Remote Sensing Adds Value to Mining Industry

LOOKNorth has released an overview of Northern Canada’s mining industry. The overview is intended to provide a context for assessing the utility of remote sensing technologies for mining applications, as well as insight into potential commercial opportunities in Northern mining for the remote sensing technology sector.

LOOKNorth is an initiative to help the natural resource sector to accomplish their project goals in a safe, efficient and environmentally responsible manner. The overview is titled Mining in the Canadian North.

In the context of increasing global demand and declining reserves, industry is turning to the untapped resource potential of increasingly remote and challenging regions. Under-explored, given its vast size and geological variety, Canada’s North is by many definitions remote, the climate can be harsh and the infrastructure to support resource development is limited.  LOOKNorth is working with stakeholders to identify remote sensing technologies that can help provide the information needed to address these challenges.

Resource sector projects typically have a life cycle with unique information requirements at different phases. At each phase, information is required for opportunity definition, project feasibility assessment, operations management, monitoring, regulatory approval, etc. The type, detail and timeliness of the information required in different phases can vary significantly and has the potential to impact the safety, cost-effectiveness, and environmental impacts and risks of a project. LOOKNorth’s series of sector overviews aim to capture and outline the life cycles of a various resource sectors, along with information needs of each, as a resource to guide remote sensing technology development and commercialisation efforts.

Additionally, LOOKNorth is developing a series of territory-specific overviews to guide and support businesses interested in expanding northward. A variety of technologies are needed to improve the cost, environmental safety and efficiency of Northern resource operations, generating opportunities for all Canadians. Understanding the political, regulatory and social systems of the North, which differ significantly from those of the South, is critically important to business success in Canada’s North.

The first of these territory-specific overviews, Northern Overview: Nunavut, was released in December 2012. It is available for download from the LOOKNorth website, along with the first of the sector-specific overviews, Mining in the Canadian North. Finally, LOOKNorth publishes a weekly Arctic Newsletter that provides an overview of the latest news related to resource development, environment and politics across the Circumpolar North. Those interested in receiving the newsletter may do so by emailing newsletter@looknorth.org.