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Geosciences

Extending our outer limits: Canada’s 2019 Arctic Ocean continental shelf submission to the United Nations

The Arctic Ocean is a vast, cold, isolated and utterly fascinating part of the northern hemisphere. Beneath its surface, thousands of metres below, is an extension of our country known as the continental shelf. And now, based on massive amounts of geoscientific data measuring the seafloor, an additional 1.2 million square kilometres could be added to Canada’s land area of 9.98 million km2.

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Living fossils meet modern technology

The world’s oceans in their great vastness support an incredible diversity of aquatic species. But how much do we really know about life beneath the surface? For instance, in the deep waters off the coasts of B.C. and Alaska, a truly unique community of organisms combines to form glass sponge reefs that were once thought to be extinct — a discovery so unexpected that scientists often compare it to finding a herd of dinosaurs still roaming the earth.

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Discovering Glass Sponge Reefs (Ask NRCan)

In the 1980s, scientist Kim Conway was part of an expedition to map the continental shelf in the Pacific Ocean. During this mission, he made a fascinating and unexpected discovery – unique reefs that were long thought to be extinct. Kim explains the significance of this discovery and what it means for science.

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Mining value from waste: a potential game changer

Historically, much of the waste from mining activities has posed long-term liability issues with little or no economic value. But what if mining companies could recover the metals, like gold, and then sell them? The answer, these days, is obvious: they could reduce their environmental impact and, at the same time, contribute to a green economy.

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Mining Value from Waste (Byte-Sized Science)

Terry Cheng, hydrometallurgist and research scientist at CanmetMINING is reprocessing mining wastes as resources — particularly gold tailings. He is examining options to reprocess and repurpose mine wastes to reduce environment impacts and recover valuable byproducts such as critical and strategic metals (e.g. gold, about two grams per tonne).

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