Seeking further evidence

Geoscience BC booth at a tradeshow Stephen Williams, GIS Consultant, Christa Sluggett, Project Geologist and Communications Coordinator, and 'Lyn Angli, president and CEO. — Lauren Elliot photo

Geoscience BC and the East Kootenay Chamber of Mines recently launched the SEEK (Stimulating Exploration in the East Kootenays) project. The East Kootenay Chamber of Mines proposed the project as a way of increasing the exploration interest and investment in the region. The goal of the project is to acquire, compile and add value to the private and public mineral exploration information.

"The East Kootenay (region) has a long and productive history of mineral exploration and mining, but much of the focus of the last few decades has been on exploration for another Sullivan deposit," said 'Lyn Anglin, the president and CEO of Geoscience BC. "We think that there are other deposit types of interest in the area, and we want to compile existing geoscience information from any sources that we can get our hands on."

Anglin said this will help to assess the potential of the East Kootenay for other types of deposits, in addition to those similar to what was extracted from the Sullivan Mine. One of the world's largest lead-zinc mines, the former Sullivan Mine sustained the economy of Kimberley and the East Kootenay region for almost 100 years. Anglin said the goal is also to compare the mineral potential in the East Kootenay with that of similar rocks that lie south of the border in the U.S.

"We are hoping that the results of this project will generate interest and investment in more exploration in the area," said Anglin.

She hopes the improved database of geoscience information and better understanding of the mineral potential could lead to more investment in exploration in the East Kootenay.

Anglin said the SEEK project is in the design phase now. Dr. Russell Hartlaub, project co-ordinator and faculty member in the Department of Mining and Mineral Exploration at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), is starting to put together the details of what will be undertaken in the spring of 2012, if not before.

"We will work to integrate the results of our work with the geoscience databases of the British Columbia Geological Survey," said Hartlaub.

Geoscience BC is a non-profit, non-government geoscience research organization. It is funded by the Province to attract mineral exploration and oil and gas development to British Columbia, through geoscience data and knowledge. Geoscience BC has supported other research projects in the East Kootenay in the past, including previous mineral deposit studies by Hartlaub.