Funds earmarked for geoscience, analysis

The Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency has agreed to invest C$3.275 million over three years (2012 to 2014) to support continuing geoscience research and data analysis in the Northwest Territories.

The Government of the Northwest Territories' Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment and the private sector will invest a further C$1.1 million and C$900,000, respectively, for a total project value of C$5.275 million.

The Hon. David Ramsay, newly elected minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment and Transportation in Northwest Territories, told Mining News Nov. 14 that the money will provide for valuable new geoscience knowledge that will help exploration companies zero in on areas of high mineral potential in underexplored areas of the territory. New and existing data will be analyzed to identify promising new research and exploration areas.

The work will be spearheaded by the Northwest Territories Geoscience Office, a collaborative partnership between ITI and Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada.

Funded activities will include targeted bedrock mapping of prospective regions in the Mackenzie Mountains, the enigmatic Hottah terrane south of Great Bear Lake, the southern Slave Province, and the Norman Wells-Tulita region.

Detailed analyses will be conducted of petroleum systems in the central Mackenzie Valley, and other areas, along with helicopter-assisted surveys in the Mackenzie Mountains, Colville Lake, and Churchill regions and airborne geophysical surveys in under-explored areas with mineral or petroleum potential.

"The Government of Canada recognizes that reliable information about mineral and energy deposits is essential to attract resource development and support the dynamic economic growth we are seeing across the North," CanNor Minister Leona Aglukkaq said Nov. 8 when she announced the funding. "The data gathered from these projects will provide more certainty for industry and investors, create job and business opportunities for Northerners, and support land use planning."

"We used to have more than C$200 million in exploration dollars a year invested in the Northwest Territories six years ago," said Ramsay, who served as chairman of the Standing Committee for Economic Development and Infrastructure in the NWT's previous government.

Since 2005, that investment has moved to other jurisdictions.

Ramsay said he has made bringing those private sector dollars back to the territory a priority for his four-year term as ITI minister.

"A lot is dependent on the global economy, but we will be putting our best foot forward," he said.

Ramsay said the NWT has some half-dozen advanced mine development projects with the potential to bring C$3 billion in capital expenditure and 2,000 new jobs to the territory but obtaining more reliable geoscience data will "lay the foundation" for decades of additional economic development activity.

Ramsay also told participants in the 2011 Yellowknife Geoscience Forum Nov. 15 that geoscience is only one piece of the puzzle. Many factors ensure economic growth "and it is devolution that will allow the GNWT to make these issues a priority and address them," he said.

"Devolution is a key component to unlocking the mineral potential in our territory. With devolution, the Government of the Northwest Territories will have management control of public lands, water and mineral resources in the territory. It means that people who live in the NWT and know it best will make decisions about how these resources should be managed," Ramsay added.