Canada's North is a vast and challenging region, home to many of Canada's Aboriginal people and endowed with a wealth of natural resources. It's extreme climate, widely dispersed population, and limited infrastructure present challenges to improving the quality of life of northern Canadians. The Earth Sciences Sector (ESS) is working to ensure that northern governments and communities have access to up-to-date information about the land, along with the modern technology and training they need to effectively manage their lands and improve their economic self-sufficiency.

The Northern Resources Development (NRD) program of ESS creates and makes accessible new, comprehensive mineral and energy geoscience products, such as regional databases, maps, and reports. These products encourage development by raising private sector awareness of investment opportunities in the North and reducing exploration risks. Specific projects help northerners build the knowledge and skills they need to help guide and participate in this development and better prepare them for employment in the exploration and development sector. More information ...

Increasing Oil and Gas Prices Boost Demand for ESS Expertise

In June 2004, the Inuvik Petroleum Show, the largest meeting in Canada to focus on northern energy, invited ESS to give several presentations and workshops relating to northern oil and gas resources in the Mackenzie Delta region. Industry expressed strong interest in new resource-exploration concepts discussed at meetings with GSC scientists who work on the Mackenzie Corridor Project. These concepts could lead to reducing the risk and expense of energy exploration. As well, ESS expertise and published maps led one of the largest integrated petroleum companies in Canada to acquire a 412,000 hectare tenure in the coal-methane beds of the northern Bowser Basin. This acquisition will earn the province of BC close to $9.5 million over eight years. The company will spend an additional $12 million on exploration, part of which will go to hiring and training members of the Tahltan First Nation.

Western Churchill Metallogeny Project Assists Northern Mineral Exploration

Results from NRD's Western Churchill Metallogeny Project have stimulated mineral exploration in the north. International and Canadian companies are using these results to locate potential diamond exploration sites in Nunavut. In northern Manitoba, the world's premier diamond mining company acquired two million hectares of exploration licences two weeks after the release of new isotopic data that were generated jointly by the Manitoba Geological Survey and ESS. Marking a milestone, on August 11, 2004, the POLARIS consortium of academia and ESS scientists and technical staff announced the first real-time transmission of magnetotelluric data from northern Canada to an archive at ESS facilities in Ottawa. The maps generated with the POLARIS information will help to pinpoint potential diamond exploration areas.

3D Software Contributes to Significant Copper Discovery in Quebec

A Canadian mineral exploration and development company made a significant copper discovery using advanced 3-D modelling software developed jointly by the Geological Survey of Canada of ESS and Mira Geoscience. Developed under the NRD program, this new software allows geologists, geophysicists, geochemists and engineers to identify potential mineral targets by performing custom queries of geoscience data. The copper find is located 14 km northwest of the Horne smelter in the town of Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, and Alexis made the discovery in early March 2005, after only four months of exploration. The 3-D modelling software is an extension to an existing commercial 3D package known as Gocad.

Dinosaur Footprints Discovered while Surveying for Energy Potential

While surveying northwest B.C.'s energy potential in 2004, two geologists from the NRD program discovered that dinosaurs once inhabited this remote part of the province. They reached this conclusion after finding half a dozen three-toed footprints dating back to the Cretaceous Period, about 125 to 145 million years ago. The largest footprint-about 25cm long-belonged to a human-sized carnivore similar to a velociraptor. The discovery was made about 200 kilometres north of Terrace while working on a federal-provincial project to survey the Bowser and Sustut Basins for their energy potential. Aimed at stimulating industry activity in this energy prospective area, this NRD project will deliver new GIS-enabled maps, datasets, petroleum-resource assessments, and a digital basin atlas. This atlas will contain a synthesis of a new multi-thematic geoscience model that exploits a range of field and analytical studies.

Northern Stakeholders Field Workshop Held in Canada's High Arctic

In July 2004, ESS conducted a geological field workshop on Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg islands. It enabled participants from academia, industry, and government to get acquainted with one of Canada's richest hydrocarbon basins - the Sverdrup Basin of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago - at a time of rising interest in northern oil and gas exploration. The Geological Survey of Canada organized this NRD workshop in collaboration with the Polar Continental Shelf Project under the auspices of the New Energy Options for Northerners project.

The Targeted Geoscience Initiative (TGI) stimulates sustainable economic development in Canada by encouraging private-sector exploration for energy and mineral resources in high-potential regions. It advances the Government of Canada's commitment to the sustainable development of our natural resources, contributing to their economic importance and to a strong society and communities through knowledge, innovation, technology, and international leadership. TGI produces new geological and geophysical maps and data for previously under-explored areas with a high potential for mineral deposits. All TGI projects are undertaken in partnership with provincial and territorial geoscience agencies, industry, and academia.

Funding Renewed for Five Years

Initially funded for three years in 2000, the success of TGI led to a two-year extension in 2003 to support energy and minerals-related geoscience. Over the past five years, TGI has helped federal, provincial, and territorial governments co-operate on geoscience issues and has also successfully encouraged private sector resource exploration. As a result, the Government of Canada renewed the Initiative for another five years in its 2005 Budget. TGI's third phase will focus on mapping to promote the discoveries needed to sustain base metal mining communities.

TGI Spurs Resource Exploration Across Canada

TGI was involved with several projects that led to substantial investment in resource exploration. For instance, a radiometric survey flown in Toodoggone area, B.C., increased interest in exploring the region of the Kemess and North Kemess copper-gold porphyry deposits. Based on the survey results, a Vancouver-based mining company planned to spend more than $500,000 exploring the area in 2004. Influenced by results from TGI's Appalachian Energy project, in October 2004 a Québec-based oil and gas exploration company announced a three-year $5-million hydrocarbon exploration program involving 13 wells in eastern Gaspé.

Rising Uranium Prices Put Spotlight on Athabasca Basin Study Results

With uranium prices tripling in the last five years, the timing is right for a new study on the Athabasca Basin, which is due in mid 2005. The EXTECH IV Athabasca Uranium Multidisciplinary Study partners include ESS's Geological Survey of Canada, the governments of Saskatchewan and Alberta, Cameco Corporation, AREVA subsidiary COGEMA Resources Inc., and three universities. These partners contributed resources valued at $8 million to the study, including more than 80 scientists who worked on some 14 sub-projects. The timely 31-paper volume of study results will help industry, governments, and investors to make wise decisions for Canada's future and sustainable development.

High-Resolution Aeromagnetic Survey in Manitoba Produces New Maps

A high-resolution aeromagnetic survey covering the northern Assean Lake area in Manitoba produced 22 new aeromagnetic maps of the region. The new data provides valuable insights on the geology in a poorly exposed area between Thompson, Manitoba, and the northwest limit of the highly prospective Fox River Sill. Geologists used maps generated from the survey to better understand the structure of the area's rocks, which can carry nickel, copper and platinum deposits. Results from this survey will be used to enhance existing geological maps and to identify potential exploration targets.

Working Together to Influence Exploration

The Consolidating Canada's Geoscience Knowledge program completed several TGI 2 projects. Through these projects, the Geological Survey of Canada of ESS, together with several provincial surveys and industry, delivered an extensive series of maps and reports relating to energy geoscience in three areas: the Palaeozoic rocks of Ontario, the Williston Basin in Saskatchewan, and the Appalachian Mountains in Eastern Canada. In addition, a TGI 2 project between the Geological Survey of Canada and Saskatchewan focused on studying the complex kimberlite deposits in the province, influencing the region's diamond exploration programs. These maps and reports are essential to the success of private sector exploration, which in turn contributes to the economic and social well being of many rural and northern communities.

The Geomatics for Northern Development (GND) program of ESS provides northern communities with spatially related information to make better decisions, increase investment, and improve social and economic development. By providing geospatial information and knowledge, this program stimulates resource exploration and underpins infrastructure and land-use planning and capacity building by local government and communities in the North. More information ...

Environmental Assessment Relies on Mapping Mackenzie Delta and Valley

A partnership with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and the Northwest Territories government has given ESS the opportunity to help measure the potential impact of the Mackenzie pipeline. The GND program of ESS is providing expertise and quality control processes for production of quality geospatial data such as ortho-photos and digital elevation models. This information will be used in mapping the Mackenzie Delta and Mackenzie Valley, allowing federal and territorial agencies, communities, and various committees to better assess the pipeline's likely environmental effects.

New Topographic Data Used for Northern Land Management

In 2004, GND awarded more than $1.1 million in contracts to the Canadian geomatics industry for topographical mapping projects in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. These mapping projects produce geospatial information about a particular area-its elevations, waterways, vegetation, and development. This information is then updated using Landsat7 satellite imagery and the combination generates a territorial database that organizations such as the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, the Northwest Territories government, Nunavut government, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc, and the Nunavut Planning Commission use to manage northern development and resources. In 2004 the 10,000th National Topographic Database file, number 016D14, entitled "Leopold Island" in Nunavut was created.