Explore Newfoundland and Labrador

Newfoundland and Labrador is a highly attractive exploration destination and a globally competitive mining jurisdiction, with world-class deposits of iron, nickel-copper-cobalt and zinc-lead-copper, and highly prospective geology in Archean, Proterozoic and Paleozoic orogens.

We encourage investors seeking new mineral exploration and development opportunities to access the summaries below and follow additional links to learn more. Detailed information and services are provided by the Geological Survey of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Mineral Lands and Mineral Development divisions of the Mines Branch.

The links below lead to information about our mineral potential and investment opportunities, as well as the many ways in which we attempt to mitigate your mineral investment risks: our geoscience information, our land tenure system, our competitive industry assistance programs and other regulatory issues under the jurisdiction of the Mines Branch. These and other materials and resources (including technical reports and maps, an interactive resource atlas, databases, and real-time mineral tenure information) are available on-line and via ‘traditional’ over-the-counter services to the mining and mineral exploration industry.

Note: all links below are PDFs and will open in a new window.

Newfoundland and Labrador: A Hot Exploration Destination

NL in the News: Articles in Industry Publications

Detailed Maps: Geoscience data helps miners find their next projects (1 MB) – from Canadian Mining Journal: May 2015
From the East: Mineral Industry takes long-term approach (2 MB) – from Canadian Mining Journal: January 2015
The Island of Newfoundland: An emerging gold district on Canada’s east coast (2 MB) – from Canadian Mining Journal: January 2014
Newfoundland and Labrador: Posting Growth through the Gloom (2 MB) – from Engineering & Mining Journal: November, 2013
Labrador: An emerging Uranium district in Canada (157 KB) – from The Mining Journal – Uranium supplement: April 2012

Posters and Brochures

Commodity Poster Series
- Iron in Western Labrador (2020) (4.1 MB)
- Uranium: Central Mineral Belt, Labrador (2020) (2.5 MB)
- VMS in Newfoundland (2020) (1.6 MB)
- Gold in Newfoundland (2020) (1.9 MB)
Commodity Flyers Series
- Gold in Newfoundland (2020) (2.1 MB)
- Iron in Labrador (2020) (2.6 MB)
- VMS in Newfoundland (2020) (1.9 MB)
- Rare Metals in Newfoundland and Labrador (2020) (2.3 MB)
Commodity Brochures
- Gold (2007) (12.5 MB)
- Copper (2007) (4.2 MB)
- Nickel (2008) (7.3 MB)
- Zinc and Lead (2008) (6.4 MB)
- Uranium (2009) (9.6 MB)
- Rare Earth Elements (2011) (11 MB)
- Iron Ore (2012) (8.26 MB)
- Fluorite (2013) (1.3 MB)
- Barite (2014) (9.2 MB)

Investment Opportunities / Advanced Mineral Exploration Projects

The following PDF files provide information on companies with advanced mineral exploration projects in Newfoundland and Labrador. Project information sheets are normally provided only for advanced exploration projects with 43-101 compliant resource estimates. However, in the case of iron, some earlier stage exploration projects have been included due to recent strong interest in this commodity. The project information sheets are grouped by commodity and are listed alphabetically:

Base Metals (VMS)Opens in new window (1.1 MB)
GoldOpens in new window (1.4 MB)
IronOpens in new window (900 KB)
Rare MetalsOpens in new window (207 KB)
TungstenOpens in new window (157 KB)
Uranium, VanadiumOpens in new window (331 KB)

All the company news releases and reports that linked from the Project Information Sheets can be viewed here.

Please let us know of any errors or omissions. Although the Department cannot take responsibility for the accuracy of the data provided, we would like to keep these documents as accurate and up-to-date as possible.

If you have any comments or suggestions about this publication, please contact Carolina Valverde Cardenas at cvalverdecardenas@gov.nl.ca or 709 729 6651

Prospectors’ Properties

The Geological Survey’s Matty Mitchell Prospectors Resource Room produces online information on mineral properties that are available for option and maintains a commodity and property poster series. Information packages on individual properties are available here. Further data are available upon request from matty@gov.nl.ca

Asian Minerals Investment Attraction Initiatives

Information on Asian related mineral investment attraction activities is available here.

Online Tools

GeoScience OnLine

Our web portal to on-line data, including interactive maps of geology, geophysics, geochemistry, mineral occurrences, mineral land tenure and much more.

GeoScience OnLine

Search Our Industry Geodata Collection

Old data routinely yield new targets. We encourage you to visit our new GeoFiles to avail of information and ideas in more than 10,000 digital mineral-exploration assessment reports included in our larger repository of geoscience documents pertinent to the Province. These private sector Assessment Reports are submitted to the Department of Natural Resources as a requirement of the Minerals Act. Reports are kept confidential for a 3-year period or until the mineral rights are surrendered.

A second source of industry data is our collection of historic exploration files donated by companies to the Department. This collection includes non-confidential technical material informally known to current users as “p-files”. This material is currently housed at the Geological Survey, mainly in hard copy format.