Mineral Exploration is the official publication of the Association of Mineral Exploration British Columbia.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1160843
20 Mineral Exploration | amebc.ca PHOTOS: STEEP EXPLORATION; ANDY RANDELL Exploration on the Edge Staying safe while searching for mineral deposits in British Columbia's steepest terrain By KYLIE WILLIAMS B ritish Columbia is beautiful. Spectacular mountain ranges, rocky coastlines, rivers, forests, lakes, and grassy plains combine to create the picture-perfect landscapes we call home. But promising exploration targets are rarely found in the easy-to-reach places. Mineral exploration activities in this stunning terrain can be both difficult and dangerous and the changing climate is offering mineral explorers a tainted gift: Retreating glaciers are exposing fresh rock to explore, particularly in the Golden Triangle in the northwest of the province, and potential new targets are revealed each summer. In 2016, consultant geologist Andy Randell was working in Lost Valley, a prospective area to the south of the Red Mountain project near Stewart in northwest B.C. He was sent to examine a series of gold-bearing quartz veins that had last been mapped in 1984 and much of the map showed a white expanse simply labeled "ice." This was no longer the case. "Lost Valley has completely now lost its ice," says Randell. "The Cambria Icefield has retreated at least two kilometres in 35 years, in my lifetime. The flipside of this glacial retreat is that everything is just scraped clean; there is no soil development, no vegetation. You get to see and sample rocks that no one has seen before." The team discovered rich gold mineralization in trenches and hand samples in Lost Valley but steered well clear of the steep, unstable back wall of the valley, where giant blocks of ice hung over the edge, "pinging and cracking" as they warmed, and on occasion, calving and falling. How can companies work safely in these steep, icy, and changing landscapes? (Top) Steep Exploration principal Laurent Janssen at work in NW B.C.; (above) Geologist Andy Randell standing on the rim of Lost Valley at the edge of the Cambria Icefield, near Stewart, B.C.