Generating high quality exploration targets is a time-consuming and expensive task, particularly when information has to be obtained from multiple sources.  

Even in the age of the Internet, integrating this information in a systematic way is a challenge.  The MineMatch Geochemistry project makes this integration easier in respect of the geology, geochemistry and mineral occurrences of British Columbia.

The geology of British Columbia has led to the formation of many mineral deposit types.  It also has extensive, diverse, and high quality information records pertinent to target generation  -  many of them available on the Internet.  The MineMatch Geochemistry Project sets out to leverage on the quality of BC’s geological and mineral information resources.

Documentation:

10 page report on the MineMatch Geochemistry Project:                    pdf (644Kb)

1 page flowsheet of guidelines on How to find exploration targets
in British Columbia using the MineMatch Geochemistry Project:          pdf (115Kb)

The map on the left illustrates the main output from the project.  Anomaly clusters are shown, together with 1:250000 geology outlines, sample positions, and mineral claims boundaries, as they were in August 2003[1].

For each anomaly cluster, the model similarity ranking, best, and second-best match reports are accessed by clicking in the map on the cluster of interest.

A second way of viewing project outputs is as maps of the distribution of anomalous clusters matching different deposit types.  The map above shows the distribution of anomalous clusters best matching the Zn-Pb Skarn type of deposit.

These maps, and many others, together with the data used to generate them, are available from this website.

The best and second-best matching models are hyperlinked to detailed Internet-accessible descriptions of the models on either USGS or BCGS web sites.

 Documented mineral occurrences falling within the anomaly cluster boundaries are listed and hyperlinked to their entries in the BCGS MINFILE database.

 All anomaly clusters are linked to the BC MapPlace web site, where custom maps of the samples comprising the anomaly clusters can be dynamically created without the need for any proprietary software.

Geochemical anomaly selection for this study was based on lithology-specific thresholds (the 99^th percentile).  In the course of calculating these thresholds, informative statistical plots were produced, which have value beyond the scope of this project.

For example, the statistics are important in environment studies interested in the background values, and maximum and minimum expected values, of metals in streams in different geological settings.  They may also be important to the selection of analytical techniques for future sampling programs.

Consequently all statistical plots produced by the project have been published in the “Geochemical Statistics” area of this site.

The statistical plots fall into three categories:  (a) Box and Whisker plots to summarise compositional distributions for each lithology type; (b) Histograms to provide greater detail of compositional distributions for each lithology type; and (c) scatter plots of duplicate analyses.