Five years have passed since Geoscience BC was setup to compile geological data and help drive B.C.’s mining industry, but a lack of funding means the non-profit might not be around for much longer
Mission: To extend the life of Geoscience BC
Assets: Decades of experience bridging gaps between government and the natural resource industry
Yield: A non-profit organization that has attracted new interest to B.C.’s mining sector
By Joel McKay
Early in her career, ’Lyn Anglin found herself in a tent on Bathurst Island in the Canadian arctic.
Inside that tent was another geologist, a collection of scientific tools and a shotgun in case the polar bears decided to cause a ruckus.
The job?
To identify what if any mineral resources the desolate island might hold that could one day prove valuable for a mining company and ultimately the Canadian economy.
“Right from the beginning, I found the whole idea of taking metals out of the ground and making them into things we use every day really interesting,” Anglin, 51, explained. “And I really liked the idea of working outdoors and, essentially, hiking, camping and hammering rocks and getting paid for it.”
That, in a nutshell, is ’Lyn Anglin, but you’re not likely to find her in the field these days.
Instead, she can be found in a downtown Vancouver office tower where she spends her days convincing government and industry that geology is the backbone of the mining sector.
Anglin is president and CEO of Geoscience BC, a non-profit society mandated to collect and market geoscience data to promote investment in B.C.’s mining and oil and gas industries.
The provincial government created Geoscience BC in 2005 with an initial capital injection of $25 million.
Anglin has been the society’s only permanent president and CEO, and she might also be its last.
In a recent interview with Business in Vancouver, Anglin revealed that Geoscience BC is not a self-sufficient organization, and without another multimillion-dollar capital injection it will cease to exist.
In fact, because of the organization’s long-term planning horizon it needs to know if it’s going to get more money by next spring.
“If there’s no additional funding we’re preparing to have everything finished, written up and make sure the information is publicly available by March of 2012,” Anglin said.
So what is geoscience and why is it important?
Those are the questions Anglin has to answer if she hopes to get any more money.
In short, Anglin and her team of half -a-dozen scientists collect soil, water and rock samples along with geologic information from mining companies and compile it into data sets.
The data sets become maps that can help mining and exploration companies find the next big copper, gold or silver resource that could one day become a mine that drives millions of dollars of economic activity.
John Thompson, vice-president of technology and development at Teck Resources Ltd. (TSX:TCK.A/TCK.B) and chairman of Geoscience BC, said the economic benefits that stem from geoscience data are hard to track.
“But I think we have pretty good evidence that programs Geoscience BC has delivered on have resulted in increasing staking [and] exploration activity,” Thompson said.
In May, Vancouver-based Imperial Metals Corp. (TSX:III) said it had used Geoscience BC data to identify new drill targets to increase the copper resource at its Huckleberry mine in northern B.C.
One of the drill holes Imperial reported was the “longest intersection of continuous mineralization reported from Huckleberry” since exploration began there 47 years ago.
Last month, BCGold Corp. (TSX-V:BCG) said it recognized “prime” copper-gold exploration targets in the southern interior after it reviewed Geoscience BC data.
Despite the bright spots, Anglin said it’s extremely difficult to measure the economic activity Geoscience BC generates because it only tracks new staking activity, and many exploration companies that react to the data have already staked their land.
But Thompson believes Anglin is the best person to promote Geoscience BC’s story and secure new funding.
“The thing that’s really impressed me about ’Lyn is that she’s managed to reach out to so many people, she has a style which is very approachable … and she’s won people over,” he said.
That ability to work with people stems from a career spent balancing the interests of government and industry.
The Ontario-native began her career as a geologist in 1980 when she landed a summer research position with the Geological Survey of Canada.
After she graduated from university, it led to a full-time gig that allowed her to study a well-known gold deposit in northern Ontario and get her master’s degree at the same time.
After that, she went to work for Revenue Canada as a science adviser in Atlantic Canada.
The job allowed her to visit cutting-edge companies that were using new scientific methods to advance their business.
As a representative of the government, she would recommend whether the business should qualify for government funding.
“I told my friends it was like getting an issue of Popular Mechanics every day crossing my desk,” Anglin said.
Eventually, she moved back to the Geological Survey and undertook fieldwork in the Arctic.
In 2001, she came to Vancouver and became the Geological Survey’s acting director, Pacific division.
That job introduced her to the Lower Mainland’s robust mining community and eventually led her to Geoscience BC.
“If I had to write a job description for myself this would be pretty close to what I would say is the ideal circumstance for me,” she said.
Although long-term funding to keep the organization alive has yet to be confirmed, Geoscience BC has recently expanded its reach.
A few weeks ago in Fort St. John, Anglin and Energy Minister Bill Bennett announced a $950,000 project that would see Geoscience BC create a comprehensive map of water resources in northeast B.C.’s Montney shale gas basin.
The data could provide gas producers with the information they need to find new water resources, a commodity essential to the process of fracturing shale to tap natural gas but one that has recently been in short supply.
Anglin hopes the project will prove that her organization not only helps mining in B.C. but also the province’s booming oil and gas sector.
“A whole lot of the work we do is not benefiting just an individual company … we’re really investing in the public good,” she said. “This is public expenditure that’s benefiting the province as much as it is benefiting any one exploration company. It’s really bring exploration dollars to the province.”