Consolidated Statements of Stockholders' Equity (Unaudited) (Under Creditor Protection Proceedings as of November 29, 2011 - note 1) (USD $) In Thousands, except Share data, unless otherwise specified	Common Stock [Member]	Preferred Stock [Member]	Additional Paid in Capital [Member]	Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income (Loss) [Member]	Deficit Accumulated During the Development Stage [Member]	Non-Controlling Interest [Member]	Total
Balance at Apr. 02, 1998
Common stock issued at inception on April 3, 1998 for assets	$ 6	$ 0	$ 92	$ 0	$ 0	$ 0	$ 98
Common stock issued at inception on April 3, 1998 for assets (in shares)	6,000,000
Common stock issued for:
Subscription	0	0	36	0	0	0	36
Subscription (in shares)	77,500
Property	18	0	12,815	0	0	0	12,833
Property (in shares)	18,796,604
Cash	116	0	340,013	0	0	0	340,129
Cash (in shares)	114,665,547
Cashless exercise of warrants and options	13	0	(13)	0	0	0	0
Cashless exercise of warrants and options (in shares)	13,184,966
Stock based compensation	0	0	116	0	0	0	116
Stock based compensation (in shares)	44,000
Services	18	0	10,836	0	0	0	10,854
Services (in shares)	17,973,611
Settlement of debt	33	0	28,294	0	0	0	28,327
Settlement of debt (in shares)	32,490,383
Premium on flow-through shares	0	0	(8,717)	0	0	0	(8,717)
Preferred shares issued on reorganization (note 10)	0	0	223,579	0	0	0	223,579
Preferred shares issued on reorganization (note 10) (in shares)		1
Stock option exercises	0	0	165	0	0	0	165
Stock option exercises (in shares)	35,000
Exchange of OQI Sask Exchangeable shares	38	0	(38)	0	0	0	0
Exchange of OQI Sask Exchangeable shares (in shares)	38,291,938
Share issue costs	0	0	(13,082)	0	0	0	(13,082)
Stock-based compensation cost	0	0	94,395	0	0	0	94,395
Proceeds from exercise of OQI Sask options and warrants	0	0	4,177	0	0	0	4,177
Beneficial conversion feature of Convertible debenture and warrants	0	0	20,923	0	0	0	20,923
Non-controlling interest:
Shares issued to non-controlling interest	0	0	0	0	0	13	13
Net loss attributable to non-controlling interest	0	0	0	0	0	(7,694)	(7,694)
Increase in interest arising from share issuance by OQI Sask						24,433	24,433
Shares purchased from non-controlling interest						(16,752)	(16,752)
Other comprehensive income (loss):
Foreign exchange gain (loss) on translation	0	0	0	(26,022)	0	0	(26,022)
Net loss	0	0	0	0	(330,715)	0	(330,715)
Balance at Apr. 30, 2009	242	0	713,591	(26,022)	(330,715)	0	357,096
Balance (in shares) at Apr. 30, 2009	241,559,549	1
Common stock issued for:
Cash	45	0	39,969	0	0		40,014
Cash (in shares)	44,789,313
Stock option exercises	0	0	782	0	0		782
Stock option exercises (in shares)	964,769
Exchange of OQI Sask Exchangeable shares	5	0	(5)	0	0		0
Exchange of OQI Sask Exchangeable shares (in shares)	5,177,557
Share issue costs	0	0	(2,096)	0	0		(2,096)
Stock-based compensation cost	0	0	5,584	0	0		5,584
Proceeds from exercise of OQI Sask options and warrants	0	0	182	0	0		182
Other comprehensive income (loss):
Foreign exchange gain (loss) on translation	0	0	0	61,634	0		61,634
Net loss	0	0	0	0	(64,481)		(64,481)
Balance at Apr. 30, 2010	292	0	758,007	35,612	(395,196)		398,715
Balance (in shares) at Apr. 30, 2010	292,491,188	1
Common stock issued for:
Cash	48	0	31,294	0	0		31,342
Cash (in shares)	47,996,858
Premium on flow-through shares	0	0	(2,304)	0	0		(2,304)
Exchange of OQI Sask Exchangeable shares	3	0	(3)	0	0		0
Exchange of OQI Sask Exchangeable shares (in shares)	2,687,387
Share issue costs	0	0	(1,794)	0	0		(1,794)
Stock-based compensation cost	0	0	1,017	0	0		1,017
Proceeds from exercise of OQI Sask Options	0	0	212	0	0		212
Non-controlling interest:
Net loss attributable to non-controlling interest							0
Other comprehensive income (loss):
Foreign exchange gain (loss) on translation	0	0	0	3,652	0		3,652
Net loss	0	0	0	0	(35,777)		(35,777)
Balance at Jan. 31, 2011	343	0	786,429	39,264	(430,973)		395,063
Balance (in shares) at Jan. 31, 2011	343,175,433	1
Balance at Apr. 30, 2010	292	0	758,007	35,612	(395,196)		398,715
Balance (in shares) at Apr. 30, 2010	292,491,188	1
Common stock issued for:
Cash	53	0	34,155	0	0		34,208
Cash (in shares)	53,126,995
Premium on flow-through shares	0	0	(1,851)	0	0		(1,851)
Exchange of OQI Sask Exchangeable shares	3	0	(3)	0	0		0
Exchange of OQI Sask Exchangeable shares (in shares)	2,877,373
Share issue costs	0	0	(2,074)	0	0		(2,074)
Stock-based compensation cost	0	0	1,292	0	0		1,292
Proceeds from exercise of OQI Sask Options	0	0	212	0	0		212
Other comprehensive income (loss):
Foreign exchange gain (loss) on translation	0	0	0	25,240	0		25,240
Net loss	0	0	0	0	(316,239)		(316,239)
Balance at Apr. 30, 2011	348	0	789,738	60,852	(711,435)		139,503
Balance (in shares) at Apr. 30, 2011	348,495,556	1
Common stock issued for:
Exchange of OQI Sask Exchangeable shares	0	0	0	0	0		0
Exchange of OQI Sask Exchangeable shares (in shares)	203,281
Stock-based compensation cost	0	0	128	0	0		128
Proceeds from exercise of OQI Sask Options							0
Non-controlling interest:
Net loss attributable to non-controlling interest							0
Other comprehensive income (loss):
Foreign exchange gain (loss) on translation	0	0	0	(7,476)	0		(7,476)
Net loss	0	0	0	0	(14,540)		(14,540)
Balance at Jan. 31, 2012	$ 348	$ 0	$ 789,866	$ 53,376	$ (725,975)		$ 117,615
Balance (in shares) at Jan. 31, 2012	348,698,837	1