Deadlines approaching on Lac de Gras diamond claims

The pace of staking in the Northwest Territories has accelerated in recent months. But even as new companies jump into the diamond play, claims acquired during the early days of the rush may be dropped as deadlines for assessment work draw near.

The number of claims recorded in the first four months of 1993 almost match those recorded during the whole of 1992, when more than 20 million acres were staked, says Yellowknife Mining Recorder Karen Klassen. The activity reflects continued excitement and speculation over the Lac de Gras and surrounding diamond and gold plays. Some companies, including Lytton Minerals (TSE) and Kalahari Resources (VSE), have staked multi-million-acre tracts of land.

But as the area secured since November, 1991 (when Dia Met Minerals (TSE) announced its first results), swells to 40 million acres, the deadline for assessment work on many claims is fast approaching.

According to Territorial mining law, prospectors must spend at least $4 per acre within two years of recording their claims in order to satisfy assessment requirements. In lieu of the work, landholders can make a deposit of $2 per acre in order to extend the deadline for one year. “If they don’t file the work or put up a deposit, they lose the ground,” says Klassen. “We’re expecting a surge of assessment work to be filed by the new year.”

Companies such as Dia Met and the DHK syndicate — whose senior partners have already completed a lot of exploration — should have little problem satisfying the requirements, but competitors without cash-rich backers may be forced to drop ground within the next year.

Not even an option agreement with a senior is a guarantee that the required work will get done. In an interview with The Northern Miner earlier this year, Kennecott Canada President John Stephenson said his company, in an attempt to weed out the least prospective ground within its 5-million-acre area of interest, would be dropping a lot of claims before the end of 1993 (T.N.M., Feb.8/93).

Earlier this year, Kennecott dropped all but 33,572 acres of the ground it held northeast of Lac de Gras under an option with Argus Resources (ASE).