Geological mapping

Canada’s rich energy and mineral resources play a critical role in its economic and social well-being. These resources are fundamental to the advancement of society and the support of communities in all regions of the country. As Canadians, we have grown accustomed to the contributions of the mineral and energy sectors to our daily lives, but new resources must be found in order for them to be sustained. Unfortunately, in the past decade more mines have closed than opened, metal reserves have declined dramatically, and important energy-supply issues have emerged.

What can be done?

Governments can step forward, as they have done in the past, to encourage the private sector to invest in finding new energy and mineral resources in Canada Historically, governments have invested in geological survey mapping and data stewardship to provide geoscience data and knowledge to the mining and energy industries. Now, at the request of the mines ministers of Canada, a new public geoscience initiative is being developed with input from the federal, provincial and territorial governments, industry representatives, and other interested parties.

Co-operative Geological Mapping Strategies Across Canada (CGMS) is a 10-year plan prepared by the National Geological Surveys Committee in response to direction from all of Canada’s mines ministers. The CGMS vision focuses on the need for reliable geoscience knowledge relating to mineral, energy and groundwater resources. The CGMS plan, approved by all of Canada’s mines ministers in 2000, identifies geoscientific knowledge, especially basic systematic mapping, as a key competitive advantage — one that is essential to maintaining Canada as a pre-eminent global destination for exploration investment.

Figure 1 shows flow-through-related discoveries by jurisdiction, as documented by the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada. A discovery is defined as an identified new mineral occurrence that has sufficient demonstratable three-dimensional and grade potential to warrant the expenditure of additional money for further exploration. The number of likely producers that are expected to result from these discoveries is shown in italic text. It is noteworthy that Ontario and Quebec, which report the largest number of discoveries, also made the greatest investment in public geoscience in support of the mining sector over the past four years.

Industry pointed out to the mines ministers that Canada’s competitive advantage has been put at risk because, over the past decade, there has been a progressive decrease in funding for geological mapping, which is the core activity of geological surveys in this country.

Figure 2 shows funding levels for geological surveys in Canada. The marginal increase since 1999 reflects federal and provincial funding contributions to “sunset” programs, such as the Targeted Geoscience Initiative and Operation Treasure Hunt in Ontario, along with provincial and territorial “down-payments” to the Cooperative Geological Mapping Strategies Across Canada initiative.

Nonetheless, the different, but similar, skill sets and mandates of public geological survey organizations across Canada are encouraging because they underscore multiple opportunities for co-operation, synergy and mutual re-enforcement.

Between spring and fall 2003, as an initial step in developing the CGMS concept, the federal, provincial and territorial geological survey organizations began a collective discussion of Canada’s mineral, energy, and public good geoscience gaps and needs. This collaborative approach builds on the existing co-operation across jurisdictional boundaries. Clearly, some of the principal geoscience issues are best addressed through multi-jurisdictional, regional strategies.

So, where is CGMS headed? Geological surveys are increasingly presenting public geoscience as an important but underutilized tool for addressing government issues and priorities — in other words, as a contribution to the “public good.” In the context of CGMS, this means fostering the responsible sustainable development of energy, mineral and groundwater resources. It means reducing the risk related to exploration and development, and ensuring that industry, government, and society at large have a sound scientific basis for determining how, where and when resource development should take place. Potential CGMS geoscience programs could include projects to stimulate exploration in frontier areas and near resource-based communities, as well as studies to evaluate the potential environmental impact of resource development.

What are governments doing to make CGMS a reality? Provincial, territorial and federal jurisdictions are working together to develop a set of “strategies” to determine the collective scope of “co-operative geological mapping” and formulate where a 10-year CGMS implementation plan should lead Canada. Regional workshops will be precursors to a national CGMS meeting.

The next step is to provide the mines and energy ministers, and other stakeholders, with a draft plan of how CGMS can produce realistic road maps to the responsible discovery and recovery of energy, mineral and groundwater resources, and related environmental geoscience.

— Michael Cherry is director of the geological services division of the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources. Irwin Itzkovitch is the assistant deputy minister responsible for earth sciences at Natural Resources Canada. They are co-chairmen of the National Geological Surveys Committee.