This lithium ground- and formation-water geochemical dataset will enable present and future companies to better evaluate their targets and characterize their resource estimates by being able to distinguish between background and anomalous concentrations of lithium throughout Alberta.
The dataset comprises lithium geochemical data from ground and formation water in Alberta and near the Alberta border. The data were captured from several databases, including those from Alberta Geological Survey (oil and gas wells database, AERI and Beaver River Basin projects), and the Alberta Research Council. In total there are 1,511 records, of which 48 records have >75 mg/L Li. Nineteen analyses have >100 mg/L Li (up to 140 mg/L) and occur within the Middle to Upper Devonian Beaverhill Lake Formation and Woodbend and Winterburn groups of west-central to northwestern Alberta.
Economic concentrations of lithium are known to form in either lithium pegmatite or in high-lithium brine and clay. A few of the world's oil-field waters also have medium to high lithium content. During the mid-1990s, several government reports showed that lithium values of up to 140 mg/L Li occurred in west-central Alberta formation waters of the Beaverhill Lake and Woodbend groups; however, minimal data were publicly released.
These data are a measurement of lithium geochemical values in milligrams per litre. The data date back as far as 1977. Thus, the user should be aware that laboratory techniques, accuracy and precision have varied over time.
Non-detectable limit for Alberta Geological Survey oil and gas wells data is 0.01 mg/L. We consider all values of 0.01 or less as non-detectable.
Non-detectable limit for Alberta Research Council data is 0.1 mg/L. We consider all values of 0.1 or less as non-detectable.
This is a compilation of data from many sources and can contain multiple geochemical analyses (i.e., records) for each well. The sample depth is calculated from the kelly bushing in the Alberta Geological Survey oil and gas wells database (AGSWDB) and from ground surface for all other sources. The formation names are as shown from the original databases.
The entry "n/a" means data were not available. There are missing data in the original databases including unique well identifier, sample date, latitude, longitude, kelly bushing elevation, sample depth, cation-anion balance and formation name. We made no attempt to populate the missing data fields. Nor did we perform independent checking of the validity of the attributes (i.e., did not check versus original databases). We did not perform validity checking on the original databases.
The datum is NAD83. Alberta Geological Survey maintains the AGSWDB and ARC data. The AGSWDB data are oil and gas wells that are legally surveyed before drilling begins. Whereas the AERI and BRB data holdings are project specific. AERI, BRB and ARC data are mostly domestic water wells that are not legally surveyed.
We calculated the latitude and longitude co-ordinates from the Dominion Land Survey centroid using A. Lytviak's co-ordinate converter called ERDNA. The remaining industrial-water source wells were legally surveyed.
Alberta Geological Survey did no additional surveying as part of this data compilation.
The sample depth is calculated from the kelly bushing of the Alberta Geological Survey wells database (AGSWDB) and from ground surface for all other sources. For AERI data, ground elevations are from a hand-held GPS,+/- 10 metres.
The AGSWDB data are legal surveys (usually with a 1 cm accuracy) conducted by private industry. The BRB and ARC data are mostly domestic from water wells with ground elevations determined from topographic maps, or given in an industrial report in the case of industrial-water source wells.
Alberta Geological Survey did no additional surveying as part of this data compilation.
During 2009, Alberta Geological Survey (AGS) compiled ground- and formation-water geochemical lithium data from government sources and from AGS data holdings, resulting in 1511 records.
We used specific queries to extract lithium values based on parameter names.
- AGS wells database (AGSWDB) provided 743 lithium values.
- Alberta Research Council (ARC) provided 288 lithium values.
- Alberta Energy Research Institute (AERI) provided 42 lithium values.
- Beaver River Basin Project (BRB) provided 438 lithium values.
We appended the individual datasets into one table. Longitude values in the originating BRB database were positive, and we altered them to a negative value.
We exported the table to Microsoft Excel, altered attribute names to better describe the attributes, and removed irrelevant attributes. The following five attributes are required to make a unique record: Site_ID, Data_set_ID, Date_samp, Cat_an_bal and Lithium.
The original authors variously assessed the data. We performed no additional quality assessment on the data through the project. That is, culled and non-culled data are included because these 'anomalies' in the data could be critical to the mineral exploration companies investigating lithium in Alberta.