The Yukon Geological Survey opened their new library today.

The H.S. Bostock Core Library, located on the Alaska Highway north of Two Mile Hill, took 2 1/2 years to complete and cost the federal government more than $3.6 million through its Arctic Research Infrastructure Fund.

The library will house the 120 km of core samples and act as a space for researchers, mineral explorers, educators and students to figure out what kind of rocks are lying beneath the Yukon's surface terrain.

The samples have been donated to the library or recovered from field sites by the survey itself.

Carolyn Relf, director of the geological survey, explained that the survey "grew out” of their old library on Range Road. The facility has been used since the early 1970s.

"Over the years, we've collected more and more samples and we just couldn't fit anymore,” she told the Star this morning.

Michael Burke, the former acting head of mineral services, found the funding for the new facility.

If it wasn't for him, Relf said , the new library probably wouldn't exist.

Money from the federal government covered the entire project's cost, minus some time and landscaping work put in by the geological survey.

The survey also bought what's called an x-ray fluorescence analyzer, a hand-held unit that's often used in the field to get quick results.

"If you've got core and want to know if it's mineralized, you can get a quick and dirty analysis,” Relf explained.

The 1,327-square-metre building includes an upper level for staff offices and a basement which contains a cold storage room, a rock saw room for cutting samples, a heated storage and viewing room, as well as a boardroom with a specimen collection for educators.

Relf is hoping to attract teachers to the facility, or even lend out some of the rock samples so they can bring them into their own classrooms.

"Geology is part of the curriculum for Yukon, but there's not many teachers who have background in geology,” she said.

Relf explained that the survey's core samples has been largely donated by mining and exploration companies.

They can leave it stacked in boxes on their property, she continued, but at some point, their claim might lapse, or the samples could be damaged in a forest fire.

"What we can do is retain it, keep records of where it's from and what hole it's from,” said Relf.

She's hoping to convince companies to donate as much core as possible so the survey can have a record of all significant mineral discoveries in Yukon. The building has room for about 60 km of new samples.

Yukon MP Ryan Leef and Brad Cathers, the Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources, made speeches at this morning's event

Leef called the new library a "fantastic looking building.

"I wish you all the luck in the next coming days, weeks and years as you gather under this roof to help bring a stronger Yukon, a stronger North and a stronger Canada,” he said before the small crowd took a tour of the building.

The geological survey hosted the opening today in conjunction with the annual Yukon Geoscience Forum, which is taking place this week at the High Country Inn.

Staff will move into the new library in February, while core samples won't be hauled to the site until the weather warms this spring.