RESOURCE CONTEXT
Large high-purity Paleozoic carbonate along the Front Ranges; quarry tonnages unpublished
Front Ranges carbonate feeds western Canada's largest cement plant and the lime the oil sands depend on.
QUARRYIndustrial minerals
Exshaw cement plant & quarry
Lafarge Canada (Holcim) · 2.2 Mt/yr cement
Expanded from 1.3 Mt/yr in 2013–16; largest cement plant in western Canada.
GEOLOGICAL SETTING
Prospectivity envelopes for Limestone, dolomite, cement & lime
- Front Ranges carbonate belt (Exshaw–Cadomin)Producing / drill-provenHigh-purity Devonian–Mississippian carbonate (Palliser, Rundle) in thrust sheets
Development regime
- Tenure
- Metallic & Industrial Minerals Tenure Regulation (AR 265/2022): permit — exclusive exploration right, indefinite term, no rent, $625 fee, assessment work $7/ha (first 2 years) → $13 → $20/ha; lease — 15-year initial + 15-year intermediate term, indefinite while producing, $3.50/ha rent.
- Royalty
- $0.0441/t for limestone, shale, granite, sandstone, gypsum and building stone (AR 350/93 s.12).
DATASETS TO STACK HERE
Public layers that cover this site
- Bedrock geology of Alberta (Map 600 tiles)Alberta Geological SurveyWhich formation is at the bedrock surface: the first screen for outcropping targets such as silica sand, limestone, ironstone, bentonite, ammonite shell and shallow coal.
- Bedrock geology polygons (DIG 2013-0018, queryable)Alberta Geological SurveyAttribute-level bedrock mapping for screening host lithologies; heavy, so it loads only when zoomed in.
- Industrial mineral occurrences (DIG 2019-0027)Alberta Geological SurveyQuarry and industrial-mineral target inventory.
- AGS prospective areas for mineral explorationAlberta Geological SurveyThe survey's own view of where each commodity is prospective; compare with the Atlas knowledge-driven envelopes.
- NRCan Map 900A: producing mines, mineral areas, oil & gas fieldsNatural Resources CanadaOfficial federal view of producing operations to cross-check the Atlas mine inventory.
- Coal Development Policy (1976) categories 1–4Government of AlbertaCategory 1 = no exploration; Category 2 = no open pit. The decisive constraint for metallurgical coal.
- Metallic & industrial minerals agreementsAlberta Energy and MineralsLithium, salt, silica, limestone and metallic tenure; about 2 million ha are under lithium leases.
- Metallic, placer, quarriable & salt mine boundariesAlberta Energy and MineralsOfficial footprints of non-energy mines and brine fields.
NEARBY OPERATIONS
Within reach
- Exshaw lime plant & quarryQuarry · Graymont · ≈2 kmOperating
- Thunderstone Rundle rock quarry (Canmore)Quarry · Thunderstone Quarries · ≈11 kmOperating
- E3 Lithium — GarringtonLithium brine · E3 Lithium · ≈111 kmExploration
- Sultech / Canlin micronized sulphur plantCritical-minerals recovery · Sultech / Canlin Energy · ≈118 kmConstruction
- E3 Lithium — Clearwater (Bashaw District)Lithium brine · E3 Lithium · ≈120 kmPilot / demonstration
- Eavor-Lite closed-loop demo (Rocky Mountain House)Geothermal · Eavor Technologies · ≈143 kmClosed (recent)