Hunting for treasure among the rocks Exploration presses ahead in the NWT and Nunavut

By Derek Neary Northern News Services

Here are updates on the progress that active exploration companies are making in attempting to uncover the next big metal and mineral finds in the NWT and Nunavut.

NWT

Colomac Gold

Owner: Nighthawk Gold Corp.

Resource: Gold

Location: 200 km north of Yellowknife

Status: Nighthawk Gold’s preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for the Colomac Gold Project envisions average annual gold production of 290,000 ounces for 11.2 years. The cost to build the mine is pegged at $654 million but the study estimates that the open-pit project, located on a 930 square km property, could pay for itself after two years.

“Only a handful of gold projects in the world (owned by junior gold companies) have similar favourable economics,” said Nighthawk Gold president and CEO Keyvan Salehi. “As such, we believe our project belongs in this rare class of global gold assets and that there is runway for the project to continue to grow as we start exploring for other meaningful deposits across our massive greenstone property.”

Released on April 26, the PEA suggests the potential for $1.2 billion after-tax net present value at a five per cent discount rate, based on a gold price of $1,600 per ounce. The after-tax internal rate of return is estimated at 35 per cent. However, the study is based on inferred resources that are considered “speculative geologically” and “there is no certainty that the PEA will be realized,” Nighthawk acknowledged.

The company announced in March that it’s planning 20,000 to 25,000 metres of exploration drilling in 2023.

Owner: Gold Terra Resource Corp.

Resource: Gold

Location: 10 km northeast of Yellowknife

Status: Gold Terra began a deep drilling program on April 17 in hopes of expanding on the Con Mine Option property’s 109,000 ounces of indicated gold and 432,000 ounces of inferred gold, all underground. The initial hole in 2023 will be more than 2,000 metres below the surface. The company has negotiated the rights to acquire the site from subsidiaries of gold miner Newmont Corporation, if certain conditions are met.

The adjacent Yellowknife City Gold Project, which Gold Terra fully owns, boasts an inferred 1.2 million ounces of gold.

Pine Point

Owner: Osisko Metals

Resource: Lead, zinc

Location: 42 km east of Hay River

Status: Osisko is planning to undertake a feasibility study for Pine Point by the middle of this year following winter/ spring drilling that wrapped up in April.

In early April, Osisko announced an arrangement in its joint venture with London, England-based Appian Capital Advisory LLP, which will provide just over $75 million over the next four years. Appian has the option of investing up to $100 million to acquire 60 per cent interest in the Pine Point mining venture. The Pine Point mine could produce 329 million pounds of zinc and 141 million pounds of lead per year over its 12-year mine life, according to an updated preliminary economic assessment (PEA) that Osisko Metals released in 2022. The estimated cost to build the mine is $653.3 million, while the overall gross revenue from the project is pegged at $5.6 billion, after royalties.

DeStaffany

Owner: North Arrow Minerals

Resource: Lithium

Location: Approximately 115 km east of Yellowknife, on the shore of Great Slave Lake

Status: North Arrow Minerals has turned its focus to this 18.4 square km lithium property, which is 18 km northeast of the Nechalacho rare earth mine. DeStaffany has two two known pegmatites — Moose 1 and Moose 2 — that bear lithium-tantalum-niobium, with some historical assessment completed, according to the company. On April 24, North Arrow announced its intention to raise up to $2 million through the stock market, the bulk of which would be used to explore DeStaffany.

Owner: Mountain Province Diamonds/Kennady Diamonds

Resource: Diamonds

Location: 280 km northeast of Yellowknife

Status: Following its 2022 summer exploration program, consisting of more than 5,000 metres of drilling, Mountain Province Diamonds announced that it discovered a new kimberlite area at the 1,130 square km Kennady North project. Twenty-five of 35 exploration drillholes intersected kimberlite, the company stated, noting that the new kimberlite site appears to be “new and distinct” from the nearby Kelvin deposit. Mountain Province indicated that it plans to resume drilling in 2023. The Kelvin kimberlite contains an indicated 13.6 million carats while the Faraday 2 kimberlite contains an estimated 5.45 million carats.

Mon

Owner: Sixty North Gold Mining

Resource: Gold

Location: 40 km north of Yellowknife

Status: The company has mobilized equipment and supplies in anticipation of mining beginning this spring. Crews were expected to be on site as of May. Of particular interest is a vein that previously produced 30 grams of gold per tonne.

“Stopes will be developed and some of the gold-bearing quartz vein will be extracted and stockpiled on surface,” Sixty North stated in January.

“The company has always believed that restarting the Mon mine and extracting gold from the high-grade quartz veins is the best way to deliver value to shareholders,” said president and CEO Dave Webb. “All of the gold mines in Yellowknife, the Con, Giant, and Discovery mines started at 100 (tonnes per day) to 235 (tonnes per day) and allowed production to grow as reserves were developed. Over 14 million ounces of gold at grades greater than 15 (grams of gold per tonne) were produced in this manner. Investing many millions of dollars in exploration may not be the wisest plan when operations can commence mining for less than $10 million.”

Prairie Creek

Owner: NorZinc

Resource: Zinc, lead, silver

Location: 90 km northwest of Nahanni Butte

Status: NorZinc completed construction of the first phase of its all-season access road to the Prairie Creek mine, the company announced on April 20. The full route runs 170 km from Highway 7 and will “ultimately consist of a five-metre wide, single lane road to support the resupply of the Prairie Creek Mine and for concentrate transportation,” the company stated.

Last December, an entity known as RCF VI CAD LLC acquired Norzinc.

NICO

Owner: Fortune Minerals

Resource: Gold, bismuth, cobalt, copper

Location: 50 km northeast of Whati

Status: Unable to outright afford the $5.5-million purchase of a former steel fabrication plant located on 77 acres outside of Edmonton, Fortune Minerals in December once again extended its option to purchase the site for use as a hydrometallurgical refinery. Fortune is paying the land owner $15,000 per month for keeping the door open to a possible deal. In March, Fortune revealed that it raised $552,465 through the stock market and that the Wek’eezhiı Land and Water Board renewed the company’s land use permit for five years.

Muskox

Owner: Gama Explorations

Resource: Lithium

Location: 40 km east of Yellowknife

Status: Gama Explorations is moving ahead with the first phase of its exploration program involving a lidar and orthophoto survey planned for May; prospecting, mapping, and channel sampling slated for June; and drilling planned for July/August. The company recently completed $6 million in financing.

The Muskox property spans 50 square km in the centre of the Yellowknife Pegmatite Province.

“We believe that the Muskox project is highly prospective and the detailed groundwork during phase one will put our technical team in a strong position to delineate high-quality drill targets,” said Gama CEO Mick Carew on April 24.

Diagras

Owner: Arctic Star Exploration/Margaret Lake Diamonds

Resource: Diamonds

Location: 22 km northeast of Diavik diamond mine

Status: After completing delineation drilling in 2022, Arctic Star Exploration announced in December that caustic fusion results from a 1.65 tonne of HQ split core from the Sequoia kimberlite complex at the Diagras joint venture project showed that the microdiamonds continue to be predominantly white and clear. Variations in diamond counts “reflect variations in grade from various rock types and areas in the complex,” the company stated.

Astro

Owner: Orogen Royalties

Resource: Gold

Location: Along the Canol Road, near the Yukon border

Status: Rackla Metals Inc., which is a partner and operator at the 288-square-km Astro gold project, announced in April that it has a permit for a drill program at Astro and has agreements in place for a camp management contractor (Archer Cathro and Associates Ltd.), an airborne geophysical contractor (Precision GeoSurveys Inc.) and a diamond drill contractor (Superior Diamond Drilling Inc.) for its 2023 exploration program.

O’Connor Lake

Resource: Zinc, lead

Owner: Slave Lake Zinc Corp.

Location: 185 km west of Yellowknife

Status: Based on a review of historical drill logs, Slave Lake Zinc has identified additional exploration targets at its O’Connor Lake project, including lithium targets, the company stated in March. The property was developed and subsequently closed in the early 1950s due to poor economics at the time.

“As part of the proposed summer work program, Slave Lake plans to locate the old core to determine if sampling it for lithium is feasible after this length of time,” the company wrote in a March 21 news release.

Li property

Owner: Lake Winn Resources

Resource: Lithium

Location: 37 km northwest of Cantung mine; near the Yukon border

Status: In late March, Lake Winn Resources stated that the only work expected to take place at its Li property, which hosts the Little Nahanni pegmatite group, over the next six month is a $50,000 squid magnetometer survey, which was already in progress. The company was also awaiting the conclusion of a satellite radar study.

Lake Winn Resources also tripled its holdings at Little Nahanni, announcing in March that the exploration property now stands at 71 square kilometres.

Yellowknife Lithium

Owner: Li-FT

Resource: Lithium

Location: 60 km east of Yellowknife

Status: Li-FT made a deal to acquire the Yellowknife Lithium project last November. The site “is comprised of mineral leases that cover the majority of the lithium pegmatites that make up the Yellowknife Pegmatite Province … one of the largest lithium resources in the Western world,” the company stated, citing Equinox Resources from 1987.

Gayna River

Owner: Fireweed Metals Corp.

Resource: Zinc

Location: Mackenzie Mountains, within the Gwich’in and Sahtu settlement areas

Status: Fireweed Metals carried out its first exploration activities at the Gayna River project in 2022. In November, the company stated that its efforts resulted in eight rock samples that graded at better than seven per cent zinc, including one at 51 per cent zinc. Another sample graded 74 per cent lead. This confirms the presence of massive sulphide mineralization at the 129 square km property, according to the company. Fireweed Metals has also signed a letter of intent to acquire the Mactung tungsten deposit from the Government of the Northwest Territories.

Loki

Owner: North Arrow Minerals

Resource: Diamonds

Location: 30 km southwest of Ekati

Status: Samples collected at depths of five to 25 metres revealed “very high” kimberlite indicator minerals, including three samples with more than 100 kimberlite indicator minerals, North Arrow stated in February. Samples from closer to the surface returned zero to seven kimberlite indicator minerals, which is consistent with earlier till sampling in the area. The property spans 21,300 acres.

Sparta

Owner: Silver Range Resources

Resource: Gold

Location: 84 km northeast of Yellowknife

Status: The Sparta property features multiple gold-rich quartz veins and it attracted the interest of Treminco Resources in the 1980s and drilling as long ago as the 1940s.

Project: Seahorse

Owner: Talmora Diamond Inc.

Resource: Diamonds

Location: About halfway between Colville Lake and Paulatuk

Status: Covid-19 restrictions prevented Olivut Resources, which can earn a 50 per cent option on the property, from getting into the field in 2020 and 2021. The company previously stated that it considers the property to “have the potential to host diamondiferous kimberlite bodies of significant size.”

HOAM

Owner: Olivut Resources

Resource: Diamonds

Location: 15 km north of Fort Simpson, stretching to 20 km from Deline

Status: Olivut Resources has “numerous” targets ready to drill and would like to proceed with helicopter-supported geophysical mapping to identify more targets and prioritize its drill list but that’s subject to the raising of funds.

Fox Lake

Owner: BNT Gold Resources

Resource: Gold

Location: 275 km northeast of Yellowknife

Status: Mapping, prospecting, soil sampling, glacial till sampling, and geophysical surveys have been done on the 47,400-acre property.

Courageous Lake

Owner: Seabridge Gold

Resource: Gold

Location: 240 km northeast of Yellowknife

Status: Seabridge hasn’t provided any updates since 2018 when it identified two new gold zones as a result of a winter drilling program. A prefeasibility study in 2012 indicated that the nearby FAT deposit is home to 6.46 million ounces of proven and probable gold, which could be produced at an average of 385,000 ounces per year over 16 years.

LDG

Owner: North Arrow Minerals/Dominion Diamond Mines

Resource: Diamonds Location: Lac de Gras region

Status: North Arrow and then-senior joint venture partner Dominion Diamond Mines conducted $3.5-million worth of exploration at LDG in 2020 that included a geophysical survey program. The 1,472-square-km claim is located south of the Diavik diamond mine. No further announcements followed as the financially-troubled Dominion Diamond Mines sold its assets in early 2021.

Up Town Gold

Owner: Silver Range Resources

Resource: Gold

Location: West side of Giant Mine, six kilometres from downtown Yellowknife

Status: Spanning nearly 8,000 acres, Up Town Gold hosts 10 high-grade gold occurrences.

Bishop, Zeus, Rhombus, ZIP

Owner: GGL Resources

Resouce: Diamonds

Location: Lac de Gras diamond district

Status: GGL’s holdings are located in the Lac de Gras area, a district that is home to the Ekati and Diavik mines. GGL has concentrated on its Nevada interests over the past year.

Hidden Lake

Owner: Far Resources and Gaia Metals Corp

Resource: Lithium

Location: 40 km northeast of Yellowknife

Status: Results from a 2018 drill campaign included 1.6 per cent lithium oxide over 9.2 metres. The exploration comprised 1,079 metres of drilling at 10 holes, producing 197 core samples from the 4,568-acre property.

AYE 1 and Handle 1

Owner: Dave Nickerson

Resource: Gold

Location: Near the Ingraham Trail turnoff, close to Yellowknife

Status: Prospector Dave Nickerson carried out grid sampling during summer 2018. He previously reported 59.7 grams of gold per tonne from the Fox vein at his 100-per-cent-owned Aye claim based on 2017 trench work and 36.9 grams of gold per tonne at the No. 9 vein on his wholly-owned Handle 1 property based on a 2017 mini-bulk sample.

Hangstone

Owner: Wayne Kendrick

Resource: Gold

Location: 47 km north of Yellowknife

Status: Grab samples have returned 26.5 and 23.5 grams of gold per tonne at Hangstone.

Itchen

Owner: Silver Range Resources

Resource: Gold

Location: 348 km northeast of Yellowknife

Status: This property is located 78 km southwest of the former Lupin gold mine. Silver Range Resources did some staking and sampling at Itchen in 2016 but no activity has been highlighted in the years since.

Terra

Owner: DemCo Limited Partnership

Resource: Silver

Location: Camsell River, south of Great Bear Lake

Status: Owned by the Dene Nation, DemCo acquired more than 97 square kilometres in minerals claims in 2013. The site encompasses four past producing mines, including the Terra Mine. In 2016, DemCo performed some work on historical cores from Terra but no work has been reported since then.

NUNAVUT

Back River Owner: B2Gold

Resource: Gold

Location: 364 km southwest of Cambridge Bay

Status: Sabina Gold and Silver shareholders approved a $1.2 billion takeover offer on April 12 from Vancouver-headquartered B2Gold, a miner with international holdings.

Prior to that, Sabina accepted a $139-million joint bid in January from CGT Industrial (“CGT”) — comprising Clark Builders, Gisborne Industrial Construction Ltd. and PTW Energy Services — to build the process plant for the Goose mine and other related buildings.

In March, the company released its 2022 year-end financial results, which showed a net loss of $14.4 million as Sabina focuses on the construction of the Goose mine. The company ended 2022 with cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments of $65.8 million. In February 2022, Sabina secured US$530 million in financing to proceed with building the mine.

Angilak

Owner: Labrador Uranium

Resource: Uranium

Location: 350 km west of Rankin Inlet

Status: ValOre Metals agreed on March 13 to sell the rights to Angilak to Labrador Uranium for $3 million in cash and 100 million common shares of Labrador Uranium valued at 40 cents apiece.

The 686-square km property has a historical inferred resource estimate of 2,831,000 tonnes containing an inferred 43.3 million pounds of U3O8 and 10.4 million pounds of molybdenum.

Hunter Tootoo, executive assistant to Kivalliq Inuit Association (KIA) President Kono Tattuinee, said Labrador Uranium had not been in touch with KIA as of April 3. In regards to the potential for uranium mining, Tootoo stated, “ValOre Metals have a licence to explore. Exploration is allowed but if and when it comes to mining, any company would be required to follow the established regulatory process.”

Tom Hoefer, executive director of the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines, expressed his hope that the draft Nunavut Land Use Plan will undergo significant revisions in the future to help protect “Nunavut’s great mineral development opportunities in its next version.”

“With respect to critical minerals, uranium is now listed as critical mineral, and Canada has adopted a supportive approach to nuclear power and small modular reactor technology,” said Hoefer. “The EU (European Union), I understand, considers nuclear a green energy to invest in. And nuclear is now recognized as necessary to successfully address climate change. We expect that the public’s support will also increase with this … I understand uranium prices are also increasing as a result, and this would bode well for the higher costs of mining in Nunavut. With both the price and public acknowledgement of uranium, I’m hopeful we will see something happen in Nunavut.”

Chidliak

Owner: De Beers

Resource: Diamonds

Location: 120 km northeast of Iqaluit

Status: Chidliak, which De Beers has said it would like to turn into a diamond mine, is heading for an environmental review after federal ministers endorsed such a proposal from the Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB) in February. NIRB expressed a desire to further analyze unfamiliar technologies that De Beers is proposing to use through its FutureSmart Mining program, such as a modular nuclear reactor and remotely-operated vehicles and mining techniques. There are also concerns relating to impacts on Inuit harvesting and wildlife.

Nagvaak

Owner: StrategX Elements Corp.

Resource: Graphite, nickel, vanadium, cobalt, copper, silver and platinum group metals

Location: On the Melville Peninsula, southwest of Sanirajak, northeast of Naujaat

Status: StrategX touted on March 7 that, based on drill core intersections and surface grab samples, it has added graphite to the assorted metals found at Nagvaak.

The graphite is described as high grade and jumbo flake. Samples taken from drill intersections included 22.2 per cent graphitic carbon over eight metres.

“Our exploration team is putting the Melville Peninsula on the map as a major new prospective region to discover critical minerals for the global energy transition,” stated Darren Bahrey, CEO of StrategX.

The company indicated that its next steps are to “further evaluate the quality of the graphite in additional surface and drill core samples and determine the extent and dimensions of graphite mineralization at Nagvaak.”

In December, StrategX announced a best drill result of 2.63 per cent copper equivalent over 58 metres, starting at a depth of 27 metres below surface.