A Geoscience BC workshop organized by the Regional District of Bulkley Nechako (RDBN) was recently held at the College of New Caledonia.

The workshop, entitled 'Burns Lake and Beyond - Filling the Geoscience Gaps' was a presentation made by several mining industry experts.

Lyn Anglin from Geoscience BC facilitated the event and introduced individual presentations by Wayne Jackman from Noble Exploration Services Ltd., Travis Ferbey, British Columbia Geological Survey, Garth Kirkham from Geoscience BC and Don McIntyre a Geoscience BC consultant.

The workshop covered the technical aspects of mineral exploration throughout the Northern B.C. region and focused on the areas within the RDBN that have been sampled for mineral deposits.

According to Geoscience BC recent geophysical and geochemical work in central B.C. has generated a wealth of geoscience information.

Geoscience BC's Quest and Quest West projects have produced new airborne gravity and electromagnetic data for over 90,000 square kilometres of B.C.'s interior and have added over 4000 new geochemical sample sites to the provincial geoscience database.

Over 6000 archived geochemical samples have also been re-analyzed.

"We have been able to re-analyze samples that were taken over 35 years ago," Jackman said.

"In the 1970's there were traditionally only about 12 or 13 minerals sought after such as uranium, copper, lead and zinc," he said.

Now, according to Jackman there has been an increase in the ability to analyze mineral samples and there are over 70 elements samples for including precious based metals and pathfinder elements.

"Our detection levels are much higher now," Jackman said.

According to Jackman a total of 4,660 lake based sites have been sampled, 9,000 land based sites, 3,233 till based sites and a total of 715 bark samples have also been taken.

"There has been bark sampling completed between Burns Lake and Vanderhoof by Colin Dunn, it is not a common way of detecting minerals, but it is being done," noted Jackman.

"We have tried to keep our data simple so that prospectors are not alienated, and it is all stored on a regional geochemistry database," he said.

It is the intention of Geoscience BC to attract investment and draw prospectors to areas of interest throughout the province.

"We are trying to attract more money to be spent here," said Anglin.

"We are in competition with big international mining countries such as Australia as well as other Canadian provinces," she said.

According to Anglin the additional geoscience information that they are able to record helps to identify areas for direct investment potential in B.C..

According to Ferbey the area around Tahtsa Reach and Huckleberry Mine is being sampled.

"We are looking at the till geochemistry of Tahtsa Lake, this area has a high potential to host minerals, because of Whiting Creek and Huckleberry Mine, there has been success in the area, the rocks further down stream are not much different from those at Huckleberry Mine," Ferbey said.

Samples from the area have been collected and will be sampled for major and minor trace elements as well as heavy mineral concentrates.

"Future write ups on this area will be available in the late spring of 2010 after fully analysis," he added.