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Mineral deposit databases at the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), Earth Science

Sector, NRcan 1. History 2. Lessons learned 3. Plan for the Canadian Arctic FODD ore deposits

Lesley Chorlton, GSC

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HISTORY

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Mineral Resources Division (MRD), GSC: origin of a mineral occurrence database U-Th listings came out as volumes 1950s-1962. Minerals and Metals Sector: National Mineral Inventory

(NMI) card file1960s and on; copies proliferated to individuals at GSC, provinces, all adding their own corrections and notes.

GSC: M-File mainframe database,1968-1972. GSC: Kelly File: M-File data entered manually. GSC: OPSEP File, 1973-1975. MRD Data Bank formed to manage data centrally

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Mineral occurrence database(s)…. The data bank was staffed and supported to bring

individual card files, Kelly file, records in filing cabinets, OPSEP together into one file.

CANMINDEX, 1975-1983: Canadian showings database first on mainframe, later imported into Rbase on PC (initially rare).

Then personal computers for the masses arrived ! Commodity specific databases exported from

CANMINDEX for specialists: Cu (Kirkham), U-Th (URAG: Ruzicka/Prasad), IF (Gross), & Mo (Molyfile group)

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Demise of the MRD data bank

Provinces had copies of the NMI card file, &/or obtained early exports from CANMINDEX and built their own digital databases in the 1980’s. Quebec (1976), Manitoba, Newfoundland/Labrador, Ontario, British Columbia/Yukon MRD downsized; data bank disintegrated CANMINDEX database was archived;

Northwest Territories data sent to be start up their new database, NORMIN ~ 1992.

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Global scope important for MRD commodity specialists (late 1980s on) MRD began to focus on studying world class deposits. . Rod Kirkham expanded the scope of his Cu databases to create

world porphyry & sediment-hosted copper databases. Other specialists travelled and gained knowledge of world

examples, but did not build databases. Rod pulled a 1: 35,000,000 seafloor bathymetry map from

National Geographic magazine and asked to have sediment-hosted copper points plotted on it.

He had assistant Janet Carrière sketch & hand colour a rough geological backdrop sourced from pages in Derry, 1980. World atlas of geology and mineral deposits.

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Contracts to create Open File 2915 series through Rod Kirkham 1993-4 small contracts to create a world geology

map in GIS format for sediment-hosted copper and seafloor deposits. Backdrop was 1st geological map at GSC-Ottawa to have a multi-attribute database behind it storing more than cartographic symbols and codes.

CORDLINK was developed at same time on top of a geological database at GSC-Vancouver.

Open file 2915d:Generalized geology of the world and linked databases released in 1995, preceded by paper maps in 1994.

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OF2915 led to World Map Project 1996-7 (industry sponsored; uncoordinated)

IAEA global U deposits bought the 2915 backdrop for their publication.

Rod Kirkham raised industry money for a World Map project.

More contracts were issued to update world geology and compile global Ni, Au, VMS-Sedex, and porphyry deposit databases (independent contracts).

A business case was developed for another new project: World Minerals Geoscience Database Project (WMGDP).

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End users for the WMGDP data (1998 business vision) General public: education; gazetteer & general interest

Consultants: information source & gazetteer, illustrations, tables

Exploration companies: Illustrations, gazetteer, exploration strategy

www.cubewerx.com

Researchers: tables illustrations tectonic & grade-tonnage-time modeling; deposit comparisons

resource assessments; paleotectonics

Environmentalists/ botonists: especially those working on large areas at small scale

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WMGDP: industry sponsored (1998-2003). Leader W. D. Sinclair

Robert Laramée assigned to work with me to firm up database schema & develop interfaces. Same schema was now used by all mineral deposit

databases, World Map DBs converted. New compilation contracts issued; IOCG (new). Updates to world geology to correct more sins &

add magmatic information for custom maps. Last industry money reserved for application to

get databases and map views On-Line.

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System must accommodate complex input and simplified output

Mineral deposits require naturally complex data structures. Otherwise, compilers suffer trying to ‘fit round pegs in square holes’ and make arbitrary decisions resulting in inconsistency.

GIS and data integration applications (using this data) require simple input, ie., simple modeling or visualization layers aimed toward specific end purposes.

The data schema must accommodate query-extraction-report interfaces that allow users to filter, build custom spreadsheets and full reports.

World Minerals Geoscience Database Project

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Schema: mineral deposit databases*

Districts/ Camps

Resource

Mines Deposits

Production

*All entities are linked to references (not depicted) World Minerals Geoscience Database Project

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Sediment-hostedCu: R.V. Kirkham Sedex: D. Sangster Mississippi Valley Type: D. Sangster

Distribution of sediment-hosted deposits over general age and dominant rock type

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O.R.Eckstrand, D.J. Good, and Q. Gall

Distribution of Ni-PGE-Cr deposits over mafic-ultramafic magmatic rocks by age

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Consolidating Canada’s Geoscience Knowledge Program Finally got databases, shape files, world map, &

auto-generated deposit reports On-Line. Compilers on other projects began using data entry

interface to compile into the new database schema, and used query-extraction interface to generate flat output.

Exported custom spreadsheets for some papers in Economic Geology Special Volume on mineral deposits and for new Mineral Deposits of Canada volume (& world), and other papers.

Other databases were converted.

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Northern Resource Development Program Regional exports from the mineral deposit databases

for Au and Ni-Cu-PGE were used for mineral potential modelling exercises using GIS data integration for areas in the north.

Poor results until we were successful in getting surface showings located accurately.

David Viljoen & Robert Laramée enabled connection between the data entry interface and ArcMap: showings locations entered directly from georeferenced property diagrams.

Compilations also used to update Nunavut’s showings database, NUMIN.

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LESSONS LEARNED

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Cooperative expert compilers are THE vital asset (content is king) Had to respond to compiler feedback for interfaces and

attributes needed. Had to let go of absolute terminology control for many

attributes to get their cooperation There are filtering attributes which should be complete

and in controlled terminology. Other attributes are for reporting, and the lookup terms

applicable vary among deposit types. The filtering attributes are the ones that we can remap in

harmonizing distributed databases. It is best not to get too conceptually complex.

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Use as much automation as possible Interfaces for data entry, query-export-report made it

easy for compilers & are extremely important. Thorough referencing capacity, & automatic initialling

& time-stamping important. Tools for data integrity checking, release-dating and

sql export made it easy for IM managers. Explicit tables to document complete internal schema

(service tables) were used in development of query and data integrity interfaces, and can be used for transferring data from one platform to another.

20 Customize what you see (Tab Pages)

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Deposit terminology standardization ?

Deposit status Commodities Classifications Mineralization styles Tectonic settings Geologic ages Mineralogy

Host rocks 2 levels Related magmatic rocks 2 levels

Country rocks Coincident structure Regional structures Alteration signatures Metallogenic signatures Geochronologic reports

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Increasing importance of good spatial accuracy for surface occurrences Everyone can now use spatially aware mapping

interfaces on mobile, tablets etc. Expectation that one can fly in using GPS and

find/recognize a showing from a database. In GIS modelling techniques using data integration

for remote predictive mapping and mineral potential modelling it is important to have the surface showings accurately positioned

Old data notorious for spatial inaccuracy – little GIS awareness, data sources inaccurate.

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Increasing importance of georeferencing … Exploration grid diagrams and other maps from

assessment/ technical reports are the best sources for positions because they generally tell the truth; errors in measuring and transcribing locations often found in tables & text.

Connecting data entry interface and a VB add-on in ArcMap helped: projected and geographic coordinates could be entered directly into database from georeferenced diagrams.

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Improving locations

Old NORMIN/NUMIN locations

New locations

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Digitized coordinates & long-lats passed directly into database

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Resource and production policies

Captures (nearly) all of the information needed for a resource listing

Use exactly the same terms and units as the source (for verification)

Linked to the specific data source in reference entity

Metric spreadsheets are exported for end-user applications and querying.

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PLAN FOR CANADIAN ARCTIC ORE DEPOSITS SPREADSHEET

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Basic plan

Develop a short list of the deposits to be included for Arctic project & new important exploration prospects with resources. Update the northern Canada content of all GSC

deposit databases for above deposits: resource and production figures as given in data sources; publish as Open Files by 2015-16. Future of GSC databases undecided

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Plan…

Export FODD style spreadsheet data and calculate rolled up “in situ” resource and production figures with source reference. There will be formulas for rolling up figures Massaging needed, but at least we will know

where data came from & we have records in GSC protocol (exact terms of the source) to double check calculations against. Delivery1 to Arctic ore deposits project.

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Thank you. Are there any questions ?