Vancouver’s nuclear physics laboratory is harnessing cosmic rays for a new technology that could save the mining industry millions of dollars.
Douglas Bryman, a particle physicist at the University of British Columbia, is spearheading research into muon geotomography, which detects cosmic rays that penetrate deep into the earth.
Cosmic ray muons, Bryman said, are elementary particles that are 200 times heavier than your everyday electron.
It might sound like science fiction, but because muons travel in straight lines and are absorbed by matter, they can be used to take images of the treasures that lie hidden beneath the earth’s surface.
Bryman, who works out of TRIUMF, Canada’s national laboratory for nuclear and particle physics, said the technology is similar to medical imaging for the human body.
“By placing muon sensors beneath the earth, we can measure the flux of those muons … and create an image that’s similar to a CT scan of the density distribution in the earth,” Bryman explained.
In other words, the sensors use the earth’s density to take three-dimensional pictures of dense ore deposits.
These days, mining companies use various technologies to find ore bodies, but largely rely on drilling techniques to map them out.
Those techniques can be largely guesswork for explorers, who aren’t always sure where to place drills because they don’t know how deep or large an ore body is.
The process can cost millions of dollars and take months, if not years.
“What we hope to be able to do is reduce, drastically, the amount of drilling necessary to localize a deposit of value by making a density image of the region of the earth that’s been identified as interesting, and allow them to know where to put their drills,” Bryman said.
Although the technology has yet to be proven, a test run was recently completed at Breakwater Resources’ (TSX:BWR) Myra Falls mine on Vancouver Island.
Breakwater geologist Rick Sawyer said the technology was perfect for Myra Falls because the mine is surrounded by rough terrain that makes traditional exploration methods difficult.
Myra Falls is also in the middle of a provincial park, meaning the company has to limit ground disturbance when exploring.
“The technique really fits the bill for us,” Sawyer said. “It narrows down the volume [of area] we have to look into.”
He added that the technology has an easier time detecting deposits with low magnetism such as zinc because it takes images based on density rather than magnetic value.
In March, the project secured $1.8 million in Western Economic Diversification funding, which will help Bryman and his colleagues move it toward commercialization.
Jack Scott, president and CEO of Advanced Applied Physics Solutions, TRIUMF’s commercialization partner, said the project isn’t ready for the market yet, but he hopes to have it conducting surveys for mining companies by late 2012.
Said Scott: “It’s another tool in the tool kit … it can save time and money.”