Firm provides mining experts for hire

One of the techniques that miners use to effectively and quickly mount a mining exploration program in the wilds of Alaska and Northwestern Canada is to hire out to knowledgeable contractors much of the work involved, including the actual exploring and decision-making.

But it takes a very special kind of temp agency to fulfill such demanding job requirements.

Equity Exploration Consultants Ltd. is one firm that has met this need for 20 years.

The Vancouver, B.C.-based consultant has racked up considerable international experience, managing projects in 24 countries including remote locations in Southeast Asia, the South Pacific and Central America. But Equity concentrates on Western and Northern Canada, and currently manages more than $20 million in mineral exploration expenditures annually.

Launched in 1987 by mining veterans Henry J. Awmack and David Caulfield, Equity Exploration Consultants was created in response to the need for a geological consulting firm in Western Canada that could provide a complete range of mineral exploration services for juniors. Awmack, Equity's chief operating officer since 2006, and Caulfield envisioned a company that could undertake entire exploration programs in remote areas, providing not only top-notch geological expertise but also the camps, equipment and support personnel necessary to efficiently run an entire exploration program.

On a typical project, a client brings Equity a mineral property and a budget, and the consultant does the rest. This includes preparing an exploration program, implementing the proposed program and reporting on the outcome. It involves compiling and interpreting all available data on the property; designing a work proposal with detailed budget and schedule to fit the client's objectives; arranging permitting with regulatory authorities; managing the exploration in entirety; and compiling and interpreting results of the fieldwork.

By the mid-1990s, the visionaries were managing major exploration programs in Southeast Asia, the South Pacific and Central America as well as British Columbia and Yukon. Equity's client list had expanded to include major mining companies such as Cyprus Amax and Newmont Mining Corp., as well as numerous juniors.

In 1995, Equity participated in the discovery of the Wolverine VMS deposit in Yukon Territory, taking a regional target through initial evaluation and detailed property-scale geological, geochemical and geophysical surveys, to ultimately the discovery drill holes.

Equity stands out at Andrew Project

Today, the privately owned firm has a full-time staff of 7 project geologists and 2 logistics specialists, along with access to up to 50 contract employees at any time, including geologists, prospectors, cooks, camp managers and field assistants.

Equity's president since 2006, Darcy E. L. Baker, led a 21-member team during the 2008 season at the Andrew Project in eastern Yukon Territory.

The consulting firm's client, Australia-based Overland Resources, provided one professional, Managing Partner Hugh Bresser, to work on the $15 million exploration program.

Baker and colleague, Robin S. Black, were among seven geologists and support personnel, including geotechnical specialists, from Equity who worked on the project. The effort resulted in discovery of several new base metal zones on the Selwyn Basin property. These included high-grade mineralization dubbed the "Darcy Zone," where drilling intersected 43.9 meters grading 11.9 percent zinc.

Baker told Mining News that the Darcy Zone was named after him.

"But I didn't have much to do with the discovery or the naming. I've heard different versions of the story, but it seems that Robin and Hugh named the zones when I was in Vancouver on break. There are four to five other zones named after various geologists that had worked on the property, but it was the Darcy Zone that had the good drill hit."

Baker also observed that geologists always have a practical need to name the exploration targets that they work on and the Andrew Zone, itself, was named after the son of the prospector that staked the claims in 1996.

Baker is one of Equity's three partners, and Black spearheaded Equity's work in Alaska in 2007 for Rubicon Minerals Corp. and Rimfire Minerals Corp. in the Goodpaster District near the Pogo gold mine.

Firm focus on quality

Equity's evolution as a mining service firm has followed the industry's needs. For example, the consulting firm in 2007 established a new advisory services business unit that focuses on indigenous and community relations. The goal is to provide clients with the capacity and expertise required to engage meaningfully with indigenous and local communities, ensuring business activities consider immediate and long-term social, environmental and economic values, according to Baker.

So what happens to a mining consultant like Equity Exploration when the industry undergoes major contractions due to an economic downturn?

With luck, little will actually change, according to Baker.

"We are in this business for the long term, and we never compromise our projects just to 'make hay while the sun shines,'" he said. "As a service provider, our business makes it very tempting to take on lots of projects when the work is there (such as during the last few years). Our approach, however, is to only take on a project if we can do a good job of it. This is the only way we can maintain high standards, and it means that our teams are 100-percent dedicated to doing the best job they can for our clients and their projects."

Baker also predicted a drastic tightening of exploration spending in the short term.

"The economic turmoil has hurt our clients and the resource sector will have lots of trouble raising money until things turn around," he said.

"But, people working in mineral exploration are not strangers to highs and lows and the cyclical nature of the business. There will always need to be an exploration and mining industry, so Equity and lots of other companies that we work with will make it through this downturn," he added.