Drilling is a critical activity in mineral exploration. There are several types of drilling.
- Diamond drilling is the most common type of drilling conducted in Ontario. It produces cylindrical pieces of rock called core.
- Reverse circulation or rotary drilling produces chips ofrock.
- Overburden drilling is conducted to sample glacial deposits.
- Augur drilling is used to sample soils for geotechnical purposes.
Drilling locations are selected using the results from previous studies, such as:
- Prospecting
- Geological mapping
- Geophysical surveys
All drilling activities provide samples from below thesurface. This allows for the testing of the properties of the soil and rocks, including mineral and metal content.
All early exploration activities that require an exploration plan or permit must follow the Provincial Standards for Early Exploration. There are three parts to these
Provincial Standards:
1. Rules for carrying out exploration plan activities.
2. Rules for carrying out exploration permit activities.
3. Rules for rehabilitation of exploration plan and exploration permit activities
During drilling programs, we also follow both an exploration plan and an exploration permit in our drilling activities.