Stream sediment sampling is a commonly practiced method in early-stage exploration. Aerochem is an airborne sampling system (patent pending) that reduces the helicopter overhead inherent with conventional sampling, particularly in difficult to reach areas such as rugged terrain or dense vegetation.
Although beneficial from cost-efficiency and safety perspectives over conventional hand stream sediment sampling, a key question is whether the data gathered by the airborne technique are equivalent to the conventional technique. A comparison test to assess whether sampling biases exist and are significant to the geochemical outcome was performed in August of 2015, in the Kluane area of Yukon. Three samples were collected from each of 68 sites, one using the Aerochem technique and two using conventional hand-sampling.
Digital appendices:
Appendix 1 - 1:35,000 scale maps; assay and results comparisons
Appendix 2 - Principal component analysis
Appendix 3 - Stream sediment assay results.xls
Appendix 4 - Certificates of analysis
Appendix 5 - Project log
Appendix 6 - Photos