Operation Treasure Hunt results released.

• Author: GOULIQUER, DIANNE
• Position: Ontario Geological Survey - Brief Article

Lake sediment surveys conducted in three regions of northwestern Ontario by the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines have revealed more than 75 targets for precious and base metals, including palladium, platinum, copper and nickel.

The surveys were conducted last summer as part of Operation Treasure Hunt, a three-year, $29-million geoscience initiative introduced in March 1999. The program is intended to expand and improve the province's geoscience infrastructure, and uses state-of-the-art geophysical and geochemical technologies to uncover new opportunities for mineral exploration in Ontario.

Three newly-released Ontario Geological Survey (OGS) reports outline results of helicopter-supported lake sediment sampling for the Atikokan, Longlac and Schreiber regions, where a combined total of over 75 targets were identified as having significant geochemical anomalies, many of which are open for staking.

"Up in Longlac there were something like 2,500 lakes (surveyed), in Atikokan there were around 2,000, and 1,400 or so in Schreiber," OGS geologist Richard Dyer says. "The concept is that over time you have weathering and erosion and you'll have trace elements and base metals, like copper, nickel and some gold. They'll go in the solution or they travel in the groundwater and they get carried off into the lakes. When they get into the lakes, they precipitate and fall out into the bottom of the lakes and end up in the sediment."

Dyer. says the Ministry is conducting the surveys and releasing the subsequent findings to the public in hopes the information will prove valuable to Northern Ontario exploration and mining companies.

"What we're trying to do is sample as many lakes as...