Rather than using the ARDF to determine future mining activity, which is a work in progress we used additional datasets. Future mines are difficult to predict but we used three datasets to represent future mining activity: Ambler mining belt, Nanushuk coal mine, and USGS mineral potential GIS database (Jones et al. 2015). Jones et al. (2015) documented the potential and certainty of six minerals deposit groups. The mineral resource potential datasets produced by the USGS (Jones et al. 2015) was used in conjunction with access to identify areas with the most likely long-term future mining activity. Mineral resource potential datasets only cover a portion of our study area (63.9% or 252,845 km2) but can still provide a useful indicator [...]
