BCGS News

South of Stewart in the Goldern Triangle of northwestern British Columbia, the Kitsault River area contains numerous precious metal-rich and massive sulphide occurrences together with several molybdenum-bearing porphyry deposits.  Some of these precious metal occurrences (e.g., Dolly Varden, Torbrit) and Paleocene molybdenum porphyries (e.g., Kitsault, Tidewater) are past producers.  The precious metal-rich massive sulphide occurences are hosted in upper Hazelton Group volcanic and sedimentary rocks, at a stratigraphic level similar to the Eskay Creek deposit to the north.

This past summer, Rebecca Hunter started the first year of a multi-year mapping program to better understand the geology of the Kitsault River area and to update the geochronologic, geochemical, and biostratigraphic dataset for the region.  Fieldwork in 2019 focussed on the Hazelton Group in the northeast part of the area and included reconnaissance mapping, measuring new detailed sections to better outline stratigraphic relationships and depositional settings, and sampling for lithogeochemistry and U-Pb zircon geochronology to better define the unit’s composition, tectonic setting, and age.

Dr. Dejan Milidragovic is working with Professor Greg Dipple, students, and research associates at the University of British Columbia (UBC) – Bradshaw Research Initiative for Minerals and Mining (BRIMM) to evaluate if serpentinized ultramafic rocks in British Columbia have potential to sequester atmospheric CO₂. The team is developing a predictive framework to remotely identify the most favourable carbon sinks using the geochemical and physical properties of these rocks. They spent nearly three weeks this summer in central British Columbia, mapping and sampling ultramafic rocks of the Cache Creek terrane. This fieldwork included an excursion to Mount Sidney Williams, where some of the freshest mantle rocks in the province are exposed. Participants included UBC students and representatives from the Tl’azt’en and Binche First Nations.

The project is supported through a formal agreement between the British Columbia Geological Survey and BRIMM, the recipient of a major grant from the Government of Canada’s Clean Growth Program. Other supporting organizations include Geoscience BC, Geological Survey of Canada, and a number of industry partners.

Access to raw data is critical for successful exploration. Traditionally however, data in assessment reports have been embedded in paper or non-digital electronic files (e.g., .PDF) making them difficult to extract and use. To resolve this problem, the British Columbia Geological Survey has embarked on a program to encourage digital data file submission. Digital data are any files (spreadsheets, databases, maps, grids, etc.) used or created for the technical work in an assessment report. Such raw data files are to be compressed into a .ZIP archive and submitted to ardata.bcgeologicalsurvey.ca when the report (.PDF) is submitted to the Mineral Titles Branch. The data will become available to download alongside .PDF files through ARIS once the confidentiality period ends.

Explorationists will benefit because digital data can be easily retrieved, integrated, processed, recalculated, and recast for specific needs. Digital submission will also enable the Survey to maintain province wide databases and create derivative products that use past results to guide future exploration.

For more information please visit the Assessment Report Submission Information webpage.