Grant: Idea to Innovation

Canada has vast mineral deposits, but drilling to find them is expensive and environmentally intensive. Thus, mineral exploration applies traditional geochemistry to test soils for signatures of sub-surface deposits. Geomicrobiology is an emerging technology with the potential to detect subsurface deposits by identifying and enumerating microbial species in small volumes of soil. Geomicrobiology is intended to complement and enhance existing geochemical and geophysical exploration by quantifying how microbial community composition responds to the upward migration of elements and compounds from deeper geological formations.We have confirmed that soil bacteria reflect geophysical anomalies and so can be used to map orebody footprints. Consequently we are expanding to test and validate the approach on diverse types of deposits as well as to compile a database of bacterial species including community composition patterns that correlate with specific deposit types. We anticipate that the additional layer of data offered by geomicrobial surveys can help mineral exploration companies choose better drill targets. This would offer economic benefits to the industry, and also reduce environmental impacts by avoiding areas that otherwise would not need to be disturbed by drilling operations.The primary users of this technology will be mineral exploration companies that are searching for new mineral occurrences. We are pursuing NSERC L2M to probe the market for geomicrobial surveys among small to medium sized exploration companies as well as with large mining firms. This will set the stage for a NSERC i2i application with interested industrial partners.