This is truly a "pie in the Sky" operation. There appears to be no end to how we foolishly use our tax dollars. What ever happened to the old prospector that got a grub stake from a corporation and actuly developed our mining industry.

Cheers

airborn gravity???

Bridge
The faster the corporations can find, rape and pilage all the available resources in our province without employing real people/prospectors, the higher their profits will be and the sooner everything will be gone. Leaving nothing in the ground for future generations.

Isn't technology great.
It puts people out of work for the benefit of the rich.

Thanks lostfaith you said it all.

Cheers

lostfaith,

Technology doesn't put people out of work for the benefit of the rich.

Technology puts people out of work by sheer virtue of being able to do the job faster, less expensive and with greater accuracy than people can do it.

The entire purpose of technology is to do things for us, of course this will eliminate jobs.

Much of what we still do today could be done (overall) better by machines than people.

Take doctors for instance. When you see a doctor, most of the time they'll send you away with antibiotics or drugs with vague instructions on getting lots of rest, without so much as taking a blood test or a swab to you.

A well programmed computer could actually listen to you, take samples/tests, and drill through thousands of conditions to come up with an accurate diagnoses in a fraction of the time, for a fraction of the cost. It wouldn't be as good as a truly excellent doctor, but most doctors are far from excellent, and often hover below average.

Teaching could also be done through computers better than an actual instructor sometime. People are getting degrees online now, much of their test material is canned, just like taking correspondance. Right now, the quality of education isn't as good as it would be under an excellent teacher, but it's far better than the quality of education you will receive by the average uncaring teacher or professor.

These two examples could not directly replace doctors and teachers, but they would drastically eliminate the number of them required, just like computers have greatly reduced the need for as many secretaries and librarians from just 20 years ago. In another 30 years, I have my doubts we will have books other than for luddites and nostalgics. Think of the jobs which will be lost in paper, pulp, printing presses, distribution, book stores, etc...

Technology is eliminating jobs associated with video stores, music stores, manufacturing, film photography, secretaries, answering services, paging services, couriers, etc... etc...

You don't see as many chimney sweeps, long distance runners being used as couriers, vacuum tube testers or farriers as you used to.

Technology benefits everyone, not just the rich.

Technology is helping in this case.. A majority of the basins in the interior are covered in 20-200 meters of glacial overburden thus making conventional prospecting usless in identifying exploration targets. Even if the survey turns up nothing it will still have payed for itself because exploration dollars wont be wasted on prospecting dead ground. That money then can be focused on getting a known deposit into production. The majority of prospecting in all conventions is a process of elimination.You eliminate your dead targets then you concentrate on your pay dirt.