TerraX Minerals Inc. fell short of its $10 million exploration goal, but there are promising signs at the old Ptarmigan Mine site, recently purchased by the company.
“Through ... sampling we've been able to determine a large amount of high-grade gold,” said chairman Joe Campbell, of the site off Ingraham Trail.
“This is an excellent exploration target and we are moving into the second stage of exploration.”
Although there is no set plan to reopen the mine, purchased in November, the company said these developments coincide with the Yellowknife City Gold Project.
The Yellowknife City gold project, which encompasses 440 square kilometres of land immediately north, south and east of the city of Yellowknife.
The Ptarmigan Mine produced gold from 1941 to 42, in 1983 and from 1985 to1997.
The Yellowknife City Gold project has grown 10 times its original size since TerraX acquired the Northbelt Property in a bankruptcy sale in 2013.
Campbell has said previously the company uses newer methods of exploration to find the gold that other people missed over the years.
Yellowknifer previously reported the entire exploration project around the city will continue for another eight to 10 years before any mining could get underway.
“If you invest in mining you know there are some projects worth $1 to 2 per share that don't deserve to be there,” Campbell told an audience at the Yellowknife Ski Club earlier this month. “Well this project does.”
“(It's) highway robbery how we've been able to accumulate this land.”
TerraX Minerals Inc. held their annual community discussion at the top floor of the ski club where community members listened to a presentation about the progress the company had made over the 2017 season.
NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines president Gary Vivian said he believes the purchase and exploration at Ptarmigan Mine is because of its lucrative historical past.
“The guys at TerraX are just doing their due-diligence for the history of mining in that area,” said Vivian. “They want to make sure nothing of value is left underground and I don't see a negative in that.”
Campbell hinted of a new mine in the area given the information which he said was received only a week ago.
“We only showed what was the anomalous findings from our researchers,” said Campbell. “We would look at a centre of operation about 10 kilometres north of the city. That's where most of our deposits are and those deposits have a chance of increasing in size.”
Campbell admitted exploration is like rolling dice.
“The people who are on this project are the best at what they do,” said Campbell during the discussion. “We're at the peak price of gold to move on to the next phase in this project.”
During the operational period at Ptarmigan Mine crews were small, cost of production was high and the resources were lacking.
So much so that Treminco, the owners at the time, had to shut down to avoid serious repercussions of a market collapse.
“There was no serious economic impact,” said Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre curatorial assistant, Ryan Silke.
“However the companies who owned the properties are similar.”