MAP NEWS

Roundup - Vancouver

For the fourth year in a row, MAP will present posters at the Cordilleran Roundup in Vancouver to an expected audience of over 2000 geoscientists, academics, students, prospectors, exploration managers, financial analysts and investors from the combined geological community of mining, exploration, and supply companies, as well as universities, local and federal governments. This year's theme of ÒVancouver: Gateway to DiscoveriesÓ will be addressed over 4 days of technical meetings and social events, January 23-26, 2001. Activities by the Geological Survey of Canada and British Columbia Geological Survey will be featured the first day, and MAP posters will be displayed all four days. The second day reviews Trends in Mineral Exploration, while Platinum-Palladium discoveries and exploration strategies highlight the third day. The final day is devoted to mines and exploration geology in Peru. Afternoon breakaway sessions include topics on Land Issues and Mineral Investment in British Columbia, Exploration Guides for SEDEX deposits, Recent Advances in VMS Exploration, and Predicting Future Trends in Metal Demand and Prices. As usual, there will also be many smaller presentations, poster sessions, and core shack displays.

The Multinational Andean Project has four major presentations slated for Cordilleran Roundup display: Mike Ellerbeck is revising the general MAP poster to show a review of MAP history and accomplishments over the past five years. Dr. Mark Stasiuk is planning a poster and demonstration of the MAP geological database, which now includes sample location information and geochemical data for thousands of samples from MAP participant countries. The latest version of the MAP Metallogenic Map of the Border Region of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru, South America, at a scale of 1:1 000 000, will be presented by mr. Rob Cocking of the MAP Cartographic Committee.

As well, there will be an updated version of the MAP Standard Geochemical Reference Material Project poster, authored by Dr. Jennifer Getsinger and Dr. Catherine Hickson. Now that we have received standardised geochemical results and homogenised rock powder in 60 g bottles from three of four participant countries, the MAP standard sample program can be considered a success. Over 100 bottles of each sample -- CHA-2 andesite from Chile; BAMAP01 basalt from Argentina; and PER-1 rhyolite from Peru -- are to be sent to every country along with reports of results both in digital and paper format. Two more possible sample standards are expected to be sent to Vancouver, a mafic andesite from Chile and a dacite from Bolivia, to complete the project.

In alternate past years (1998, 2000), MAP Executive Council has met in conjunction with the Cordilleran Roundup in Vancouver, but in 1997, 1999, and next in 2001, the MAP Executive Council will meet in early March in conjunction with the Prospectors and Developers Association Convention in Toronto.

Executive Council Meeting (Activity: PM.00/M-6)

In preparation for the next Executive Council meeting to be held in Toronto during the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) March 11 through 14, 2001, members are urged to forward agenda topics and names of attendees to MAP Administrator, Mr. Mike Ellerbeck (email: [email protected]) to arrange hotel accommodations and prepare agenda items.

MAPdb Ready to Go

New Beta Version Release

Along with the metallogenic map, the MAP sample database will be one of the prime products of the project, and it has now reached the final stages of development. Although still at a beta (test) level, itÕs expected that further changes will be minor, apart from the addition of significant geochemical and sample data. We are currently on schedule for completion of development and input of data by March 2001. Prospective users should think of MAPdb as far more than just a tidy way to store geological data. It can and should be used as a tool for geological research, and in fact has been designed for that purpose.

New Data Added

Since the initial distribution of MAPdb v1.0 (beta) in August 2000, we received significant feedback from the participating countries and we are very grateful for all comments. This critical review process triggered a number of major changes in the database, and it is now far easier to use and much more flexible. With the publication of this newsletter we are also releasing the second test version, MAPdb v1.1(beta) for final testing by the participating countries. All who receive the new version are urged to try using it and provide final comments by 19th January 2001, but do not yet add any new data as it will not be included in the final version. The final working version, ready for data entry, will be MAPdb v1.0 (release) and will be distributed to the participating countries in March 2001. The latest version of the database contains no new sample data over that of the first release in August. However, it does contain two new sets of data which users should find useful for reference. These are the basic data on all young volcanic centers on the Eastern Pacific margin, imported directly from the Smithsonian InstitutionÕs Global Volcanism Program database. This consists of the data for the four participating countries plus Mexico, the U.S.A. and Canada. These can be found by browsing the data for the ÒSmithsonian volcanoesÓ project. Second, a core subset of the data on all the economic deposits of the participating countries, as provided by them to Mr. Robert Cocking for plotting on the metallogenic map. This data includes the deposit name, type, location, age, map unit, grade and tonnage, and can be found by browsing for the project ÒMAP: economic depositsÓ.

New Features

Amongst the numerous changes in the latest version of the database, the most significant is the creation of a map viewer and plotter. This facility allows users to browse maps at a range of scales, and a basic set of relevant maps have been included. These are from the draft version of the metallogenic map (and will be replaced by the final version of the map for the March 2001 release) and a number of shaded relief maps of South, Central and North America. Any data in the database with latitude and longitude coordinates can be plotted on the maps using the map plotter. For example, in figure B, station MAP410 is shown plotted at two different scales. Finally, all the maps are ÒactiveÓ. This means that by clicking on them the user can choose an area to search for results in the database, providing a highly intuitive method of searching and browsing data. For example, itÕs now easy to plot the location of epithermal deposits and use the maps to search for sample data along tectonic structural elements in common with the deposits. Also added for this version are: a new, highly flexible navigational method allowing the user to browse data with complete flexibility; bilingual (Spanish/English) pull-down menus; extensive lists of descriptive terms and lithologies for guiding inexperienced users and aiding searches; a Òcolor selectorÓ including more than 300 colors and codes from the Munsell charts; a section for setting of preferences to control the performance of the database; a section allowing users to construct a stratigraphic column at an observation location (station). Translations of the database and creation of bilingual help documents are in progress. Most of the database layouts are bilingual as of this release, and a brief set of help documents have been included (along with a short tutorial). More extensive documentation is currently being written and the latest versions are being uploaded to the MAP website every few days, at the URL: http://gsc.pma-map.com/db/dbhelp/dbhelphome.html Users should note that this section of the MAP website has restricted access, requiring a username and password which for this purpose are currently set as username = PMA and password = PMA. For those who are not part of the database review process, the web site gives a good overview of MAPdb, including screen-captured images, so you can become familiar with itÕs capabilities. Finally we request again that participating countries send any data that they wish to be input for the final version to Dr. Mark Stasiuk ([email protected]).