N.W.T. to open a drill core sample archive

The Northwest Territories government says it will open an indoor facility in Yellowknife to store drill core samples recovered in the territory since the 1940s.

The material — donated over the years by companies to the federal government and recently inherited by the GNWT as a result of devolution — may help cut down on the level of drilling companies need to do to develop previously-explored properties.

It could also help companies save money at a time when investment in mineral exploration is difficult to come by due to low commodity prices and a lack of investor confidence.

The average cost of drilling one metre in the North is $500, says John Ketchum, a director with the N.W.T. Geoscience Office. Companies typically conduct thousands of metres of drilling as one means of developing a project.

"If a company is interested in going over ground that other companies in the past have had claims on and done some drilling on, they could go to the core library, look up the information on the samples, and potentially save themselves some big dollars when it comes to drilling," said David Ramsay, N.W.T. minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

No opening date has been cited for the facility.

Ramsay made the announcement at the 42nd annual Geoscience Forum in Yellowknife Tuesday.

The news comes as diamond exploration accounts for 43 per cent of overall mineral exploration in the N.W.T., according to statistics from Natural Resources Canada presented at the forum. Much of the diamond exploration is taking place in the previously-explored area of the N.W.T. that has yielded the Ekati, Diavik and Snap Lake diamond mines.

Newly updated statistics on mineral exploration across the North are still expected to be released by Natural Resources Canada.