Resource World Magazine

o c t o b e r / n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 4 www.resourceworld.com 47 FIELD r e P o rt T he crew at GroundTruth Exploration is almost finished tweaking the explo- ration tools they have developed in an effort to make exploration cheaper, quicker and environmentally noninvasive. Shawn Ryan and the GroundTruth crew spent some time with the Yukon Media tour, at their Yukon headquarters in Dawson, dem- onstrating just how far they have come towards meeting those goals. Used together the soil sampling meth- ods, the drones, high resolution IP surveys, and drills can provide a company with the tools necessary to conduct an entire season's exploration in as little as two weeks while leaving behind almost no footprint. From soil sample to drill- ing, GroundTruth's exploration strategy can be utilized for a fraction of the cost in a fraction of the time of conventional exploration. At the same time, all of the components of GroundTruth's equip- ment have been developed to attain a high degree of detail in order to recover quality data while remaining safe and efficient. A major advantage of executing explo- ration utilizing GroundTruth's equipment is that all work accomplished using the equipment falls under class one explora- tion; no permitting is required, exploration can begin right away. Equipment is pur- posefully designed to fit under class one exploration requirements. The drills devel- oped by GroundTruth leave almost zero evidence behind them; there is no time or budget required for reclamation. The cost and times savings are considerable. GroundTruth's strategy is simple, to evaluate the top 100 meters of ground in the most cost efficient manner while keep- ing the highest standards in data quality. A soil anomaly can be explored in two weeks for under $100,000. Ryan says that normally this would take two field sea- sons and cost $500,000-$700,000. Ground Truth's lightweight drills can be driven, rather than flown, from drill site to drill site saving helicopter costs which can rep- resent up to 30% of an exploration budget. What does a $100,000 GroundTruth explo- ration program entail? It all starts with finding a soil anom- aly to be explored. Discoveries such as Kinross' Golden Saddle, Kaminak's Coffee deposit and Comstock's QV discovery have all been delineated on soil anomalies col- lected by the GroundTruth team. The Drone, an eBee UAV is a light- weight aircraft weighing 600 g with a 96 cm wingspan, capable of 8 flights per day for a total daily coverage of up to 10 km², with 4cm ground resolution, is flown for geomorphology and ground cover assess- ment; survey planning and access; outcrop location; detection of subtle topographic features; detailed slope assessment, and 3D volumetric calculations. Next a new Induced Polarization and DC Resistivity system (that was brought in from the environmental world) that sur- veys on 5 metres electrode spacing, gives an extremely highly detailed inversion of the subsurface. The traditional IP surveys gathered data on 25-50 metre electrode spacing missing potentially important sub- tle structures. It is a proven tool that offers high resolution definition of key deposit scale geological units, faults, alteration, and ore bodies. Then the GroundTruth Probe is employed. It is a remotely controlled tracked platform with a hydraulically oper- ated bedrock interface sampler mounted on a tilting mast; with less than 1.0 psi ground pressure it is extremely versatile and has a low impact in the field. Over the last couple of years the Groundtruth Probe has been improved and can now sample 40-55, 3-inch diameter holes per day on 5-metre spacings at a depth of 6 feet. Compare this to traditional mini excavator trenching and we now triple to quadruple the daily distance with samples collected on the spot and processed with an XRF (in real time data.) The big savings is there is no reclamation costs. Finally the RAB drill (Rotary Air Blast) is utilized. It is a remotely controlled tracked platform, also with less than 1.0 psi ground pressure, with an onboard air compressor, tilting mast and rotary drill head. It can drill 40-60 metres per day. Clients either drill four 15-metre holes or two 25-30 metres holes per day. Once the anomalous structure is confirmed to depth (15-30 metres) GroundTruth can deploy the larger compressor using the same RAB mobile platform and drill down to depths of 80-100 metres. Both the probe and the RAB drill are capable of operating on steep slopes. Ryan says that the majors have been looking at GroundTruth's methods as the equipment is extremely portable and would be useful in places like Turkey, Mexico and Africa where locals can be trained to run it. The GroundTruth team is currently working on developing training modules for just such a purpose. n GroundTruth exploration equipment easy on the budget and the environment by Kathrine Moore Tao Henderson, Vice President GroundTruth with the RAB (Rotary Air Blast) drill at the GroundTruth compound, Dawson City, Yukon.

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