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Issues for decision makers: no. 2
Finding new Canadian mineral deposits:
Government investment in mapping will do it!
The problem
New economic mineral deposits are not being discovered fast enough to
maintain our known reserves. If we do not change this, the strong contribution of
the mining sector to the Canadian economy will decline over the next 20 years.
What should we do?
Government should increase its investment in geoscience mapping. A plan to
double government investment in mapping from its 1998 levels for a period of 10
years has formed the basis for a Ten Year Co-operative Mapping Strategy
approved by Canada’s Mines Ministers. We encourage our governments to
maintain their commitment to this strategy.
Why more government investment?
It is the junior mining companies that will find the deposits for Canada’s next
mines, and they depend on the regional surveys that government provides.
Government expenditures on geoscience can be shown to generate between 4
and 5 times that amount in mineral exploration, and 25 times that in the value of
new discoveries. Increasing government investment by $300 million over 10
years is likely to realize $40 billion of new deposits!
What can you do?
Support investment in geoscience mapping
provincial and territorial geological surveys.
by
federal,
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Canadian Geoscience Council provides an open forum for communications, discussion and
debate to ensure the effectiveness and influence of the geosciences in addressing the needs and
desires of the people of Canada, especially with regard to the quality of life, economic prosperity,
and the maintenance and improvement of the natural environment.
Geoscience mapping by geological surveys in Canada: a wise investment
in Canada’s mining future
In 1999, the Mines Ministers directed the National Geological Surveys Committee to
work with industry to propose cooperative mapping strategies for Canada. This direction
resulted from recommendations of the industry members of a task force appointed by
the Intergovernmental Working Group on the Mining Industry on the need for enhanced
geoscience data as a basis for new mineral discoveries. The suggested level of effort
required was $674 million over ten years - an increase from $311 million based on
expenditures then. The increased activity would involve bedrock mapping, surficial
geology, airborne geophysics and geochemistry.
Since then, the geological surveys have responded positively to the proposed increase
in mapping, though the amounts expended still fall short of the targets. The Prospectors
and Developers Association of Canada has consistently argued for this enhanced effort.
The Canadian Geoscience Council fully endorses their position, and urges the
geological surveys to attain the levels of geoscience data acquisition targeted.
The case for increasing government expenditures is based on the direct relationship
between government geoscience, mineral exploration investment and the discovery and
production from new mineral deposits. In the period 1987-1998, funding of geological
surveys in Canada had dropped from $180 million a year to half this. It was clear that
the continued erosion of funding for government geoscience had contributed to Canada
losing its competitive edge as a place to invest in mineral exploration.
Junior companies do the majority of early stage grassroots exploration, adding value to
the properties and marketing the advanced properties to major mining companies.
These junior companies cannot fund large regional studies and will therefore invest their
exploration dollars in areas with good geoscience databases either in Canada or abroad.
Many of the areas of Canada for which regional and or detailed maps exist were
mapped many years ago and do not incorporate either current geoscientific thinking or
new understanding of the occurrence and formation of mineral deposits. For example,
two decades ago we did not know that Canada was about to become a diamond
producing country. A review of the current status of geoscience map coverage in
Canada demonstrates that there is a large gap between the current level of effort and
the effort required to (i) cover all areas of the country that have either not yet been
mapped or not surveyed at a satisfactory scale; and (ii) update maps and surveys to
incorporate advances in geoscientific thought.
The proposed increase in government investment in mapping over a ten year
period is $363 million. It can reasonably be expected that this investment will
yield $1.5 billion worth of mineral exploration and $40 billion worth of new mineral
discoveries.
Requests for further information, comments or questions should be directed to Mary-Claire Ward,
Watts, Griffis and McOuat, Toronto. E-mail: mcward@wgm.on.ca