Course Overview
Provides an introduction to geology and mineral deposits as it applies to prospecting and mineral exploration. The course will provide an overview of basic geology including plate tectonics, minerals, rocks, structural geology, geological time and the geology of British Columbia. It will also discuss the formation and characteristics of common mineral deposits that host base and precious metals and other economic commodities. Students may choose to take the course in an online or a face-to-face format. Laboratory exercises and a field trip are included in the face-to-face offering.
Prerequisite(s)
- No prerequisites are required for this course.
Credits
2.0
- Not offered this term
- This course is not offered this term. Notify me to receive email notifications when the course opens for registration next term.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Recall the significance of the minerals industry to British Columbia, Canada and modern society in general.
- Explain the principle of plate tectonics and the major types of plate boundaries.
- List the physical properties that can be used to identify minerals in the field.
- Identify common rock-forming and economic minerals in hand-specimen.
- Discuss the formation of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks.
- Identify common igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks in hand-specimen.
- Describe common geological contacts.
- Discriminate between absolute and relative geological time.
- Sort out the order of geological events (relative geological time) using cross-sections that display common geological scenarios.
- Describe the different types of faults and their relevance to mineral deposits.
- Recall the main geological divisions of British Columbia and their characteristics.
- Outline the formation of common mineral deposit types including hydrothermal, magmatic and sedimentary.
- Illustrate typical mineral deposit forms such as veins, breccia, disseminated, massive sulphide, stratabound, etc.
- Describe the characteristics of common mineral deposit models such as porphyry copper, volcanic massive sulphide, mesothermal and epithermal gold, skarn, diamonds, uranium and platinum-group elements.
- Recall the characteristics of mineralized rock samples from different deposit types.
Effective as of Winter 2006
Programs and courses are subject to change without notice. Find out more about BCIT course cancellations.