Tying geological and geophysical data together into unified geological predictions

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Mining is an important part of Canada's economy. Today, mineral exploration is moving to deeper or smallerdeposits; methods are required that can effectively unify all geoscientific data and improve the potential toresolve such challenging deposits. Gold and other ore deposits can be delineated using various techniques thatwork with different forms of geological and geophysical data. Proven methods exist that develop ore depositmodels from geological information, and others that develop models from geophysical information. Thecurrent procedure is to derive geological and geophysical models independently, from each type of information,and perform qualitative comparisons. However, the models rarely match well, having geometrical orpetrophysical differences, and model comparison often requires too much speculation. The question is thenhow to reconcile the independently-derived models into one consistent, unified picture of the Earth'ssubsurface. In the last several years there have been several independent critical scientific advances in 3Dmodelling, many of which have been lead by the applicant's research group. However, less work has been doneinto methods that incorporate multiple sources of geoscientific data towards unified ore deposit models. Theproposed research looks at ways to place those advances into a single unified framework that can leverage allavailable geophysical and geological data, pull quality geological products out, and ultimately help predict andrefine ore deposit models to better delineate ore resources. The outcomes of this project will give Barrickaccess to technologies and services that are not available to other companies in the world. This will helpmaintain or increase Canada's share of the world-wide mining industry.