CMIC News update - September 2011-1

Please find below an update by François Robert, champion of the Exploration Innovation Consortium. The Consortium is making very good progress in all areas, but one. Further information from our academic partners will be provided in a subsequent newsletter.
The one exception to our progress has been our difficulty in staffing an experienced person as the research director for the exploration program. If you have suggestions for anyone we should consider for this position, please let us know.

CMIC-EIC update

Following a series of meetings between March and May, CMIC-EIC partners defined two major R&D programs addressing the most critical challenges of mineral exploration in Canada: finding new deposits in our maturing mining camps and finding new deposits in vast remote parts of the country that are covered by overburden.  The two programs aim at step changes on a 5-10 year horizon:

1- Targeting in deep mature camps, focusing on: 1) defining integrated multi-parameter footprints (signatures) of type deposits, 2) developing deep mapping techniques to unravel 3D geology at depth, and 3) developing tools for real-time down-hole data collection.

2- Targeting in remote and covered terranes, focusing on: 1) defining indicators and controls of fertility in well-endowed terranes and districts, 2) developing techniques and tools for mapping through cover, and 3) understanding secondary dispersion mechanisms and developing new detection techniques.

Three R&D projects, addressing specific components of the two programs defined above, are in advanced state of development, each led by a EIC sub-committee. They will be submitted to the partners and relevant Government agencies for funding in the next few months:

1- Integrated multi-parameter footprints of type deposits: The initial objective is t develop a methodology for defining detectable deposit signatures by integrating a wide range of parameters from on the same sets of samples.  Initial focus will be on magmatic Cu-Ni, Unconformity-type uranium, lode gold deposits.  A University-based team has been assembled to further develop the proposal and to carry out the work.

2-  Lightweight, heli-portable core rig: the objective is to a drill dig that can easily be transported by helicopter in remote regions of the Country and that can drill through a variety of overburden cover to obtain a core sample from bedrock.

3- Downhole sensor for muon geotomography:  following a successful proof of concept at the Myra Falls base metal mine, a proposal has been made to develop down-hole sensors to apply this technique to deep near-mine exploration.  Muon geotomography is a technique developed by Advanced Applied Physics Solutions for 3D mapping of density variations in a given rock volume to detect dense orebodies (e.g. sulfide-rich ores)

Current EIC Partners and their representatives