The addition of $1 million to the Survey budget from 2008-11, combined with the recruitment of several new project geologists means that the Geological Survey will be mounting its most extensive field season in at least a decade, with 14 field projects planned, employing over 20 summer students.

LABRADOR

Tim van Nostrand will be working on the Seal Lake Group again this year, with a 2-month field season planned, and a 4-person field crew. This is the second year of this 1:50,000 scale bedrock mapping project, in an area of numerous mineral occurrences.

New hire Peter Valley will spend 2 months mapping the bedrock in the Knox Lake area, north of the Smallwood Reservoir. The area has been previously mapped only at a reconnaissance scale. The area is part of the Churchill Province and has few known mineral showings - the area to the north in Quebec is considered prospective for gold and base metals. The project is part of a collaborative effort with the Geological Survey of Canada, and the Quebec Survey. The GSC has flown a detailed aeromagnetic survey in this area over the winter, and the Quebec Survey will have a mapping crew across the border in adjacent Quebec .

Geochemist Steve Amor will also be working in this area, with a helicopter supported 4-week detailed lake sediment sampling project.

Greg Sparkes will continue his work in the Central Mineral Belt, studying uranium mineralization. This will be the final field season of this project, and Greg will be visiting various showings and prospects, based out of Goose Bay. A 2-month field season is planned, with the objective of completing coverage and sampling in the Central Mineral Belt to the greatest extent possible. Areas of interest elsewhere in Labrador accessible by road will also be examined briefly, if time permits (e.g., the Labrador Straits area).

Charlie Gower is planning a short field season, taking advantage of road construction in southern Labrador to field check his major compilation map for the eastern Grenville.

NEWFOUNDLAND

Ian Knight, with palaeontological support from Doug Boyce, will finish up mapping of the Lomond (NTS 12H/05), Pasadena (NTS 12H/04) and adjoining (NTS 12H/03 and 06) map areas. Both will also spend time on the Port-au-Port Peninsula examining stratigraphic problems. These studies of the Cambrian ­Ordovician clastic-carbonate terrain of western Newfoundland are important to the emerging on-shore and near-shore petroleum exploration efforts, as well as to uranium exploration in the area.

Alana Hinchey will be working in the Long Range Mountains in the Silver Mountain area (parts of NTS 12H/11, 14). Recent road construction has greatly improved exposure in the area; therefore, much will be gained by updating the geological mapping and rock sampling of these poorly known rocks. The area also contains an active gold exploration project. This is a 3-month field project, based out of western White Bay.

Brian O¹Brien will conclude mapping of the Catchers Pond Group and adjacent rocks through a 3-month field season in the Kings Point area. This is an area of considerable structural complexity and high mineral potential. Understanding the structure, chronology, and lithogeochemistry of this area will lead to an improved understanding of the geological history, and will be of benefit to mineral exploration.

Jennifer Smith will continue the Red Indian Lake Basin surficial mapping and till geochemistry project. This project began in 2007, as a result of increased mineral exploration activity in the Tulks Volcanic Belt. Mineralized boulders, found in thick glacial drift, have created a demand for a better understanding of the palaeo ice-flow history to aid in the exploration, and possible discovery of, new resources. This program will provide support to the current exploration efforts and may also stimulate mineral exploration activity in more inaccessible parts of the area.

Denise Brushett will start a new project in the Gander area. This project will provide a Quaternary geology framework for the evaluation of geochemical data collected in the field to support mineral exploration. The study area is prospective for mineral exploration, particularly gold, and could be assisted by detailed surficial mapping. The 2009 field component will focus on sampling and mapping in areas north and east of Gander Lake that have not been covered in previous surveys, and will include sampling of tills for geochemistry.

Hamish Sandeman will embark on his second field season examining gold metallogeny in central Newfoundland. Information on gold-mineralizing environments in some areas was studied in previous Survey projects, but many other areas remain to be covered, and some geological aspects of gold mineralization remain poorly understood. There are presently several areas in which new styles of mineralization may occur, or in which renewed exploration provides important new information for reassessment.

There will be two projects focusing on the Bonavista Peninsula this summer. New hire Leon Normore will be mapping the bedrock of NTS map areas 2C/11 (Bonavista) and 2C/06 (Trinity). This remapping and detailed analysis of the Conception, St. John¹s and Signal Hill groups, within previously designated Musgravetown Group areas, will complete the project started by Sean O'Brien. The area has considerable interest for geotourism following the discovery of soft-bodied Ediacaran fossil assemblages by Sean O¹Brien and others, but also has potential for sediment-hosted copper mineralization.

The copper mineralization in the Bonavista area will be investigated by John Hinchey. From the late 1990s to about 2004, there was industry interest in these deposits on the Bonavista Peninsula . Although no economic discoveries were made, it is anticipated that there will someday be renewed interest in this deposit type as an exploration target in Newfoundland . Compilation of previous work, and its augmentation with focused research that will link industry data, will significantly aid such efforts in the future. John will be spending approximately 2 months in the field.

Jerry Ricketts will continue evaluating granular aggregate potential in eastern Newfoundland this summer. A 3-month project will concentrate on NTS areas 1N/12 and 1N/13, between Whitbourne and Clarenville. Data provided from this project will not only be useful for construction projects within the immediate study area, but may also be used in the northeast Avalon Peninsula, Clarenville, and may have potential for use in the next concrete oil production platform, proposed to be built at Bull Arm.

Steve Amor will be conducting field work as a contribution towards the North American Soil Geochemical Landscapes Project, a tri-national initiative between the USA , Canada and Mexico . This was established to meet the need for soil geochemical data by providing a consistent national and continental-scale framework and database. Steve will be sampling over a wide area of the province to assist in the compilation of this major geochemical data set.