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METAL EARTH:An Integrated 3D Study of Our Earth
Harold Gibson, Director
OutlineCFEF Background and Competition
Inception of Metal Earth
What is Metal Earth
Building Scientific Capacity and Organizational Structure
Research Strategy and Activities
Research Activity Implementation
Outputs and Anticipated Outcomes
METAL EARTH
CFREF Competition
Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF)Mission:To help Canadian post secondary institutions to excel globally in research areas that will create long-term economic advantages for Canada.
The Fund helps competitively selected institutions:
To turn their key strengths into world leading capabilities
To to make breakthrough discoveries.
To seize emerging opportunities and strategically advance their greatest strengths on the global stage.
To implement large-scale, transformational and forward-thinking institutional strategies.
http://www.cfref-apogee.gc.ca
CANADA FIRST RESEARCH EXCELLENCE FUNDThe Competition
• Round 2, $900M available• Goal: pick Canadian institutions that are in the top 10% in
the world and invest to make them global leaders• 51 LOI (letters of intent), 30 invited to full
application incl. LU• LU amongst 15 universities invited to
interview – 13 awarded grant• LU only application in the Geosciences - Exploration
METAL EARTH
• A seven-year, $104 M applied R&D initiative
• Led by Laurentian University and MERC, the HarquailSchool of Earth Science’s Mineral Exploration ResearchCentre
• $49.26M CFREF + 55.14 M cash and in-kind from LU and Government, Academic, and Industry Partners
Major Canadian Geoscience Research InitiativesLithoprobe, 1980-2001 - $141M (2016 $)
Neptune Canada - now Ocean Networks Canada, 2003 – present , -$160M
International Ocean Drilling Program, 2004-present - $8.2M
Geo-Mapping for Energy and Minerals (NRcan) – 2014-2020 - $100M
Targeted Geoscience Initiative (TGI 5) (NRcan) – 2016-2020 - $25M
Canadian Mining Innovation Council/NSERC– Footprints Project – 2013-2018 $13M
METAL EARTH
Inception - Knowledge Gaps
BASE METAL RESERVES FALLING
Metal Earth could be key to solvingthe world’s future metal needs
WIDE GAP BETWEEN SPEND AND FIND
More intelligent targeting will lower the risk for government and private sector to open new mines.
Knowledge GapsEstablished working groups within the Harquail School of Earth Science to identify knowledge gaps in our understanding of Precambrian gold and base metal deposits
Consulted recognized industry experts
Discussions with government and academic colleagues
Held industry, academic workshops
What we learned:
A major impediment to exploration success is how to identify metal endowed areas from the vast areas that are geologically similar, but have less or no metal endowment….
Deep Mature Camps Remote & Covered Areas
1. Multi-parameter footprints and 3D vectoring• Detecting edges and vectoring
to ore
1. Characteristics of fertile terranes and districts • How do we select fertile
ground?
2. Techniques to unravel deep 3D geology• Deep penetrating detection
and mapping techniques
2. Techniques to map sub-surface geology• Drilling, data integration• Data density for detection
3. Real-time down-hole data collection • Real-time decision
3. Secondary dispersion • Understanding mechanisms• Developing techniques
CIM Annual Meeting, Toronto, May 6, 2013
CMICCCIM
Metal Earth
Slide provided by Francois Robert, CMIC “Footprint” project
METAL EARTH
What is Metal Earth?
What is Metal Earth
Metal Earth is an applied R&D program. It is a strategic consortium of outstanding Canadian researchers from academia and allied Canadian and international research centres, government and industry led by Laurentian University.
Metal Earth will transform our understanding of Earth’s early evolution and the fundamental processes that govern metal endowment.
It will make Canada a world leader in mineral exploration research and world-class innovator through open source delivery of new knowledge and the development and implementation of new technologies.
What is Metal Earth?Metal Earth will: 1. build on existing knowledge of ore deposits and districts, but differs in its approach to resolve ore system-scale controls on metal endowment. Unprecedented scale -craton to greenstone belt to district to deposit
2) Image entire ore and non-ore systems at full crust-mantle scale to identify key geological, geochemical and geophysical attributes that explain the processes responsible for the extraction of metals from sources, transport pathways, and their economic concentration.
3) relate deep earth features to the specific distribution of ores.
4) place equal emphasis on less endowed areas, thereby identifying -fingerprinting-measurable differences that resulted in contrasting metal endowment.
5) research, develop, and use new 3D & 4D data integration, analysis and visualization tools to address the significant challenges of deposit-to-craton scale data integration to aid in the discovery of new deposits
METAL EARTHBuilding Scientific Capacity
Building Scientific Capacity - Partners
• U. of Alberta• U. Laval• U. of Ottawa• U. of Quebec Chicoutimi• U. of Toronto (JSL)• U. New South Wales
• Geological Surveys– Manitoba– Northwest Territories– Nunavut– Ontario– Quebec– Geological Survey of
Canada
Consortium of outstanding Canadian and International researchers from academia, government and industry – 21 research partners
Building Scientific Capacity - Partners
• Carnegie Institute for Sciences (US)
• Centre for Exploration Targeting (AUS)
• Centre of Excellence in Ore Deposits(AUS)
• Mira Geosciences• MIRARCO• CEMI• TMAC Resources Ltd• Noront Resources• Vale Canada Ltd• More to come…….
Building Scientific Capacity – PartnersScience Leaders
Dr John Ayer, Laurentian U. Adjunct Prof and MERC Associate Director – Precambrian GeologyProf. Georges Beaudoin, U. Laval, Stable Isotopes and AlterationProf. Real Diagnault, U. Quebec Chicoutimi, Precambrian tectonics and structureProf. Harold Gibson, Laurentian U., Director, VMS deposits, Volcanology, GeochemistryProf. Michael Hamilton, U, Toronto, Geochronology, Precambrian GeologyProf. Mark Hannington, Ottawa U, Seafloor tectonics and MetallogenyProf. Daniel Kontak, Laurentian U., Gold and Ore FluidsProf. Bruno Lafrance, Laurentian U., Associate Director, Structural Geology and TectonicsProf. Michael Lesher, Laurentian U., Magmatic Ore Deposits and GeochemistryProf. Jeremy Richards, (U. Alberta) Laurentian U., Metallogeny and TectonicsDr. Steven Shirey, Carnegie Institute of Science, Precambrian Geology and Mantle processesProf. Richard Smith, Laurentian U., Exploration Geophysics – ElectromagneticDr. David Snyder, Geological Survey of Canada, Geophysics – SeismicDr. Philips Thurston, Laurentian U., Adjunct Prof, Precambrian Geology
Building Scientific Capacity – Faculty and HQP
5 New University Faculty Chair in Exploration TargetingExploration Geophysics – seismic methodsPrecambrian GeologyEarth Systems Modeling – Data AnalyticsEconomic Geology - UQAC
35 Research Associates/PDFs
9 technical support positions
30 PhD, 40 MSc, 105 BSC students
METAL EARTHOrganizational Structure
MERC - Metal Earth Organizational Structure
MERC-ME Advisory Board
ScienceAdvisory
Group
Performance Assessment
Group
MERC-Metal Earth Director
Metal EarthAssociate Director
MERCAssociate Director
Scientific and TechnicalManagement, ImplementationGroup
Laurentian VP Research
Knowledge Transfer GroupSustainability Group
Researchers/Students Researchers/Students
Operational Component Advisory Component
First Nation Engagement Group
Start-UpAdvisory
Group
LU Implementation Committee
Research InitiativesEducational InitiativesImplementation
METAL EARTHStrategyResearch Activities
Research Strategy
Metal Earth will initially focus on Archean greenstone belts, constituting 80% of Earth history, 30% of Canada’s Far North rock exposure and 48% of Canada’s metal wealth to determine processes responsible for early Earth’s differential metal endowment.
The answer to this fundamental question will require a new understanding of secular changes in the evolution of Earth’s atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, mantle, and geodynamic processes and environments.
Craton-belt-district-deposit scale research and integration
Study endowed and less endowed geological “equivalents”
Integration, analysis, visualization of multiparameter geoscience data
Research ActivitiesMetal Earth comprises four integrated activities:
1. Broad, craton-scale research to understand greenstone belt architecture and the interaction of greenstone belts with their surrounding granitoids during terrane assembly and ore district formation
2. Transect research where more detailed studies will resolve the lithospheric-crustal architecture and fluid (magma/heat) pathways, providing a geological framework to resolve the differential endowment of terranes and structures – Mantle-crust slices
3. Thematic research from craton to deposit scales will address specific processes or questions on metal endowment
4. Data Analytics research to develop new data integration, analysis and interpretive tools to predict metal endowment.
Lydon, 2007
Research Areas
1. Craton Research - Years 1-6
New understanding of the 3- and 4-D architecture of the Superior and Slave cratons
Compile regional geoscience data
New zircon Lu-Hf, Sm-Nd and O isotopic data to map time slices of the secular variations in assembly of cratons and identify mantle-crustal pathways
Live and extinct radionuclide isotopic tracer systems, and PGEs on mantle rocks and mantle probing crustal to rocks to map mantle metal reservoirs
(McCuaig and Hronsky, 2014AIG Mineral Systems Symposium)
2. Transect Research – Years 1-5
Transects– across endowed gold-rich ancestral fault systems and volcanic centres that host gold and or base metal deposits and less endowed ancestral fault and volcanic centres with similar geology
Collection, integration, interrogation and visualization of complex multiparameter geoscience data (seismic, MT, Gravity, and surface geological, geochemical, geophysical data)
Slices from mantle to crust
Proposed Abitibi Transects
Proposed Wabigoon Transects
3. Thematic Research - Years 3-7Research at the craton- district- deposit scale directed at answering fundamental questions pertaining to features/processes associated with metal endowment
General Themes
1. Fluid/magma/heat pathways
2. Does the SCLM differ between endowed and less endowed areas
3. Fluid and metal sources, mantle and crust
3. Archean tectonics and metallogeny
Bierlein et al., 2009
1) Current metallogenic and endowment models are based on Phanerozoic slab-driven plate-tectonic processes.
2) Were Archean tectonic processes similar to those of today? If not, what were the processes and how did they affect metal endowment?
4. Data Analytics – Years 1-7Geoscience data from Craton, Transect and Thematic integrated, analyzed, interrogated and visualized using a goCAD Common Earth Model
Partnership with MIRA Geosciences
Explore other software - Geoscience ANALYST, INTEGRATOR, Geon IDV (time stamp data sets), Machine learning
Build on established best practices - CMIC’s “Footprint project”
Visualization using LU’s and Univ NSW’s Virtual Realty Labs
Develop new technologies, modeling algorithms, software tools, and techniques to integrate, interpret and visualize data and to aid exploration,
Commercialization
Data AnalyticsChallengesHuge database of multiparameter geoscience data (geophysical, geochemical, geological)
Data archive
Non-uniform, sparse data
Data in 3D space, interrogated in 3D space, relational datainterrogation and analysis, and 4D analysis
3D and 4D visualization
Data Analytics
ChallengesData storage and database integrity, data security, firewalls, confidential data (industry), selective distribution of data types to partners, to public
Partnerships to develop software tools, commercialization
Metal Earth supported Chair in Exploration Targeting and Earth System Modeling leads in Data integration, Analysis, Visualization and Interpretation
CEMI’s Mining Data Control Control Centre (MODCC) at SNOLAB in Sudbury available resource
METAL EARTHResearch Activity Implementation
Research Activity Implementation – Year 1Year 1 (Sept 01 2016 to March 31st 2017)Initiate Craton Research
Geophysical (geochemical) CompilationGeochron CompilationZircon Hf, Sm and O isotopic study Initiate Mantle research themes
Initiate Transect ResearchWinter 2016 – Seismic surveys, Abitibi Quebec
Year 2 (April 1st 2017 – March 31st 2018)Continue Craton Research
Continue Transect ResearchMT, Gravity, geological, geochemical research summer 2017, Seismic Winter 2018
METAL EARTHOutputs and Outcomes
Outputs and Anticipated OutcomesResearch Activities
Craton
Transect
Thematic
Data Analytics
Outputs Anticipated Outcomes
Increased scientific capacity
Centre of Excellence
Global leadership in Mineral Exploration Research
Exploration Tool Kit
Increased Discovery rates
New Mines – taxes, jobs
Northern Development
New Knowledge and HQP
Reports, maps, theses, journal publications
Workshops/Conferences
Geoscience data – Open Source
New techniques/technologies
Commercial Products
Thank You