Mining Explorers 2015: Miners weather stormy markets

In 2015, junior exploration companies working in Yukon continued to weather the storm of depressed metal prices and cautious markets.

Despite the lack of market enthusiasm, exploration spending maintained historically high levels at C$100 million; although one project, the Selwyn-Chihong Selwyn lead-zinc project in eastern Yukon, accounted for 40 percent of the spending.

More than 80 exploration programs were undertaken in the territory, ranging from small grassroots projects to multimillion-dollar programs on advanced properties.

Gold continued to be alluring, with almost two-thirds of hard-rock exploration programs searching for this metal.

The remaining programs involved exploration for lead, zinc, copper, nickel, silver, platinum group elements and even jade.

Predictably, mineral production levels decreased in 2015, with only one hard-rock mine maintaining operations, primarily due to the slump in global metal prices.

Capstone Mining Corp.'s continued to mine its copper-gold-silver deposits at the Minto mine in west-central Yukon, producing 8,236 metric tons of copper in concentrates in the first two quarters of 2015.

The company received its water license for its Minto North deposit in August, allowing workers to strip the high-grade near-surface deposit for open-pit mining as part of a sixth phase of expansion at the mine since it opened in 2007.

Despite the closure of Yukon Zinc Corp.'s Wolverine Mine in the Finlayson Lake District in January, this volcanogenic massive sulphide district in southeast Yukon was the focus of renewed activity.

Minquest Ltd., an Australian company, made a non-binding bid to buy the Wolverine Mine after Yukon Zinc went into receivership in March.

Minquest's foray into the district began when it optioned the Fyre Lake copper-gold-cobalt property from Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. in 2014.

In the same District, the polymetallic Kudz Ze Kayah property, long held by Teck Resources Ltd., was acquired by BMC (UK) Ltd. in early 2015.

Kudz Ze Kayah has not seen any exploration activity since 2000.

BMC announced a $15 million program for 2015, with a plan to advance the project to pre-feasibility by March 2016.

A handful of companies with advanced projects in Yukon are preserving capital and waiting for markets to recover before undertaking development activities. In the interim, a few of these companies have undertaken exploration programs to continue to expand their resources: e.g., Victoria Gold Corp (Dublin Gulch gold property) and Alexco Resources Ltd. (Keno Hill silver-lead-zinc deposits).

The Government of Yukon continues to provide strong support to the minerals industry through the Yukon Mineral Exploration Program. This program has been essential to keeping the wheels of exploration moving in the territory. The Yukon government maintained the C$1.4 million funding level for 2015, approving 48 hard-rock projects to offset exploration costs through the program. Although, initially, only 80 percent of the successful projects were able to go ahead due to lack of matching funds, several worthy projects below the funding cut-off level were able to be funded later in the field season.

Yukon has consistently rated highly in the annual Fraser Institute's Survey of Mining Companies.

The 2014 survey rated Yukon's geology as the best in the world for exploration investment and put Yukon in the global top 10 of places where companies wanted to do business.

The Yukon government continues to make positive strides forward on the regulatory and certainty front.

The government is working towards improving the mining regulatory framework with its Mine Licensing Improvement Initiative.

This initiative has brought together the Yukon Water Board, Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board and numerous government departments to develop ways to better coordinate the regulatory process, with the main goal of reducing overlap and duplication during the mine licensing process.

When complete, this initiative will provide more certainty for companies wanting to do business in Yukon.

The Government of Yukon recognizes that a successful minerals industry is dependent on high-quality geo-scientific information.

Through the Yukon Geological Survey, government continues to support the industry by generating and compiling geological data to form the foundation that allows for better decision-making by industry.

Bedrock mapping is a key component of this effort: Projects underway this year include mapping the Hyland mapsheets in southeast Yukon, Aishihik Lake mapsheets in southwest Yukon, the Lake LaBerge area and the Tay River area in Central Yukon.

Other projects include a metallogenic study of the mineralizing potential of Jurassic-aged plutons in Yukon, geochemical re-analysis of regional stream sediment samples for more than 25 1:250K mapsheets and the first-ever jointly funded airborne geophysical survey in partnership with the Kluane First Nation over its traditional territory in southwest Yukon.