What is mining cartography for investors?

What the work involves

An investor map has to be technically right and readable in seconds, often on a phone, by someone who has never heard of the project. The work starts with a question the reader has: where is this, who holds the ground around it, what did the last hole hit? From there the cartographer chooses a scale, removes what doesn’t help answer that question, sets what the eye reaches first, and adds one reference a stranger recognizes, such as a town, a highway or a known mine.

How it differs from GIS output

A GIS is where the data lives: collars, claims, geophysics and geology, all in the right coordinates. An export from it shows those layers much as they are held, which suits a geologist who already knows the project. Cartography picks up where the export stops. Layers come off, labels get rewritten in plain words, colours get a hierarchy, and the same symbols carry from one figure to the next. The data and the interpretation stay as the geologist left them, and we work from that GIS and drillhole data instead of rebuilding it.

How it differs from software

Desktop GIS and browser-based map tools put the drawing in your own hands. They suit a simple plan map when someone on the team knows the tool and has the time. Cartography as a service moves that time and judgement to someone else: you send data and receive a finished figure. It tends to matter most for sections and long sections, for maps that have to explain a district to a generalist, and for a set of figures that must stay consistent over years of releases.

What the rules ask of a map

Canada’s most specific map rules apply to technical reports. Form 43-101F1 requires legible maps at a suitable scale, each dated and carrying a legend, an author or information source, a bar or grid scale and a north arrow. Those details are good practice on any investor figure, even where the form doesn’t apply.

Decks and news releases sit under other parts of the rulebook. Under section 2.1 of NI 43-101, scientific or technical disclosure on a material property must be based on information prepared or supervised by a qualified person, or be approved by one. Regulators have also said figures can help: CSA Staff Notice 43-309 (2015) notes that representative drill sections or other figures may help a presentation give the required information.

These rules are under review. The Canadian Securities Administrators proposed replacing NI 43-101 and its form in June 2025. On November 6, 2026, the BCSC’s listing still showed that replacement as proposed, so this page cites the current instrument.

What the studio makes

Our map work falls into six categories.

Locators & Area Plays show where the project sits, with its belts, neighbours and infrastructure.
Property & Target maps show claims, drilling and the targets behind the program.
Geology, Geochem & Geophysics maps show why the targets sit where they do.
Drilling / Sections covers drill plans, cross-sections and long sections.
3D Isometric Models put terrain, drilling and orebody in one frame.
Schematics & Plans covers deposit models, simplified sections and site plans.

One-off maps start from $1,200 and typically take 3–7 business days. 3D isometric models start from $1,800. Companies drilling steadily can use the News-Release Map Program instead: Cadence is up to 4 maps a month for $3,000 and Active Drill up to 8 for $5,000, each delivered within two business days of clean, complete data, for up to two maps per request.

Where the studio’s role stops

Exploration Sites Corp. is a communications and design studio. Its geology- and GIS-trained mapmakers work alongside designers, so the people drawing a section can read it. The company is not a Qualified Person. Your QP reviews and approves the technical content of every figure before release, and we do not prepare NI 43-101 technical reports. Our maps are communication tools and they are not investment advice. Numbers shown in client figures are as each company reported them; see our disclosures.