Digitizing BC Assessment Reports

The BC Geological Survey houses more than 39,000 mineral assessment reports dating from 1947 to the present, documenting much of BC’s mining history. All of these reports are freely available online in the Assessment Report Indexing System (ARIS) but are only available in PDF format, thus locking the data into a static format.

Our Role

Since 2019, Purple Rock Inc. has been digitizing surface sediment assays, drillhole assays and drill logs from BC mineral assessment reports to populate a geospatial database. Starting from the most recent reports and focusing on regions of priority for the BC government, we have digitized back into the 1980s! Find the results of our work on the BC Geological Survey’s MapPlace (mapplace.ca).

To date we have digitized drill logs and geochemical assay data from more than 3200 mineral assessment reports.
Geoscience BC

Capturing National Instrument 43-101 Report data

National Instrument (NI) 43-101 reports are geologic assessments submitted to the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA). They contain a wealth of geoscience data used to justify the resource estimates for exploration activity by Canadian companies. Unfortunately, CSA does not maintain georeferencing for this data, making it difficult to consult this resource for new exploration projects.

Our Role

In 2018, Purple Rock and Kildalton Enterprises partnered with Geoscience BC. We approached the Canada Securities Administrators and obtained their legal permission to develop a database based on their data. We then generated a massive full text database of all NI 43-101 reports, pared the list down to those pertinent to BC, and correlated them to MINFILEs.

We correlated and georeferenced all of the NI 43-101 reports for BC exploration to their associated MINFILEs.

Updating the BC MINFILE database

The British Columbia Geological Survey (BCGS) maintains MINFILE, an inventory of over 15,000 known mineral occurrences in BC. The database summarizes findings from assessment reports, publications, press releases, archived or historical documents, and other materials. It is a vital resource. For many geologists in BC faced with a new prospect, their first question would be: “What does MINFILE say?”

Unfortunately, MINFILE’s funding hasn’t kept up with the pace of mineral exploration. The province of BC recognized that improving MINFILE is an important step toward reducing the backlog of mining and permitting that challenge the province. Relieving this burden is viewed as an important step in stimulating the province’s economic growth.

Our Role

In 2011, the BCGS partnered with Purple Rock Inc. for assistance in clearing this backlog of outdated MINFILE information. We used our expertise in the BC Property File database and BC’s ARIS database to locate hundreds of new mineral occurrences that were not documented, and update hundreds of occurrences with new data.

Since 2011, we have produced over 1600 new or updated mineral occurrences and continue to work on this project.
Yukon Geological Survey

Creating Yukon’s Online Property File Database

The Yukon Geological Survey (YGS) had two large storage rooms full of archived mineral exploration data: reports, maps, and records from the Faro mine, which was one of the world’s largest lead-zinc producers. All of these one-of-a-kind documents, representing millions of dollars of geological research, would be at risk if anything went wrong. The information wasn’t being used. And keeping all of those files warm and dry in the land of the midnight sun doesn’t come cheap.

Our Role

Beginning in 2010, YGS and Purple Rock Inc. partnered to develop the YGS’s archives into Yukon’s Faro File. By 2014, Purple Rock has reviewed the collection, drastically reduced duplication and redundancy, and created digital versions of 17,000 documents. Purple Rock also created a metadata index for the YGS. The YGS has now integrated most of this information into their amazing database search tool (https://data.geology.gov.yk.ca/).

17,000 documents scanned, indexed and added to the client’s integrated data system.

Organizing the Northwest Territories Geological Survey Collections

The Northwest Territories Geological Survey (NTGS) had an extensive collection of paper archives, some of which had been scanned by industry to varying standards and some of which was only available in paper. Without a tracking system to determine what was scanned and what wasn’t scanned, the Survey came to us to determine where to start cataloguing this valuable collection.

Our Role

After an extensive warehouse assessment, we organized the NTGS digital and paper archives into a single inventory and database. We eliminated duplicates and consolidated a collection of almost 45,000 digital files into 20,000 files, created a metadata index of these files and then scanned and indexed 6,500 new files. We improved OCR quality, performed data recovery and repaired damaged files.

Organized approximately 45,000 NTGS files into an indexed digital database.

Creating BC’s Property File Database

The BC Geological Survey maintains a collection of unique, historical geological documents that have been donated by industry, estates and private geologists. This collection, called Property File, contains an estimated 100,000 documents ranging from 1850 to present and contains items such as maps, reports, field notes, news releases, faxes, telegrams, Sperry Sun shots, air photos, slides, negatives, Mylar overlays, thin sections and hand samples. Given the disparity of these document types, it is not only difficult to catalogue these documents, but it is also difficult to capture a consistent set of metadata.

Our Role

Purple Rock Inc. began working with the BC Geological Survey on the Property File project in 2007, has written the metadata style guide and contributed to the search screen format. We have since reviewed an estimated 180,000 documents, adding approximately 85,000 documents to the database. Purple Rock Inc. is the project manager in this multi-year project, coordinating the scanning contractors and software consultants that BCGS also appointed for the project. Purple Rock Inc. keeps the project on-track, performs geological data review, metadata capture and georeferencing.

85,000 documents added to the client’s database.

Acquire and Populate the CanGeoRef Database

The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) maintains GeoRef, an ambitious database that aims to track bibliographic information for all geoscience research (“white” and “grey” literature). The database began in 1966 and grows by more than 100,000 references a year. In all, it contains 3.4 million references.

Recognizing that many Canadian geoscientists only need access to the Canadian subset of GeoRef, AGI created CanGeoRef, a database subscription specifically for Canadians. AGI approached the Canadian Federation of Earth Sciences to facilitate the conversion of the provincial and territorial geological surveys’ publications database to GeoRef format.

Our Role

The Canadian Federation of Earth Sciences contracted Purple Rock Inc. to contact the provincial and territorial surveys, acquire the publications databases, and populate the CanGeoRef database with additional GeoRef-specific information in 2010. We put our expert software development and database creation skills to work, automating data conversion from almost every province’s distinct database to the GeoRef format. In the process, Purple Rock Inc. developed internal software to assist with managing the project.

All but Nunavut and Quebec data added to the GeoRef database.

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