EDITORIAL PAGE — The Yukon beckons

Back in the early 1990s, when Venezuela was attracting the attention of North American mining companies hoping to make major discoveries, a few geologists began looking towards West Africa as an extension of the favorable geology being explored in South America’s Guyana Shield.

And, more recently, companies exploring for “Voisey’s Bay-type” nickel-copper deposits have cast an eye across the ocean to Greenland, which, at one time, was linked to Labrador. All this goes to show that good geology does not stop at borders, whether they are made by nature or by governments.

This global approach to exploration is also being experienced in the Yukon. Exploration activity there picked up steam following Cominco’s recent discovery of the Kudz Ze Kayah massive sulphide project in the Ross River region, as well as the neighboring Wolverine discovery made by Westmin Resources and partner Atna Resources. While these impressive discoveries have attracted others to explore in southeastern Yukon, what is less well-known is that large-scale exploration programs are being carried out in northeastern Yukon for less traditional targets.

For example, Westmin Resources and Newmont Mines are aggressively exploring their Fairchild project, a 28,000-hectare property in the Bonnet Plume River area.

The joint venture is exploring the Proterozoic sedimentary rocks of the Wernecke Mountains for large, sediment-hosted copper and gold deposits similar to the Olympic Dam deposit in Australia. And, indeed, geologists point out that stratigraphy and ore deposit types in this part of the Yukon are strongly similar to rocks in Australia that are more than 1 billion years old.

Yukon geoscientists have tested breccia samples from the mountains and found them to be same age as those found at Olympic Dam. And they say the similarity in age and appearance supports previous suggestions that Australia and the Yukon once existed side by side, having drifted apart about 1 billion years ago.

As an interesting aside, the age of the rocks has caused geologists to speculate that there may also be good potential for diamond exploration in the Yukon. However, the primary target being sought by Westmin and Newmont is Olympic Dam deposits, and, by all accounts, progress is being made.

Westmin says its exploration activity, including initial drilling, has defined numerous, large, hydrothermal breccias and alteration zones with widespread iron, copper and gold mineralization.

With mineral opportunities emerging in almost every corner of the world, a wider variety of exploration programs are being undertaken, based on innovative thinking and new geological concepts.

It is likely that the next phase of exploration in Canada will be focused on the search for non-traditional targets in areas that have seen little exploration in the past. Quebec, for example, has already encouraged this type of exploration effort through incentives and changes to its mineral policy.

After all, this approach has already paid off in Lac de Gras in the Northwest Territories and Voisey’s Bay in Labrador.