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MERC Welcomes New Member:
SRK Consulting.
MERC Project MSc Thesis Defense:
Luis Alfonso Arteaga.
MERC Professional Development Opportunities:
- MERC & Metal Earth to present at Resources for Future Generations in Vancouver, BC this June.
- Mineral Exploration in Volcanic Terrains Field Mapping course, August 2018.
Metal Earth Research Opportunities:
- MSc in Exploration Geochemistry and Mineral Prospectivity Fall 2018/Winter 2019.
- MSc in Oxygen fugacity and volatile content of late Abitibian magmas September 2018.
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Footprints Project Update:
Mineral Exploration Footprints project nears completion. Read about the project and preliminary results.
Other News & Events:
- Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal features a progress report on year one of Metal Earth.
- Earth Sciences student speaks about his field mapping experience on Metal Earth in the Modern Mining and Technology Sudbury Magazine (MMTS).
- Professors at the Harquail School of Earth Sciences participate in annual S-IMEW event in Sudbury.
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SRK Consulting is an international consulting practice providing a range of specialist services to earth and water resource industries. They provide services throughout the mining project life cycle including early stage exploration and environmental and closure compliance.
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MERC Project MSc Thesis Defense
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Luis Alfonso Arteaga from Bogotá, Colombia successfully defended his MSc. Thesis on Monday April 23rd.
His thesis studied temporal and spatial relationships between gold mineralisation and intrusive rocks in the Boston Creek area, Abitibi greenstone belt under supervision from Professors Harold Gibson and Daniel Kontak. His work was an integrated study of an intrusion-associated gold system centred on a felsic dyke complex, documenting changes in mineralogy and geochemistry caused by strong alkali metasomatism.
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These changes include pervasive albitisation, development of episyenitic texture, and modification of major and trace elements including REE. The results of geochronological analyses associate the alteration and mineralisation with the regional Timiskaming event.
Prior to completing his MSc. Luis was working in the industry as an Exploration Geologist for gold in various countries in Latin America. Now that he has completed his MSc. he will continue working in exploration in Canada.
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Professional Development Opportunities
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Join MERC at one of our professional development courses or programs. If you don't see a program within your interests, follow MERC on LinkedIn to be notified in the future of new programs.
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Mineral Exploration in Volcanic Terrains
Field Mapping Course
August 27th - September 7th, 2018
(Opportunity for industry participants full course registration)
Contact Dr. Harold Gibson hgibson@laurentian.ca for more information.
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About the course:
This is a 10-day course focusing on recognizing, describing, and mapping volcanic lithofacies, alteration types, mineralization, and deformation in a well-exposed Precambrian volcanic succession hosting base and precious metal deposits.
What you can expect:
The course is delivered as a mapping project with evening lectures and discussion following a one-day introductory field trip. An introduction to graphic core logging is provided. Mapping is conducted in teams, and grades are based on the map, structural cross-sections, and a final report, which includes a description and interpretation of the geology and structure and an assessment of exploration potential with recommendations. All field costs are borne by the student.
Non-student cost: $2500 plus HST (includes field transport, but does not include accommodation/meals).
Contact Prof Harold Gibson hgibson@laurentian.ca to reserve a space and for additional information. Contact Ms Roxane Mehes rmehes@laurentian.ca to register.
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MERC Technical Program at Resources for Future Generations 2018
Vancouver, British Columbia
June 16- 21, 2018
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MSc in Exploration Geochemistry and Mineral Prospectivity
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Metal Earth is seeking a motivated MSc student with GIS and geospatial analysis experience, to begin data analytics work in the fall of 2018 or winter 2019.
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A key objective of the Data Analytics component of the Metal Earth project is to develop data processing workflows for information fusion and integration, to propose alternative targeting solutions based on machine learning and statistical modeling of available multidisciplinary data.
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This MSc project fulfills the need for advanced geochemical data processing of available lake sediment data, as part of a regional scale mineral prospectivity study focused on the eastern termination of the Superior province.
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MSc in Oxygen fugacity and volatile content of late Abitibian magmas
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Metal Earth is seeking an MSc student with a background in metallogeny and igneous
petrology to begin in September 2018.
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This project runs parallel to the Metal Earth Project, which investigates the factors that favor gold and precious metals concentration in the Archean crust. This project is also part of ongoing research on the relationship between magmatism and metallogenic processes. The aim of this Master project is to document the oxygen fugacity and
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volatile content of several late intrusions (about 2.70 Ga) of the Chibougamau and other areas of the Abitibi Subprovince. Tracer minerals such as apatite will be analyzed by laser ablation, and the least documented intrusions will be subjected to petrological and whole rock chemical investigations. Application closing date July 1st, 2018.
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Mineral Exploration Footprints Project Nears Completion
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The $13M Pan-Canadian NSERC-CMIC-funded Mineral Exploration Footprints project is nearing completion. The project and preliminary results are summarized below and interim publications can be accessed on the Footprints website.
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To develop new approaches to ore system modelling using more effective integration and visualization of multi-parameter geological-structural-mineralogical-lithogeochemical-petrophysical-geophysical exploration data using GEOSCIENCE Integrator®, self-consistent GOCAD® 3D Common Earth Models, and geostatistical/machine learning technologies (e.g., clustered heat maps, K-means clustering, self-organizing maps, Hypercube).
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Schematic map of Highland Valley area showing preliminary footprint components and vectors observed at all deposits. Ab: albite, Act: actinolite, Bn: bornite, Bt: biotite, Ccp: chalcopyrite, Chl: chlorite, Ep: epidote, Kln: Kaolinite, Ksp: K feldspar, Mnt: montmorillonite, Ms: muscovite, Prh: prehnite, Py: pyrite, Qtz: quartz, Tur: tourmaline, WM: white mica; ppy: porphyry, met: metamorphic/deuteric alteration (from Lesher et al. 2017 Exploration ’17).
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The project is being led by Professor Michael Lesher at MERC/HES and Professor Mark Hannington at Ottawa/Kiel and involves 24 universities, 29 faculty researchers, 15 mining and mineral exploration companies (Agnico-Eagle, AngloGold Ashanti, Barrick, Cameco, Denison Mines, Franklin Geosciences, Gold Fields, HudBay Minerals, Iamgold, Kinross, Orano, Teck, Yamana Gold), 4 geochemical service companies (Actlabs, ALS, SGS, SRC), 5 geological and geophysical service companies (Abitibi Geophysics, CGG, DGI, PGW, SRK Consulting), 6 software service companies (Geosoft, Geovia, MIRA Geoscience, Paradigm, Pitney-Bowes, Reflex), and 4 collaborating agencies (Geological Survey of Canada, Ministère des Ressources naturelles du Québec, Saskatchewan Geological Survey, Geologic Survey of British Columbia).
It has trained 15 post-doctoral fellows and research scientists, 9 PhD students, 16 MSc students, 6 BSc Honours students, 17 BSc laboratory assistants, and 17 BSc field assistants.
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Thus far 98 vectors (35 in metasedimentary rocks, 63 in mafic dikes), 20 footprints (9 in metasedimentary rocks, 11 in mafic dikes), and 4 halos in Quaternary sediments have been identified at the Canadian Malartic stockwork-disseminated Au deposit; 18 vectors and 7 footprints have been identified at the Millennium unconformity U deposit and 14 vectors and footprints have been identified at the McArthur River unconformity U deposit; and 15 vectors and footprints have been identified in the Highland Valley porphyry Cu system.
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For the first time, these have been assembled into comprehensive models that will serve as landmark case studies for data integration and analysis in today’s challenging exploration environment.
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Schematic map of Canadian Malartic area summarizing some of the footprint components (upper right) and vectors in the Pontiac Group. Bt: biotite, Cal: calcite, LOI: loss on ignition, Rut: rutile, WM: white mica, XARD: abundance in aqua regia-digested sample, XSPF: abundance in sodium peroxide fused sample, where X is Fe-Mn-Mg-Al-Ti-K housed mainly in biotite (dissolved by aqua regia). (From Lesher et al. 2017 Exploration ’10).
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Final Steps Towards Completion
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The 5th and final Annual General Meeting was held during PDAC and several presentations will be made at the upcoming CIM-GAC-MAC Resources for Future Generations meeting in Vancouver, BC 16-21 June and the Society of Economic Geologists Metals, Minerals, and Society meeting in Keystone, Colorado 22-25 September 2018.
The final report will be completed at the end of the summer and after a 6-month blackout period all project results will be available to the public through the project website. For more information you may visit the project website below or contact Professor Michael Lesher at mlesher@laurentian.ca.
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