Natural Resources committee  We generally use a combination of methods appropriate for the geological problem that we're dealing with. Traditionally we use some kind of airborne geophysics--like the gravity system that was described--to identify the major geological features that we can then plan our work around.

Natural Resources committee  We put people on the ground once we've planned what we want to look at, and that makes our work much more efficient.

Natural Resources committee  That's right.

Natural Resources committee  We use the private sector to acquire the data, but we own the data.

Natural Resources committee  We collect geological and some geophysical information, but to plan our work we make use of whatever information is out there and available, information that can be obtained for free or purchased. For example, satellite imagery that's collected through commercial enterprise is available.

Natural Resources committee  The technologies?

Natural Resources committee  Things like Radarsat, and....

Natural Resources committee  What you're seeing is a colour-coded image of the magnetic intensity of these rocks. The bright colours—the reds and purples—are relatively magnetic rocks and the blue colours are non-magnetic rocks. This particular map is from the previous generation of geophysical surveys that were flown in the 1970s in analog mode, so they came out as paper maps with contours on them.

Natural Resources committee  That's right. Both 14 and 15 show up-to-date images that were flown in 2009-10.

Natural Resources committee  Not exactly. It gives us a clue as to where those units are. Once people go on the ground, they observe those rocks and determine that they're the right kinds of rocks to host nickel potential. Then you can use this kind of information to extrapolate into relatively unknown areas and say that what we saw there was purple on this map, so those purple units probably go off in that direction.

Natural Resources committee  No. All of the information is web accessible for free. We have a fairly sophisticated delivery system where the user can choose a box on a map of Canada and download all of that information at high resolution and then use it in his own geographic information system to make decisions.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, it's a similar technique. This loop makes measurements not on the surface of the land, which LIDAR does, but it images the topography of the surface. This instrument makes measurements of, for example, magnetic properties of the rocks below the soil. The bedrock image is captured with this instrument.

Natural Resources committee  We use a variety of methods. Probably the largest activity on a cost basis is airborne geophysics. It's a process whereby an aircraft flies and collects measurements from the air. It provides a seamless image of the bedrock below the surface of the ground. We use that to plan our fieldwork, which involves people going in teams out to field areas, setting up a camp, and walking on the ground collecting measurements and observations on the ground, and building a geological map.

Natural Resources committee  We do very little drilling. Most of the work is based on small rock samples that are cut in the lab, so we don't do any drilling in the field.

Natural Resources committee  It's difficult to assess. We publish maps at different scales. There's an implication when you have a map at a very regional scale that the accuracy is somewhat limited. The more detailed the map, the more accurate it is, but the less ground you can cover. For this program we're trying to cover large areas and get as much information as we can from them.