North of 60 Mining and Exploration Review 2016

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Drones to DrillsDrones used for exploration, monitoring, and marketing in the Yukon

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Mining anD exploration HigHligHts From Alaska, Nunavut, Yukon, and Northwest Territories

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6 From Gold to Zinc – An overview of Alaska’s exploration and mineral industry

12 World-Class Mines and Developing Resources – An overview of Nunavut’s exploration and mineral industry in 2015

16 Committed to a Sustainable System – An overview of Yukon’s mineral industry in 2015

20 Unlocking the Potential – The Northwest Territories works to conquer logistical challenges as it welcomes industry investment

24 Finding Optimism – Playing in Nunavut’s minerals industry is tough, but the rewards can be sky high

28 Northwest Territories – Exploration may be down, but not out

32 Drones to Drills – Drones used for exploration, monitoring, and marketing in the Yukon

34 Fitting the Pieces – How MDRU is uniting explorers in the Yukon to assemble the discovery puzzle

38 Assessing the Safety Risks – Electrical geophysics and lightning

42 Finding the Skills – Several indicators point to a malfunctioning mining labour market

44 Pulling Together for Productivity – The Ultra-Deep Mining Network

46 Shine On – Kennady Diamonds Inc. continues to move forward, while several other companies are hoping to make the next big diamond discovery in the NWT

50 Something Good is Brewing – Golden Predator has identified the Brewery Creek project as one of its top priorities in the Yukon

52 Look Up – Way Up – Baffinland swings into production

56 Next Big Thing – Victoria Gold Corp.’s Eagle Gold Project

58 Evolving Direction – Copper North’s different path blossoms

62 Full speed ahead – Freegold focuses on future

64 Making a Name – Kennady North is Northwest Territories’ highest profile exploration project

68 Competitive Success – Kaizen the key to Coppermine exploration

70 High Optimism – TerraX Minerals Inc.’s Yellowknife City Gold Project exploration work has been encouraging

72 Safe & Sound – Preventing and responding to remote medical emergencies

74 Mining Cargo – How to make the best of your sealift project

78 Building Value – DMC Mining Services helps tackle the challenges of building and running safe and profitable mining operations

80 Big Show – PDAC 2016 promises to bring another exciting event to Toronto

Index to Advertisers

Table of Contents

Acme Analytical Laboratories Ltd. .................. 19Air North ........................................................ 55Alkan Air .......................................................... 8ALS Minerals Division ..................................... 51AME-BC ........................................................... 3Arctic Controls Inc. / Buzz Bizz .......................... 7Arctic Cooperatives Limited ............................ 31Arkbro ............................................................ 36Aurora Geosciences ........................................ 65BPT Components & Parts Inc. ......................... 26Calm Air International LP ............................... 35Cambridge House International Inc. ............... 61Capital Helicopters (1995) Inc. ....................... 22Cascom Ltd. .................................................... 54Copper North Mining Corp. ............................. 59Custom Helicopters Ltd................................... 33Desgagnes Transarctik Inc. ............................. 75DMC Mining Services ..................................... 79Duncans Ltd. .................................................... 9Emco Corporation No.744 ............................... 41

Fednav Limited .............................................. 77Fireweed Helicopters ...................................... 17Gem Steel Edmonton Ltd. ..........................10, 11Government Of The NWT................................ 23Great Slave Helicopters ................................... 53GTC North America Inc. .................................. 29Inland Kenworth Parker Pacific ...................... 44JS Redpath Mining ......................................... 27KBL Environmental Ltd................................... 49Kitnuna .......................................................... 25Lockett Consultation Services Inc. .................. 44Lyden Incorporated .......................................... 5Midnight Sun Energy Ltd .............................. OBCNAPEG ............................................................ 63NEAS Group .................................................. IBCNOR-Ex Engineering ...................................... 15North Slope Telecom ...................................... 28Northern Industrial Sales ............................... 66Northern Security Systems ............................. 39

Northern Transportation Company Limited......................................... 47Nu-Line Power Contractors Ltd. ...................... 37Nuna Group Of Companies ............................. 69Nunavut Mining Symposium Society Co. Mercer Business Support Services ..........IFCPeregrine Diamonds Ltd. ................................ 33PDAC .............................................................. 81Ron's Auto ...................................................... 45Saskatchewan Research Council ..................... 67Sirius Wilderness Medicine ............................. 73Smithers Regional Airport .............................. 30Sub Arctic Surverys .......................................... 6Summit Helicopters........................................ 13Terraquest Ltd. ............................................... 14Terrax Minerals, Inc. ....................................... 71TSL Laboratories Inc. ...................................... 37Tundra Airborne Surveys Ltd. ......................... 40Victoria Gold Corp. .......................................... 57YJ Fire Prevention ........................................... 66

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ALASKA MINING HIGHLIGHTS

From Gold to ZincAn overview of AlAskA’s explorAtion And minerAl industrySubmitted by Eric Van Oss, development specialist, Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, Division of Economic Development

since statehood, alaska has been com-mitted to responsibly developing its re-sources as a key driver of economic devel-opment. the state offers political stability, secure land tenure, low tax rates, a skilled workforce, attractive tax incentives, and a strategic Pacific rim location. alaska’s mineral potential ranks in the top 10 globally for known reserves of coal, cop-per, lead, gold, zinc, and silver, along with more than 70 occurrences of rare earth el-

ements. although alaska currently ranks fifth in the nation for production, the state’s minerals still remain largely unde-veloped with more than 190 million acres of land open to exploration and develop-ment.

there are six major producing mines and almost 300 placer mines currently operating in alaska. three of the major producing mines are gold producers: the Fort Knox mine near Fairbanks; the

Pogo mine near Delta Junction; and the Kensington mine near Juneau. the red Dog mine north of Kotzebue is one of the world’s largest zinc and lead mines, while greens creek mine claims the sta-tus of one of north america’s largest silver mines. the usibelli mine, alaska’s only ac-tive coal mine, is a major source of power for interior alaska, and throughout 2014 and early 2015 exported alaskan coal to international markets.

Trendsthe total reported value of alaska’s

mineral industry decreased in 2014 to $3.66 billion, more than seven per cent lower than its $3.95 billion value in 2013. the total value is a composite of the year’s expenditures on exploration and devel-opment plus the estimated first market value of the commodities produced. alas-ka’s mineral sector weathered slowdowns in exploration and development spend-ing but the industry remains poised to expand in the near term with significant identified resources and drill-ready tar-gets across a range of commodities. Zinc was the top metal produced in 2014, ac-counting for almost 44 per cent of total alaska metal production value. gold fol-lowed at 37.5 per cent, along with silver at 9.5 per cent, and lead at 9.2 per cent. the decrease in mineral production value from 2013 to 2014 resulted primarily from lower metal prices. the average 2014 price for gold dropped 10.3 per cent from the previous year’s average, while zinc rose 12.6 per cent. exploration expenditures were down 45 per cent, from $175.5 mil-lion in 2013 to $96.2 million in 2014. much of the loss of exploration investment results from the $61 million decrease in southwestern alaska exploration, particu-larly in the bristol bay watershed. the re-mainder of the drop in alaska exploration

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2016 | Mining North of 60 7

is consistent with a 25 per cent worldwide decrease in exploration expenditures and does not suggest waning interest in developing minerals prospects in alaska. these trends and much of what follows is a summary of Alaska Mineral Industry 2014, alaska Division of geological & geo-physical survey’s special report 701.

Existing mines hold steadyDevelopment expenditures in alaska,

down 21.5 per cent in 2014 to $281.7 mil-lion, correlate closely with production expenditures at the major mines; devel-opment expenditures at alaska’s major mines account for more than 80 per cent of total development expenditures. sig-nificant development outlays of more than $5 million per project were noted at red Dog, Fort Knox, Pogo, Kensington, and greens creek mines, the Donlin gold project, and at the nome offshore placer operations lease area. based on reported expenditures, Fort Knox mine had the largest ongoing development project in alaska. since 2001, precious metals have been the impetus behind more than two-thirds of the annual development invest-ment and in 2014 precious metals ac-counted for 71 per cent of development expenditures (Figure 2).

Zinc overtakes goldZinc returned to its place as the leading

mineral product of the state with a value of $1.4 billion in 2014, an increase of 21 per cent over 2013 and accounting for 42 per cent of alaska’s production value. the annual value of zinc production ex-

ceeded that of gold from 1990 through 2011. Zinc’s strong performance in 2014 is due to record production at red Dog combined with strong zinc prices.

in contrast, reduced metal output from Fort Knox mine and placer mines state-wide combined with declining gold prices resulted in a $1.2 billion value of gold pro-duced in 2014, a 23 per cent decline from the record value in 2013. gold production totalled 948,547 ounces in 2014 driven by production at Fort Knox, Pogo, Kensing-ton, and greens creek mines. Despite the decline from the historic million ounce annual production threshold in 2013, the state is still producing gold at a vol-ume not seen for a century. the currently producing mines have identified mineral resources to maintain the present pro-duction level, depending on metal prices, through at least 2020.

Domestic demand for Alaska’s coalDue to the rise in the u.s. dollar and an

oversupply in the coal market internation-al exports of alaskan coal fell to half a mil-lion tonnes in 2014 – a 57 per cent drop from 2011. Despite this drop off in inter-

Figure 1. Mineral Development Expenditures in Alaska by Commodity 1982-2014 (Source: DGGS SR 70).

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national demand, coal remains in a strong position as an efficient energy supplier to six interior alaska electrical power plants, including three military sites. in the fiscal year 2014 capital budget, the alaska state legislature approved a series of grants, revenue bonds, and loans to replace the uaF power plant. the project will replace existing coal boilers with circulating fluid-ized bed coal boilers, providing 17 mega-watts of power and enough steam to heat the campus – greatly reducing the risk of a winter shutdown. in 2014, golden Val-

ley electric association broke ground and began upgrades for a 50 megawatt coal-fired power plant dubbed Healy 2. this project is expected to stabilize electric rates by utilizing cost effective coal – en-suring increased demand for alaska’s coal industry.

Continued exploration and project advancement

recent activity during late 2014 and early 2015 includes:• The Donlin Gold partnership is mov-

ing forward on permitting of the Don-lin gold project. the u.s army corps of engineers is expected to publish a draft environmental impact statement for public review before the end of 2015, which would pave the way for a final eis to be published in early 2017 followed by a record of Decision later that year. (http://www.donlingold.com/)

• NovaCopper Inc completed 14 drillholes at arctic for a total of 3,056 me-tres of core. the 2015 in-fill drill pro-gram was designed to evaluate vertical

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and lateral continuity of the high-grade polymetallic copper, gold, silver, lead, and zinc mineralization. these drill re-sults will be used to upgrade inferred resources to indicated resources in sup-port of a pre-feasibility study on the arctic deposit. additionally, in october of 2015, the state of alaska approved continuing work for the ambler access road environmental impact statement, which could potentially provide over-land access to the ambler mining Dis-trict. (http://www.novacopper.com/s/Home.asp)

• At their Bokan Mountain project insoutheast alaska, ucore rare metals upgraded 98 per cent of their inferred resource to an indicated resource of 4.79 million tonnes at 0.602 per cent treo and extended the Dotson ridge zone deeper with an additional 1.05 million tonnes of newly estimated in-ferred resource grading 0.603 per cent treo as a result of 2014 drilling. the company continues metallurgical re-search and is working towards comple-tion of a feasibility study. (http://ucore.com/projects/bokan-mountain-alaska)

• Graphite One Resources Inc. complet-ed a new resource assessment at the graphite creek deposit on the seward Peninsula, north of nome, upgrading 17.95 million tonnes averaging 6.3 per cent graphite to the indicated category

and expanding the inferred resource to 154.36 million tonnes at 5.7 per cent graphite. this resource is the largest published large flake graphite resource in the united states. graphite one consolidated the mineral tenure posi-tion on the deposit and is advancing metallurgical testing and other studies towards a preliminary economic as-sessment. (http://www.graphiteonere-sources.com/)

• ConstantineMetalResourcesLtd.com-pleted a new resource assessment in may 2015, nearly doubling the inferred resource at the Palmer Prospect to 8.1 million tonnes at 1.41 per cent cop-per, 5.25 per cent zinc, 0.32 grams per tonne gold and 31.7 grams per tonne silver. constantine also announced the signing of a selection agreement with Dowa metals & mining alaska ltd. on the Haines block mining lease that surrounds the Palmer Property near Haines, alaska and a $5 million explo-ration budget for drilling in the 2015 season. (http://constantinemetals.com/projects/palmer/) n

1 Freeman, L.K., Athey, J.E., Lasley, P.S., and Van Oss, E.J., 2015, Alaska’s Mineral Industry 2014: Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys Special Report 70, 60 p. doi: 10.14509/29515

Figure 2. Reported annual exploration and development expenditures of the mineral industry and the estimated first market value of mineral production in Alaska in millions of dollars (preliminary numbers, Source: DGGS SR 70).

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NuNAVuT MINING HIGHLIGHTS

World-class mines and developinG resourcesAn overview of nunAvut’s explorAtion And minerAl industry in 2015Submitted by Government of Nunavut, Minerals and Petroleum Resources Division

nunavut has an all-encompassing settled land claims agreement, the nunavut land claims agreement (nlca), which has es-tablished regulatory bodies answering to governments with co-management responsibilities. the inuit and their re-spective inuit organizations (nunavut tunngavik incorporated, or nti, and three regional organizations, Qikiqtani inuit as-sociation, Kivalliq inuit association, and Kitikmeot inuit association) hold surface land tenure rights to approximately 18 per

cent of nunavut with sub-surface (miner-al) rights to two per cent. the crown (in-digenous and northern affairs canada) administers the remainder of surface and mineral rights in nunavut. these arrange-ments establish certainty for land tenure in nunavut, as well as for inuit to benefit from resource development.

nunavut has a history of attracting ma-jor global producers and remains a des-tination of choice for explorers. the terri-tory continues to position itself for mining

industry investment with a stable and increasingly streamlined regulatory pro-cess, as well as ongoing bedrock mapping and new mineral exploration.

natural resources canada (nrcan) es-timates that $161 million was spent on exploring for minerals in nunavut in 2014 with spending intentions in the order of $258 million for 2015. the increase in mineral exploration can be attributed to a small number of mining companies add-ing to the metal inventories of major de-

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posits. a significant increase in mine de-velopment expenditure in 2015 is mainly due to baffinland iron mines corporation’s establishment of mine and shipping infra-structure at mary river. Direct-shipping high-grade iron ore is a welcome addition to the gold bars agnico-eagle mines lim-ited has been pouring since 2010. While the primary focus is on gold, zinc, cop-per, iron, uranium, diamonds, and coal, nunavut is a vast land of much geological diversity with many under-explored com-modities.

Role of government in Nunavutnunavut operates under a system of co-

management. the government of nunavut (gn) is committed to “economic growth through responsible development across all sectors” in the mandate Sivumut Ab-luqta: Stepping Forward Together (2014-2018). this vision is shared between many partners, including inuit organizations, the federal government and the mineral resource industry. the gn developed Par-nautit: The Nunavut Mineral Exploration and Mining Strategy in 2007. the goal of Parnautit is “to create the conditions for a

strong and sustainable minerals industry that contributes to a high and sustainable quality of life for all nunavummiut.”

Exploration and mining in 2015agnico-eagle mines limited’s (aem)

meadowbank gold mine is projected to remain in operation until 2018 from onsite reserves with new offsite resources yet to come on stream. the mary river iron ore mine on northern baffin island opened fall 2014. Four projects continue to prog-ress through regulatory processes. these include the meliadine gold and Kiggavik uranium projects in central nunavut and the back river and advanced Hope bay gold projects in western nunavut.

Qikiqtaaluk regionmining development and exploration

in the Qikiqtaaluk (baffin) region contin-ues with a focus on iron and diamonds. the largest project in the region is baffin-land iron mines corporation’s mary river iron project where the first shipment of ore departed august 2015. the company is currently permitted to ship 4.2 million tonnes per year during open water sea- Iron ore from Baffinland on its way to Europe.

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son. baffinland is seeking to amend its project certificate to 12 million tonnes per year with a 10-month shipping sea-son requiring icebreakers. this revision is currently before nunavut regulators. the mine is anticipated to be operational for at least 20 years based on current reserves of direct-to-smelter high-grade ore. all production comes from Deposit no. 1, with the company exploring another four deposits.

Peregrine Diamonds ltd. advanced the chidliak diamond project on south baffin island in 2015. Pipe cH-6 returned mini-bulk sample results with an average price of $213 per carat for 1013 carat package recovered from 404.2 tonnes in Febru-ary 2014. a revised resource estimate of 8.57 million carats in 3.32 million tonnes at grade of 2.58 carats/tonne was an-nounced in september 2015 for cH-6. the property has 71 kimberlites with eight identified as potentially economic. results from three additional mini-bulk samples are expected winter 2015-2016.

Kivalliq regiongold and uranium are the main targets

in the Kivalliq (central) region. the mead-owbank mine was agnico-eagle’s larg-est gold producer for two years running. meadowbank has 1.2 million troy ounces of proven and probable reserves remain-ing. aem’s amaruq property, located 50 kilometres northwest of meadowbank, has a resource of 1.5 million ounces in one deposit. the nunavat impact review board (nirb) provided notice in early no-vember 2015 that the amaruq all-weather exploration access road may proceed without review.

aem also owns the meliadine advanced gold project near rankin inlet. meliadine is one of aem’s largest gold projects with 3.3 million troy ounces of proven and prob-able reserves contained in two deposits. the nirb issued a project certificate for the meliadine gold mine project to aem in February 2015. the Kivalliq inuit asso-ciation and aem signed an inuit impact benefit agreement (iiba) in July 2015. in

october 2015, the nunavut Water board issued a class b water license for the me-liadine project. the class a water license is necessary for production activities ex-pected mid-2016.

saskatoon-based areVa resources canada inc, a subsidiary of French mul-tinational company areVa, manages the Kiggavik uranium project west of baker lake. Kiggavik is a significant deposit with inferred resources of 132.6 million pounds uranium at an average grade of 0.5 per cent u3o8. in may 2015, the nirb submitted its final hearing report to all parties recommending that the Kigga-vik uranium mine project not proceed at this time citing lack of confidence for assessing near-term socio-economic and environmental impacts without a start date and development schedule submitted by the proponent. areVa, since 2009, has performed mineral ex-ploration, technical studies, community consultations and a final environmental impact study. a decision regarding the project certificate for Kiggavik should be forthcoming from the minister of indig-enous and northern affairs canada.

a second diamond project in nunavut is the Qilalugaq diamond property near naujaat owned by junior company north arrow minerals inc. a may 2013, resource estimate listed 26.1 million carats in 48.8 million tonnes with a grade of 53.6 car-ats/hundred tonnes. mini-bulk sample results released June 2015 reported an average value of $36 per carat for a 383.5 carat package recovered from 1353.4 tonnes.

PHOTO COURTESY GOVERNMENT OF NUNAVUT AND AGNICO EAGLE

Meadowbank employee driving heavy equipment at Agnico Eagle’s gold mine in central Nunavut.

A welder getting some work done at Agnico Eagle’s Meadowbank gold mine.

PHOTO COURTESY GOVERNMENT OF NUNAVUT AND AGNICO EAGLE

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Kitikmeot regiongold and base metal exploration is on-

going in the Kitikmeot (western) region. tmac resources inc. and sabina gold & silver corp. advanced major gold projects while multinational companies glencore and mmg are reevaluating base metal inventories during a downturn in global economy.

in march 2013, tmac resources inc. acquired the advanced Hope bay project from Hope bay mining ltd., a subsidiary of newmont mining corporation. the Doris north deposit has a project certificate for mining, a five-year lease agreement with Kitikmeot inuit association and a 10-year renewal for type a water licence. tmac has commissioned a processing plant and anticipates delivery of the mill to the Doris north mine site by fall 2016.

the back river gold project, owned by sabina gold & silver corp., consists of two main properties, george and goose, which host up to eight mineral deposits with 7.184 million troy ounces of measured, in-dicated and inferred resources per sabina’s oct 2015 initial Feasibility study. the pro-posed open pit-dominated mining of the llama-umwelt-goose deposits at the back river property lists 1.346 million ounces of proven reserves and 1.157 million ounces of probable resources. sabina’s Final envi-ronmental assessment study is expected in november 2015.

in 2009, mmg acquired the izok corri-dor Project with two significant base metal deposits some distance apart. izok lake

deposit hosts 14.8 million tonnes grading 12.8 per cent zinc and 2.5 per cent copper. the High lake deposit hosts 17.2 million tonnes at 3.4 per cent zinc and 2.3 per cent copper. concentrate would be trans-ported along a 350-kilometre all-weather road to grays bay on coronation gulf.

glencore owns the giant base metal Hackett river project with indicated re-serves of 25 million tonnes at 4.2 per cent zinc, 0.6 per cent lead, 0.5 per cent copper, 130 g/t silver, 0.3 g/t gold, and inferred resources of 57 million tonnes at 3.0 per cent zinc, 0.5 per cent lead, 0.4 per cent copper, 100 g/t silver, 0.2 g/t gold.

Petroleum resourcesnunavut contains oil-bearing sedimen-

tary basins, both onshore and offshore, with similar geology to the oil-producing basins of Western canada and other areas of the world. up to 10 sedimentary struc-tures with potential for oil and natural gas exist offshore between greenland, baffin island, and labrador.

the potential for petroleum in nuna-vut is high and comes with significant economic benefits, as yet unrealized. the High arctic is glacially-impacted, climat-ically-challenged and environmentally-sensitive. the debate concerning petro-leum exploration and development in nunavut continues.

For more information visit www.gov.nu.ca/edt or call 1-888-975-5999. n

Iron ore from Baffinland is transported up the tote road on Baffin Island.

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Junior exploration companies working in Yukon continued to brace themselves against unfriendly equity markets. explo-ration spending decreased from $80 mil-lion in 2014 to $63 million in 2015. there were 17 drill programs in the territory, an increase from the 10 drilled projects of the previous year. of the 85 exploration proj-ects, 11 projects are projected to spend over a million dollars. almost 60 per cent of exploration programs were searching for gold; the remainder for lead, zinc, cop-per, nickel, silver, platinum group metals, and jade. levels of funding for the popu-lar Yukon mineral exploration Program (YmeP) remained at $1.4 million caD. the funds were distributed to 62 placer and hard rock exploration projects to offset exploration costs. the funding was lever-aged into an additional $2.8 million in ex-ploration expenditures in 2015.

Significant exploration projects – precious metals

Kaminak gold corp advanced its coffee property through an injection of $21 mil-lion for its 2015 exploration program. the company continues to work toward feasi-bility, completing 70,000 metres of infill drilling on four of the main deposits in 2015. an updated resource was released in september 2015: 52.4 million tonnes at 1.68 g/t au (2,824,000 oz) in the indicated category and 42.7 million tonnes at 1.52 g/t au (2,088,000 oz) in the inferred cat-egory. engineering work is well underway and the company expects to release its feasibility study in Q1 2016.

atac resources ltd. continued explor-ing its rackla gold property along the

northern margin of selwyn basin. Within the carlin-style nadaleen trend, a rotary air blast drill program at the anubis clus-ter resulted in the discovery of the orion target: arb-15-026 intersected 47.24 me-tres of 3.79 g/t au. Diamond drilling at the conrad zone within the osiris cluster continued to produce significant results, including 3.02 g/t au over 124.96 metres in hole os-15-231. Within the carbon-ate replacement-style rau trend to the west, trenching, drilling, and optimization work recommended in the tiger Deposit Preliminary economic assessment (sep-tember 2014) were carried out. the 2015 program was designed to advance the project towards prefeasibility. it included four geotechnical drillholes and 14 infill and expansion diamond drillholes (1,400

metres) in order to better define the near-surface portion of the gold deposit.

Wellgreen Platinum ltd carried out recommendations from its march 2015 Preliminary economic assessment (Pea) for the Wellgreen Pgm-ni-cu project in southwest Yukon, including infill and offset diamond drilling to upgrade and bring unclassified material into the min-eral resource estimate. the 2015 Pea characterized the project as an open-pit operation yielding 208,800 ounces of platinum group metals+gold and 128 mil-lion pounds ni+cu in concentrate annu-ally over the first 16 years. milling for the first five years would be 25,000 tpd, and conventional sulphide flotation would be used to produce concentrates for ship-ping via deep sea ports in southern alaska.

Geologists at the Plateau South property.

YuKON MINING HIGHLIGHTS

committed to a sustainable systemAn overview of yukon’s minerAl industry in 2015Submitted by the Yukon Geological Survey, Department of Energy, Mines and Resources, Government of Yukon


Phase 2 work on the project, begun late in 2015, and continuing into 2016, involves prefeasibility-level metallurgical work, en-gineering and baseline environmental and socio-economic assessment studies.

rockhaven resources ltd spent over $4 million exploring its Klaza epithermal gold-silver property in the historic mount nansen mining district in west-central Yukon. the program included 13,738 me-

tres (56 holes) of diamond drilling within and below the current resource on the high-grade western brX and drilling at the Klaza and bYg zones. the company conducted substantial environmental and engineering data in support of future per-mitting applications.

alexco resources ltd.’s 2015 explora-tion program focused on drill-definition of the bermingham silver-lead-zinc de-

posit (2,595 metres, eight holes); Dia-mond Drillhole K-15-0580 intersected an impressive 7462 g/t ag over 4.98 metres (true thickness). updated resource es-timates were released in april 2015 for bermingham (6.0 moz indicated and in-ferred) and Flame & moth (30.7 moz silver – indicated and inferred). the company has made progress on re-engineering and permitting for its Flame & moth deposit,

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE GOVERNMENT OF YUKON

Camp at Kudz Ze Kayah property. Reverse circulation drill rig at the Wellgreen property.

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three kilometrs west of the bellekeno mine, which is in temporary closure.

the Plateau south property saw contin-ued activity by goldstrike resources ltd. the company spent $1 million exploring with shallow drilling (11 holes, 924.1 me-tres) targeting the gold Dome and gold-stack prospects. at goldstack, a 30 metre step-out (Psgs15-01) from the discovery hole assayed 13.5 g/t au over 17.5 metres. at gold Dome, 17 kilometres east of gold-stack, eight exploratory holes were drilled, with one testing a blind anomaly and re-turning 9.09 g/t au over 1.5 metres near surface and 12.65 g/t au over 0.5 metres at a depth of 117 m (drillhole PsVg15-06).

the boulevard gold property in west-central Yukon saw renewed activity by independence gold corp. a reverse cir-culation program (1,746 metres; 13 holes) tested geochemical soil anomalies with coincident magnetic lows, resulting in

two new discoveries on the property. the best intersections include 7.23 g/t au over 12.2 metres at the new sunrise Zone and 4.25 g/t au over 6.10 metres at the De-nali Zone. independence also carried out ground magnetics and geological map-ping on the property.

the lonestar property of Klondike gold corp was explored with diamond drilling (19 holes, 1,374 metres) on various targets with visible gold in quartz veins. Drillhole ec15-10 near gay gulch intersected 75.6 g/t au over 2.8 metres. the company also carried out a drone orthophoto survey, 1,000 metres of induced polarization and remediated historically disturbed areas.

Victoria gold corp’s eagle deposit in central Yukon is permitted for construc-tion, but the company has deferred a production decision until equity markets recover. immediate attention has shifted toward the olive Zone, two kilometres

north of the eagle deposit. the olive zone lies on the intrusive-sediment contact of a broad northeasterly mineralized trend on the property. metallurgical testing of drillcore from this zone demonstrated fa-vourable heap leach recoveries. although recovery is lower than at eagle, the higher grade at olive may improve the eagle de-posits’ economics. the company plans to calculate an initial resource estimate at olive to be later incorporated into an up-dated feasibility study.

strategic metals ltd. continued to im-prove upon historic work at its Hopper gold-copper skarn-porphyry property. Historic drilling on the property consisted of short drillholes, and much of the drill-core wasn’t analyzed for gold. new ho-rizons of shallowly dipping copper-rich skarn were intersected in deeper holes during the 2015 diamond drill program: DDH 15-01 intersected 12.15 g/t au and

Helicopter staging area at the Klaza property.Future site of the proposed heap leach pad at the Coffee property.

Historic pit at the Bermingham deposit Keno Hill property. Stripped Face for Flame portal Keno Hill property.


0.95 per cent cu over 2.65 metres (true width) 300 metres north-northwest of his-toric drilling.

Significant exploration projects – base metals

selwyn chihong mining ltd. advanced its large lead-zinc sedimentary exhala-tive property along the northwest ter-ritories border in east-central Yukon. the program at the selwyn property included 10,000 metres of drilling in support of a new prefeasibility study to be completed by the end of 2015. the company recently completed a socio-economic participation agreement with the Kaska First nation, on whose territory the property lies. the First nation members will vote on whether to accept the agreement in early 2016.

bmc minerals ltd. acquired the Kudz Ze Kayah volcanogenic massive sulphide (Vms) property in east-central Yukon in early 2015 from teck resources ltd. early season work included relogging 19,000 metres of historic drillcore, 75 line kilo-metres of ground gravity, and a Vtem survey over the property. subsequently, the company completed 23,000 metres of diamond drilling on the abm and gP4F de-posits, both infill drilling and exploratory step-out holes. the overall focus is to ad-vance the project through prefeasibility in 2016.

copper north mining undertook a phased exploration program at its car-macks copper copper-gold property, in west-central Yukon, in support of a pre-feasibility study. Phase 1 consisted of 2,500 metres of infill diamond. Phase 2 of the program involves more in-fill, step-outs and definition of near-surface oxide min-eralization. the company intends to pre-pare an updated resource estimate based on this season’s drilling and continues to work on optimizing the economics of the project.

Hard rock miningthe territory currently has one oper-

ating hard rock mine: capstone mining corp’s minto (copper-gold-silver) mine produced 12,065 t cu, 11,794 oz au and 118,000 oz in the first three quarters of 2015. mill throughput for the first three quarters of 2015 was 3828 tonnes/day at a head grade of 1.36 per cent cu, 5 g/t ag and 0.49 g/t au. the mine continues to

process underground and stockpiled ore while a new zone, minto north, is being developed.

Yukon’s commitmentthe government of Yukon is committed

to providing an attractive investment cli-mate by improving the minerals industry regulatory framework and working with stakeholders to create a responsive, sus-tainable system for mineral development in the territory.

the Yukon geological survey sup-ports mineral exploration and mining by conducting studies and surveys that are regional in scope, including airborne geophysics, geochemical stream sedi-

ment sampling surveys, metallogenic studies, and bedrock mapping projects. a large geochemical levelling and analysis project was undertaken, which involved reanalysis of archived stream sediment samples for most of the mapsheets south of 65 degrees and subsequent statistical analysis of data to generate mineral po-tential interpretative maps. this season marked year two of a metallogenic study to assess the porphyry potential of Juras-sic-aged granitic plutons in south-central Yukon.

For more information on Yukon’s Mineral Resources, visit www.emr.gov.yk.ca/mining n

Rackla gold property looking toward core stacks.


Diamonds continue to be the foundation of the northern mining landscape as the northwest territories (nWt) gets ready to welcome another mine.

When the De beers’ and mountain Province Diamonds joint venture begins producing diamonds from the gahcho Kué project in 2016, it will further solidify nWt’s position as one of the world’s top diamond producing regions. currently, canada is ranked as the third highest dia-mond producing county by value.

the territory’s standing as a world-class diamond producer was further highlight-ed in 2015 by the discovery of a 187.7-car-at, gem-quality rough diamond at the Dia-vik Diamond mine. the Diavik Firefox was unveiled in December 2015.

twenty years before that discovery, the largest staking rush in canadian history spurred by diamond exploration, resulted in exploration and mining companies lay-ing claim to over 26.7 million hectares of the territory for exploration. some of the other valuable mineral deposits found in

the nWt contain gold, tungsten, silver, bismuth, lead, zinc, cobalt, lithium, and rare earth elements. the territory is a vir-tually untapped, world-class storehouse of mineral resources. in fact, the Fraser institute ranks the nWt second best in canada and fourth out of 122 jurisdictions globally in its best Practices mineral Po-tential index. industry perception of nWt policies (regulations, land use restrictions, taxation, political risk, and uncertainty) shows there is room for improvement. nWt is presently ranked 11th in canada and 38th out of 122 jurisdictions globally in the Fraser institutes current Practices mineral Potential index.

a rich history of gold exploration in the north has established the mining indus-try as a cornerstone of the nWt’s econo-my. the mining industry is the territory’s largest private sector employer and con-tributor to the territory’s gross Domestic Product.

Due to its size, distance between com-munities and its limited population, there

are logistical challenges when operat-ing in the nWt, but there are also ample opportunities. the government of the northwest territories (gnWt), working to-gether with business and aboriginal orga-nizations, is taking steps to improve nWt transportation infrastructure to connect opportunities for residents, businesses, in-dustry, and visitors. transportation within the territory is improving every year and the gnWt is advancing business cases for three all-weather road corridors: the mackenzie Valley Highway from Wrigley to norman Wells; an all-weather road from Highway 3 to Whati; and an improved access into the slave geologic Province. these three transportation corridors will support a lower cost of living, improved quality of life, increased resource develop-ment, tourism, and other economic activi-ties.

transportation and shipping between southern canada and nWt regions are multi-modal – air, land, water, and rail. the nWt highway system consists of 2,200 ki-

NWT MINING HIGHLIGHTS

the northwest territories works to conquer logisticAl chAllenges As it welcomes industry investmentSubmitted by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Government of the Northwest Territories

unlockinG the

Potential


lometres of all-season highway and 1,625 kilometres of public winter roads. since 1990, the gnWt has improved the unin-terrupted year-round access from 21 per cent to 72 per cent for the nWt popula-tion. improvements for the transportation system are on the horizon with the plan-ning and early construction of new all-season highways aimed to increase access to even more nWt regions. an all-season road that is under construction between inuvik and tuktoyaktuk, on the coast of the arctic ocean, means the canadian highway network will finally reach from coast to coast to coast.

marine transportation is vital to the nWt. With 14 federally owned and oper-ated community marine facilities along its numerous shorelines, extensive federal marine support services, and several ex-perienced nWt-based marine carriers, the mackenzie river is a key shipping route for all sectors of the nWt.

shipment by rail is also an option in the nWt, with canada’s northernmost rail service stretching 311 kilometres from northern alberta to Hay river, which is situated on the south side of great slave lake and connected to the nWt highway and marine systems. the nWt rail system was constructed from 1961 to 1964 by the government of canada to support base metal mining operations in the Pine Point area.

the gnWt’s mineral Development strategy seeks to support and advance sustainable mining in a way that respects aboriginal rights and the environment. the nWt welcomes socially and environ-mentally-responsible companies and in-vestment that recognize and contribute to the economic opportunities available from a vibrant mining sector.

Exploration news highlights

Diamondscanada’s nWt portion of the slave geo-

logical Province, an area of land between great slave lake and the arctic ocean, is seeing renewed diamond exploration activity by several companies, including arctic star, canterra minerals, Denendeh exploration and mining, Kennady Dia-monds, Dominion Diamonds, margaret lake Diamonds, north arrow minerals, olivut resources, Prima Diamonds and Proxima Diamonds.

several of these companies and one prospector received funding from the gnWt’s mining incentive Program (miP) in 2015 to assist with their diamond ex-ploration programs.

canterra has several properties be-tween the snap lake mine and the gah-cho Kué project. margaret lake Diamonds continues to explore its margaret lake property and has an option to earn up to

a 49 per cent stake in canterra’s adjoining marlin lake property.

Kennady Diamonds is concentrating its work on delineating the Kelvin and Fara-day kimberlites at its Kennady north Proj-ect. in July 2015, the company reported a 0.93-tonne sample of Faraday 2 kimberlite averaged 1.93 carats of diamonds per tonne. in august 2015, Kennady reported that a 433-tonne bulk sample from the southeast lobe of the Kelvin kimberlite graded 2.02 carats of diamonds per tonne and in october 2015, the company an-nounced the parcel of diamonds from this bulk sample had an average value of about us$ 68 per carat.

in December 2015, Kennady Diamonds announced an average sample grade of 2.79 carats per tonne yielded from 12.8 tonnes of Kelvin north lobe core samples processed throughout 2015. Kennady is planning an approximate 500 tonne bulk sample on the Kelvin north lobe in win-ter 2016 with results expected to deliver more than 1,200 carats to support rev-enue modelling for the Kelvin kimberlite. subject to the successful completion of the north lobe bulk sample, the compa-ny also plans to recover an approximate 200-tonne bulk sample from the Faraday

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRY, TOURISM AND INVESTMENT, GOVERNMENT OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES


2 kimberlite. Kennady Diamonds will com-mence a preliminary economic assess-ment (Pea) in early 2016 for Kelvin. the company recently secured $48 million of private investment and is fully funded to the end of 2017 when it expects to be in a position to make a decision on building the first mine at Kelvin.

Proxima Diamonds completed magnet-ic surveys on its properties and has identi-fied an anomaly that it plans to drill 350 metres northwest of the t-10 kimberlite on its sancy property.

north arrow has an option to earn a 55 per cent stake in arctic star’s redemption project. ground magnetic surveys were

completed and several drill-ready targets will be tested this winter. north arrow is also joint-ventured with Dominion Dia-mond corp. on its lac de gras project.

Gold and base metalsterraX minerals has carried out exten-

sive drilling on its Yellowknife city gold Project and has discovered additional ar-eas of mineralization while intersecting significant high-grade gold values just north of Yellowknife, the nWt’s capital, in the Yellowknife greenstone belt that once hosted multi-million ounce gold mines. the project has the added benefit of be-ing all-season road accessible and within 15 kilometres of Yellowknife. the com-pany plans to complete a resource esti-mate in early 2016. also in the Yellowknife area, Panarc resources has mapped and performed geophysics and is planning a drill program. both terraX and Panarc re-sources received funding in 2015 from the gnWt miP.

nighthawk gold is active on its indin lake and colomoc, properties that con-tain an inferred mineral resource estimate to 2.1 m ounces of gold. in 2014, night-hawk completed the drilling of 13,649 me-tres on the colomac main, goldcrest, Kim and cass gold zones with the goal of veri-fying past results, upgrading the resource and identifying expansion opportunity. results included the best drill result ever for nighthawk with 52.5 m grading 7.78

grams gold per tonne from the colomac sill and extension of the zone for 700 me-tres. in addition, historic drill core from the Kim deposit was sampled and resulted in encouraging assays. in 2015, nighthawk completed a 3,000-metre follow-up drill program at colomac and expanded gold mineralization at Zones 1.5 and 1.0.

other recipients of miP funding in-clude ggl resources, which is exploring its Providence greenstone belt property, and Demco, which is exploring its camsell river Property. resampling of historic drill core in 2014 on the camsell river property resulted in a 65.5-metre intersection that graded 0.51 per cent copper equivalent.

Following results of a 2015 under-ground exploration drilling program, ca-nadian Zinc corporation’s increased the mineral resource tonnages by 35 per cent at its zinc-lead-silver Prairie creek mine. the mine life is currently 11 years. the company is presently seeking regulatory approval for a proposed all-season road from the liard Highway to its site. another advanced base metal project is Fortune minerals limited’s cobalt-bismuth-gold-copper nico Project. nico has proven and probable reserves that total 33 mil-lion tonnes of cobalt, bismuth, gold, and copper that could support a 20-year mine life but will need a road to ship concen-trate out from site. Feasibility studies, test mining, pilot plants and environmental assessment have already been com-pleted. both companies are working to finance their projects.

several other nWt advanced mineral exploration projects are: avalon rare met-als’ nechalacho rare earth Project, selwyn chihong’s selwyn Project and seabridge’s courageous gold Project. nechalacho is a rare earth elements deposit with mineral resources to support an estimated mine life of 20 years. selwyn is the largest un-developed zinc-lead project in the world and has a proposed 11-year mine life. the seabridge project hosts the Fat deposit, one of canada’s largest undeveloped gold deposits. modeled as an open pit mine, it has an anticipated mine life of 15 years and proven and probable gold reserves of 6.5 million ounces.

in addition to requiring additional per-mits to enter a production scenario, these projects combined require in excess of $3 billion in financing. n

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NuNAVuT CHAMBER OF MINES

FindinG optimismplAying in nunAvut’s minerAls industry is tough, but the rewArds cAn be sky high

By Elizabeth (Liz) Kingston, general manager – Nunavut, NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines

Worldwide commodity markets are volatile and a lack of invest-ment in projects makes these challenging times for the mining in-dustry. canada’s north is not immune to this reality. still, a number of projects in the nunavut territory continue to persevere, despite the many and obvious obstacles – weather, darkness, remoteness, and a lack of infrastructure chiefly among them.

optimism is high for mining growth in nunavut. nunavut (“our land”) is full of resource opportunity with a rich and diverse ge-ology. at least four projects are currently advancing closer to becoming mines in nunavut, representing a variety of products from gold to silver to copper and zinc, and diamonds.

over the last 80 years, nunavut has produced billions in a vari-ety of minerals. significant contributions have come from nuna-vut’s past-producing mines that include the lupin gold mine, the Polaris and nanisivik zinc-lead mines, the rankin nickel mine, and the Jericho diamond mine.

in terms of numbers from now until 2030, nunavut’s poten-tial mines could contribute over $36 billion to nunavut’s gross Domestic Product (gDP); taxes and royalties of over $10 billion and; nearly 100,000 years of person employment with an overall income of $9 billion. not only will governments and nunavut resi-dents benefit, but through the nunavut land claim agreement, the inuit land claims organization nunavut tunngavik inc. would also reap a considerable portion for its inuit beneficiaries.

nunavut’s land claim agreement is one of the most compre-hensive claims in the country. it shares resource management between inuit land claimants and government. it also requires major projects to sign inuit impact benefit agreements. in select-ing lands, the inuit leaders recognized that their future also relies on non-renewable resources. as a result, they built an attractive portfolio by strategically selecting subsurface lands for their po-tential mineral wealth. royalty benefits from some of these lands have now begun to flow.

mining holds great promise to help pave the way to nunavut’s

economic self-reliance. nunavut has two operating mines. agnico eagle mines ltd. (aem) opened meadowbank gold mine in early 2010 as nunavut’s first new gold mine development since the creation of the territory in 1999. Production from meadowbank accounts for roughly 18 per cent of the gDP, reflecting the impor-tance of mining to the territorial economy. the company recently announced it is proceeding with a pit expansion at meadowbank, extending its operating life to 2018.

mary river, nunavut’s newest mine, mined its first iron ore in september 2014. Due to the mine’s remote location, ore was stockpiled until the ice-free shipping season opened, and the first ore was shipped to customers in summer of 2015. the project, owned by baffinland iron mines corp., is located on northern baf-fin island. Due to the quality of the ore, no processing is required before shipping it to market, reducing overall impact to the en-vironment and keeping production costs low. baffinland has ad-opted a phased development strategy for this resource which is critical to prudent, reduced-risk development. the company em-ploys just over 600 people between the port at milne inlet and the mine site itself.

revised federal government projections for 2015 mineral ex-ploration and deposit appraisal spending are “up” in nunavut. natural resources canada’s latest semi-annual report Exploration and Deposit Appraisal Expenditures, by Province and Territory (Sep-tember, 2015) shows 2015 spending intentions of $202.5 million in nunavut, an increase of $44.5 million (28 per cent) from $158 million in 2014. the majority of that spending will be on precious metals. senior companies in nunavut are expected to spend the majority at 60 per cent of the total exploration, while 39 per cent of the spending is projected to be on grassroots exploration, with the majority on deposit appraisal. as a share of projected cana-dian investment, nunavut remains in fifth place.

mining projects developing in nunavut include the Doris de-posit at Hope bay where the tmac resources team is pushing for


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gold production by late 2016. aem recently increased its capital budget to keep its meliadine gold project on track for a poten-tial late 2019 startup. sabina gold & silver produced a positive Feasibility study on its back river project. mmg is working on in-frastructure to support development of its izok corridor project. Public hearings on areVa’s Kiggavik uranium mining project were completed although a final decision has not yet been rendered by the federal minister.

there are some great exploration projects in nunavut. aem continues to advance the amaruq gold deposit near its meadow-bank mine. Peregrine Diamonds completed a bulk sample on its promising cH-7 kimberlite near iqaluit, and Kaizen Discovery is using “new eyes” to revisit copper properties previously explored by others. north arrow minerals completed a bulk sample on its Q1-4 kimberlite and Kivalliq energy continued to advance its an-gilak uranium property.

nunavut offers an attractive and certain regulatory environ-ment. there are number of regulatory improvement initiatives underway in the north. launched in 2009, the government of canada’s northern regulatory improvement initiative is helping to complete land claim obligations and create timely, consistent and certain processes. increasing participation in the industry by aboriginal governments and businesses is a positive sign for the future. Federal bill c-47, the Northern Jobs and Growth Act created nunavut’s first ever dedicated environmental legislation, the Nun-avut Planning and Project Assessment Act. the act, which became law on July 9, 2015 (nunavut Day), establishes a proven, highly-

efficient “single-entry” system which promotes the concept of a “one-project – one-assessment” approach to resource develop-ment projects and land use planning approval. legislated time-lines in the act promise process efficiency.

nunavut’s policy makers are taking an equally pragmatic view of the future. the inuit have produced a progressive mining Policy which helps reinforce investment certainty. in 2007, the govern-ment of nunavut released a positive mineral exploration & mining strategy. then, in 2012, through public consultation, the govern-ment was able to reinforce a supportive nunavut uranium Policy. also underway, the nunavut Planning commission is working to-wards establishing a final nunavut land use Plan.

all of these developments send the signal that mining is wel-come in nunavut. However, a lack of infrastructure plagues the territory and is a major cause of high production and exploration costs. With government-sponsored transportation networks such as roads, port facilities, and airstrips, nunavut would be in a posi-tion to provide easier and cheaper access to not only support ex-panding exploration programmes and new mining development, but also lower the cost of living for communities.

the chamber of mines continues to advocate and educate on behalf of the northern minerals industry. We remain confident that by working together, we can help our industry rebound and recover. For more information on the mining and exploration industry in nunavut, contact elizabeth Kingston at: [email protected], or visit www.miningnorth.com. You can follow the chamber on twitter @miningnorth. n


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explorAtion mAy be down, but not outBy Tom Hoefer, executive director, NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines

NorthwestTerritories

the year 2015 found us in very challenging times, and the nWt is not immune to what’s happening elsewhere on the globe. Declin-ing markets are affecting our mining industry directly, and the fall-out of weak markets is that exploration investment also takes a hit. compounding that, investors’ aversion to risk has not improved, helping contribute to declining exploration financings.

the nWt continues to be a major global producer of diamonds, and mining continues apace at our three diamond mines. Kim-

berley Process statistics show that the nWt continues to be the third most valuable producer of diamonds in the world, and has moved up to number four in terms of carats mined. nWt diamond production in 2014 was 11.3 million carats, up nearly 15 per cent from the previous year. the price our miners fetched for their rough stones was also up 15 per cent from the year previous at just shy of $1.8 billion. since mining contributes a lot of northern jobs, businesses, and tax benefits, we are hoping that diamond price reductions the mines are facing this year won’t significantly affect these.

unfortunately, our tungsten mine hasn’t fared so well. as the markets for that commodity fell, the mine was pushed below profitability. as a result, the mine is being put on care and main-tenance until markets improve. but cantung has proven to be a survivor, and past market downturns have affected it similarly. We are hopeful that the mine will re-open at some future time as markets allow.

looking ahead, construction of the nWt’s fourth diamond mine, gahcho Kué, continues on plan and budget for first produc-tion in the second half of 2016. the project is a joint venture be-tween De beers (51 per cent) and mountain Province Diamonds (49 per cent). at the time of writing, the project was reportedly

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more than 70 per cent complete. the over $800-million invest-ment to construct the mine is very welcome in the north. its ex-pected 12-year mine life should help keep those benefits robust, and keep the nWt a global diamond mining force for many more years to come.

this coming year may also see a return to some gold produc-tion, albeit from a small operation. new Discovery mines has re-

ceived final permits to install and operate a 100-tonne-per-day mine and mill complex at their mon property just north of Yel-lowknife.

attracting exploration investment continues to be problem-atic. natural resources canada projects that spending in 2015 will be down to $93 million, a drop of $8.7 million (nine per cent) from 2014 expenditures of $101.7 million. but while exploration may be down, it’s not out.

the most active exploration is at Kennady lake, an area of high diamond potential adjacent to the gahcho Kué mine currently under construction. Kennady Diamonds inc (KDi) has outlined a significant kimberlite resource and in november outlined an ambitious two-year vision that includes defining up to 16 million tonnes of resource at two to 2.5 carats per tonne at their Kelvin – Faraday kimberlites, to define resources at the mZ and Doyle kim-berlites, to discover additional kimberlites, and to build a mine. they are also very bullish on their ability to finance, and want to be fully funded to support a decision to build at the end of 2017. that the president of KDi also heads up the joint venture partner in the new gahcho Kué mine is likely not lost on investors.

two other explorers are investing in the shadow of former gold producers.

terraX minerals continues to uncover highly-anomalous gold values in the Yellowknife gold belt, north of the former giant gold mine, through both prospecting and drilling. this summer, ter-raX acquired additional claims but now south of the former con gold mine, putting them into control of one of the six major high-grade gold camps in canada – and the least explored according to


terraX. its two past producing mines yielded 14.2 million ounces at an average grade of 16 g/t au over their 60-year life span; and being in close proximity to Yellowknife, terraX’s project is close to vital infrastructure, including transportation, service providers, hydro-electric power and skilled tradespeople.

some 200 kilometres to the north, nighthawk gold conducted a diamond drill program this year on their indin lake project, site of the past producing colomac gold mine. the company now

holds most of the land in the gold belt, where they continue to identify and explore a number of interesting gold targets. latest figures show an inferred mineral resource estimate of 39.81 mil-lion tonnes with an average grade of 1.64 g/t au for 2.101 million oz gold using a cut-off grade of 0.6 g/t gold.

a number of smaller exploration projects are underway in the nWt for diamonds, gold, and base metals by companies in-cluding canterra, Demco, Proxima Diamonds, Panarc resources, north arrow minerals, and songful resources. While it’s a far cry from what we need and wish for exploration activity, given the current situation, we are happy for the investment.

recognizing industry’s challenges, the nWt government (or gnWt) is trying to make a difference. this year under the guid-ance of their new mineral Development strategy, the gnWt awarded exploration assistance grants under the mining incen-tive Program, announced mineral tenure relief, created a mineral industry advisory board, and announced plans for a core library. the government also partnered with industry members and ab-original groups to deliver three prospector training programs in an attempt to reinvigorate an aging prospecting fraternity with younger blood. With continued focus on aboriginal communi-ties, the program can not only help provide new opportunities but also new exploration eyes throughout the territories. the nWt government has also unveiled a 25-year transportation strategy, which looks to develop three priority transportation corridors that will help with resource development: the mack-enzie Valley Highway, an all-weather tlicho road, and improved access into the slave geologic Province from Yellowknife to nun-avut.

With the fall elections now over, the chamber of mines and is members will be renewing their work with the new govern-ments to seek improvements in the nWt’s investment climate. given that the territory’s economy is taking a financial hit due to the depressed market prices and lowered exploration expendi-tures, voices of support for mining exploration and development are growing stronger. along with some of the most attractive ge-ology on the planet, that kind of support can go a long way in reinvigorating investment in the nWt. n

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DRONES TO DRILLS

drones used for explorAtion, monitoring, And mArketing in the yukon

By Kylie Williams

“send in the drones” is not a statement shawn ryan ever imagined would pass his lips when he began prospecting in the Yukon almost 18 years ago. today, it’s sec-ond nature.

ryan is a well-known and highly-suc-cessful prospector who kick-started the Yukon’s second gold rush in 2009 when soil samples he collected “lit up” and ulti-mately lead to the discovery of the White gold and coffee deposits.

now, using aerial mapping drones, lightweight mobile drills, and gigabytes of carefully collected data he’s combining traditional hard work and good science with new technology to reshape the way we explore canada’s Yukon and beyond.

Drones to drillsryan was one of the first people to im-

port a professional ebee aerial mapping drone from swiss company, senseFly, in 2012. this autonomous drone weighs less than a kilo, stays in the air for almost an hour and covers 1.5 square kilometres in a single flight.

“We can launch it from a helicopter pad in a treed forest and it will come back in and land on that pad,” says ryan.

ryan and the team at ground truth ex-ploration have now flown over 700 drone surveys. they are increasing the odds of future discoveries by perfecting their fast and efficient “Drones to Drills” approach, a new, high-tech process designed to find the rich deposits of gold and copper the Yukon keeps hidden under cover.

normally it takes a large team of work-ers with helicopters and heavy equipment two field seasons and up to $750, 000 to follow up on a promising soil anomaly. However, the commando-style ground truth exploration team can survey the same area for $100,000 in less than two and a half weeks, any time of year.

using geo-referenced aerial pho-tographs collected by the drone, the ground truth exploration team plan and execute a geophysical survey then send in their custom-built drills, including their purpose-built, track-mounted gt probe.

“We’re able to collect 40-50 holes per

day with the gt probe, sampling as we go,” says ryan.

this quick, low-impact process saves time and money and it’s not just the ge-ologists who benefit either, but everyone involved in exploration and land manage-ment in the Yukon.

Beyond geological applicationsWhile the detailed images collected by

drones can locate outcropping rock and

drones toDrills


even fist-sized hand samples for explora-tion geologists, they’re also a practical and inexpensive way for mining inspec-tors or First nations groups to monitor exploration and mining activity.

by surveying the ground before work begins and again during and after the project wraps up, drone images can be used to visualize and even quantify how much ground is disturbed.

“it’s like a report card and it’s non-inva-sive to begin with,” explains ryan.

Images that sellin addition to these environmental

monitoring applications, ryan recognises the importance of presenting scientific data to the decision-makers, marketing teams and investors in a digestible format too.

“the beauty of this system is that we can take a drone image, make a beautiful 3D model and send it to the customer in google earth format. they don’t have to be gis-savvy to view it,” he says.

raising money is what keeps explora-tion projects moving forward. a mix of solid scientific data and quality presenta-tion materials should inspire fundraising in non-geological audiences too.

The next wavelooking ahead, ryan sees some inter-

esting 3D visualization methods coming from the gaming in-dustry but he’s cer-tainly not sitting back waiting for the lat-est gadgets.

technology may have put ryan to the head of the pack but he warns that it isn’t a magic bullet. the technology responsi-ble for the next big discovery in the Yukon has probably already been in-vented and is just waiting for a savvy explorer to apply it the right way to the right problem.

“if we don’t change how we do it, we’re not going to find anything.” n

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exploration companies may know their patch of ground inside-out, but each tenement is just one piece in a giant geo-logical puzzle. someone needs to put the pieces together, especially when the re-sulting picture could direct explorers to new deposits of gold and copper in an area as rich as the tintina gold belt that stretches across Yukon and alaska.

a team of researchers working hard to deconstruct and re-assemble these pieces can be found at the mineral Deposit re-search unit (mDru) in Vancouver. they have been studying the diverse inventory of mineralization styles in the area since the 1990s and are working hand-in-hand with exploration companies and geologi-cal surveys to better understand the geo-logical features that control mineraliza-tion: providing answers to the essential what, when, and where questions that will uncover future discoveries.

in 2009, exploration-mania hit the Yu-kon for the second time since the gold rush of 1896. newly-appointed mDru Di-

rector, Dr. craig Hart, and veteran Yukon researcher, Dr. Jim mortenson, visited the brand new White gold district that year and recognized that it was a new miner-alization style, unlike anything they had seen in Yukon or alaska before.

a conversation with adrian Fleming, then ceo of underworld resources who owned the White gold project at the time, resulted in a new company-sponsored project for mDru researchers in the Yu-kon. this project grew into the Yukon gold Project, a two-year program involving 11 industry partners, nine mDru students and researchers, and a $1.7-million bud-get with support from government sur-veys and research programs.

Exploring challenging terrainmDru research associate, Dr. murray

allan, who cut his teeth exploring the margins of the giant Pebble porphyry copper deposit and the alaska range, was brought on board soon after to co-ordinate mDru’s Yukon gold Project. His

northern experience prepared him for the unique challenges faced by explorers in western Yukon and eastern alaska.

“this part of the cordillera is poorly exposed. the land surface was never scraped clean by ice so there are thick and ancient soils that obscure the bedrock. We only have access to maybe one per cent of the rock information at the surface. it’s thousands of square kilometres of dirt, ba-sically,” explains allan.

MINERAL DEPOSIT RESEARCH uNIT

By Kylie Williams

FittinG thePieceshow mdru is uniting explorers in the yukon to Assemble the discovery puzzle


aside from this blanket of soil, the inter-national border presents a big challenge to explorers and researchers too. some maps on the alaska side were made in the 1970s, before the advent of airborne mag-netic surveys.

“if you take the maps literally and put them side by side, almost always you see a ‘map fault’. the geology doesn’t necessar-ily agree terribly well across the border,” says allan.

the mDru have since identified new fault systems that cut across the border by reinterpreting the geology using subsur-face magnetic and gravity data. they’re also developing a “metallogenic frame-work”; a roadmap to help explain how the gold formed, when it formed and, most importantly, where it formed.

“Without a geological understanding of where, why, and when the gold formed, you can only get so far. the role mDru

has played is understanding the geology better so we can make reliable predictions about where there might be viable targets in the future,” says allan.

this information also has implications for processing the ore after it is mined. building up a better understanding the minerals in the rocks and how those min-erals fit together directly impacts how ore is processed and leads to cost saving methods during processing.


Collaboration is the solutionbuilding on the successes of the Yukon

gold Project, mDru launched two new projects in 2014 and began two new proj-ects: the Yukon-alaska metallogeny project, supported by Kaminak gold corporation, sumac mines ltd. and the Yukon geological survey, and the Yukon coffee gold project, also supported by Kaminak gold corpora-tion, and nserc.

Kaminak are supportive of the valuable work mDru are doing in the Yukon. their flagship coffee gold project, and similar de-posits elsewhere in the White gold district, were discovered through meticulous, grid-ded soil sampling in 2009-2010 and repre-

sent a new breed of deposit style for the Yukon they’re keen to know more about.

“Frankly as an industry we still don’t know too much about how they formed and what the geological controls were. We want to find more coffees and mDru will help us understand where and what to look for,” says tim smith, Kaminak’s vice-president for exploration on the cof-fee gold project.

like most exploration companies, Ka-minak are not out to achieve a technical success. Primarily they are driven by the economic realities of building a mine but they still recognize the importance of good science to the next discovery.

“With mDru on board we can trust a huge chunk of the science to a group of world experts in the field of metallogeny and ore paragenesis, while we get on with the boring stuff like drilling holes to sup-port our ongoing mining feasibility study,” says smith.

the mDru actively seeks company sup-port to stretch their research dollars fur-ther too.

“companies can host us in remote areas that we’d never be able to get to or afford to get to without them, but there’s also dozens of amazing company geologists in the field. We’re able to assimilate huge amounts of information based not just on

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what we observe but what the company geologists are observing too,” says allan.

The Nucleus-Revenue storyso what do research geologists contrib-

ute that the company geologists cannot? companies usually don’t measure the age of the rocks on their properties. by dating rocks from the various deposits they work on, mDru are able to connect settings where the gold or copper was formed at a similar time in geologic history, creating a regional model for exploration.

“For example, the casino porphyry cop-per project in the Yukon is a huge, unde-veloped deposit that is about 75 million years old. We were able to demonstrate to northern Freegold that nucleus-revenue are essentially the same age, and there are about half a dozen other systems of the same age on trend. so there’s a story in there that companies can latch on to and apply to exploration,” says allan.

Silver anniversarysuccess stories like this have seen

mDru through several industry down-

turns and kept them at the forefront of industry-driven exploration for 25 years.

“We cannot exist in an academic bubble so we need to stay relevant, and the com-panies demand that. each project comes with a set of deliverables, typically on a very short time line, so we like to execute

our projects more quickly than is typical for a university environment,” says allan.

this research, industry and survey sym-biosis is sure to continue. everyone has a role to play in assembling the geological puzzle because the final picture is far too valuable to leave unfinished. n

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GEOPHYSICS AND LIGHTNING

assessinG the saFety riskselectricAl geophysics And lightningBy Dennis Woods

the risk of electrocution from high-pow-ered generators and transmitters is one of the primary considerations when as-sessing safety in electrical geophysical surveys, along with all of the other com-mon safety risks inherent in mineral ex-ploration field work – driving accidents on remote back-roads and trails; turning an ankle, or worse, while hiking through the bush; dangerous situations around helicopters and drill rigs; boating acci-dents; the list is long. However, one of the most significant risk factors of field work, and one that is often overlooked, is being hit by lightning. this is particularly true for electrical geophysics surveys because such surveys inherently have a lot of wire strung out across the countryside. all this wire naturally acts as perfect grounding for lightning, there is no way around it, and since a single bolt of lightning con-tains enough energy to power a typical geophysical survey for about a half a year, it is easy to see the danger posed by light-ning for an electrical geophysics survey crew.

Worldwide, lightning is the cause of about 24,000 deaths per year, and for each

death, an additional 10 people are injured. While injury and death by lightning is still relatively rare, it cannot be ignored for field workers or anyone spending a major-ity of their time outdoors, and especially for workers on electrical geophysical sur-veys.

to better understand the risk, we need to look deeper into the numbers. canada receives over two million lightning strikes per year on average – that’s almost four strikes every minute of every day on aver-age. but the vast majority of these strikes

occur over the summer months, with July being the most active month.

Worldwide, the lightning death rate ranges from 0.3 to six deaths per million people per year. and the statistics are clear – the more time spent outside in the sum-mer months, the greater the risk. While lightning represents a very small risk com-pared with others such as vehicular acci-dents, when your plans and activities take you outside in the summer months, you are wise to consider lightning safety.

the canadian government website of-fers the following suggestions for light-ning safety:• Toplanforasafeday,checktheweath-

er forecast first• Watch the skies for developing thun-

derstorms and listen for thunder• Gettoasafeplace• Do not handle electrical equipment,

telephones, or plumbing• If onwater, get to shore as quickly as

possible• Ifcaughtoutdoorsfarfromshelter,stay

away from tall objectsFor a business whose specialty it is to

collect electrical and electromagnetic data, often in remote locations, some of these safety measures are particularly challenging. electrical resistivity geo-physical surveys involve the placement

Figure 1.

Figure 2.


of many kilometres of insulated wire, and the use of a high-power generator and a transmitter. this electrical equipment, and in particular, the wire, can act as a collec-tion system for electrical energy – the wire is, after all, designed to transmit electric-ity. so when lightning strikes anywhere along or near to the path of the wire, a part of the energy can easily be carried through the wire to the entire working area. and since our field crews are almost always working in the vicinity of the wire, this creates added risk to the crew mem-bers. in addition, it is common for a field crew to be working in areas where there a lots of lakes and swamps, so the need to evacuate from a lake may be required.

Lightning strike incidenta couple of years ago, one of our survey

crews was in the early stages of carrying out a large electrical resistivity survey in the athabasca basin of northern saskatch-ewan. For this survey, called “pole-pole resistivity”, two long wires extend from the survey towards the east and west, to locations approximately 10 kilometres on either side of the working area. in this way,

the “footprint” of the survey is approxi-mately 20 kilometres.

the crew was just completing produc-tion across a large lake near the centre of the survey grid (see Figure 2) when an electrical storm hit the area. one of the two boats required to complete the lake work was on the lake and the other was

already on shore. recognizing the risk, the field crew stood down, disconnected the wires from the equipment, and the boat returned to shore.

after waiting out the storm, the field crew returned to their positions to resume production. the trailing boat, with two crew members in it, pushed out onto the

Figure 3.

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lake again. Within a few minutes, a rogue lightning bolt struck somewhere in the vicinity of the current wire (red line in Fig-ure 2), and energy from the strike entered the current wire and travelled along the wire to the lake and into the boat where the two crew members were seated. the current operator was positioned very close to the current wire and was leaning against the metal gunnel of the boat. the lightning energy jumped from the wire and went through the arm and back of the operator. We know this, because he sustained burns to his right arm and back. in addition, the current that entered his body interfered with his own electrical system, and he had to be resuscitated by the other crew member in the boat. He has fully recovered from this incident.

as far as we know, this was not a di-rect lightning strike, but the energy was enough to seriously harm a person and could have resulted in a fatality if first aid

had not been quickly administered. there are many lessons to learn from this situa-tion. a full review of the facts and the cir-cumstances surrounding the incident has led to several important improvements to our lightning safety protocol.

Lightning safety measuresWhen electrical storms occur, as we

know they will, we employ lightning de-tector systems that provide early warning of the presence and approach of light-ning. these handheld systems can detect lightning to a distance of many 10s of ki-lometres. a detection at 50 kilometres is an appropriate warning level for a field crew to stand down and take cover. and 30 minutes is an appropriate time to wait after the last instance of lightning or thun-der. lightning detection systems have their limitations, such as topography and rogue strikes, so additional measures are needed to protect the crew.

We have redesigned the way that con-nections are made at junctions and at wire spools. We have minimised the num-ber of exposed wires by utilizing special-ized electrical connectors. but because it is never possible to eliminate all exposed wire, we have established strict new pro-tocol for all crew members to stand well away from all wires, winders, spools, and electrodes, whether actively in use or not. While these measures help, the risk remains for electrocution from rouge lightning strike energy entering wires and other equipment while in use by crew members.

to minimize this risk, Discovery geo-physics has developed a new technology called a lightning shunt. this small elec-tronic box is designed to divert or shunt, sudden high-voltage energy from a wire, into the ground. if extremely rapid, high-voltage, lightning energy enters the sur-vey wires, it will be instantly detected by the lightning shunt, and some or some or all of the energy will be rerouted di-rectly into the ground. We place several of these shunts along the wires throughout the survey area to protect both our crew members and the equipment, at locations where it is possible to make good electri-cal contact with the ground .

A happy endingin prime lightning season last summer,

we had another lightning incident. in this case, the crew members detected an ap-proaching storm and were able to stand down before any sign of lightning and took shelter from the hail storm. However, they did not have time to disconnect the survey wires from the equipment. upon returning to their positions, the crew dis-covered that there had been a lightning strike in the vicinity of the survey wires. the lightning shunts had done their job because several shunts were tripped and the wires around the shunts were burnt, but no other equipment had been dam-aged. the equipment had been protected by the lightning shunt technology. We are pleased to say with confidence that our new lightning safety equipment and procedures have significantly reduced the risk to our field crews. and we urge every-one to be safe when spending time in the great outdoors. n

Worldwide, lightning is the cause of about 24,000 deaths per year, and for each death,

an additional 10 people are injured.

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Weak commodity prices have softened skills shortages and gaps over the past few years, but labour market issues persist for canada’s mining sector.

the 2015 report, Canadian Mining In-dustry 2015 Employment, Hiring Require-ments and Available Talent 10-Year Outlook, includes new information that highlights some of the challenges and inefficiencies in canada’s mining labour market. the re-port outlines that the mining labour gap is closing – but not because we’ve solved the problem.

the findings, published by the min-ing industry Human resources council (miHr), show that the mining labour mar-ket is much tighter than other sectors. For every job vacancy in mining, there are less than three potential job seekers across canada, compared to the average of six job seekers per vacancy for all other industries. less competition among job seekers is an issue for the mining industry, but a good news story for people consid-ering a career in mining.

“a tight labour market puts upward pres-sure on wages and salaries, as employ-ers compete for a limited supply of skilled workers. according to data from statistics canada, earnings in the mining sector have increased nearly 40 per cent in the last de-cade – significantly more than the average for all sectors in canada. layered on to this is mining’s volatile business cycle and the challenges of recruiting people to rural or remote mining operations,” says miHr ex-ecutive Director ryan montpellier. “if unre-solved, this labour market tightness has the potential to undermine the competitive-ness of canada’s mining sector when the cycle does rebound.”

the report also found that the industry is highly dependent on a commuter work-force – those who live in one province but work in another. this is a mining-specific challenge that employers have made sig-nificant efforts to address by building a lo-cal workforce through the attraction of ab-original peoples, however, miHr research shows that this effort is constrained for a va-

riety of reasons including that up to one in four aboriginal people of working age do not actually participate in the labour force.

miHr is estimating the total hiring re-quirements for the coming decade will be between 86,000 and 126,000 workers, depending upon the economic outlook and industry performance, but it is impor-tant to note that the majority of the hiring requirements are to replace existing work-ers, leaving the sector to retirement or to other industries.

in light of this, mining will create be-tween 11,000 and 21,000 new jobs over the next 10 years, depending upon current trends and projected industry growth. should economic conditions worsen, the industry is expected to shed around 6,300 jobs but will still have significant replace-ment hiring requirements.

mining sector employers have to look harder to find the right people as there is fierce competition for skilled and experi-enced workers. each round of hiring is as-sociated with costs including the search for candidates, interviewing, on-boarding, and training costs – all of which add to the cost to keep production levels up and maintain safety standards.

What does this mean for mining employers today?

it means working together to create the future supply of skilled workers and to minimize the inefficiencies in the current labour market. it means being strategic about retention efforts and finding ways to invest in employees, such as through professional development and certifica-tion – even during a closure or downturn situation – because the employees that can support a company through a suc-cessful closure today are also industry’s future talent during an upturn.

MiHR

FindinG the

severAl indicAtors point to A mAlfunctioning mining lAbour mArket

Skills


miHr has developed many programs and resources to assist employers in ad-dressing these Hr challenges: a national mining worker certification program, a pre-employment training program for aboriginal peoples, and a mining ca-reer brand and a suite of diversity tools, to name a few. employers are actively involved in adopting new strategies to address their unique Hr challenges, but in order for the industry to remain com-petitive, emphasis must be placed on in-dustry-wide strategies and solutions that can create long-term change across the sector.

“miHr’s research demonstrates the im-mediate need for governments, educa-tors and employers to work together to address the major human resource chal-lenges facing canada’s mining industry,” says Pierre gratton, President and ceo of the mining association of canada.

To request a copy of Canadian Mining Industry 2015 Employment, Hiring Requirements and Available Talent 10-Year Outlook, visit www.mihr.ca or email [email protected]. n

The mining labour markeT is TighTer Than oTher secTors

A “tight” labour market describes a situation in which the number of available jobs is high, relative to the number of people available to fill them. Employers’ demand for workers has outpaced supply – likely causing wages to rise and unemployment to fall.• Foreveryjobvacancyinmining,therearelessthanthreepotentialjob-seekersacrossCanada,

compared to construction which has more than seven from which to choose. • TheaverageforallindustriesacrossCanadais–sixjob-seekerspervacancy.• Withtheexceptionof2009,theunemploymentrateintheminingindustryhasremainedconsistently lowerthantheCanadianaveragesincethelate1980s–careerseekersneedtoknowthisinformation.


uLTRA-DEEP MINING NETWORK

pullinG toGether For productivitythe ultrA-deep mining network

the centre for excellence in mining inno-vation (cemi) in sudbury has been a cana-dian repository of best practices in mining innovation since 2007. in 2014, it added an exciting, new dimension to its work.

With an injection of $15 million from the federal government’s business-led net-works of centres of excellence (bl-nce) program, the ultra-Deep mining network (uDmn) was established. this network – composed of mining and oil and gas com-panies, mining service and suppliers and academic institutions from across canada – are developing new techniques, tech-nologies, and processes associated with

mining at depth, 2.5 kilometres below the earth’s surface. essentially, the uDmn’s goal is become a global leader in ultra-deep (below 2.5 kilometres) bulk-mining research and innovation, solving the chal-lenges that impact resource extraction in these environments, explains bora ugur-gel, uDmn managing director.

this will be important to enliven an in-dustry which is currently in a bust cycle. However, deep underground metal mines are the source of the specialized metals including nickel, chrome, molybdenum, lead, zinc, platinum, and palladium – that are essential for the modern industrial economy. While the supply of commodity metals such as iron, aluminum, and cop-per generally come from very large open-pit mines, the specialized metals are large-ly produced by deep underground mines. the need to fundamentally shift the de-sign, development and financially feasible operation of underground metal mines is driven by three converging factors: the need for many of the large open-pit cop-per mines in the world to go underground while sustaining unchanged production levels; the need to pursue specialized industrial metals to ever greater depths; and the need to attract a new generation of well-educated, socially-diverse employ-ees.

therefore ultra-deep mining is being

examined as a way to boost productivity in the industry, reduce costs, and re-capture canada’s competitive edge globally. cur-rently there are three of the deepest mines operating in canada: creighton mine in sudbury, Kidd operations in timmins, and laronde in northwestern Quebec all of which are working with uDmn.

With mining at greater depths comes significant challenges. the network has identified four areas which need to be tackled to ensure safety and security of such underground initiatives:1. rock stress risk reduction: improve the

control of stability in deep underground excavations. Projects in this theme ex-plore ways to better measure, antici-pate, mitigate, and manage and even modify built up stresses in the rockmass.

2. energy reduction: the 40 per cent mine; improve the energy consumption pro-file of deep mines. this aims to reduce the energy consumed by mines, specifi-cally for cooling.

3. novel methods of material transport and productivity; increase the rates of development and production in mines. mining companies continuously strive to improve each of the processes in-volved in getting their product to the mill. as their operations expand further underground, it becomes more critical to find these improvements, because

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it will take longer to transport workers and materials into the mine and to the work place.

4. improved human health and effective-ness; enhance the human environment in deep mines. there is a need for the development of effective personal pro-tective gear that will help keep people working within appropriate occupa-tional conditions. Developing systems and technologies that improve com-munication, navigation and the overall well being of the ultra-deep workforce is a priority.the network has solicited project ideas

from across canada to meet these chal-lenges at and to put the viability of deep mining into action. the call for proposals received 65 applicants and selected 28 projects that are underway. to make their selection, they used a technology readi-ness level – a rating of one represents a pure-research/theoretical idea and a rat-ing of nine means the idea is ready for use. selections were made based on mid-range ratings.

implementation of these projects will to deliver a return on investment to the mining industry. theme leaders, change management services, and commercial-ization support services will help these initiatives come to fruition; an industry consultation group has also been estab-lished to ensure ideas and updates are shared between the network and the in-dustry, adds ugurgel. “this will be critical to establish a working relationship among all parties and the level of trust required to achieve our mutual goals and ensure the network tackles industry challenges.”

network members have contributed an additional $31 million to the network’s five-year operational plan. that is a lot of incentive to get it right.

“by supporting solution providers ca-pable of creating the industry-needed tools and technologies in the short term, uDmn will lead the way in helping ultra-deep mines to operate more effectively and safely, generate more value, improve the human environment, and enhance mine productivity,” remarks ugurgel.

as projects develop progress project details will start to be presented at various conferences and lectures. For now, report-ing on the network’s successes and learn-ings will be contained within the network

and industry as the intellectual property will rest with the companies who design the project work.

“it is really about creating maximum benefit for those who are supporting the network to achieve its mandate,” he says. and those who are onboard can be proud; this is an important and unique network in the world.

ugurgel concludes, “the network will help close the commercialization gap by providing members with access to com-mercialization support services and a chance to carry out prototyping and test-

ing at actual mine sites. the private sector will further benefit from the validation of research findings and sharing of knowl-edge through collaboration with the sme and research teams, further increasing the relevance of research projects and the potential for project outputs to be implemented. this will increase industry’s capacity and capability to advance inno-vations to market. ultimately, the uDmn will lead the way for innovations to be commercially viable and build capacity to deliver new technologies to the canadian and global mining industry.” n

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it may be the most significant diamond find in the northwest territories since the gahcho Kué mine was discovered in 1995. and it may very well be the last diamond find for an entire generation – or longer.

Kennady Diamonds inc. continues to move forward on its Kennady north Proj-ect (KnP) – a total of four kimberlites to date that holds the promise of great ex-pectations for the junior mining company. the KnP is located 280 kilometres from Yellowknife and measures approximately 20 kilometres long and 15 kilometres wide. it also happens to be located within five kilometres of the Debeers/mountain Province Diamonds’ gahcho Kué mine, which is currently under development.

and this is where the story begins.

A mine in the makingaccording to Patrick evans, president

and ceo, Kennady Diamonds inc. and mountain Province Diamonds (mPD), the current Kennedy north Project is located within a greater area that was initially

staked by mPD in the early 1990s. the com-pany discovered the first kimberlite on the property in 1995 and entered into a joint-venture partnership with Debeers canada in 1997. the partnership resulted in the dis-covery of an additional seven kimberlites.

in 2006, Debeers canada made the de-cision to pursue only four of the leases on the property, with the others going back to mPD (despite the fact that they had discov-ered two kimberlites on one of the leases).

in 2011, mPD decided to spin off the Kennady north Project as a separate com-pany to avoid any distraction with the joint venture. that company, Kennady Dia-monds inc., was created in February 2012.

shares of Kennady Diamonds began trading on the toronto Venture exchange in July 2012.

“We initially focused on the Kelvin kim-berlite because we thought it had the best potential to have the largest tonnage,” says evans. “We started drilling in the summer of 2012.”

once the company had delineated

much of the Kelvin kimberlite, it moved onto Faraday – which held the promise of possessing the second-largest tonnage.

“in the last year, we have discovered two pipes at Faraday,” adds evans.

The power of processevans anticipates that following the

preliminary diamond valuation last month, the ni 43-101 resources statement on the Kelvin kimberlite will be complet-ed by the end of 2015. the strike covers over 600 metres across to a depth of 350 metres below the surface.

“We expect that the southeast lobe of Kelvin will be an indicated resource and that the north lobe will be an inferred resource,” says evans. “at the end of Janu-ary 2016, we plan to go back and take a further 500 tonne bulk sample from the north lobe of Kelvin. We expect to up-grade all of the Kelvin pipe to an indicated resource within the next year.”

a preliminary economic assessment on Kelvin is expected to be produced in the

NWT DIAMONDS

kennAdy diAmonds inc. continues to move forwArd while severAl other compAnies Are hoping to mAke the next big diAmond discovery in the nwt

By Melanie Franner

Shine On


first half of 2016, followed by an applica-tion for a class a water license (Q3) and a feasibility study (H2 2016). bulk samples of Faraday 1 and 2 are anticipated to be taken in Q1 2017.

a complete feasibility study on Kelvin and Faraday is expected to be undertaken in the second half of 2017.

“the key in all of this is the permitting,” says evans, who adds that the company hopes to make the decision to build by the end of 2017. “it’s the primary hurdle.”

if the permitting goes forward as antici-pated, evans anticipates that production can begin in 2020.

in conjunction with all of this, Kennady Diamonds has begun drilling on the latter two kimberlites: mZ and Doyle.

“the main reason we’re going forward on the mZ and Doyle kimberlites is that we want the class a water license to en-compass all of the mining operations at the Kennady north Project,” says evans.

Great expectationsaccording to evans, the bulk sampling

done to date has shown that the Kelvin

and Faraday kimberlites have about 13 mil-lion tonnes between the three pipes, with Kelvin having the largest of the three. Kel-vin is expected to host somewhere in the region of 12 million tonnes. Faraday is look-ing good for another three million tonnes.

“the mine will be designed to process

one and a half million tonnes/year for 10 years,” says evans, who adds the grade es-timate is between two and 2.5 carats/per tonne. “based on 2 carats per tonne, we anticipate a production level of three mil-lion carats per year.”

evans adds that despite having recently

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Patrick Evans, president and CEO, Kennady Diamonds Inc., at Kennady North.


completed a preliminary valuation, the di-amond sample was too small to accurately model the entire ore body. regardless, ev-ans suggests that a reasonable estimate is $100/c. at 300 million carats/year, that’s a revenue of $300 million/year.

“We know that operating costs at gah-cho Kué are expected to be us$60/tonne,” says evans. “given that, we can estimate that our costs will be us$90 million in total, against a revenue of about us$300 million.”

The last man standingthe Kennady north Project – if it pro-

ceeds – will be the most significant dia-mond discovery since the gahcho Kué mine.

“our project is the only serious diamond exploration taking place in the northwest territories right now,” says evans. “it has taken us three years to get to this point in the exploration process and it will prob-ably take us another year – at a cost of be-tween us$50 and us$60 million – to get us to the point where we can apply for a class a water license. and if that isn’t difficult enough, we could face another four years of permitting.”

evans claims that the northwest territo-ries is the most difficult permitting region

in canada due to federal permitting legis-lation.

“if you are a junior mining company, then the northwest territories is not the most attractive regulatory regime,” he says. “it takes half the time to get permitting in Quebec or even in iqaluit. Yukon and iqalu-it operate under federal legislation as well but it is much more streamlined.”

evans suggests that until the federal government changes its legislation, there won’t be many other junior mining com-panies doing any serious exploration in the nWt.

“in the meantime, junior exploration companies will be looking elsewhere,” he concludes. “and they are already looking elsewhere.”

Corridor of Hope: The hunt for diamonds

Kennady Diamonds is but one of several companies hoping to make the next big diamond discovery in the nWt. several others have committed resources over the years in the search of the next big diamond find. among these are: De beers canada inc., north arrow minerals, canterra miner-als, Demco, Prima Diamonds corp. – and the list goes on. Here is a quick synopsis of

a few of the projects currently on the go.

Proxima Diamonds Corp.Proxima Diamonds corp., a private ca-

nadian company, is well into the hunt for diamonds. since spring 2014, Proxima has staked 17 target areas covering the up-ice origins of 31 unresolved kimberlite indi-cator mineral (Kim) trains with no known kimberlite sources.

exploration in 2015 has focused on two areas: the sancy Project and Proxima.

the sancy Project, located near the northern boundary of the ekati mine leases, hosts several unresolved Kim trains and two kimberlites. gravity surveys con-ducted there as part of a spring multi-component geophysical program identi-fied a compelling drill target 300 metres northwest of the diamondiferous t-10 kimberlite pipe. During the summer, Kim till sampling was conducted on a separate nearby target to define the source of a strong olivine-rich Kim train.

to the south, Proxima is concentrating on the Hortensia, tavernier, and orlov tar-gets between the snap lake and gahcho Kué mines. on each of these properties, the company conducted confirmatory and delineation Kim till sampling to de-fine areas for winter multi-component geophysical surveys early in 2016. Prox-ima also worked on other properties in its target pipeline near Diavik and Hardy lake, and is planning a large winter geo-physical program on its cullinan Project, south of lac de gras in early 2016.

Margaret Lake Diamonds Inc.another diamond player in nWt is

margaret lake Diamonds (mlD) inc. the company owns 100 per cent of the mar-garet lake Diamond Property (subject to tsX Venture exchange approval), which is comprised of 19 mineral claims totalling 48,720 acres contiguous to the north and west of Kennady Diamonds inc.’s Kennady north Project. the claims lie 78 kilometres north of the east arm of great slave lake and are bound to the south by both the Kennady Diamonds and De beers/moun-tain Province Diamonds joint venture.

mlD recently obtained a type “a” land use Permit from the mackenzie Valley and Water board. the permit is good through to may 2020. the company plans to pro-ceed with a drill program this upcoming

Core drilling at Kelvin.


winter to evaluate 12 previously identi-fied high-priority drill targets, which were developed through a state-of-the-art air-borne gravity gradiometry survey. marga-ret lake Diamonds is also earning an inter-est in the adjacent marlin property from canterra minerals.

Olivut Resources Ltd.olivut resources ltd. is also in line to

potentially find diamond deposits in the nWt. the exploration and development company’s principle asset is its 100 per cent interest in the Hoam Project in the interior Plains region. the region is consid-ered to be favourable for the emplacement of diamond-bearing kimberlites. olivut has made 29 kimberlite discoveries to date and has identified additional numerous targets defined for drilling.

the interior Plains region was subjected to little modern exploration techniques prior to olivut’s involvement in the area. High resolution, regional magnetic geo-physical surveys, detailed heli-mag geo-physical surveys, and geochem sampling programs – all conducted by olivut – have since identified several favourable areas for kimberlite occurrence.

a national instrument 43-101 techni-cal report (Filed on seDar December 12, 2014) was written by Paul Pitman, P.geo. and details the merits of the Hoam Project.

Panarc Resources Ltd.Panarc resources is a private company

working on gold and base metal projects in the nWt. the company has conducted geophysical surveys, geological mapping, sampling and diamond drilling on their up town gold project adjoining the giant mine property. geophysical surveys, map-ping and prospecting were conducted on the Fox south showing. Prospecting here returned grab samples up to 30.3 g/t au. at the rod showing, three diamond drill holes were completed, extending the strike of mineralization north of the histor-ic workings. in addition, the open pit was dewatered and the north end of the pro-duction pit was channel sampled. selected samples from the pit returned up to 318 g/t au, the best drill hole results were 20.7 g/t au over 1.20 metres and the best chan-nel sample results were 14.55 g/t au over 1.84 metres. a 300 kilogram bulk sample was also collected for metallurgy tests. n

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GOLDEN PREDATOR

From 1996 until 2002, brewery creek was a productive gold mine in canada’s Yukon territory. the mine was closed in 2002 due to low gold prices and remained inactive until it was acquired by golden Predator in 2009.

Vancouver-based golden Predator has identified the brewery creek project as one of its top priorities and has made advancing it towards production a primary concern moving forward.

the company is bullish about the project’s future and with good reason. a preliminary economic assessment (Pea) con-ducted in 2014 by tetra tech eba inc. indicated the net present value (nPV) to be worth $18.1 million at a gold price of usD$1,150 per ounce and as much as $114.5 million at a price of $1,500 per ounce. meanwhile, total life of mine capital at brewery creek has been estimated at $89.4 million including initial capital, sustain-ing capital, and indirect costs.1

golden Predator ceo Janet lee-sheriff says the mine was and one day will again be a vital part of the fabric of the community of Dawson city.

“We envision a scenario of getting into production, producing some revenue, [and] using the revenue to expand the drilling and keep the mine life going.”

Preliminary test results from the site have been encouraging. in 2013, projections established brewery creek had an updated oxide resource estimate of 14.1 million indicated tonnes at an

average grade of 1.27 g/t au for 577,000 ounces and 9.3 million inferred tonnes at an average grade of 0.94 g/t au for 269,000 ounces.2

lee-sheriff says one of the factors that made brewery creek ap-pealing to golden Predator is that it already has some significant resources in place including buildings and roads and will require far less investment than a new mine.

“a lot of times people get excited about brand new discoveries, green fields gold, brown fields gold... it all sells for the same price. sometimes the best place to find a mine is where there was an old mine,” she explains.

“What we liked about brewery creek was it was advanced, it had operated before, it was proven and proven environmentally. in this tough market it is easier to advance a project like brewery creek with, a capex of under $100 mm, than a much more expen-sive capex.”

another attractive aspect of the brewery creek property is its location. it’s located about 55 kilometres due east of Dawson city and is accessible by paved and gravel road, meaning there is a ready and willing pool of labour located just a short drive away. lee-sheriff estimates the mine could eventually employ as many as 100 people.

the company’s ceo says it will likely take about two years to complete the permitting process once it begins. as to when that might be, lee-sheriff says it will depend largely on financing & market conditions.

Rock sample from surface at 3 Aces. The yellow is all gold and it is throughout the sample.

somethinG Good is breWinG golden predAtor hAs identified the brewery creek And 3 Aces project its top two priorities in the yukonBy Jim Timlick

"Golden predator is excited to get moving on the 3 aces program this

winter, this kind of project comes along once in a lifetime. at least that is what the

geologists say when they see our gold samples from the outcrop at surface. i am

just happy to be working in the region where i initially worked in the yukon 27

years ago. these are great people to work with and a unique part of the world."

Janet Lee-Sheriff

Chief exeCutive OffiCer Of GOLden PredatOr


golden Predator holds a type a water license for brew-ery creek and has a socio-eco-nomic accord in place with the tr’ondek Heech’in. lee-sheriff says there is still some work golden Predator must com-plete before it can begin the permitting process including a new heritage study and some additional water sampling.

the other priority for golden Predator is the 3 aces project, located on the cantung mine road in southeast Yukon. 3 aces is an organic, shear-hosted gold vein system with distinct similarities to the Pogo Deposit in alaska. Vis-ible gold and bonanza grades has been found in quartz vein out-crops with grab samples up to 4,820 g/t gold, 530 kg metallurgical sample returning 260 g/t gold with 97.9 per cent total recovery. a total of 11,000 meters was historically drilled at site, targeting the sleeping giant Zone and main Zone with subsequent large sample (500-800kg) metallurgical tests returning gold recoveries of 93.5 to 98.3 per cent. rab blast hole drilling, in advance of bulk sampling, tested a portion of the sleeping giant vein where pre-vious channel sampling by golden Predator (formerly northern tiger resources ltd.) returned grades up to 3.88 oz/t (132.91 g/t) gold over 22.63 feet (6.9 m).3 4 metallurgical testwork from a 1,366 pound (620kg) sample (sample bs-3a13-03) returned a metallic screen gold assay of 6.29 oz/t (215.5 g/t) gold with reported grav-ity recoverable gold of 78.9 per cent and overall gold recovery of 97.9 per cent.

golden Predator has plans to complete a bulk sample program in February and march 2016 and expects to initially extract, and ship for processing, approximately 600 short tons (500 tonnes) of high grade vein material targeting the top 2.5 feet to 7.5 feet of the vein and may continue to extract additional tonnage within the confines of the permit based on conditions and grade en-countered following the initial blast and excavation.

bulk sampling will provide data on the amount of gold recov-ered by actual milling as compared to the results obtained by

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Janet Lee-Sheriff, chief executive officer of Golden Predator.

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metallurgical testing in the laboratory and the results indicated by recent close spaced rotary air blast drilling. golden Predator signed an exploration memorandum of understanding with the Kaska nation in 2013. n

1 2 ni 43-101 technical report, eb tetra tech, november 19, 2014.3 ntr nr dated august 8, 2012.4 gPY nr dated september 14. 2015.

the first european-bound shipment of iron ore made its way from baffinland iron mines’ mary river mine in august 2015. it was a major breakthrough for all involved and marked the official start of the pro-duction/shipment cycle for the estimated 400-million-tonne deposit.

“the mary river mine, or nuluujak as it is known to the inuit, was first prospected in 1962,” explains tom Paddon, ceo, baf-finland iron mines. “it has remained unde-

veloped until now because the techno-logical means of developing mines in the arctic wasn’t advanced, and many would say that the economic, social, and environmental ability to respon-sibly execute a project like this is also relatively recent development. the rec-ognition that the ore itself is a rather spectacular product certainly helped make it of more interest internation-ally.”

Overcoming all obstaclesthe mary river mine site is one of the

most northern in the world. as such, it comes with a host of challenges.

“our winter temperatures range from minus 40 to minus 50 celsius,” states Paddon. “there are other mines that experience severe cold but it’s usually for only brief periods, in our case the thermometer can bottom out and stay there. add to that the 24 hours of dark-ness that you get in the winter months and the safety of people working at our operation needs special consideration.”

according to Paddon, the winter con-ditions necessitate having appropriate redundancies within the system and re-acting quickly to changes in the weather and conditions. as a final backstop, the operation keeps a plane at site at all times in the event of a medical emer-gency.

“it’s all about being well prepared,” he says.

this need for preparedness came to the fore during the 2013/2014 winter construction season.

“We worked through that first winter with very little in the way of infrastruc-ture,” explains Paddon. “People were working on heavy equipment outside during the winter months because we didn’t have any maintenance buildings

MARY RIVER MINE

bAffinlAnd swings into productionBy Melanie Franner


Look Up – Way Up

at that point. likewise, we were construct-ing the camp in which people now live; at the time, the workforce was living in tents. and we made it through that whole winter without a single case of frostbite. i think that’s a testament to the people do-ing the work and the efforts made to en-sure their safety.”

Proper personnelbeing able to set up an operation in

canada’s most northerly environment is no easy task. but it’s made easier if you have the right people on hand.

“When we were developing the project, we recruited people who had previous experience in building and running proj-

ects in the north,” says Paddon, who adds that some of these people came from ekati and Diavik in the northwest territo-ries, Voisey’s bay in nunatsiavut, raglan in nunavik, and Polaris in nunavut. “once we had assembled the team, we had people with good insight into the requirements to construct the site and live up here, not to mention how to operate in extremely cold conditions.”

the current workforce at mary river operates on a two-week fly-in-fly-out ro-tation with about 400 workers on site at any given time.

“approximately 200 inuit work at the project and are already used to the cli-mate so they’re best prepared for the weather conditions,” says Paddon, who adds that the closest community is 160 kilometres away. “We’d like to see more people coming from the five closest inuit communities and believe it would be in both our and north baffin’s interests for this to happen. remote site work means time away from home and it’s not for everyone but we’ll continue to try to in-crease the amount of local participation in the project.”


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to help employees from the local popu-lation adjust to camp life, baffinland em-ploys inuit elders, who provide counsel to those inuit experiencing difficulty in coping with the situation. the company also provides a separate kitchen and food storage area to ensure inuit can prepare traditional foods.

“Working at a remote site means six

months a year away from home and we encourage people to think carefully about the implications,” says Paddon. “For those it suits, it suits very well. Having two weeks off every fortnight can be great. but it is an isolated site.”

that being said, Paddon is quick to add that although there is no community lo-cated near the mary river mine site, the

people working there have done a great job in making the workplace a friendly and hospitable one.

“People here take care of themselves, of others and the equipment,” he says. “it may be a challenging environment but people make strong friendships.”

In productionmary river mine officially began produc-

tion in 2015 – although it is still ramping up to full production levels. it is currently per-mitted to produce 3.5 million tonnes per year (mt/a), but it won’t reach that for 2015.

“right now, we’re still in the early reve-nue Phase,” states Paddon. “ it’s intended to test out the project, to get us into produc-tion and to demonstrate that the project is viable.”

From there, Paddon says the mine will aim to increase production in incremental stages – until it reaches the anticipated 18 mt/a production rate. the nunavut impact review board (nirb) has already issued a Project certificate for full-scale devel-opment of the mine’s Deposit no. 1 for a production rate of 18 mt/a, but it is based on the development of a railway link to steensby Port and the development of the port itself.

“it doesn’t make sense to take on the development of a railway to the south at this point,” says Paddon. “it’s a very capital-intensive project with a lot of significant upfront costs. given the pricing changes in the global iron ore market, it’s not some-thing that we choose to pursue at this par-ticular point in time.”


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but Paddon is interested in increasing production rates through other means.

“right now, we’re shipping ore only dur-ing the open-water months from July to oc-tober,” he explains. “to ensure the project is viable in the projected future marketplace, we need to ship during the winter months as well, which means shipping through ice. this means an evolution in the project and

requires significant communication with and careful understanding from all stakeholders.”

according to Paddon, it’s a process in which the company is already engaged.

“We intend to increase the amount of mining, crushing, hauling and shipping that we’re currently doing,” concludes Paddon. “it’s stage-wise process and we’re looking at doing it in incremental steps.”

if all goes well, however, the totality of these steps will see the current production rate rise to 12 mt/a in the coming years and eventually beyond that. until then, however, the mary river mine will con-tinue to defy the harsh northern climatic conditions to produce a high-grade iron ore product – one that is in high demand all over the world. n


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VICTORIA GOLD CORP.

next biG thinGvictoriA gold corp.’s eAgle gold project

Victoria gold corp.’s eagle gold Project is a proposed, shovel-ready, open-pit, in-valley heap, gold project that will produce approximately 200,000 ounces of gold per year over a 10-year mine life making it the largest gold mine in Yukon history.

the eagle gold Project is located in cen-tral Yukon which is recognized as a safe mining jurisdiction with over a century-long history of gold mining. the deposit is contained within the company’s 100-per-cent-owned Dublin gulch property which lies within the tintina gold belt and is located approximately 85 kilometres by road north-northeast from the village of

mayo, and about 400 kilometres north of the capital city of Whitehorse.

the Project is the most developed proj-ect in the region and is well supported by local infrastructure, including a year-round all-weather access road, is near grid power, and an airstrip approximately 80 kilometres to the south. the existing 100-person camp on site will be expand-ed prior to construction.

since acquiring the project in 2009, Vic-toria gold has advanced the eagle gold Project to be shovel-ready – it is fully per-mitted for construction and operations, has completed a feasibility study, has

a signed comprehensive benefit agree-ment with the local First nation, and has completed the environmental assessment process.

Victoria gold’s focus is to bring the ea-gle gold Project into production. the 2.3

Aerial view of the 100-person camp at Victoria Gold’s Eagle Gold Project in central Yukon.

The NI 43-101 2.3 million ounce gold reserve is located on the hill above the Eagle Gold camp.


million ounce proven and probable gold reserve is contained within a much larger resource. the proposed eagle gold mine will be a conventional low-cost, open-pit mine with a three-stage crush, in-valley heap and gold recovery plant with a 10-year mine life. During the initial three to five years of production, the eagle gold mine will process higher grade material at a better recovery rate, resulting in a capi-tal payback period of three years. over the 10-year mine life, the eagle gold mine will produce 1.7 million ounces of gold at an approximate average of 200,000 ounces

per year. During operations the mine will be a significant economic contributor to the Yukon, employing 350 to 400 people.

initial construction and pre-stripping costs are estimated at $400 million caD. the Project’s economics are robust, and will generate a net Present Value of $381 million dollars. the per ounce average op-erating cost is approximately $615.

there is potential to expand the mine for increased production and a longer mine life with ongoing exploration and new discoveries. in addition to the eagle deposit, the large Dublin gulch property

hosts a number of high quality explora-tion targets that lie along the Potato Hills trend – a 13 kilometre by three kilometre trend of significant mineralization. Drilling results at the olive-shamrock Zone, locat-ed two kilometres from the eagle deposit, show potential economic contribution to the eagle mine plan.

Victoria gold also holds additional claim blocks nearby on their aurex, clear creek, and cat b properties. Victoria gold trades on the toronto Venture exchange under the symbol Vit, and more informa-tion is available at vitgoldcorp.com n

vitgoldcorp.com

2.3 million ounce gold Reserve (92 M tonnes averaging 0.78 g/t)

200,000 ounces of gold per year

The proposed Eagle Gold open pit mine will produce approximately 1.7 million ounces of gold over a 10-year mine life.


COPPER NORTH

evolvinG directioncopper north’s different pAth blossoms

copper north’s flagship project, carmacks project, is located approximately 30 kilo-metres off the Klondike Highway at car-macks, Yukon. the carmacks copper-gold-silver deposit is in the southern portion of an evolving copper-gold district that extends to the northwest to the Dawson gold fields.

copper was discovered in 1970s, and the mineral deposit has been through several exploration and development programs. carmacks is somewhat unique as it is the only large oxide copper deposit in canada, a feature resulting from avoid-ance of glaciation. the deep weathering of the sulphide mineralization has left a residue of copper, gold, and silver miner-alization that is amenable to leaching to produce copper cathode that can be sent directly to copper fabricators. the relative-ly high gold and silver grade is also some-what unique and required copper north to change the copper leach method to facilitate the recovery of gold and silver.

With a change in management in march 2014, the project has been brought back to life with expansion of mineral resource and re-engineering to include recovery of gold and silver. the efforts of a new team have made the project more robust and

progression to a new feasibility study that should demonstrate attractive econom-ics, even at today’s depressed copper and gold prices.

Strategic evaluationa review of the project in march 2014

indicated that the project needed to over-come several hurdles: expansion of miner-al resources, reduction of capex and opex costs, and recovery of gold and silver to increase revenues.

the previous feasibility study complet-ed in 2012, consisted of mining the oxide copper-gold-silver resources, crushing of the ore and placement on a large leach pad, followed by sprinkling of sulphuric acid to leach the copper, collection of the copper laden (pregnant solution) liquid to strip out the copper by electrolysis to make cathode copper sheets. the opera-tion of heap leach pads in winter condi-tions and closure of the leach pads pro-vides engineering challenges.

Re-engineering of Carmacks: evolution of a new leach plan

the key to the re-engineering was the recovery of gold and silver, increasing operating revenues, and reducing opera-

tional risk. to evaluate the economics the company undertook a Preliminary eco-nomic assessment (Pea) to provide some insight as to the impacts of gold and silver recovery in improving project economics. the results were encouraging as the Pea indicated that a modified heap leach cop-per and gold-silver plan would provide an approximate 40 per cent increase in gross mine revenues and a reduction in the cost of producing copper from us$1.65/lb copper to approximately us$1.07/lb cop-per after deducting gold and silver credits.

New copper leach planthe common approach to processing

oxide copper deposits is heap leaching on engineered leach pads with multiple liners. this technology was the focus of the earlier engineering and presents con-siderable challenges in preparation and management of construction of liners be-neath and within the leach pads.

the engineering team considered other forms of leaching the oxide copper that would ensure high recovery for the gold and silver. the metallurgical test work commenced in fall 2014, with the investi-gation of vat leaching. although the test results were favourable, with acceptable


leach times for copper of approximately 16 days, the team did not stop there. this was a major step forward in addressing the concerns associated with heap leach processing as the vats are enclosed and the risk of leakage during the leach opera-tions is reduced. overall de-risking of the main environmental concern, previously addressed in permitting submissions, is achieved.

copper north tested the leaching at a finer crush and confirmed that a grind to one millimetre resulted in leach times of

less than 24 hours. the motivation of pur-suing the finer crush was driven by trying to reduce materials handling in winter conditions and therefore reducing opera-tional risk. the next step was to determine how much effect temperature might have on the proposed agitated tank leach - the answer was surprising with optimal leach times for copper being approximately four hours. With these very positive test results test work moved to recovery of gold and silver using the same agitated tank leach process.

Recovery of gold and silverevaluation of gold and silver recovery

commenced with pumping residues from the copper circuit, rinsing the residues to remove all acid and soluble copper, and pumping the washed materials directly into the cyanide circuit to recover gold and silver. the test work confirmed simi-lar fast leaching of less than 16 hours and improved gold and silver recoveries. the gold and silver are recovered by merrill crowe leach method to produce gold-silver dore.

220 KM NORTH OF WHITEHORSE, YUKON - 400 KM FROM YEAR-ROUND PORT AT SKAGWAY, AK

ADVANCING CARMACKS COPPER-GOLD DEPOSIT TO BE THE YUKON’S NEXT COPPER MINE

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the final stage of processing is the cya-nide destruction of the waste materials and dewatering them for dry stacked tail-ings disposal. the later reduces many of the concerns of waste disposal at mining projects.

Mine economics and environmental performance

a new Pea is in progress to confirm the details of the new leach plan and provide the basis for re-entering the permitting process and the pursuit of project financ-ing. some of the key areas for improve-ments include the fact that we have eliminated heap leach plan which reduces capex in the July 2014 Pea (us$225m) by approximately $75 million; which of course will be offset to some extent by addition of tankage and fine crush equip-ment. the transition to agitated tank leach also reduces required manpower and leads to increased operational efficiency and an expected reduction in operating cost. the adoption of agitated tank leach technology indicates that we should ex-pect improved recovery of copper, gold and silver, and lower reagent costs.

in further addressing capital cost re-duction of equipment we have shared the engineering between JDs energy and mining ltd. who built the minto mine nearby, and beijing general research in-stitute of mining and metallurgy who are undertaking detailed engineering of the leach equipment utilizing their northern experience. the sourcing of equipment designed and engineered by bgrimm in-cludes sourcing fabricators to make and export the equipment for installation at carmacks. benchmarking indicates po-

tential for reduction of capex for some equipment and further capital reduction for the carmacks Project.

We are particularly pleased by the much improved operational efficiency and con-trol. the outcome of these improvements reduces the risk of leakage and spillage that could negatively impact the environ-ment. We are confident that the regula-tors, First nations and other interested parties will approve of the changes that we are proposing. We look forward to en-gaging with First nations and the permit-ting of the new leach plan.

Carmacks is bigger than you thinkafter dormancy of exploration since

2008, copper north has taken on the chal-lenge of expanding mineral resources. in fall 2014 it commenced exploration on Zone 2, located approximately 2,500 me-tres to the north of the planned open pit in zones 1, 4, and 7, the basis of the July 2014 Pea. the modest program at Zone 2 extended the small deposit to a miner-alized zone having a length of over 500 metres and remains open to the south. al-though interesting and potentially mine-able it was relatively narrow compared to other targets south of the Zone 1 area.

the 2015 exploration program was ex-panded to $1m, allocated to better un-derstand controls of mineralization and commence fill-in drilling sufficient to ex-pand mineral resources. all drilling was fo-cused on a 2,000-metre-long mineralized zone, interpreted as the south extension of the initial proposed mine area. copper north has news released that the tonnage potential associated with this year’s drill-ing is approximately 10 million tonnes of

oxide and sulphide mineralization that al-most doubles current indicated and mea-sured mineral resources. a new ni 43-101 resource report is in progress and will in-clude the potential resources into the new mineral resource inventory.

this year’s fill-in drilling tests approxi-mately 25 per cent of the mineralized structure. the new potential is open to depth and along strike; additional drilling will further increase mineral resources in the south target area. the 2015 explora-tion work also identified attractive targets in the north target area.

current mineral resources are 12 mil-lion tonnes grading 1.07 per cent copper, 0.456 g/t gold and 4.58 g/t silver. beneath the main oxide resource are approximate-ly 4.7 m tonnes grading 0.75% per cent copper, 0.22 g/t gold and 2.45 g/t silver in the indicated category and 4.03m tonnes grading 0.71 per cent copper, 0.19 g/t gold and 1.9 g/t silver. However, these sul-phide resources are at the bottom of the pit and therefore of lower priority.

much of the new resources in the south target area are sulphides, commencing at depths of approximately 50 to 75 metres; they represent an attractive addition to future development. copper north’s next challenge will be to evaluate the leaching of sulphide mineralization and continue the sXeW recovery of copper, and per-haps gold and silver. this planning and investigation is at an infant stage but part of the new path forward.

Overcoming difficult marketscopper north management are pleased

that they have been able to refinance and re-engineer the project. We have raised approximately $5 million during the past 18 months for funding our steps forward. the financing required 11 financings with widespread search of funds. We have been lucky and rewarded for our perse-verance. i encourage other junior compa-nies to not give up and fight to move for-ward. Despite the long period of difficult markets we remain confident that there are opportunities going forward. With the optimism, that is key to explorers and de-velopers, copper north acquired a large land position adjacent to the dormant Ke-mess mine in northwest british columbia. Perhaps copper north can also make their magic on the thor property. n

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Freegold Ventures limited has got two potentially significant projects in its sights. the firm was founded in 1985 and has since established itself as an exploration and development company within the state of alaska. Work on its flagship prop-erty, the golden summit project, contin-ues to mount, as does the excitement surrounding its shorty creek project. both are within relative close proximity of Fair-banks (32 kilometres for the golden sum-mit and 120 kilometres for shorty creek) and both are poised for substantial devel-opment in the years ahead.

Historical findsFreegold Ventures has been involved

with the golden summit project since the early 1990s. it has been dedicated to building ni 43-101 compliant resources on this property since 2011 – and has made significant progress.

in march 2011, an initial combined in-dicated and inferred resource of about 700,000 ounces of gold was estimated.

in 2011, a fair amount of drilling increased that number to 1.5 million ounces. an active drilling campaign in 2012 saw that number increased again to about 6.5 million ounces.

“i think this is a real testament to system-atic exploration,” says Kristina Walcott, presi-dent and ceo, Freegold Ventures, who adds that the property has great road access and offers infrastructure support for exploration activities on a year-round basis.

Freegold Ventures may have done a lot of work on the golden summit project but it has barely touched the surrounding area. several historic gold mines are located on the property and Kinross gold’s Fort Knox gold deposit is located nearby.

“to date, we’ve confined our resource drilling to an area on the property measur-ing 300 metres by 1.5 kilometres or about 110 acres,” says Walcott, who adds that the area is referred to as Dolphin/clearly Hill. “but the project actually encompasses a total of 13,000 acres and hosts numerous other significant exploration targets with the potential to host additional resources,

all of which have an oxide cap in the upper 60 metres.”

other prospective areas already identi-fied in the area, for example, include the iowa, too much gold, goose creek, and christina, which are located six, five, four and two kilometres to the east respectively.

according to Walcott, the company will continue to work toward completion of its Preliminary economic assessment (Pea). it hopes to release it by the end of 2015/be-ginning of 2016.

“our Pea is really intended to give us guidance on how to develop the project,” adds Walcott. “We believe that our Pea will demonstrate the fact that as we expand the oxides, our economics will improve. i think there is tremendous potential with this project, given that there have been so many historical occurrences throughout the area.”

Newcomer to the blockalthough the golden summit project

may come with a past that speaks to its po-tential, the shorty creek project is all about the unknown. the area has seen little ex-ploration since the early 1990s when 20 holes were drilled to a maximum depth of 152 metres. the area drilled measured 500 metres by 200 metres. although drilled as a gold target, the holes consistently bot-tomed in significant copper mineralization.

“We’re very fortunate to have a project like the golden summit,” says Walcott. “We can apply the same systematic approach we’ve used there to our shorty creek proj-ect.”

since acquiring the shorty creek gold, copper, and molybdenum porphyry prop-erty in July 2014, Freegold Ventures has completed an induced polarization sur-vey, a soil geochemical survey, staked ad-ditional claims and identified the presence of two significant drill-ready targets and in

FREEGOLD VENTuRES LIMITED

Full speed ahead freegold focuses on futureBy Melanie Franner


september 2015 drilled one of the two drill targets.

the first of these is an expansion of the original target area by another 500 metres to the southwest and 400 metres to the northeast at Hill 1835. the other target is located 2.5 kilometres to the northwest of the copper-gold target and shows the presence of a strong chargeability anom-aly coincident with strong copper values in soils and covering a 2,000-metre by 1,000-metre area at Hill 1710; however the magnetic signature is over 6,000 me-tres length.

Within the copper geochemical anom-aly is a strong molybdenum core. sev-eral other magnetic highs have also been identified on the property as a result of a review of airborne geophysical survey. these will require additional ground geo-physics, geochemistry and further geo-logical mapping to delineate other poten-tial drill targets.

results of the 2015 drill program have demonstrated the potential for a sig-nificant copper gold porphyry deposit at shorty creek with discovery of 0.71 % cu equivalent mineralization over 91 metres with the first core drilling carried out at shorty creek. of particular interest are the large magnetic highs with coincident cop-per, gold and molybdenum soil chemistry, as these magnetic highs are often indica-tive of the core of porphyry systems.

the program was also designed to test

the depth extent of the mineralization en-countered in the previous asarco drilling (1989/1990) in the area of Hill 1835. the asarco holes were drilled to a maximum depth of 500 feet, and intersected gold and copper mineralization with copper grade increasing at depth.

a total of four holes were drilled during the 2015 program. the results demonstrate that the shorty creek Project has the poten-tial to host a significant copper-gold por-phyry deposit. Freegold is looking forward to continuing the drill program in 2016.

“our plan is to drill another 10,000 feet in 2016 between the two targets we’ve iden-tified, which we’ve called 1835 and 1710,” says Walcott. “it looks like 1710 has the po-tential to be a significant deposit so we will be doing the majority of our drilling in that area next year.”

Walcott adds that the shorty creek proj-ect also has good access, being located only four kilometres from the paved elliott High-way. she also believes that the property has the potential to be a huge discovery.

“i think we’re just scratching the surface of the shorty creek property,” she says.

“there is a lot of excitement around this one.”

The path forwardalthough the golden summit project is

next to a sure thing, the shorty creek proj-ect is the one with the most unknowns. both, says Walcott, are worthy of immedi-ate attention.

“i think that we, as a company, need a mix of priorities,” she explains. “i believe that there are two types of investors out there right now. one wants exploration companies to go forward in a responsible development manner with a Pea. the oth-er is looking for the excitement of some-thing new, the next big discovery. given the direction of exploration in this current market, it’s hard to find those new dis-coveries. and i don’t think you can bring investors back into the market unless you have those discoveries. our golden sum-mit project is a solid asset but a low-grade asset. our shorty creek project holds the promise of excitement. i think that togeth-er, the two projects make for a compelling argument.” n

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the Kennady north project is 100 per cent owned and operated by Kennady Diamonds inc. (KDi) of toronto, ontario. the project is managed and supervised by aurora geosciences ltd (agl) of Yel-lowknife. the property is located almost 300 kilometres northeast of the city of Yellowknife and 150 kilometres north of the com-munity of lutsel K’e.

the Kennady north project is the highest profile exploration project in the nWt and operates under very high environmental standards. the project has undergone two early-stage land use permit applications and a water license application. the project is currently undergoing amendments to their current permits to more efficiently allow the extraction of another bulk sample. this winter, a bulk sample comprising up to 700 tonnes will be ob-tained from the north limb of the Kelvin kimberlite in order to pro-vide enough total carats for a more accurate diamond valuation.

the Kelvin-Faraday corridor (KFc) is aptly named for the promi-nent occurrences of the current kimberlites (Kelvin, Faraday 1 and Faraday 2). the KFc trends from the north end of Kennady lake (host of the gahcho Kue kimberlites) to approximately five kilo-metres to the northeast through both Kelvin and Faraday lakes. this corridor is approximately two to 2.5 kilometres wide.

the Kelvin kimberlite is approximately 700 metres in length, varies in thickness from 75 to 200 metres, and 30 to 60 metres in width. the Kelvin kimberlite is open to the west-northwest and KDi will continue exploration and delineation in the hopes of ex-

tending the kimberlite body past its current 700 metre length. currently, the body comprises approximately eight to nine mil-lion tonnes which does not include any of the Kelvin kimberlite sheet complex.

AuRORA GEOSCIENCES LTD.

kennAdy north is northwest territories’ highest profile explorAtion project

Submitted by Aurora Geosciences Ltd. (AGL)

makinG a Name


the Faraday kimberlites are smaller pipe-like bodies compa-rable in shape to the Kelvin kimberlite and lay some two kilome-tres to the north-northeast. the Faraday 2 kimberlite comprises a strike length of over 250 metres and varies in thickness from 40 to 50 metres and in width from 30 to 40 metres. the Faraday 2 kimberlite has the potential to host between one and 1.5 million tonnes at this time and is open to the west-northwest.

the Faraday 1 kimberlite lies approximately 250 metres north-east of the Faraday 2 kimberlite. this body is also a pipe-like body lying on its side and has only been traced 100 metres to the north-west but is open in that direction.

it was the identification of a volcaniclastic unit in the Kelvin sheet complex that lead to the discovery of the Kelvin kimberlite. this same type of volcaniclastic unit was identified in the Fara-

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Kennady Diamonds - Kennady North Project - Kelvin Kimberlite


day area which led to the discovery of the two Faraday kimberlite bodies. additional volcaniclastic units have been identified in ex-ploration drilling between the two Faraday kimberlites and south of the Kelvin kimberlite confirming the high likelihood that other pipe-like bodies exist in the area.

the current thinking is that much higher resolution geophysi-cal surveying and more diamond drilling will need to take place in order to help identify more of these unconventional kimberlite bodies within the KFc corridor. the goal over the next few years is to delineate any of these new unconventional pipe-like kimberlite bodies to bring into the potential mine plan.

additional exploration is being conducted in other areas of the Kennady north project outside the KFc. this includes (but is not limited to) the mZ and Doyle kimberlite sheet complexes. explora-

tion in these areas includes high resolution geophysical surveying to identify potential blows or unconventional volcaniclastic bod-ies. High resolution ohmmapper (capacitively coupled resistivity) and high resolution gravity surveying have been found to be the best tools for evaluating these bodies.

in 2014, a property wide reverse-circulation overburden-drill program was conducted to evaluate the indicator mineral pres-ence throughout the entire glacial till column. these results, along with historical indicator mineral samples, are being used to define additional kimberlite exploration target areas on the property.

KDi is committed to using northern expertise, labour, and sup-port. they have a very good understanding of community aware-ness and are committed to best industry practices for environ-mental stewardship and responsible development. n

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and Analyses


KAIzEN DISCOVERY INC.

competitive successkAizen the key to coppermine explorAtion

Kaizen Discovery inc. is a canadian min-eral exploration and development com-pany exploring its 3,500-square-kilometre coppermine project. in December 2013, it obtained access via the typhoon geo-physical technology of its majority share-holder HPX techco inc. (High Power ex-ploration). typhoon is claimed to address the limitations of existing exploration technology. indeed, Kaizen’s long-term growth strategy is to work with Japanese entities to identify, explore, and develop high-quality mineral projects that have the potential to produce and deliver min-erals to Japan’s industrial sector.

Kaizen’s tenement area is located just five kilometres at its closest point from tide water, and the nunavut town of Kug-luktuk on the coronation gulf (northwest Passage shipping lane). Kugluktuk has a commercial airport, with a twice daily ser-vice from Yellowknife. access within the project area is by helicopter, fixed-wing float plane, or fixed-wing aircraft land-ing on an existing gravel landing strip. in addition, Kaizen has a wholly-owned nunavut operating entity, tundra copper corporation, acquired in november 2014, and then comprising 352 square kilome-tres of crown land. two further blocks of inuit-owned land bring the total to 3,500 square kilometres.

What is Kaizen?it should be explained that Kaizen takes

its name from a Japanese term for the practice of continuous improvement. Kai-zen was originally introduced to the West by its pioneer masaaki imai in his1986 book Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competi-tive Success. Kaizen is a continuous im-provement process based on certain guiding principles:•goodprocessesbringgoodresults;•go see foryourself tograsp thecurrent

situation;•speakwithdata,managebyfacts;•take action to contain and correct root

causes of problems;•workasateam;and•Kaizeniseverybody’sbusiness.

matthew Hornor, president and ceo, Kaizen Discovery inc., explains his adop-tion of Kaizen techniques, ”i first visited Japan in 1991 on an exchange program through my university [university of southern california] after which i attend-ed tohoku university and tokyo univer-sity and began my career in tokyo as an international attorney at Paul Hastings, a u.s.-based law firm, after graduating from the university of Virginia school of law. over the past 25 years i have developed many strong personal and business re-lationships in Japan and still travel there

regularly, all of which has given me deep exposure to Japanese culture and in par-ticular business culture. adopting Kaizen techniques, which means continuous im-provement, was an obvious fit with our business strategy, which is to take an old mineral exploration industry model and innovate by bringing our unique access to capital, technology and know-how to opportunistically supercharge the model during this unique and challenging time in our industry. We feel strongly that this preparation meeting the current oppor-tunity will lead to a bright future.”

The mineralthe coppermine Project contains 115

kilometres of strike off an easterly-trend-ing belt of mesoproterozoic continen-tal flood basalts (the coppermine river group) and unconformably overlying marine sedimentary rocks of neoprotero-zoic age (the rae group). the belt has numerous showings and occurrences to demonstrate its prospectivity for two distinct deposit types: sediment-hosted stratiform copper-silver and structur-ally controlled, volcanic-hosted copper-silver. in addition, the Kaizen permits extend 23 kilometres north to cover possible down-dip extensions of miner-alization to an estimated depth of 1,200 metres.

in turn, coppermine comprises two geologically distinct exploration targets: sediment-hosted stratiform copper (+sil-ver) and structurally controlled volcanic-hosted copper (+silver). in late october 2014, Kaizen staked claims and applied for prospecting permits covering an ad-ditional 3,320 square kilometres prospec-tive for sediment-hosted stratiform cop-per; there are over 18 highly prospective and extremely high-grade (some 45 per cent) copper showings. most showings are structurally controlled along steeply-dipping fault fissures and fault-breccia


zones in the basalts, while mineralization mainly occurs as massive bornite-chalcoc-ite and lesser chalcopyrite, with associ-ated calcite, hematite and chlorite.

the Kaizen exploration permits cover approximately an 115 kilometre strike length of this basal contact, and extend 23 kilometres north to cover possible down-dip extensions of mineralization to an estimated depth of 1,200 metres.

Drilling and explorationas of late July 2015, Kaizen received the

remaining land and water use permits and mineral rights required for its exploration programme at coppermine; its planned diamond drilling programme, comprising 14 holes totalling 1,500 metres, is now un-derway. the current exploration campaign targets district-scale, sediment-hosted, stratiform copper mineralization and high-grade, volcanic-hosted copper-silver within the larger permit area. Drill mobilization was completed in July, and drilling has commenced with initial holes designed to test volcanic-hosted targets.

During a due diligence field visit, rock-gr-ab samples collected by Kaizen geologists were grading up to 7.27 per cent copper and 26.7 g/t silver in laterally continuous, gently dipping, carbonaceous siltstones.

as part of this programme, Kaizen will implement its carefully developed Wildlife and environmental impact mitigation Plan, aimed at minimizing potential impact on all species but recognizing in particular the vulnerability of the bluenose east cari-bou. camp construction and mobilization of equipment and supplies are underway, with diamond drilling commencing in au-gust 2015.

The futurematthew Hornor welcomed representa-

tives of several multi-billion dollar Japa-nese corporations to the coppermine project in nunavut during July 2015, all of whom, as he mentions, “spent time to not only research and understand the techni-cal nature of the project but to become familiar with

the history, customs and traditions of the inuit people of the western Kitik-meot region. the Japanese seem suitably impressed with the coppermine project and, as discussions concerning coopera-tive project funding mature, Kaizen will be providing details of the type and magni-tude of the joint venture that results.”

looking to the future, Hornor contin-ues: “in one year¹s time we expect to have provided our shareholders with additional value creation through multiple re-rating milestones as we continue to aggres-sively explore our highly prospective and growing portfolio of assets, while we also continue to assess additional underval-ued acquisition opportunities on a global basis.” n

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TERRAx MINERALS

hiGh optimismterrAx minerAls inc.’s yellowknife city gold project explorAtion work hAs been encourAging

terraX minerals inc.’s 116-square-kilome-tre Yellowknife city gold Project (YcgP) is an area that has been explored since the 1930s - the very beginning of the discov-ery of gold in the Yellowknife gold belt. it covers 23 strike kilometres immediately north and south of Yellowknife on exten-sions of the shear system that hosts the high-grade giant and con gold mines which collectively produced 14m oz of gold at an average grade of 16 g/t au. the first exploration on the YcgP predates the city of Yellowknife, but human occupation has a long history as the area is recognized as part of chief Drygeese territory of the Yellowknives Dene First nation (YKDFn), who continue to live in the area in the vil-lages of n’dilo and Dettah.

unlike almost all other exploration proj-

ects north of 60, YcgP is accessed by an all-season road (known as the ryan lake or crestaurum road), and is crisscrossed with historical drill trails and local ice roads. it benefits from good infrastructure, a local skilled workforce and local businesses. but this accessibility brings its own challenges as the YcgP trails and lakes are used by the YKDFn, cabin owners on ryan, Vee, Walsh (eèkw’qq̀ tı) and (banting (Jı̀ı tı̀) lakes, and it is a common destination for snowmobil-ers, atVs, cross country skiers and boaters. the property has a highly-visible public profile and environmental concerns are accentuated by its close proximity to the remediation work being carried out at the former giant and con mines.

terraX has embraced these challenges as it envisages a potential mine develop-ment that would be a great benefit to the people of Yellowknife, n’dilo and Dettah. the mantra of terraX is “a project where you can live where you work”, in contrast to the fly-in, fly-out operations common in the north. a development on the door-step of the capital of northwest territories offers the maximum benefit for the local economy of the city and the territory.

and there is good reason to accept the challenges on YcgP as terraX’s exploration work has been encouraging. early stage

exploration that began in the summer of 2013 quickly moved to advanced explora-tion when a permit was received from the mackenzie Valley land and Water board in march 2014. During 2014-2015 drilling to-talling 18,137 metres were completed by terraX. results include 33.60 g/t gold over 2.85 metres and 10.32 g/t gold over seven metres on the crestaurum shear; 18.40 g/t gold over 5.16 metres within a broader zone of 22.40 metres of 6.35 g/t gold on the barney Zone; and the newly discovered Hebert-brent Zone has channel samples of 11.0 metres of 7.55 g/t gold and six metres of 10.26 g/t gold.

moving forward into 2016, terraX will be continuing to explore these three areas, as well as several other targets identified in surface exploration work over the last two and a half years. terraX is still a long way off from mine development, but with the con-tinuing success optimism remains high. n

Location map of the YCGP with the city of Yellowknife, Dettah, and N'dilo close by. Areas drilled in 2015 are indicated on the map.

A group of mining industry analysts touring the surface exposure of the Hebert-Brent Zone in September 2015.

Left to right Brent McAllister, drill manager; Eric Hebert, senior geologist; and Alan Sexton, project manager examining the first hole from the new Hebert-Brent Zone discovered in summer 2015.

TerraX Minerals Inc.

2300-1066 West Hastings Street

Vancouver, BC V6E 3X2

Phone: (604) 689-1749

www.terraxminerals.com


SIRIuS WILDERNESS MEDICINE

saFe & soundpreventing And responding to remote medicAl emergencies

companies operating in remote and wil-derness regions face many challenges – harsh environmental conditions, risk of workers being stranded because of inclement weather, risk of wild animal at-tacks, and much more.

For 25 years, Quebec-based sirius Wil-derness medicine has been a canadian leader in wilderness first aid training and medical support services.

“We have a strong track record in pro-viding advanced care, medical infrastruc-ture and training in some of the most isolated regions of canada,” explains bob Washer, sirius founding president.

Complete medical support servicesexploration and mining sites require

efficient and well-adapted medical infra-structure. For more than 10 years sirius has provided organizations operating in the northern and high arctic regions of canada with medical solutions that can be relied upon in the face of the world’s most demanding conditions. sirius pro-vides:• highly-experiencedmedicalpersonnel

supervised by off-site medical direction

• infirmaryandclinicinstallation• medicalequipmentandsupplies• regulatoryandriskassessments• emergencyresponseandmedical

evacuation plans• training

sirius’ success is based on the lasting relationships the company has devel-oped with local First nations and inuit communities, as well as on close ties es-tablished with government departments and with industry.

Wilderness safety trainingan efficient medical support system

ensures rapid and appropriate medical response. targeted wilderness first aid training helps remote workers prevent medical emergencies in the first place.

over the past decade, governments across canada have enacted more strin-

gent regulations regarding occupational health and safety. employers are re-quired to provide specific wilderness first aid training if an employee’s workplace is a remote region.

there is increasing awareness within the industry of the need for high stan-dards in occupational health and safety. With the aim of promoting safety, the Prospectors and Developers association of canada (PDac) has worked closely with sirius over the years to keep PDac members informed of occupational health and safety issues and to provide them with annual safety training pro-grams.

“our courses go far beyond urban first aid,” explains Washer. “We focus on the specific hazards of remote settings, including extreme environmental condi-tions and long-term care in cases of de-layed evacuation. acquiring these skills gives remote workers a great deal of con-fidence.”

sirius wilderness first aid courses are also incorporated into many college and university programs across canada help-ing to prepare future canadian engineers and geologists for safe work in the field.

For more information, please visit www.siriusmed.com n

Wilderness first aid training simulation. High arctic exploration camp.

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DESGAGNéS TRANSARCTIK INC.

mininG carGo how to mAke the best of your seAlift projectBy Waguih Rayes, general manager, Desgagnés Transarctik Inc.

maritime carriage in the canadian arc-tic, which is commonly known as sealift, is often compromised by treacherous weather and by the narrow window of op-portunity during the navigation season in the arctic waters. these inconveniences, compounded by near to complete lack of marine infrastructure in the north, render sealift operations, to the least, very daring at times. When heavy and dimensional cargo represent the major part of a ship-load, which is often the case with a min-ing cargo project, leading such a project to a successful conclusion certainly isn’t a matter of luck, nor is it founded on simple logistical and operational formulas.

it is therefore always rewarding to see cargo being safely discharged and deliv-ered at a northern mining site, at the term of a sealift operation. indeed, this is the ul-timate reward for both, client and carrier, after having invested massive efforts and ample time in planning and driving the project to a successful completion.

choosing a reliable sealift carrier is a major factor for a successful cargo project. nonetheless, other elements are also es-sential and greatly contribute in maintain-ing smooth operations throughout the sealift stages and processes.

most of nunavut sealink and supply (nssi)’s major account clients, particularly the mining companies, realize after their first sealift experience that a well-execut-ed procurement and logistical planning on their own end, along with a timely communication strategy with their carrier, are almost as important as having chosen the experienced and capable sealift com-pany. no matter which type of carriage formula is chosen, or form of contractual agreement is concluded between the mining company and nssi, it is remark-

able how much smoother the operations are and how efficient sealift costs become when both “right and left hands” work well together.

the common objective is to maximize the outcome of the cargo project opera-tions and to reach the greatest cost effi-ciency for the customer. nssi’s availability and willingness to work at all times in a very close collaboration with its clients and other concerned stakeholders, start-ing many months before the ship-loading operations up to the completion of de-


livery at sites are very beneficial; and the client should take full advantage thereof. However, often the project management and operation resources on the custom-er’s end are not very familiar with con-straints that certain international and fed-eral regulations impose upon the carrier. Hence the importance of an efficient and timely communication between parties

the perfect example for increasing ef-ficiency through good communication at the planning stages is to maintain a well detailed and constantly updated list of cargo. Project managers should set a goal to complete and update such detailed cargo lists in a timely manner and share them with the sealift carrier through a well structured communication channel that both parties can define as part of their contractual agreement. evidently, the effective procurement planning by project management resources and the efficient internal communications on the customer’s end, are the key to achieving this goal.

When delays in project management’s timeline occur, cargo lists are not often

ready when required by the sealift car-rier. sometimes lists could lack critical information such as cargo units’ volume and weight. in other instances, cargo lists receive drastic additions in terms of volumes and specifications after that the voyage planning process is engaged and the selection of the most adequate vessel for intended cargo is made. certainly, this could translate into a poor operational outcome and diminished cost efficiency.

more importantly, when lists of cargo do not indicate, with precision, the types and volumes of cargo commonly defined as “dangerous goods,” the consequences could be even more detrimental to the cargo project.

nssi’s customary logistical and opera-tional support that the company extends to its client is driven by the instinctive pro-activity of our customer service and op-erations management resources. an nssi’ support is offered from the cargo project planning phase, throughout implementa-tion stages and until delivery at the min-ing site is complete. time after time, the cargo projects undertaken by nssi are

brought to successful completion with the client’s full satisfaction. addition-ally, state-of-the-art equipment and heavy-lift, modern ice-class vessels are deployed by our company and greatly contribute in maintaining safety and ef-ficiency of cargo operations.

in conclusion, if there is a couple of good recommendations that are worth reiterating to customers, it is to fully benefit from expertise and cooperation offered by nssi and Desgagnés; and to maintain an efficient communication channel with the concerned stakehold-ers, from the planning stage and at all times throughout the sealift season.

Further, it is worth emphasizing that inuit impact and benefit agreements (iiba) are valued by nunavut inuit associ-ations as sinequanone for the implemen-tation of any mining project in nunavut. nssi’ shareholders and partners, being for the most birthright corporations of nunavut, collectively and individually bring an interesting dimension to the ap-plication of iiba with any sealift carriage contract that nssi concludes with ma-jor account clients, particularly with the mining sector. Furthermore, by their re-spective fields of activities and expertise, nssi’ shareholders are well positioned to provide a variety of services as well as support to major projects and mining sites located in their respective nunavut regions.

Waguih Rayes is general manager of Desgagnés Transarctik Inc., managing partner of Nunavut Sealink and Supply Inc. (NSSI), the most active sealift carrier in Nunavut. n

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SUMMIT MEETING


DMC MINING SERVICE

buildinG valuedmc mining services helps tAckle the chAllenges of building And running sAfe And profitAble mining operAtions

since its founding in 1980 as Dynatec mining limited, Dmc mining services has been through a number of mergers, un-derscoring the company’s ability to create value, as well as earning many business and safety awards, proving the company as an innovator in the field.

Dmc mining services was started in 1980 as a mining contractor. in 1987, they purchased the tonto group of companies to strengthen their presence in West-ern canada and added a drilling division based in salt lake city, utah. in 1997, the company merged with sherritt interna-tional corporation’s metallurgical tech-nologies business to create a new public-ly-traded company, Dynatec corporation, which operated three divisions - mining services, drilling services, and metallurgi-cal technologies. in 2001, Dynatec corpo-ration sold the drilling services division to major Drilling group international inc.

in June 2007, sherritt international corporation acquired Dynatec corpora-tion. in october of that same year sherritt sold Dynatec mining services (canada) and Dynatec mining services corporation (usa) to FnX mining company inc. the purchase did not include the name “Dy-

natec" so the company now conducts busi-ness under the name Dmc mining services (canada) and Dmc mining services corpo-ration (usa).

in 2010, FnX mining company inc., and Quadra mining ltd., merged to create Quadra FnX mining ltd. and in 2012, KgHm Polska miedz s.a. purchased all of the out-standing shares of Quadra FnX mining ltd. Dmc mining services is a division of FnX mining company inc., which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of KgHm international.

DMC servicesDmc has a long history as a safe and ef-

ficient contract miner, including at inco’s shebandowan mine in the 1990s, and at goldcorp’s red lake mine in the early 2000s. today, the company continues to provide comprehensive services ranging from mine feasibility, and underground mine design, including mine shafts, ore and waste handling systems, mine dewatering systems, backfill systems, and ventilation systems. it also advises on equipment se-lection and procurement.

once the feasibility and design of an underground mine has been established, Dmc is able to develop and operate the

mine with its equipment, trained person-nel, and management systems. Where it assumes responsibility for mine opera-tion, Dmc hires staff, develops production budgets and schedules, produces reports, maintains regulatory permits and filings, manages operating staff, and assumes overall responsibility for safety and loss control.

Mine shaft sinkingmine shaft sinking is one of the most

critical and technically difficult aspects of underground mine development and construction. a mine shaft must be com-pleted and commissioned for a deep mine before any other underground mine de-velopment can begin.

accordingly, mine owners place a pre-mium on rapid sinking schedules. Dmc has the experience, skilled workers, and the specialized techniques and equip-ment necessary to complete technically difficult projects, such as those involv-ing poor ground conditions or extreme depth, on time and on budget. the com-pany has a history of innovation and con-tinuous technical improvements, such as its patented long round Jumbo, which has increased the speed at which shafts can be completed.

it was also chosen as the contractor to sink two 1,000-metre shafts at bHP billi-ton’s Jansen potash project, using innova-tive new technology that it initiated and developed from concept to shaft sinking.

Mine developmentDmc is able to offer a bundle of related

services, including lateral development work consisting of access ramps, declines, drifting, and crosscutting.

Mine constructiontheir mine construction services in-

volve specialized activities related to both surface and underground mine construc-


tion. the company’s mine construction work has included refuge stations, un-derground explosives magazines, under-ground shops, crushing and conveying systems, sumps and dams for mine dewa-tering systems, ground stabilization, and grout injection, and backfill.

Superior safetyover its 36 years in business, Dmc min-

ing services has established a serious rep-utation for safety thanks to the company’s

top leadership and its on-site supervisors.to reinforce that culture of safety,

Dmc’s management has set up systems of accountability and worked to facilitate communication around workplace haz-ards, including through daily safety meet-ings at job sites.

through the years, Dmc has been rec-ognized many times for its health and safety efforts. it was runner up in the ontario government’s Workplace safety north (Wsn) workplace safety excellence

audit in 2013, and won awards for having the lowest total medical injury frequency performance in 2011, and for workplace self assessment in 2011.

However, instead of focusing on awards, Dmc is trying to encourage more reporting to collect leading indi-cators such as near misses in the work-place. Having this information will help management understand what needs to be improved so future accidents can be prevented. n

PROVIDING THE SAFEST SOLUTIONS

• Contract Mining• Shaft Sinking• Raise Boring and Raise Excavation• Mine Construction and Infrastructure• Mine Development and Rehabilitation• Headframes and Hoisting Plants• Ground Freezing and Grouting Programs• Engineering Design and Feasibility Studies• Property Development through Equity

Investment, Partnerships or Joint Ventures

For 36 years we have been the foremost provider of mining services and solutions to the North American mining industry.

Canada 1-800-892-8293 or USA 1-800-748-2375

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PDAC CONVENTION

biG shoWpdAc 2016 promises to bring Another exciting event to torontoBy Emily Pike

more than 23,500 people attended the annual Prospectors & Developers associa-tion of canada convention in 2015 from over 100 countries, making it an unques-tionable success – and they’re gearing up for another exciting event for 2016.

scheduled for march 6 to 9, 2016, the PDac international convention, trade show & investors exchange will again be in toronto, marking the convention’s 84th anniversary of being held in canada’s larg-est city.

the PDac convention is the world’s leading convention for people, compa-

nies and organizations in, or connected with, mineral exploration. since it began in 1932, it has become the event of choice for the world’s mineral industry.

With access passes to satisfy every need – from student to senior, from one-day passes to ViP all-access passes – there’s no reason to miss any of what the confer-ence has to offer, as PDac President rod thomas shares.

“the most popular offerings are the ab-original program, the ceo panel, the key-note session, the csr event series, and the technical sessions,” he states, adding the

themes of this year’s technical sessions in-clude coal, diamonds, securities, nevada gold deposits, water and zinc, as well as many more.

the core shack is also a proven draw for attendees. it’s a place where drilling projects can display core findings free of charge to the attendees, highlighting new and exciting results and discussing it with anyone who wishes to know more.

last year, over 25 per cent of the at-tendees from conference were interna-tional travellers; people from 116 coun-tries around the world.

ONLY GOING TO ONE MINING INVESTMENT SHOW THIS YEAR?

PDAC 2016 CONVENTION HIGHLIGHTS • Technical Program

featuring 18 sessions by industry experts

• Over 1,000 exhibitors promoting technology, products, samples and claim results!

• Topical Short Courses

• Aboriginal, Capital Markets, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Student Programming

• Popular networking events such as Luncheons, Awards Evening, Receptions and Closing Party

Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada

International Convention, Trade Show & Investors ExchangeMetro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, Canada

MARCH 6 – 9

REGISTER NOW! www.pdac.ca/convention


“attendees came from as far as austra-lia, Peru, england, mexico, chile, china, ar-gentina, brazil, south africa, germany and the united states,” says thomas.

last year there were 841 trade show booths and 492 speakers. the reason the convention is so big crowd is clear to thomas, “it’s the largest industry event for mining and minerals in the world and the top destination for networking and learn-ing.”

Part of the appeal of a convention’s lo-cation for an attendee is coming early, or staying late, or both for the truly adven-turous. thomas shares the statistics of to-ronto’s undeniable attraction. “in a study we received from tourism toronto, the convention injects about $70 million into the local economy.”

For the second year, the PDac conven-tion will have a trade show floor in the north building of the metro toronto con-

vention centre (mtcc), as well as the reg-ular, larger show floor in the south build-ing, where companies, organizations and governments can showcase their technol-ogy, products, services and mining juris-dictions to attendees.

it’s also the second year for the capi-tal markets program, a specific stream of conference sessions aimed at educa-tion and discussion on financing mineral exploration. thomas talks about a new offering coming this year, “We are in the preliminary stage of putting together an international mines minister summit at the PDac 2016 convention to bring to-gether industry government leaders from around the world.”

if you’ve ever attended a PDac conven-tion, you know that the social events are not to be missed, and this year is no ex-ception.

“a few of the most popular events are

the welcome reception, awards evening, gala, mining night and media reception,” notes thomas.

if all of that isn’t enough, a few bonuses include a complimentary business tote for all-access pass holder, for their con-ference goodies and session handouts; an e-centre that provides attendees with internet access for the full four days of the conference; preferred rates are offered for nearby hotels; and free water stations and even shoe-shine stands available at the conference.

but if you’re still on the fence about going, thomas has some final words to lure you in, “it’s the super bowl event of the year for our industry! You’ll learn all about the latest trends, technologies and personalities shaping the mineral explo-ration and development industry. it’s a must-attend event.” n

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Documents

North of 60 Mining and Exploration Review 2016