.V. Lefebure and J. Fredericks
INTRODUCTION
The British Columbia Geological Survey (BCGS) continued to play a leading role in the creation of a thriving, safe, and sustainable mining industry in British Columbia (BC) in 2010. This was accomplished by providing world-class geoscience expertise and data to government, industry, and the general public. These diverse groups use our expertise and data in different ways, but an underlying interest of all groups is to see the province position itself as a favoured destination for investment by the mineral exploration and mining industry. A great attribute of the BCGS in the fast-paced world of today is its ability to consistently deliver standardized high quality geological maps, geoscience reports, and online interactive geoscience databases in a very short timeframe. All geoscience products are made available online via MapPlace, the award-winning internet portal of the BCGS.
The mineral exploration and mining industry continued to perform well throughout the 2008-10 recession and helped lead the economic recovery in BC. Exploration expenditures in 2010 are estimated between $220 and $300 million, a significant increase over the $154 million spent in 2009. Nevertheless, funding levels for the BCGS in 2010 were similar to those in 2009. This resulted in the BCGS continuing to focus on creating new geoscience products from existing data and developing innovative programs that involved cooperative partnerships with universities, industry, and other public geoscience agencies. The BCGS continued its long collaboration with the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) by participating in four joint field projects in 2010. Three field mapping projects were delivered as part of the GSC’s Geo-mapping for Energy and Minerals (GEM) program and a new multi-year rare metals project started under the auspices of the renewed Targeted Geoscience Initiative program (TGI-4). This rare metals project is a national initiative co-lead by George Simandl of the BCGS. Its overall objective is to develop new exploration methodologies and technologies in the search for rare metal deposits. Rare metals are important in the manufacturing of automobiles and many high-tech This publication is also available, free of charge, as colour digital files in Adobe Acrobat® PDF format from the BC Ministry of Forests, Mines and Lands website at http://www.empr.gov.bc.ca/Mining/Geoscience/PublicationsCatalogue/Fieldwork.
products such as cell phones and computers. Other important BCGS partners included Geoscience BC (GBC). In 2010, the BCGS and GBC collaborated on the delivery of a surficial mapping and till sampling program southeast of Houston in the Tahtsa Lake district of west-central BC. Finally, as in past years, university students were employed as co-op interns and geoscience assistants throughout the year. Their help with the delivery of our field programs and work on improving our digital geoscience databases is greatly appreciated.
BCGS FIELD ACTIVITIES A main priority of the BCGS is to generate new
geoscience data and products, including bedrock and surficial geology maps and targeted mineral deposit studies. The locations of the 2010 field projects are shown in Figure 1. Projects are typically chosen with the objective of helping to diversify local economies by attracting mineral exploration activity that may lead to the opening of new mines. In many parts of the province, mineral exploration and mining are essential drivers of local employment and tax revenue, and directly support the development of regional infrastructure.
Field mapping studies (Figure 1) continued in the North Coast (Nelson et al., this volume), Iskut River (Mihalynuk et al., this volume), and Tahtsa Lake (Ferbey, this volume) areas of the province. A new two-year GEM “Edges” project in northern British Columbia started in 2010 with mapping in the Kutcho Creek area near the Kutcho Creek volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit (Schiarizza, this volume).
In addition to these 2010 mapping projects, several other mineral deposit-related studies were brought to completion. These include age determinations of mineralization and porphyritic intrusive rocks at the Brenda and Woodjam porphyry Cu-Mo (Au) deposits (Logan et al., this volume), the creation of a new Mineral Deposit Profile for carbonate-hosted, nonsulphide Zn-Pb deposits in BC (Paradis and Simandl, this volume), a preliminary study of nickeliferous minerals in the Cassiar asbestos deposit (Hora et al., this volume), an investigation of placer gold nuggets with implications for bedrock sources from the Atlin placer camp (Mihalynuk et al., this volume), a study of the mineral potential of the western Liard Basin in northeastern BC (Ferri et al., this volume) and a discussion of the geochemistry of Permo- Triassic volcanic rocks of the southern Nicola Group west
Geological Fieldwork 2010, Paper 2011-1 1
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Table 1. Recent investments from Asia in BC-based companies. Year Asian Company Country BC Company Dollar Amount2000 Korea Zinc Company Korea Teck Cominco US$6.1 million
2005 POSCO Korea Elk Valley Corp. US$25 million
2005 Zijin Mining Group China Pinnacle Mines $1.95 million
2007 Northwest Non-Ferrous Int'l Investment China Yukon Nevada Gold Corp. $3 million
2007 Sojitz Japan Thompson Creek Mining $100 million
2007 Chinalco China Peru Copper US$792 million
2008 Mitsubishi Materials Japan Copper Mountain $28.7 million
2008 Daewon Chemical Co. Korea Nanika Resources $5 million
2008 Jingduicheng Molybdenum Group/NWF China Yukon Zinc $100 million
2008 Itochu Corp and LG Int'l Investment Japan Korea
Compliance Clean Energy US$11 million
2008 Kauilan Clean Coal Ltd. China Canadian Dehua US$5.5 million
2008 Jilin Jien Nickel Industry Co. - China China Goldbrook Ventures Inc. $45 million
2009 Toshiba Corp, Tokyo Electric, Japan Bank Japan Uranium One Inc. US$221.4 million
2009 Daewon Chemical Co. Ltd. Korea Nanika Resources Inc. $5 million
2009 China Gas Holdings Ltd. (HK) China IMW Industries Ltd. $20 million
2009 Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Holdings Co. Ltd. China Canada Zinc Metals Corp. $4.9 million
2009 China Investment Corporation China Teck Resources Limited $1.74 billion
Minco Gold Corporation China Accel China Growth Fund $4.44 million
2009 Korea Zinc Company Korea Selwyn Resources Ltd. $3 million
2009 Zijin Mining Group China Continental Minerals Corporation $25 million
2009 Yunnan Chihong Zinc & Germanium Co. Ltd. of China
China Selwyn Resources Ltd. $100 million
2009 Tianjin Huakan Group Co. Ltd. China Merit Mining $15.5 million
2010 JOGMEC Japan Lomiko Resources US$2.5 million
2010 State Grid International Development Ltd. China Quadra Mining Ltd. $1 billion
2010 Jiangxi Copper Company (JCC) China BioteQ Envirommental Technologies Inc.
2010 Investment in Bingay property China Centermount Coal Ltd. $6 million
2010 Huiyong and Kailun companies China Canadian Dehua International Mining
$20 million
the Director of the Mineral Development Office in Vancouver also left the Survey at the end of the year to work as Vice President for Hathor Exploration Limited.
Andrew Legun, Nick Massey, and Ray Lett all retired in 2010 after long and distinguished careers with the BCGS. Andrew had worked as both a coal geologist and regional mapper, while Nick focused on mapping parts of southern British Columbia, particularly on Vancouver Island. Ray made major contributions to the regional
geochemical data, completed numerous topical studies, and provided laboratory support for the BCGS staff and students. On a positive note, Nick and Ray became the first two Emeritus Scientists with the BCGS. The new Emeritus Scientist program recognizes their tremendous contribution to the Survey and people of British Columbia over the years, and allows for their continued collaboration with Survey personnel on various projects.
10 British Columbia Geological Survey
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