Geoscience BC

Creating an Inventory of Critical Minerals and Metals in BC Mine Tailings and Waste Rock Sources

Geoscience BC embarked on a preliminary project to discover more about the critical mineral potential of mine tailings and waste rock from current and historical mining operations in British Columbia. BC has a rich history of mining, spanning more than 150 years.  In the current era of critical minerals, explorationists have started to examine these sites as potential critical minerals sources.

Our Role

In 2024, Purple Rock worked with Geoscience BC to create the first resource-focused inventory of disposal sites in BC, so that the mineral exploration industry can use this newly compiled data in conjunction with their own information as they search for critical minerals in BC. 

The result of this phase of the project is a geospatial dataset containing the location and known characteristics of tailings and waste rock from more than 500 current and legacy mining occurrences with potential for critical minerals. The geospatial dataset also includes information relating to an additional 2000 occurrences that may have waste material of interest. 

Transitioning to a net-zero emissions economy is driving innovative approaches to geoscience research, mineral exploration and development that can meet the demand for critical minerals and metals while also ensuring active environmental stewardship in the sector. This work highlights the critical mineral potential of mine waste, which provides industry, communities and Indigenous groups with key data to inform decision-making and guide actions around investment in critical mineral exploration and development while considering environmental concerns. 

Mineral exploration industry can use this data in conjunction with their own information as they search for critical minerals in BC.

Providing a Specialized Geoscience Scanning Service for Resident Geologist Program Offices

The Resident Geologist Program (RGP) of the Ontario Geological Survey (OGS), Ministry of Mines (MINES) collects, maintains, and distributes geoscience information, including hard-copy technical material donated by local exploration companies, prospectors, and geologists. Many files are considered one-of-a-kind and could contain data that might generate new exploration in Ontario.

Our Role

Starting in 2023, Purple Rock Inc. has been working with the Ontario Geological Survey on various projects. Purple Rock Inc. created a searchable, digital data set that is compatible with the Ministry of Mines (MINES) data management system (OMEIS) from archived hard-copy materials and has been cataloguing detailed metadata from archived and donated materials, including geoscience information, maps and reports that document the results of airborne geophysical surveys, rock and soil assaying, data compilations, diamond drilling, ground geophysical surveys, feasibility studies, geological mapping, prospecting, sampling, stripping, trenching and underground exploration work so MINES can provide public access to this information.

Digitization gives the public easier access to information.

Digitizing Alberta Mineral Assessment Reports

By digitizing valuable data from existing mineral assessment reports, explorationists will be able to integrate historical data into their current datasets housed in modern software, thus making it easier to explore and mine in Alberta.

Our Role

As a result of working with Purple Rock Inc., Alberta has taken the lead in historical mineral exploration out of all Canadian jurisdictions. Alberta now has a more comprehensive and diverse set of public mineral exploration data available than any other other province. 

Digitizing assessment reports is extremely cost effective. The data generated in this project would cost millions of dollars to reproduce and millions of dollars for private companies to perform on their own. 

By digitizing the data available for all of Alberta, companies can more easily target historical areas based on new knowledge about deposit types and the shift in focus to different commodities (e.g., critical minerals).

Digitizing public geoscience data is a cost effective, efficient use of taxpayer dollars that reduces real costs for mineral exploration and generates excitement, which could lead to future investments in the province.

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

Purple Rock Inc has been actively working with the Northwest Territories Geological Survey since 2015. After an extensive warehouse assessment in 2015, 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.

Acquiring and Populating 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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