Geologist finds mother lode of work

For Yukon geologist Jean Pautler, the busy 2011 field season also may end up being one for her personal record book.

"I was lucky to spend a week in one place," she told Mining News in a recent interview. Pautler, a geological consultant through her company, JP Exploration Services, has spent more than 30 years tramping through the Canadian bush in search of mineral deposits.

A sprite of a woman with a cheerful smile, Pautler works alone, except for her German Shepherd mutt, Shadow, who accompanies her into the field.

Pautler is winding down from a dizzying work schedule this summer, and preparing to begin her equally demanding winter cycle of writing technical reports, project-visit summaries and memos for 14 hours a day, seven days a week.

To get a sense of the workload Pautler shouldered in 2011, consider her client list:

Galena Capital Corp and White Pine Resources Inc., who sought her assistance on a project south of Dawson where she supervised trenching work and wrote an NI 43-101 report;

Northern Tiger Resources Inc. on two properties and one of which is a 225-square-kilometer land package where the explorer "is seeing widespread high-grade gold over 6 kilometers" that Pautler said is "quite prospective";

Ryan Gold Corp. where she looked at quite a few projects. "They have some nice anomalies on their projects, said Pautler.

Stina Resources where the geologist visited the Kodiak and Dime properties.

Ethos Capital Corp.'s Betty Property, which is on the Coffee Trend. "I did an NI 43-101 report on it, Pautler said.

Colorado Resources where she worked on a couple of properties, Heart Peaks and Owl near Aishihik Lake, and for an associated company, Golden Ridge, in the Mac Pass area;

BC Gold Corp. in the Carmacks Copper Belt and Minto Mine area;

Expedition Mining at its Joy and Mt. Mervyn project; and,

Eagle Plains Resources at Dragon Lake and on other key projects.

Pautler also completed work for Bill Harris at his Denali Project; for Seamus Young at Watson Lake; and for Comstock Metals, Smash Minerals, Crestwell Capital and likely others that she forgot to mention to Mining News.

"I remember that one morning I was in Burwash Landing, and I took a plane to (MacMillan) Pass that afternoon, only to have to fly again the next day to Watson Lake. I thought to myself, 'That's a little fast,' " she recalled.

Unsung accomplishments

But Pautler says she loves it.

"I'm not much of a gambler. I like to work for others, and I prefer early grassroots exploration. I like looking at rock and soil samples and determining in what direction the soil grids should go," she explained. "I have a reputation for finding stuff."

Pautler reputation is justly deserved, according the Yukon Prospectors Association. The group honored her at the 2010 Yukon Geoscience Forum, especially for the exploration work she did in 1998 that led to her discovery of the original gold showings in the White Gold District in Yukon Territory.

Pautler was nominated for the recognition by Shawn Ryan who, along with his wife, Cathy Wood, was honored in 2009 as Yukon's Prospectors of the Year.

Ryan said Pautler was his primary competitor when he first began prospecting in the Yukon in the late 1990s. By then a seasoned geologist-prospector, Pautler was working for majors like Teck Cominco.

"Ten years ago, I had no money and I would watch her go out with a helicopter and a crew," Ryan recalled. "She always had a good nose, and she's very efficient in the way she has prospected in the Yukon. Within two passes, she'll know what's going on."

Though most people credit him with the groundwork that led to the discovery of the Golden Saddle deposit by Underworld Resources Inc. (now a part of Kinross Gold Corp.), Ryan said it is Pautler who really deserves the credit.

"On the White (Gold Showing), I took out 180 rocks and only 30 ran gold," he said. "Jean took only 30 rocks out, and half ran gold. Jean found the White (Gold prospect) and worked it and the edge of the Golden Saddle. She would have found it, too, but Teck pulled her budget."

Pautler also found the original mineralization in the Coffee Creek Granite that really started the staking rush in 2009 and 2010 in the White Gold District.

"I've probably written NI 43-101 reports for most of the Dawson projects," she said.

Ryan said another big area of exploration interest in Yukon is the Ten Mile Area near Sixty Mile River. "Jean vectored into that but again, Teck pulled her budget," he said. "A lot of geologists are just geologists. Jean is a prospector-geologist."

Coming away from arguably the busiest field season of her career, Pautler said she has no plans to slow down.

"I think (industry activity) might be a little slower in 2012, but it will still be a busy summer next year," she said.

Pautler said she looks forward to returning to the field early next spring in the Carmacks Copper Belt where temperatures can soar to 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).