Encouraging trends lift Yukon projects

Placer mining in Canada's Yukon Territory has increased significantly this year, and although there are no operating hard-rock mines in the territory yet, that may change soon. Mike Burke of the Yukon Geological Survey outlined the varied projects of the past season at the Alaska Miners Association Convention in Anchorage on Nov. 4. In particular, he drew attention to Expatriate Resources' exploration in the Finlayson Lake District at Wolverine, for which the company has raised C$16.6 million.

Wolverine is one of several important volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits in the district. It is rich in selenium, which is used in glass making, pigments and manganese production. "The price of selenium has skyrocketed," Burke said. "Smelters are now interested in this concentrate and are offering to pay for the selenium instead of charging a penalty." Results from nine drill holes in the deposit showed an inferred resource aggregating 6,237,000 tonnes grading 12.66 percent zinc, 1.55 percent lead, 1.33 percent copper, 371 grams per tonne silver and 1.76 grams per tonne gold, according to a release dated Nov. 8.

"A bankable feasibility study is scheduled to be completed in early 2006, at which time we will make a production decision," Brian Soregaroli, Expatriate's manager of investor communications, told Mining News. "If the decision is made to go ahead, the mine would be operational as early as late 2007, if all goes according to plan." Expatriate is set to split into two companies, if a motion is ratified at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting on Dec. 14, in which case all its Finlayson District assets will go to a company renamed Yukon Zinc Corporation.

Expatriate also drilled three holes at the nearby Thunderstruck target, a new discovery.

"This is a really juvenile mineral district, so I've always said, all you've got to do is spend a little more money and you're going to have another discovery, and sure enough these guys proved me right again," Burke said. "Just going out and putting your boots on the rocks, you're going to find more stuff here."

In addition to Wolverine, another potential underground mine could be completed at the Minto Deposit, about 150 miles northwest of Whitehorse, where Minto Explorations is already halfway to building the mine, Burke told Mining News. Asarco has an agreement to fund the project to production, but it has never funded it completely and is selling its portion of the deposit. "That could be a real jump start, depending on who gets their hands on it," Burke said.

Grew Creek: new interpretation

More exciting news came from Freegold Ventures' Grew Creek Project, where drilling by previous operators was based on an interpretation that the gold mineralization trended in an east-southeasterly direction. A new interpretation suggested that most of the previous drilling may have been oriented sub-parallel to the vein orientation. This is Freegold's first project in Yukon Territory: the company has been operating mainly in Alaska up to now. Infrastructure-wise, the Grew Creek Project couldn't be better placed - it is 22 miles west of the town of Ross River and just over half a mile from the Robert Campbell Highway and the Whitehorse power grid.

Freegold announced assay results for the first drill hole in a release Nov. 1. The stockwork zone averages 2.25 grams per tonne gold over the 90.5 meters (297 feet) interval from 37.5 meters to 128 meters. A continuous quartz-adularia vein stockwork was intersected through the interval. The most intense stockwork interval of 17.5 meters (57.4 feet) from 91.5 meters to 109 meters has an average grade of 6.79 grams/tonne gold. Within the interval strongly veined sections assayed 14.38 grams/tonne gold over 2.0 meters (6.6 feet) and 17.77 grams/tonne over 2.3 meters (7.6 feet).

Information released in a Nov. 11 news release indicated the third hole at Grew Creek intersected 22.12 grams/tonne gold (0.65 opt) over 6.25 meters (20.5 feet).

Cooperating with First Nations

Mining companies in Yukon Territory are cooperating with First Nations for mutual benefit. Teck Cominco signed an agreement with Kaska Nation-owned Kaska Minerals Corp. in November 2003 to explore on a parcel of land known as R-15, about 87 miles southeast of Ross River. Kaska Minerals is leasing the 17 square miles of land from the Yukon government for five years with the permission of the Ross River Dena Council. So far eight holes have been drilled, but no results are available yet.

The Ross River First Nation also has a social-economic agreement with True North Gems. In recognition of the agreement, the company renamed its Regal Ridge Project Tsa da Glisza, which means "green stone" in the Kaska language. This year True North drilled about 58 shallow diamond drill holes and mined about 1,500 tonnes of emerald-bearing material here. The company was able to process about 600 tonnes of that, from which it recovered 21 kilograms of emeralds. A total of 4,100 carats was gem quality, 37,000 carats near gem and 65,000 carats non-gem material.

At True North Gems' True Blue property, which is 62 miles northwest of Tsa da Glisza, diamond-impregnated chainsaws were used to go into the boulder field, Burke said. In August 2003 a team of field geologists discovered 50 showings of a True Blue aquamarine gemstone here, the first of its kind in the world.

Yukon government got more responsibility in 2003

Devolution gave a boost to miners on April 1, 2003, when the federal government gave more responsibility for land and mineral resources to the Yukon government, including local control over permitting issues. "We always tend to have supportive governments, as mining is the mainstay of the Yukon economy," Burke said. Forest fires were the main setback last summer, forcing the cancellation of a few projects, including NovaGold's drilling at Brewery Creek, near Dawson. Yale Resources also had to take a month off drilling at its Golden Revenue property in the Carmacks District because of fires.

Valuable lessons about mining in Yukon Territory can be learned by looking at Australia, and Copper Ridge Explorations is doing just that, as its Yukon Olympic property resembles the giant Olympic Dam copper-gold mine in Australia. The existence of the distinctive rocks known as Wernecke breccias has fueled the theory that Yukon and Australia were joined at the hip in the Late Proterozoic era, around 600 million years ago. Copper Ridge is in a joint venture with Canadian Empire Exploration Corp. (funded by Teck Cominco) at Yukon Olympic. The Yukon Olympic property consists of 377 claims located along the Dempster Highway, north of Dawson City.

Stratagold's Hyland property, 43 miles northeast of Watson Lake, is also similar to the Telfer-type deposits in Australia and has the potential to host a large sediment-hosted gold deposit. Other notable exploration projects in Yukon Territory include Kobex Resources and Almaden Minerals at Morley Lake, Strategic Metals at Antimony Mountain, ASC Industries at Red Mountain, Logan Resources at Shell Creek, Ross River Minerals at Tay-LP and Madalena Ventures at White River.