What is a map progression and why does an exploration company need one?
A map progression is a short sequence of maps that takes a reader from country to district to property to target, each closer than the last. An exploration company needs one because most readers don’t know where its project is, and an intercept means little until they do. Exploration Sites Corp., Victoria, British Columbia, builds progressions from each company’s own data.
The problem it solves
A drill plan assumes the reader already knows the project. Someone seeing it cold has no idea where the property is, what surrounds it or how large a 500-metre trend is against the ground the company holds. A progression answers four questions in order: where is it, what is around it, what does the company hold, and what is being tested? Each map carries one question.
The four figures below were drawn for New Found Gold’s Queensway project. We have put them in order of scale for this guide. Their scale bars run from 100 km to 100 m.
Country: where is it?
The first map locates the project in a place the reader can picture, and it should be the simplest in the set. Use the country or province, a few towns, the main road and a small inset globe or continent if the jurisdiction is unfamiliar. Geology can wait. This map answers jurisdiction and access, and a generalist should take it in at a glance.
District: what is around it?
The district map sets the project in its belt or trend, with the structures, mines and infrastructure that explain why anyone is exploring there. It is also where neighbours appear, so it needs the most care. In Canada, the NI 43-101 companion policy says an issuer disclosing adjacent-property information should clearly separate it from information on its own property and not state or imply it will get similar results.
Draw that separation on the map: different ownership colours, clearly named neighbours and a cautionary note. Your QP and counsel should see this figure. The rules may tighten. The CSA’s June 2025 proposal would stop an issuer focusing on neighbouring mineralization and require cautionary statements. On November 6, 2026, the BCSC’s listing still showed it as proposed, and it is not current law.
Property: what does the company hold?
The property map shows claim boundaries, the main geology or structures, known zones and access. Label ground by its real status, because earned interests, options and applications are different things. A two-panel layout can do the district and property steps at once, as Figure 2 does.
Target: what is being tested?
The last step is where the program lives: a target map or drill plan showing why the next hole goes where it does, then the results. Once the reader has the earlier maps, a 100-metre scale bar has meaning. This is usually the map that changes with each release, while the earlier steps change only when claims or ownership do.
Connect the maps
A set of good maps can still fail as a progression if nothing links one to the next. Put a box on each map showing the extent of the next one, as Figures 2 and 3 do. Keep the same symbols, colours and label style throughout, and keep at least one feature visible across a step, such as a fault or a highway. Four or five maps usually cover it. Geology, geochemistry and geophysics maps can sit at the property step when they explain why a target exists.
What the rules ask for
Technical reports already follow this logic. Form 43-101F1 requires a location or index map, a compilation map of the property’s general geology and more detailed maps of the important features. Each map must be dated and carry a legend, an author or information source, a bar or grid scale and a north arrow. If adjacent or nearby properties bear importantly on the subject property’s potential, they must be shown in relation to it. Those requirements bind technical reports, though they make a sensible checklist for a deck as well.
Who draws it and who approves it
One set can serve the deck, the website, a fact sheet and news releases, so build it once and update the parts that change. Exploration Sites Corp. draws locator, property and target, geoscience and drilling maps from $1,200 each, typically in 3–7 business days. Companies drilling steadily can feed the target step through the News-Release Map Program: Cadence covers up to 4 maps a month and Active Drill up to 8, each delivered within two business days of clean, complete data, for up to two maps per request.
The company is not a Qualified Person. Your QP reviews and approves the technical content of every map before release, and we do not prepare NI 43-101 reports. Nothing here is investment advice, and numbers in client figures are as each company reported them.
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