Discovery milestones:

• 1936 – Cosmic Ray Muons discovered by Carl D. Anderson and Seth Neddermeyer at Caltech.
• 1955 – E.P. George used muon transmission imaging to determine the overburden of a tunnel in Australia.
• 1970 – L. Avarez searches for hidden chambers in the pyramids using cosmic ray muons.
• 1976 – Lennart Malmqvist et al present “Theoretical studies of in-situ rock density determinations using underground cosmic ray muon intensity measurements with application in mining geophysics” at the annual Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) conference in Houston, Texas, laying the theoretical foundation for underground rock density measurement using both gallery and borehole detectors for mineral exploration.
• 1995 – Muon radiography applied to volcano imaging (Nagamine et al). Research on this application by many scientists has continued to the present day (see here for an example).

CRM Geotomography Technologies milestones:

• 2009 – Muon geotomography project started at Advanced Applied Physics Solutions (AAPS), modernizing Malmqvist’s mineral exploration concept using advanced muon detector technology from TRIUMF, in collaboration with University of British Columbia, the Geological Survey of Canada, Western Economic Diversification, NVI-Breakwater (now Nyrstar) and others.
• 2011 AAPS delivers proof of concept results, imaging a VMS deposit at Nyrstar’s Myra Falls, BC, mine. This work was presented at the Society of Economic Geologists 2014 Conference (see here).

Muon detector being delivered to the mine site.

• 2012 AAPS begins a blind test of muon geotomography at an underground zinc mine.
• 2013 highlights:
  • CRM GeoTomography Technologies begins operations, advancing and commercializing the technology developed by AAPS. CRM has ten advanced muon detectors, with some deployed in underground mines.
  • CRM awarded National Research Council funding for Advanced Development of Muon Geotomography to Map Subsurface Density for Mineral Exploration.
• 2014/2015 highlights:
  • Joel Jansen (Chief Geophysicst, Teck Resources) will present Blind test of muon geotomography for mineral exploration at ASEG / PSEG 2015 (February 17, 2015, Perth, Australia).
  • CRM continues working to advance its muon tomography capabilities by reducing measurement uncertainties, improving imaging techniques, and working towards next generation borehole instruments.

Highlights in pictures

Rugged construction to withstand harsh mine environment.

A detector about to be installed in a mine.[/caption]

Detector as installed in the mine.