Efforts to uncover the North's next viable mining project continue. Exploration companies are raising money, staking new ground, analyzing rock samples from the surface and drilling to varying depths.
Here are some of the latest developments from various projects in the NWT and Nunavut.
NWT
Project: Camsell River
Owner: DemCo Limited Partnership
Resource: Iron, copper, gold, critical minerals
Location: Camsell River, south of Great Bear Lake
Status: The federal government contributed $5 million to Denendeh Exploration and Mining Company (DEMCo) in late April through the Indigenous Natural Resource Partnerships program. The money will permit the 100 per cent Dene-owned company to conduct data collection and consultations with Indigenous communities.
"This will help to gather more information for the creation of a technical report to attract investors and partnerships. Additionally, the funding will help to build business capacity within DEMCo and local Indigenous groups by contributing to the growth of a skilled local workforce," a new release stated.
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Project: Pine Point
Owner: Osisko Metals
Resource: Lead, zinc
Location: 42 km east of Hay River
Status: The final 2023 drill results at Pine Point, announced in January, included 12.5 per cent zinc and 2.2 per cent lead over 11 metres as the project heads towards the feasibility stage. In February, a fund advised by Appian Capital Advisory LLP in London, England, purchased another five per cent of Pine Point for $8.3 million and declared that its goal is to own as much as 65 per cent of the project.
The Pine Point mine could produce 329 million lbs. of zinc and 141 million lbs. 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.
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Project: Courageous Lake
Owner: Seabridge Gold
Resource: Gold
Location: 240 km northeast of Yellowknife
Status: Seabridge Gold provided a significant update to its 2012 prefeasibility study in January which points to 2.5 million ounces of gold production over the first 12.6 years of open-pit mine life. However, there is more gold on site, an estimated 11 million ounces of measured and indicated gold, which is 38 per cent high than the last benchmark. It's believed that the gold could be produced at an all-in cost of $999 per ounce, helping to create a 2.8 year payback and an internal rate of return of 20.6 per cent. It would cost a projected $747 million to build the mine.
"As we move towards a joint venture on our KSM project (in B.C.), we will be shifting our attention to Courageous Lake's potential to generate considerable additional shareholder value," said Seabridge Gold CEO and chair Rudi Fronk.
The study did not include the nearby Walsh Lake deposit, which has an inferred resource of 4.1 million ounces of gold.
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Project: Yellowknife Lithium/Cali
Owner: Li-FT Power
Resource: Lithium
Location: 60 km east of Yellowknife/near the Yukon border, respectively
Status: Results from 16 drill holes at the Yellowknife Lithium project, released at the end of April, gave an indication of the promise of the Big East, Echo, Fi Main, and Big North pegmatites. Among the highlights were 35 metres at 1.34 per cent lithium oxide at Big East and four metres at 1.98 lithium oxide at Echo.
Dave Smithson, the company's vice-president of geology, described the Big East pegmatite as "very impressive."
At the Cali property, a soil geochemistry survey was completed in addition to mapping and prospecting during the summer of 2023. Out of 163 grab samples, 124 returned grades higher than one per cent lithium oxide, according to Li-FT Power.
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Projects: Ross Lake/MAC/Halo-Yuri
Owner: Trinex Minerals Ltd.
Resource: Lithium
Location: 70 km northeast of Yellowknife/80 km north of Yellowknife/250 kms northeast of Yellowknife
Status: Trinex Minerals is planning "a concentrated block of fieldwork" this summer with focus on its Halo-Yuri project. There will also be some attention paid to a "large LCT pegmatite swarm" at the MAC project and archaeology work at Ross Lake.
Combined the three properties encompass 500 square kilometres.
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Project: Li Property
Owner: Lake Winn Resources
Resource: Lithium
Location: 37 km northwest of Cantung mine; near the Yukon border
Status: The project was expanded by more than 380 per cent through additional staking in 2023, bringing it up to 96.8 square kilometres. Other activities included rock and chip sampling, soil sampling, an airborne geophysical survey and detailed geological mapping. CEO Patrick Power anticipates a drilling program in 2024 to test high-priority targets.
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Projects: LDG and MacKay
Owner: North Arrow Minerals
Resource: Lithium
Location: Approximately 115 km east of Yellowknife, on the shore of Great Slave Lake; within 5 km of the winter road infrastructure connecting Yellowknife with the Lac de Gras region; and 15 km south of Lac de Gras, north of Mackay Lake, respectively
Status: Lithium assays from MacKay and LDG were released in December. At MacKay, 14 of 17 samples take from the MK3 pegmatite returned over one per cent lithium oxide, including five grab samples returning 5.25 per cent, 4.08 per cent, 2.71 per cent, 1.92 per cent and 1.10 per cent lithium oxide, according to North Arrow.
Samples from the northern extent of the LDG Project’s SD2 spodumene pegmatite returned 3.19 per cent lithium oxide, 1.53 per cent lithium oxide and 1.46 per cent lithium oxide, extending confirmed spodumene mineralization 260 metres to the north.
MacKay and LDG are 10 km apart.
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Project: Mon
Owner: Sixty North Gold Mining
Resource: Gold
Location: 40 km north of Yellowknife
Status: Sixty North Gold Mining anticipated that mining operations would be restarted by the end of May. Mining crews were hired, a tent camp was acquired and other light equipment and supplies were being purchased, the company stated in a May 14 news release. President and CEO Dave Webb referred to the project as the re-development of a "very high-grade past producing gold mine." The site actually hosted two gold mines that produced 14 million ounces of gold.
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Project: Con Mine
Owner: Newmont FN/Miramar Northern Mining Ltd.
Resource: Gold
Location: Just south of Yellowknife
Status: Gold Terra, which has negotiated an option to purchase the Con mine property, started a deep drill hole started in early February targeting the Campbell shear below the former mine site. The hole intersected the Con shear and revealed new gold mineralization, including 13.9 grams of gold per tonne over 0.6 metres, the company announced on April 17. Gold Terra chairman and CEO Gerald Panneton said the zones "illustrate the large potential to find multiple gold deposits."
The adjacent Yellowknife City Gold Project, which Gold Terra fully owns, boasts an inferred 1.2 million ounces of gold.
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Project: Colomac Gold
Owner: STLLR Gold Inc.
Resource: Gold
Location: 200 km north of Yellowknife
Nighthawk Gold Corp. and Moneta Gold Inc. completed a merger in early February to form STLLR Gold. In addition to the Colomac gold project near Yellowknife, the company also holds the Tower gold property in Timmins, Ont. All news releases through May 21 pertained to developments at Tower.
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Owner: ANT Lithium
Resource: Lithium
Location: 50 km east of the Ingraham Trail; 70 southeast of Diavik diamond mine
Status: The 33 mineral claims span 338 square kilometres. In September, the company reported rock samples showing 7.6 per cent lithium oxide from the central region of the Aylmer property and 7.6 per cent from the eastern region of the site.
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Project: NICO
Owner: Fortune Minerals
Resource: Gold, bismuth, cobalt, copper
Location: 50 km northeast of Whati
Status: The Government of Canada is willing to provide up to $7.5 million in funding to support 75 per cent of costs for additional engineering and test work, Fortune Minerals announced on May 16. The work will complement projects through the U.S. Department of Defence, funded at $8.7 million, to "expand the domestic capacity and production of cobalt for the battery and high-strength alloy supply chains."
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Project: Prairie Creek
Owner: RCF VI CAD LLC
Resource: Zinc, lead, silver
Location: 90 km northwest of Nahanni Butte
Status: NorZinc, the operator of the project, completed construction of the first phase of its all-season access road to the Prairie Creek mine, the company announced in April 2023. 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.
An entity known as RCF VI CAD LLC acquired NorZinc in December 2022.
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Projects: Radium Point/Coppermine River
Owner: White Cliff Minerals
Resource: Copper/uranium/gold/silver
Location: 270 km southwest/30 km south of Kugluktuk, respectively
Status: “Extensive” diamond drilling will be in the offing at it's NWT-based Radium Point uranium, gold, silver and copper project during the third quarter of 2024, Australian-based White Cliff Minerals announced in early April. In May, the company stated that digitization has revealed high-priority targets.
Radium Point, which was recognized as Canada’s largest uranium mine between 1932 and 1960, covers a vast 2,900 sq. km.
The company anticipates that the work, which will also include regional mapping, sampling and airborne surveys, should get started during the second quarter.
Prior to 1982, the area produced 13.7 million lbs. of uranium oxide, 34.2 million oz. of refined silver, 11.4 million lbs. of copper with gold credits, 104,000 kg of lead, 127,000 kg of nickel and 227,000 kg of cobalt.
White Cliff’s nearby Coppermine River project encompasses 805 sq. km.
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Projects: Gayna and Mactung
Owner: Fireweed Metals Corp.
Resource: Tungsten, zinc, lead, silver
Location: Mackenzie Mountains within the Gwich’in and Sahtu settlement areas
Status: In its year-end highlights for 2023, Fireweed Metals made mention of the completion of 100 per cent ownership of the 37.6 square km Mactung project, which straddles the NWT/Yukon border. It also noted that an updated technical report released in July 2023 indicated a total of 41.5 million tonnes of indicated resource at 0.73 per cent of tungsten oxide and 12.2 million tonnes of Inferred resource at 0.59 per cent tungsten oxide, "making it the world’s largest high-grade resource of the critical mineral tungsten."
At the Gayna property, "re-evaluation of the geological model demonstrates the potential for high-grade massive sulphide zones" and geophysical programs from 2022 and 2023 "informed the location of future drill targets."
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Project: Muskox
Owner: Blackbird Critical Metals
Resource: Lithium
Location: 40 km east of Yellowknife
Status: Gama Explorations changed its name to Blackbird Critical Metals in February. The company's fieldwork was interrupted by wildfires and the evacuation of Yellowknife late last summer. It then reallocated its resources to its Tyee nickel/copper project in Quebec.
The Muskox property spans 50 square km in the centre of the Yellowknife Pegmatite Province.
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Project: Diagras
Owner: Arctic Star Exploration/Margaret Lake Diamonds
Resource: Diamonds
Location: 22 km northeast of Diavik diamond mine
Status: The joint venture at Diagras has a new interest as a party identified only as "the Acquiror" and described as being "arm's length" to Arctic Star bought Margaret Lake Diamonds' 18.5 per cent share in the project.
Arctic Star will remain the operator of the property.
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Project: Astro
Owner: Rackla Metals
Resource: Gold
Location: Along the Canol Road, near the Yukon border
Status: Following exploration work conducted in 2023, Rackla Metals CEO Simon Ridgway stated, "The initial drill program completed on the Canol Trail Stock has indicated real potential for a large economic gold system. A significant drilling program is justified in 2024."
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Project: Seahorse
Owner: Talmora Diamond Inc./Olivut Resources
Resource: Diamonds
Location: About halfway between Colville Lake and Paulatuk
Status: Eighteen micro-diamonds of less than 0.5 millimetres were found in a 323 kg bulk sample taken from beach sand heavy mineral concentrate near the main Seahorse target, according to Talmora Diamond Inc. in February. Another micro-diamond and a macro-diamond were previously identified in a 1.8 kg sample from the same area.
"The identification of 19 microdiamonds and one macro diamond in field samples at the intersection of these two broad, regional vectors is extremely positive," Talmora stated.
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Project: O’Connor Lake
Resource: Zinc
Owner: Slave Lake Zinc Corp.
Location: 185 km west of Yellowknife
Status: Wildfires forced the company to cancel plans to carry out fieldwork last summer.
"Our focus is the development of a sustainable project that benefits all our partners and creates sustainable, environmentally-friendly advances in climate friendly materials that will make all of our efforts more fulfilling and sustainable for the future -- for our children and their children in kind," stated CEO Ritch Wigham last August. "It has never been more apparent, I believe, to everyone how important projects like ours are if we are to combat the scourge of climate change and protect the planet going forward."
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NUNAVUT
Project: Back River
Owner: B2Gold
Resource: Gold
Location: 364 km southwest of Cambridge Bay
Status: B2Gold announced in May that development of the open pit and underground has fallen behind schedule, which has resulted in first gold production now expected in the second quarter of 2025 instead of the first quarter. That also lowered expected 2025 gold production to the 120,000-150,000 ounce range, down from 220,000-260,000 ounces.
However, mill construction remains on schedule, according to the company.
All of the materials needed to complete construction of the gold mine were delivered via B2Gold's 162-km winter road as of April 30. More than 2,100 loads, including 400 loads of diesel, were required.
The company previously revised its capital estimate for mine construction up to $1.05 billion from the previous expectation of $800 million. That was attributed to labour and site operating costs being higher than anticipated as well as the effects of inflation on construction materials, consumables and transportation costs.
“In addition, a detailed review of the project design has identified deficiencies in project components including power generation and distribution, laboratory, piping, and controls and instrumentation, which are being corrected to deliver a reliable operation,” the company stated in February.
B2Gold also projects spending an additional $200 million on on underground development, deferred stripping and sustaining capital as well as $205 million more for fuels, reagents and other working capital.
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Projects: Ulu, Roma, Hood River
Owner:
Blue Star Gold Corp.
Resource: Gold
Location: 125 km west of Bathurst Inlet
Status: Blue Star Gold mobilized two drills in April and anticipated drilling a minimum of 4,000 metres at its Ulu and Roma projects starting in May. Mapping and prospecting and geological and geophysical surveys will also take place.
“The drilling component will focus on the discovery of new resources at re-interpreted targets, expansion targets, and previously untested targets,” Blue Star Gold wrote in a March news release.
Company CEO Grant Ewing added, “Our 2024 campaign leverages the results of a very successful 2023 program. Our large pipeline of high-quality targets has been refined as we prepare for the upcoming season. The drilling component will focus on new discoveries and on resource expansion adjacent to and within known resource centres.”
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Project: Seal/Storm
Owner: Aston Bay Holdings/American West Metals Ltd.
Resource: Copper, zinc, silver
Location: 120 km south of Resolute Bay on Somerset Island
Status: In late February, Aston Bay Holdings trumpeted an “aggressive” 22,000-metre drilling and exploration program to be carried out by American West Metals Ltd., the operator of the project. Fieldwork got underway in March with an objective of resource expansion, definition of high-grade copper discoveries at various zones as well as exploration activities. By May, American West Metals and Aston Bay were reporting "thick new copper zones" discovered early in the drilling campaign.
“We are excited about this significant exploration program at Storm,” stated Thomas Ullrich, CEO of Aston Bay. “Our partner American West is fully financed… geophysics and drilling will focus on expanding the known areas of near-surface high-grade copper mineralization at several prospects at Storm, as well as continuing to explore for new targets at depth and along strike over the almost 100-kilometre prospective trend for sediment-hosted copper mineralization.”
In addition, by spending $3 million over four years, Aston Bay Holdings negotiated the rights to acquire an 80 per cent interest in the Epworth property, located 80 km southeast of Kugluktuk and owned by Emerald Geological Services. Aston Bay compared the mineralization at Epworth to that found in deposits of the Central African copper belt and the Storm Copper project.
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Project: Angilak
Owner: ATHA Energy Corp.
Resource: Uranium
Location: 350 km west of Rankin Inlet
Status: Labrador Uranium changed its name to Latitude Uranium in June 2023, which then merged with ATHA Energy Corp. in March 2024.
Also in March, ATHA Energy announced that its 2024 exploration programs at Angilak will build on the work completed by Latitude Uranium, including 10,000 metres of phase one drilling scheduled to begin in June. The aim is to expand the Lac 50 deposit, which remains open in all directions.
“Exploration drilling is also expected to test high-priority targets on parallel structures to Lac 50 that were previously identified as being prospective to host uranium mineralization,” the company stated.
ATHA has also planned an airborne geophysics program “to identify and derisk a pipeline of additional high-priority targets for future exploration programs.”
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Project: Aberdeen
Owner: Forum Energy Metals Corp.
Resource: Uranium
Location: 120 km west of Baker Lake
Status: Contractor Peter’s Expediting Ltd., an Inuit-owned company, "completed 11 trips of drills, camp and other equipment by sled train to the site, located 120 kilometres west of Baker Lake... the snow has cleared and Discovery Mining Services of Yellowknife, NWT has commenced construction of a 30-person drill camp to support a 10,000 metre drill program by mid-June," the company stated in May.
Aberdeen's location is adjacent to Orano Canada's 133-million pound Kiggavik uranium deposit in the Thelon Basin.
Forum Energy Metals intends to drill 10,000 metres, starting in June “to follow up on its successful drill program in 2023.” Four drill holes into the Tatiggaq deposit intersected up to 2.25 per cent U3O8 over 11.1 metres over a 200-metre strike length, a news release reads.
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Project: 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 Elements Corp. on March 21 reported a 45.6 metre drill core interval “within the identified six-kilometre mineralized corridor rich in critical metals, which shows great potential in all directions.
This interval is situated four kilometres from the initial discovery drill hole that returned 58 metres of 2.63 per cent copper equivalent, the company noted.
In addition to returns of 0.41 per cent vanadium pentoxide, 0.26 per cent nickel, 0.14 per cent copper, 0.035 per cent molybdenum, 8.3 grams per tonne of silver, 0.10 grams per tonne of gold+PGE, and 0.36 per cent zinc, there was also high-grade graphite detected between 15.4 metres to 41 metres, with grades reaching up to 34.9 per cent. StrategX referred to this as “potential economic importance” and stated that “the results are some of the highest grades reported in North America and rank high with the world’s graphite deposits and mines.”
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Project: Ferguson Lake
Owner: Canadian North Resources Inc.
Resource: Nickel, copper, cobalt and platinum group metals
Location: 250 km west of Rankin Inlet
Status: On March 19, Canadian North Resources revealed a “substantial increase” in copper, nickel, cobalt, palladium and platinum at Ferguson Lake. In May, that was filed as an NI 43-101 technical report.
Indicated mineral resources jumped by 172 per cent to 66.1 million tonnes containing 1.1 million lbs. of copper at 0.75 per cent, 678 million lbs. of nickel at 0.47 per cent, 79 million lbs. of cobalt at 0.05 per cent, 2.34 million oz. of palladium at 1.10 grams per tonne and 0.42 million oz. of platinum at 0.19 grams per tonne.
Dr. Kaihui Yang, president and CEO of Canadian North Resources, remarked, “We are excited at the substantial increase of the independent National Instrument 43-101 mineral resource estimate from that reported in 2022… this new mineral resource estimate has demonstrated the project is one of the largest and highest-grade undeveloped critical mineral projects in North America. In particular, Canadian North believes the large and high-grade open pit indicated mineral resource provides a solid base for the first development phase for building a potential producing mine. The company is moving forward with further exploration and expansion of mineral resources, follow-up metallurgical testing and commencing economic evaluation and infrastructure and environmental studies for a low-carbon footprint mine development plan at the Ferguson Lake project.”
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Projects: Project Itza and Project 176
Owner: Lexston Mining
Resource: Uranium
Location: Thelon Basin
Status: Lexston Mining staked five new mineral claims over nearly 57 sq. km. for prospective uranium exploration in the Thelon Basin, it was announced in late January. That increases Lexston Mining’s total holdings in the area to 113.5 sq. km. In February, the company made known that it was filing for exploration permits.
Jag Bal, president, and CEO of Lexston stated, “We were one of the first movers in the 2023-2024 uranium staking rush in the Thelon Basin. We look forward to being a part of a very busy exploration season in the basin and are excited to follow up on the high-grade uranium showings that we have on our property.”
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Projects: Turner Lake, McGregor Lake, Gela Lake, McAvoy Lake, Speers Lake
Owner: Bathurst Metals
Resources: Gold, silver, copper, nickel, platinum, palladium
Location: Kitikmeot region
Status: In October, Bathurst Metals Corp. announced its final assay results from its summer 2023 field program, which focused on geological mapping and rock and soil sampling along the Bathurst fault at the Gela Lake property.
Greg Bronson, vice-president of exploration and director of Bathurst Metals, stated, “This summer’s sampling work continued to find high copper and gold values coincident with high bismuth values suggesting the presence of a strongly mineralized hydrothermal system, likely related to the monzogabbro intrusive. Additionally, the occurrence of gold and copper with bismuth implies that structural traps for mineralization are likely associated with the Bathurst fault. Our work continues to improve our understanding of the property geology and build on the exploration model for this very prospective property.”
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Project: Sundog Gold
Owner: New Break Resources
Resource: Gold
Location: 235 km west of Arviat
Status: New Break Resources Ltd. reported in December that rock chip and grab samples from the Sundog Gold project in the Kivalliq region identified new gold-bearing structures on the property, “with half of the eight samples taken grading over 7.5 grams per tonne gold.
New Break’s other Kivalliq exploration properties consist of Sy, Noomut/Esker and Angikuni Lake, which cover 220 square kilometres in total.
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Project: Chidliak
Owner: De Beers
Resource: Diamonds
Location: 120 km northeast of Iqaluit
Status: “Chidliak remains a promising prospect for De Beers, but we have not at this stage confirmed a development timeline,” a company spokesperson stated in March.
Last year, the Nunavut Impact Review Board indicated its intent, through an environmental review, 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.