Miners push exploration to new heights

Another busy summer field season is getting underway in Yukon Territory, and government officials are projecting record numbers of mining companies flocking to the Northwest Canada jurisdiction and spending unprecedented sums on mineral exploration programs scattered across the southern two-thirds of the territory.

Based on the industry's spending intentions in February, Natural Resources Canada projected C$39.3 million would be spent in 2011 by the majors on exploration and deposit appraisal activities in Yukon Territory, while junior mining companies were expected to invest at total of C$217 million on comparable activities.

By June, the spending projection had increased slightly, according to the Yukon Geological Survey. Spending by all mineral explorers is expected to jump 63 percent to at least C$260 million this year from the territory's previous record of C$160 million set in 2010.

Some 80 companies have submitted plans to explore mineral properties, up about 14 percent from the 70 explorers that chased Yukon prospects in 2010, according to the Yukon Geological Survey. Of this number, 96 percent are juniors, according to YGS economic geologist Lara Lewis.

In 2010, the industry mounted 150 exploration projects, and that number is expected to climb significantly this season.

"The number of companies working in Yukon isn't really final because some companies from last year dropped their options and are no longer working in Yukon, and others haven't announced work programs," Lewis told Mining News.

Second gold rush?

Of the minerals being sought in 2011, explorers are showing a decided preference for gold, up to 69 percent of all exploration targets in the Yukon from 58 percent in 2010. Percentages last year of silver (10 percent), copper (10 percent), and nickel-PGE-molybdenum (5 percent) targets decreased to 8 percent, 7 percent and 1 percent, respectively. The number of lead-zinc projects remained unchanged at 15 percent.

Industry analysts are calling the influx of gold seekers a second rush, one they say could provide investors with some rewarding mining plays.

More firms are raising capital to expand summer drilling programs in the Yukon, said Marc Sontrop, a portfolio manager for Dalton Strategic Partnership's Melchior C$69 million natural resources fund, which is overweight precious metals.

Sontrop told Reuters that interest in the Yukon had picked up because of discoveries in the last three years by the likes of Underworld Resources Inc., Kaminak Gold Corp. and ATAC Resources Ltd. He said senior gold mining companies are becoming increasingly involved in the region, pointing to Kinross Gold Corp. buying Underworld in 2010.

The staking of new quartz claims in the Yukon in 2011 also tells a compelling story. Claims in good standing as of May 1, 2011 in the Yukon totaled 209,068, more than double the 95,590 claims in good standing a year earlier. Some 34,002 new claims were staked and recorded in the Yukon during the first four months of 2011 and that compares with 8,902 claims staked during the same January-April period of 2010. As the weather improved, another 18,738 Yukon claims were staked in May.

Lewis said the majority of the projects planned for 2011 lie within close proximity to the recent White Gold, Coffee and Rackla Belt discoveries. However, a significant number of the programs underway or planned for this year are occurring elsewhere in the Dawson Range, in the Finlayson and Whitehorse mining districts and near MacMillan Pass and in Southeast Yukon.

Everybody and his brother

New faces in the Yukon this year could fill out a chapter in Who's Who in junior mining, including several well-known prospectors such as Adrian Fleming, who led Underworld Resources when it made the White Gold discovery in 2008, and Chuck Fipke, whose tenacious prospecting is credited with sparking Canada's diamond mining boom in the 1990s.

Fleming has a new company, Smash Minerals Corp., which will explore its Whiskey Gold Property in the White Gold district. With no previous ground exploration on the property, Smash Minerals intends to complete an extensive C$4.3 million inaugural program that will consist of a helicopter-borne magnetics survey, ridge sampling, grid soil sampling, geological mapping and prospecting, plus trenching and drilling.

Fipke and Stewart Blusson discovered the Ekati diamond deposit in Northwest Territories and are now minority owners of the Ekati diamond mine. Fipke is chairman of Cantex Mine Development Corp., a junior that aims to explore the Car and Lin properties in the southeast Rackla Belt. "They will be using his patented heavy mineral technologies to analyze samples from the properties," Lewis said.

Among other newcomers to the Yukon:

Aben Resources Ltd., which optioned from Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. the Rude Creek South gold, copper and molybdenum property north of Dawson, Yukon; Rusty Springs silver-lead-zinc property in the Dawson Range and several other properties in a possible extension of the Rackla Belt in MacMillan Pass;

Bearing Resources intends to explore properties located near Golden Predator Corp.'s Clear Creek gold project and Northern Tiger's 3Ace gold project in Southeast Yukon, which drew considerable attention in 2010 after reporting impressive gold assays in grab samples and subsequent drilling (Bearing holds a 100 percent interest in the Flume property, of which a 75 percent interest is currently optioned to Ryan Gold Corp.);

Caribou Copper Resources, which agreed to earn in to options held by Alix Resources Corp on five Yukon properties owned by Strategic Metals, including the Hartless Joe and Byng gold-silver properties northeast of Whitehorse (The Corky and Meloy copper-gold properties with potential for molybdenum and the Vault gold property are all located northwest of Haines Junction.);

Hawkeye Gold & Diamond Inc., which has agreed to acquire a 100 percent interest in each of the Dart, Mint and Top properties from the YES Exploration Syndicate Inc. (The properties host gold-associated younger volcanics within the Carmacks Caldera and are located in the Aishihik Lake area northwest of Whitehorse);

Mill City Gold Corp., which recently optioned the Mount Hinton Property in the Keno Hill mining district from Rockhaven Resources Ltd., also plans to explore the Tombstone Gold Project near Dawson.

Gold World Resources, which optioned the Mount Anderson Property, a volcanics-associated gold-silver, polymetallic property similar to the former producing Skookum gold mine, according to Lewis;

Great Bear Resources, which optioned a 75 percent interest the Ike Selwyn Basin Gold Project from Argus Metals in the Hyland district near Atac Resources' Carlin-type gold discovery in eastern Yukon;

Kestrel Gold, which is exploring the King Solomon Dome Property in the White Gold mining district south of Dawson after optioning it from longtime Yukon prospector Bernie Kreft;

Ontario explorer White Pine Resources, which optioned the Money and Tender properties in the Dawson Range from celebrated prospector Shawn Ryan;

Commander Resources Ltd., which is exploring the Glenmorangie (Hyland area) and Yukon Olympic (Dempster highway) properties;

Colorado Resources Ltd., which staked the Oro Property within the possible extension of the Rackla Belt near MacMillan Pass and recently agreed to purchase three Properties - Sol, Nid and Bach -located in the Macmillan Pass area, a fourth property - Al - located in the Aishihik Lake area northwest of Whitehorse;

Constantine Metals Resources Ltd. and Carlin Gold Corp. joint venture, which was formed in 2010 specifically to target and explore for Carlin-type gold deposits in the Yukon's Selwyn Basin, recently staked 1,097 additional claims in five areas prospective for Carlin-type mineralization in the Mayo Mining District, east central Yukon; and,

Wolverine Minerals Corp., which optioned 21 properties from Strategic Metals, including some in the Finlayson Lake area and others in the Dawson Range.

"There are other new companies that have optioned or staked properties, but they have not announced work programs yet," Lewis said. For example, Tajiri Resources optioned the Inca Property.

In addition, numerous acquisitions and name changes this year has transformed the landscape. "For example, Universal Uranium is now Expedition Mining. Copper Ridge is now Redtail Resources. Hinterland Resources is changing its name to Stakeholder Gold. New Pacific Metals (a company with major ownership by a Chinese silver producer) acquired Tagish Lake Gold Corp., but the operation is being run by Tagish Gold as a subsidiary," Lewis explained.

She said NovaGold Resources' purchase of Copper Canyon Resources gives it ownership of the Kiwi gold property off the North Canol Road in central-eastern Yukon, which the company plans to drill this year.

Also, Pacific Coast Nickel now owns the Wellgreen and Burwash Ni-PGE properties, she added.