The provincial government has announced the first five projects to receive assistance under the $8-million Ontario Mineral Exploration Technologies (OMET) Program.
Three of the projects will be overseen by the Sudbury-based Canadian Mining Industry Research Organization (CAMIRO). They will entail: detectability of mineral deposits with airborne gravity; three-dimensional, surficial geochemistry; and the use of a soil gas hydrocarbon technique to differentiate barren from ore-bearing conductors.
Also, Waterdown, Ont.-based Quantec Geoscience will develop a survey using magneto-telluric/induced-polarization earth-imaging technology, and Mississauga-based Ferra Dynamics will create a high-bandwidth electro-magnetic system for airborne surveying.
“These projects promise to enhance the efficiency of exploration firms in Ontario,” says Mines Minister Dan Newman. “They represent high-level scientific research that will increase the mineral sector’s ability to find deposits.”
Proposals for funding are submitted to OMET and evaluated by an advisory panel. Of the 24 proposals submitted to date, five have been approved and five have been rejected; the remaining 14 are being evaluated. Proposals can be submitted until March 31, 2002.
Norman Rayner, a spokesman for OMET, says more than half of the $8 million is still available. Among the criteria is that the government’s investment be matched by the private sector.
The program is delivered through a partnership involving the Ontario Geological Survey, the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, and the Mineral Exploration Research Centre of Laurentian University.
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