In an effort to create a new public dataset for the Golden Triangle area in British Columbia’s northwest region, Geoscience BC is launching a new minerals project seeking high-quality privately-held geophysical data of the area.

Called the Golden Triangle Geophysics Data Compilation Project, the new initiative will review, purchase and consolidate existing airborne magnetic data that is not currently available publicly for the area.

The Golden Triangle is famous for hosting current and past mines, as well as hundreds of mineral exploration projects, with the potential to supply critical metals needed to meet forecast demand for clean technology applications such as batteries, electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines.

Geoscience BC hopes the dataset project will encourage collaboration and new partnerships for the area.

Geoscience BC is requesting anyone with geophysical data collected by airborne surveys in the Golden Triangle area, especially magnetic data, to contact Geoscience BC by October 16, about the possibility of contributing data to the project.

Making the data public will improve the understanding of the area’s major geological features and the mineral systems throughout the area. The data will be valuable to the mineral exploration sector, governments, indigenous groups and academia and can be used to guide decisions about mineral exploration programmes in northwest British Columbia. It may also identify data gaps and guide future geoscience initiatives by Geoscience BC or the BC Geological Survey.

Geoscience BC minerals VP Christa Pellett says many companies exploring for minerals in the Golden Triangle fly airborne geophysical surveys over their properties. “This collaborative effort to consolidate existing privately held geophysical data for the Golden Triangle will create a valuable new public dataset and will create opportunities to share knowledge and collaborate in the search for mineral exploration targets.”

In terms of data collecting, Geoscience BC aim to collect as much data as possible and will consider purchasing or donations of existing geophysical datasets in the Golden Triangle. The organisation's primary focus is on airborne magnetic data; however, all airborne geophysical data in the designated area will be considered.

To be considered for purchase, data must be well documented and ideally supported by digital copies of a logistics report, flight logs, data archive descriptions and calibration files. The data must also not be publicly available (maps and images derived from the data may be in the public domain, such as news releases, websites and ARIS reports). It must also be collected by a helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft survey.

Further, the age, line spacing, drape percentage or height above surface and other acquisition parameters will be considered during Geoscience BC’s evaluation.