November 09, 2017 From gold pans to iPads: using tech to identify mineral potential in old gold country
Cranbrook, BC - November 9, 2017 - New Geoscience BC funded work presented at East Kootenay Chamber of Mines' Minerals South conference yesterday shows how traditional rock hammers and modern-day iPads are being used together to locate the source of some of BC's most famous gold deposits.
Funded by Geoscience BC, earth scientists from the University of British Columbia's Mineral Deposit Research Unit (MDRU) have mapped and analyzed the structure and ages of rocks in the Cariboo gold district in east-central BC, the Cassiar gold district in northern BC, and the Sheep Creek gold camp in the Kootenay Mountains of southern BC.
Called Orogenic gold mineralization of the eastern Cordilleran gold belt, British Columbia, a report on the project includes new information that may help locate some of the original sources of gold at iconic sites such as Barkerville, the famous town of BC's Cariboo Gold Rush in the 1860s.
Most of the gold panned from rivers and streams around BC in the last 150 years has come from orogenic gold deposits, a style of gold mineralization found in quartz veins. However, these environments create complicated structures in the rocks that need to be unraveled and understood before predicting the location of new deposits.
"When rocks are squeezed and folded during tectonic collision, ultimately, they break and form veins," said lead researcher Dr. Murray Allan. "This project is all about understanding how those structures develop, and predicting which ones might contain gold."
Using iPads loaded with the latest apps, the team recorded structural data, waypoints, field notes and oriented photographs.
"Our approach is still old-fashioned geologic mapping, but the use of hand-held digital technology increases the efficiency of data collection at each field site, and eliminates the laborious task of transcribing data," said Allan.
Final reports are now available on Geoscience BC's website and Earth Science Viewer at www.geosciencebc.com. It contains detailed structural earth science information for the Cariboo gold district in east-central BC, the Cassiar gold district in the Cassiar Mountains of north-central BC, and the Sheep Creek gold camp in the Kootenay Mountains of southern BC.
Orogenic gold mineralization of the eastern Cordilleran gold belt, British Columbia
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Geoscience BC is an independent, non-profit organization that generates earth science information in collaboration with First Nations, local communities, governments, academia and the resource sector. Our independent earth science enables informed resource management decisions. Geoscience BC gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Province of British Columbia.