Local geology is a crucial part of the characterisation of any exploration target.

Use was made of the territorially-consistent, 1:250 000 scale-based, geological map of the Yukon to segment the geochemical samples before thresholding, and to characterise the geology of sample sites and their surrounds.

To enable optimal cross-referencing to the rock-type terminology used in the MineMatch mineral deposit models, the Yukon geological legend was translated to match the terminology of the British Geological Survey, against which MineMatch is standardised.

Despite many years of work by the USGS, the British Geological Survey, the Geological Survey of Canada, and many other institutions on the standardisation of rock nomenclature, there is still no international agreement on the subject.

Nevertheless, for purposes of comparing mineral deposits, deposit models, and exploration targets, it is necessary to use constant terminology.  The BGS Rock Classification Scheme was chosen for use in MineMatch because it is currently the most comprehensively documented classification system available in the world.

Since the geological description of the environment from which each sample in this study was taken is determined from the geological map, rock types in the map legend had to be translated into BGS Rock Classification System terms.  Rock type names for translation were taken from the RXTYPE field of the digital geological map of the Yukon.  Since the RXTYPE field can include more than one rock type (eg: "quartzite,gr-quartzite,qt-ms-cl-schist"), individual rock names were parsed out of the field, and only then translated.