How do you choose who makes your investor maps, deck and website?
Choose by how often you publish, who can read your data, how your Qualified Person fits into the work, and what it costs to keep everything current. On those tests, an in-house geologist, map software, an IR firm, a website agency and a specialist studio each suit a different company. Exploration Sites Corp., Victoria, British Columbia, is the last of these, so read this guide with that in mind.
We are one of these options
We sell the specialist studio route, so we have an interest in how you decide. This guide states its criteria so you can apply them yourself. It ranks no one and names no other firm, and we have not tested other providers’ work for it. Many companies use more than one of these options at once.
Six criteria
Volume comes first. Count the maps, deck updates and website changes you expect in the next twelve months, because a company with two releases a year and one drilling every month are buying different things.
Next, ask who can read the data. Whoever draws a section should understand collars, downhole surveys, assay intervals and the difference between core length and true width. Ask to see a section they drew and have them explain it.
Third, ask how your QP fits in. CSA Staff Notice 43-309 treats website content as written disclosure and says QP review has improved compliance. A 2026 MLT Aikins article recommends QP review followed by a final legal or compliance check. Any provider should build that step into its schedule, with time for corrections.
Fourth is consistency. Check whether the maps, deck, fact sheet and website will share one base map, one set of symbols and one set of numbers, and who catches a change that has to run through all of them.
Fifth is full cost: the fee, plus your staff’s hours, plus hosting and updates over a year. Sixth is what you keep. Ask who holds the working files, what happens to confidential results before release, and how you would move the work elsewhere.
In-house geologist
This suits a company with a few releases a year and a geologist who has spare time. The data is already in their GIS, the interpretation is theirs and the cost is low. The price is time taken from the program, and figures tend to drift from one release to the next without a template. A deck or website usually needs someone else.
Map software
Software suits simple plan maps when someone on the team will learn the tool and keep using it. Test it on your own data before you commit: try a real plan map, a section and an export at the size your news release uses. Check what happens to your data and files if you stop paying. The software gives you a tool, and the judgement about what the map should say stays with your team.
IR firm
An IR firm suits a company that needs help with investor messaging, outreach and calendar, and design may come with it. Ask who does the geological drawing, since many restyle figures made elsewhere. Ask also who checks that a restyled figure still matches what your QP approved. If the firm also handles outreach, have counsel look at that work separately from the design.
Website agency
A general agency suits a company whose main need is a well-built site, with maps and technical content supplied from elsewhere. Ask whether it has built for a reporting issuer before, and how it handles dated news, filings, fact sheets and an archive. National Policy 51-201 tells companies to date material information on a website and move outdated information to an archive. Then confirm who can publish a results page the morning of a release, and what that costs.
Specialist studio
A studio suits a company that publishes often or wants maps, deck and site drawn to one standard. The trade-offs are that you pay more than an in-house export, and you still have to supply clean data and QP time. Test any studio on the criteria above, including this one.
Our published prices, before tax: maps from $1,200 in 3–7 business days; decks from $5,000 in 4–6 weeks; websites from $12,000 on WordPress and $18,000 on Webflow, in 6 weeks. Hosting is $200 a month and excludes content updates, which are $100 per half hour. For active drillers, the News-Release Map Program is $3,000 a month for up to 4 maps or $5,000 for up to 8. The Explorer Desk retainer is $1,900 a month for 10 hours.
What stays with you
Whichever route you choose, the company remains responsible for its disclosure. As the notice puts it, the issuer is responsible for its own disclosure and must ensure the technical information is consistent with what the QP provided. Exploration Sites is not a Qualified Person. Your QP reviews and approves the technical content we draw. We do not prepare NI 43-101 reports and we do not solicit investors. A replacement for NI 43-101 has been proposed and is not final, so ask any provider how it will keep up with the rules as they change.
Comparing options?
Tell us your release schedule and we’ll say whether we fit.