Category Archives: Prospecting

Related to my mineral exploration years

Meares Island – Moist Misery

Posted on September 9, 2010 by Ed Medley

In the late summer of  1972 I started a job prospecting in the rain at Meares Island, British Columbia.  

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Dear Joan, Devil’s Club and Jello

Posted on July 13, 2010 by Ed Medley

“If I fall into that lot I’ll get badly hurt”, I warned myself, as I came to and looked down from the top of the cliff into the tangle of evil Devil’s Club lurking pointedly below.  

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radio, silence

Posted on July 12, 2010 by Ed Medley

A time there was, 40 years ago, when two-way radio was the only way to communicate in remote places.   Life in mineral and geotechnical exploration bush camps – fancy with wood floors/canned oysters for snacks/carpentered loos; or more commonly: … Continue reading →

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Snow Jobs

Posted on June 9, 2009 by Ed Medley

Halifax, Nova Scotia was enveloped in a blizzard when I disembarked from the M/S Lundefjell in February 1969. I had rarely seen, felt, played in or hated snow until I emigrated to Canada. They do good snow in Canada

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Ox Head and Other Tools

Posted on June 6, 2009 by Ed Medley

All professional folk have their favorite tools.  Nowadays the tools of choice seems to be notepad computers, GPS units, IPhones and Blackberry PDAs with Bluetooth flashing ear pieces.  I rather like my ancient cell phone. The cell is pain to … Continue reading →

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Red Faced, Ketchup Kid

Posted on October 19, 2008 by Ed Medley

It was early summer, 1969 and I was flying with our chopper pilot to our next project site in Ontario. Below, we spotted the rest of the crew in our huge International Harvester crew cab truck (adorned with its characteristic … Continue reading →

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Fun: Fish, Fowl, Float, Fire

Posted on September 1, 2008 by Ed Medley

1969: summer evenings at bush camps in northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba were long and lazy. And if the helicopter or geophysical instrumentation was acting up, the Scintrex geophysics crew I was a part of, played. There was little to do … Continue reading →

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Rowdy Repulse, with Raw Caribou and Randiness

Posted on August 1, 2008 by Ed Medley

It was summer, 1970 and I was a member of a Scintrex crew comissioned to fly a geophysical exploration survey in the North West Territories of Arctic Canada. We were based at tiny Repulse Bay, an Inuit hamlet on the … Continue reading →

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Out Stranded in the Field, With Fielding

Posted on June 19, 2008 by Ed Medley

In late 1970 I joined a European mining company prospecting in northern Ontario, leading a ground geophysical exploration crew of Quebecois men. These men rarely spoke English so I had to get by on schoolboy French. There were four or … Continue reading →

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Anomalies, Conductors and Half-Widths

Posted on June 6, 2008 by Ed Medley

In 1969 and 1970 I was a data man and occasional navigator of an airborne geophysics crew, working for Siegel Associates (Scintrex) in northern Canada. The aircraft were either Bell Jet Ranger 206B helicopters or a de Havilland Otter float/wheeled … Continue reading →

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