Future of mining exploration under the ocean: laurentian u prof takes to the waves to further research.

• Author: Ulrichsen, Heidi

Although Northern Ontario is far from the ocean now, two to three billion years ago, parts of it were actually under the sea, But this marine environment wasn't always a peaceful place.

Submarine eruptions of lava caused volcanic deposits which were subsequently buried and deformed and folded through extreme pressure, and brought to surface again through erosion. Ancient examples of these types of rocks, known as volcanogen-ic massive sulphide (VMS) deposits, are found in the Timmins and Rouyn-Noranda areas.

To better understand these ancient, mineral-rich deposits, a Laurentian University professor recently travelled half a world away to study deposits currently being formed by volcanism under the ocean. These seafloor massive sulphide (SMS) deposits are actively forming now and some may be about 40,000 years old--positively modern, as far as the rock world goes.

"They provide a very good modern analog to a very ancient ore system," said Harold Gibson, the director of Laurentian's Mineral Exploration Research Centre (MERC).

Studying how the modern deposits form, and why certain minerals end up in certain areas, can help exploration companies that explore in Northern Ontario and Quebec, he said.

The more we understand the processes responsible for the formation and location of sea floor massive sulphide deposits, the better we can refine the models that exploration companies use to explore for their ancient, on-land equivalents, said Gibson, a geoscientist whose area of expertise is volcanism. It isn't currently feasible to mine the modern, underwater deposits themselves, although some companies are looking into it, he said.

The company that has brought the venture furthest along is called Nautilus Minerals, which...