NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region

Tags: physical sciences, rock, mineral exploration, rock chemistry

Objective(s): To locate areas with high potential for critical minerals mineralization and to incentivize exploration for critical minerals and technology metals in the territory.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.5271. The aim of the project is to locate areas with high potential for critical minerals mineralization. The results are intended to incentivize exploration for critical minerals and technology metals in the territory. This is particularly important now given the high demand for these commodities and the imminent closure of some key diamonds in the territory. The project will involve visiting and collecting rock samples from the various project sites using simple geologist hammers. Each sample will be 2 kg at most and will be collected from surface exposures (outcrops). The collected samples will be described in the field and later submitted to a laboratory for chemical analysis to determine the possible presence and concentrations of various critical elements such as rare earth elements, lithium, tin, and tantalum. The findings/data from this research shall be made available to NWT stakeholders through government geoscience publications, databases, presentations at Yellowknife Geoscience Forum, and other Northwest Territories Geological Survey (NTGS) outreach programs including visits to schools and community events. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from June 1, 2022 to October 31, 2022