MERC Annual Report 2023-2024
This document is the Annual Report for the Mineral Exploration Research Centre (MERC) at Laurentian University, highlighting its research activities, achievements, and contributions to geoscience, particulatly throught the Metal Earth project.
A Message from Ross Sherlock, MERC and Metal EArth Director
I’m pleased to present this Annual Report, a summary of our 2023-24 Mineral Exploration Research Centre (MERC) and Metal Earth research activities.
Our Annual Report highlights the results and progress of researchers, students, faculty, and staff at Laurentian University and our partners located across Canada and around the world. Our research partnerships benefit from support and collaboration with government agencies, industry, geological surveys, other universities, and research institutes.
This report includes public data releases, peer-reviewed publications, and discoveries made during and after the end of the official reporting period (March 31, 2024). Every year, MERC and its collaborators continue to:
• deliver scientific breakthroughs
• publish high-impact open-access journal articles
• create and strengthen partnerships with industry, government, and academic institutions
• prepare public data releases
• organize global events
• host international collaborations.
Canada’s Metal Earth project, the largest university-led geoscience project in the world, is in its ninth year. Since inception the project has collected, processed, and released massive amounts of data across over a dozen transects. This publicly available data and research-backed interpretation advance Canadian mineral exploration and investment opportunities. They also provide geological insights and proven techniques that may be applied in other parts of the world. Laurentian leads Metal Earth with research groups at partner Universities. The project’s primary funding comes from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund.
As Metal Earth nears completion, we look forward to sharing our collective research results and celebrating the milestones achieved on scientific, academic, and personal levels. This project and its people have advanced our understanding of the fundamental processes that result in differential metal endowment, improving mineral exploration targeting and success.
As industry and government look to further invest in exploration to meet global demand, MERC focuses on developing partnerships, projects, and research that advances geoscience. It’s inspiring work, and I am pleased to share it with you as we look forward to 2025.
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Additional Info
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| Last Updated | March 25, 2026, 02:06 (UTC) |
| Created | March 25, 2026, 02:06 (UTC) |
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Domain / Topic
Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
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Title
Title for the Dataset.
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MERC Annual Report 2023-2024 |
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Description
A description of the dataset.
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This document is the Annual Report for the Mineral Exploration Research Centre (MERC) at Laurentian University, highlighting its research activities, achievements, and contributions to geoscience, particulatly throught the Metal Earth project. A Message from Ross Sherlock, MERC and Metal EArth Director I’m pleased to present this Annual Report, a summary of our 2023-24 Mineral Exploration Research Centre (MERC) and Metal Earth research activities. Our Annual Report highlights the results and progress of researchers, students, faculty, and staff at Laurentian University and our partners located across Canada and around the world. Our research partnerships benefit from support and collaboration with government agencies, industry, geological surveys, other universities, and research institutes. This report includes public data releases, peer-reviewed publications, and discoveries made during and after the end of the official reporting period (March 31, 2024). Every year, MERC and its collaborators continue to: Canada’s Metal Earth project, the largest university-led geoscience project in the world, is in its ninth year. Since inception the project has collected, processed, and released massive amounts of data across over a dozen transects. This publicly available data and research-backed interpretation advance Canadian mineral exploration and investment opportunities. They also provide geological insights and proven techniques that may be applied in other parts of the world. Laurentian leads Metal Earth with research groups at partner Universities. The project’s primary funding comes from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund. As Metal Earth nears completion, we look forward to sharing our collective research results and celebrating the milestones achieved on scientific, academic, and personal levels. This project and its people have advanced our understanding of the fundamental processes that result in differential metal endowment, improving mineral exploration targeting and success. As industry and government look to further invest in exploration to meet global demand, MERC focuses on developing partnerships, projects, and research that advances geoscience. It’s inspiring work, and I am pleased to share it with you as we look forward to 2025. |
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Dataset Size
Dataset size in megabytes.
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13288.35 |
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Metadata Identifier
Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
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Published Date
Published date of the dataset.
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2025-06-27 |
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Time Period Data Span (start date)
Start date of the data in the dataset.
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Time Period Data Span (end date)
End date of time data in the dataset.
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GeoSpatial Area Data Span
A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.
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Access category
Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
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public |
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License
License used to access the dataset.
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License not specified |
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Limits on use
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Location
Location of the dataset.
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https://metalearth.geohub.laurentian.ca/datasets/6268f6b471054be78a4594ce19613267 |
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Data Service
Data service for accessing a dataset.
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Owner
Owner of the dataset.
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MetalEarth |
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Who to contact regarding access?
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The email to contact regarding access?
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Publisher
Publisher of the dataset.
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Publisher Email
Email of the publisher.
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Author
Author of the dataset.
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MetalEarth |
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Author Email
Email of the author.
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Accessed At
Date the data and metadata was accessed.
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2025-06-27 |
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Identifier
Unique identifier for the dataset.
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6268f6b471054be78a4594ce19613267 |
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Language
Language(s) of the dataset
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English |
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Link to dataset description
A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
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https://metalearth.geohub.laurentian.ca/datasets/6268f6b471054be78a4594ce19613267 |
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Persistent Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
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Globally Unique Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
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Contains data about individuals
Does the data hold data about individuals?
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Contains data about identifiable individuals
Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
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Contains Indigenous Data
Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
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Platform type of the source portal.
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Version
Version of the datatset
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None |
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Source
Source of the dataset.
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None |
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Is version of another dataset
Link to dataset that it is a version of.
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Other versions
Link to datasets that are versions of it.
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Provenance Text
Provenance Text of the data.
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Provenance URL
Provenance URL of the data.
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Temporal resolution
Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
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GeoSpatial resolution in meters
Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
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GeoSpatial resolution (in regions)
Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.
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Indigenous Community Permission
Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
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Community Permission
Community permission (who gave permission).
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The Indigenous communities the dataset is about
Indigenous communities from which data is derived.
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Number of data rows
If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
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Number of data columns
If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
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Number of data cells
If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
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Number of data relations
If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
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Number of entities
If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
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Number of data properties
If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
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Data quality
Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
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Metric for data quality
A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.
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