GEOSCIENCE
PDAC advocates for improvements to the type, quantity and quality of public geoscience information available to mineral explorers. To date, PDAC has successfully advocated for $200M worth of federal geoscience investments to develop modern geological maps and data sets for all of Canada’s northern regions by 2020, through the Geo-mapping for Energy and Minerals Program. In addition, PDAC has successfully advocated for $69M worth of federal geoscience investments to generate improved rates at which buried mineral deposits are discovered, through the Targeted Geosciences Initiative (phases IV and V).
Government geoscience is crucial to the success of mineral exploration in Canada. The often cited rule-of-thumb is that $1 in government spending results in $5 in private sector exploration. Government geoscience helps to attract exploration investment to Canada by:
- Allowing industry to identify areas of favourable mineral potential instead of spending money on non-prospective ground
- Reducing duplicative spending by companies that examine the same parcel of land in different time periods
- Increasing exploration effectiveness in difficult or challenging terrains
PDAC is currently undertaking research to identify what the next generation of federal geoscience investments should look like, to support effective and efficient mineral exploration in Canada.