In 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the Geo-mapping for Energy and Minerals program (GEM) to help Northerners capitalize on surging opportunities in the energy and mineral sectors and promote economic development in Canada’s North.
GEM is a five-year (2008-2013), $100-million geological mapping program administered by Natural Resources Canada’s Geological Survey of Canada. The program is designed to significantly advance and modernize geological knowledge in the North to support increased exploration for new resources. Scientific information gathered through GEM also further informs decisions on land use, such as the creation of parks and other protected areas.
The program benefits from an Advisory Group of Northerners, which includes representatives from provincial and territorial governments, the private sector and Aboriginal socio-economic development organizations.
Key activities of the GEM program consist of:
- Using state of the art geological science and technology and techniques in airborne geophysics, field data collection, and laboratory analysis to generate new maps, data, reports and research papers. The high-resolution geological maps being produced by the program are allowing governments and private industry to make informed decisions on the development of new energy and mineral resources, bringing Canada one step closer to unlocking the full mineral potential of our northern regions;
- Making collected research and maps available via the Internet to decision-makers ranging from government and community agencies, to industry investors and land-use planners; and,
- Engaging communities and local governments to participate in field projects.
The program is significantly increasing publicly available geoscience information about Canada’s North – including the identification of areas of high potential for gold, nickel, platinum-group elements, rare metals, base metals and diamonds. This information is increasingly being used by the private sector in Canada and around the world, given it helps mining exploration companies reduce their risks and exploration costs, which encourages economic development and creates jobs.
GEM is also helping to ensure that jobs are created in rural and remote communities in Canada’s North through resource exploration and development. For example, companies which make investment decisions on where to look for resource deposits will hire local people and provide them with training and employment opportunities.
Results:
Currently in the fourth year of its five-year mandate (2008–2013), GEM to date has undertaken 20 new field projects in the three northern territories and the northern parts of six provinces: Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador. Twenty-four regional geophysical surveys have been completed, 341 open file releases of new geoscience maps and data have been published on the Natural Resources Canada Website, and more than 100 technical information sessions have been delivered at venues frequented by industry, government and NGOs.
GEM has successfully prompted a number of new private sector activities in the North, including:
- A $50-million Chinese-Canadian joint venture to advance development of an iron ore deposit on the Melville Peninsula, Nunavut;
- $3 million in diamond exploration activities on Boothia Peninsula, Nunavut;
- Staking of 114 diamond prospecting permits on southeast Baffin, Nunavut; and
- The discovery of significant copper-gold-silver deposits in the Yukon.
It has also delivered a modern, quantitative estimate of the undiscovered hydrocarbon potential in the MacKenzie Valley corridor. GEM estimates that 4.8 billion barrels of oil, and 32.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas have yet to be discovered.
Over the next 10-15 years, GEM is expected to generate more than $500 million in economic activity through private sector exploration for new energy and mineral resources.
GEM's maps and technical reports are available for download, free of charge, through Natural Resources Canada's Geoscience Data Repository at www.gdr.nrcan.gc.ca. Industry and interested parties regularly access maps and technical reports online through the data repository.
