Projects

The principal goal of this proposed 3-year project is to provide tools and knowledge that will improve exploration success and recognize opportunities for base, precious and critical element mineral resources in BC's Golden Triangle.

This NSERC Alliance-Mitacs project is a partnership with five industry partner organizations who represent both actively producing (Newcrest) and exploration companies (Dolly Varden Silver Corp., Garibaldi Resources Corp., Mountain Boy Minerals, and Tudor Gold Corp).
In addition to the industry partners, the research will be carried out in collaboration with UBC faculty Dr. Marghaleray Amini, Dr. Ken Hickey, Dr. Lucy Porritt, Prof. Kelly Russell, Dr. Joel Saylor, Dr. Corey Wall and Prof. Dominique Weis, Director of the Pacific Centre for Isotopic and Geochemical Research, Dr. Stefanie Brueckner (University of Manitoba), Prof. Stephen Piercey (Memorial University) and Adjunct Prof. Bruce Gemmell (University of Tasmania).

The BC Porphyry Project will enable the minerals industry to effectively explore for porphyry copper deposits in British Columbia (BC) and across the world. This research will include work at several BC study sites with known alkalic copper porphyry deposits, as well as other sites with smaller resources. This research project aims to improve the efficiency and pace of porphyry copper discovery in British Columbia by providing mineral exploration companies with new tools and knowledge to identify the most fertile deposits, and “vector” towards those deposits.

This project is supported by a number of leading minerals and instrumentation companies, including Anglo American, Antofagasta Minerals, BHP, Brixton Metals Corporation, Centerra Gold Inc., Fortescue Metals Group, Freeport-McMoRan Inc., New Gold Inc., Newmont Corporation, Nicola Mining Inc., NorthWest Copper Corp., Rio Tinto Exploration Canada Inc.,SciAps Inc. and (Taseko) Gibraltar Mine. In addition to the industry partners, the research will be carried out in collaboration with UBC faculty Dr. Ken Hickey and Prof. Dominique Weis, Director of the Pacific Centre for Isotopic and Geochemical Research, Dr. Pilar Lecumberri-Sanchez (University of Alberta), Dr. Eva Enkelmann (University of Calgary) and Prof. Peter Hollings (Lakehead University).

MDRU recognized the importance of Colombia as an aspiring jurisdiction in 2010 due to its unexplored historical gold production, favourable geology, and its high-potential for precious and base metal world-class discoveries. Since that time, we have been active to increase the geological, magmatic and mineral deposit knowledge through a series of industry-supported research projects. Despite a complex internal social and political history in the past decades, the opportunity to increase the exploration success in Colombia is directly related to generating additional geological knowledge, and this is well-recognized as a high-priority objective for many major and junior exploration companies within the mining industry.

Through different industry- and government-funded research projects, MDRU has built up substantial knowledge of Colombia's tectono-magmatic history and its key role in the formation of mineral deposits and mineralizing processes.