Spotlight: Four more companies advancing projects in BC, Prairies & the Far North 

Exploration in Canada’s Prairie provinces, British Columbia and the Far North is heating up with summer drill programs, especially for coveted critical minerals. Here’s a look at four more companies with interesting projects to keep an eye on.

Fortune Bay

Fortune Bay (TSXV: FOR; US-OTC: FTBYF) is moving ahead with engineering studies, environmental programs and community engagement initiatives as part of prefeasibility study work at its Goldfields project in northern Saskatchewan.

At the same time, drill results it has released this spring continue to demonstrate wide intercepts of gold mineralization.

Assays from the project’s Box deposit reported in March included 17 metres grading 2.54 grams gold from 228 metres, including 5 metres of 6.61 grams gold in drillhole B25-346; 19 metres at 1.86 grams gold from 355 metres and 7 metres of 2.76 grams gold from 367 metres in drillhole B25-347. Drillhole B25-348 returned 9.3 metres grading 2.29 grams gold from 274 metres downhole.

The results were followed in April by 7 metres averaging 9.9 grams gold within a 21-metre-intercept grading 3.7 grams gold from 342 metres in drillhole B26-350. The intercept was 140 metres outside the deposit’s current open-pit constrained resource estimate.  

Goldfields is 700 km north of Regina and about 13 km south of Uranium City, where there was a uranium mining boom from the 1950s until the 1970s. Gold exploration and mining in the area predates uranium activity by at least a decade. Fortune Bay’s Box target sits where the namesake underground mine produced about 64,000 oz. of gold between 1939 and 1942.

The company has also been drilling its Golden Pond target, just north of the Box mine. In May it reported 23.2 metres grading 1.20 grams gold from 15 metres depth in drillhole GP26-02 and 6.8 metres grading 2.06 grams gold from 43.1 metres depth in GP26-03.

An updated preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for Goldfields, released last fall, outlined a 14-year life with an after-tax net present value (NPV) at a 5% discount of $610 million and a 44% after-tax internal rate of return (IRR).  

Initial capital costs were estimated at $301 million and life-of-mine all-in sustaining costs at US$1,330 per oz., based on an assumed US$2,600 base-case gold price. The proposed open pit mine could produce 4,950 tonnes per day.

An accompanying resource for the Box and Athona targets totals 24 million indicated tonnes at 1.28 grams gold for 990,000 oz. gold and 7.4 million inferred tonnes at 0.9 gram gold for 210,000 oz. gold.

While the company’s main focus is gold, it’s also exploring for uranium. In June, it launched a 5,000-metre drill program at the Murmac and Strike projects near Uranium City. The program is funded by Manhattan Uranium Discovery (TSXV: MANU; US-OTC: MAUUF) under an option agreement with Fortune Bay.

Fortune Bay has a market cap of $46.1 million.

Kodiak Copper

Kodiak Copper’s (TSXV: KDK; US-OTC: KDKCF) main asset is the MPD copper-gold porphyry project in southern B.C.’s Quesnel Terrane, which hosts several of Canada’s largest copper-gold porphyry mines and deposits.

The company kicked off a fully funded exploration program in April, which is set to include 6,500 metres of drilling along with 3-D IP and audio-magnetotelluric geophysical surveying, geological mapping and prospecting. The drill program is aimed at expanding the initial resource estimate completed last year.

The resource outlined a total of seven deposits, all of which remain open to expansion. MPD hosts 82.9 million indicated tonnes grading 0.28% copper, 0.15 gram gold and 1.11 grams silver for 519 million lb. contained copper, 390,000 oz. gold, and 2.97 million oz. silver.  

Inferred resources add 356.3 million tonnes grading 0.24% copper, 0.11 gram gold and 1.07 grams silver for 1.89 billion lb. copper, 1.28 million oz. gold and 12.31 million oz. silver.

The company says it plans to drill most of the seven deposits this year and notes that there is significant growth potential at the Ketchan, Adit and Dillard deposits.

It has also identified 36 prospective targets, and plans to drill several of the most compelling, including the Dillard East, Star and Tau targets.

In May, the company reported positive results from metallurgical testwork, with less energy invested into liberation due to a higher grind size. Rougher recoveries of up to 91.1%, 81.4% and 80.4% for copper, gold and silver respectively, were achieved while increasing grind size.

Kodiak Copper was launched by Chris Taylor, the founder and CEO of Great Bear Resources, which was acquired by Kinross Gold (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) in 2022 for $1.8 billion. The company is part of John Robins’ Discovery Group.

In addition to MPD, Kodiak Copper holds the Mohave copper-molybdenum-silver porphyry project in Arizona. In April the company announced it had signed a non-binding letter of intent with Teck (TSX: TECK.A/TECK B; NYSE: TECK) to create a new U.S.-focused copper exploration company. Under the transaction Kodiak would vend its Mohave project and Teck its Copper Hill project, also in Arizona, into a subsidiary of Kay Copper.

Kodiak Copper has a market cap of about $88.1 million.

Northisle Copper and Gold  

Northisle Copper and Gold (TSXV: NCX; US-OTC: NTCPF) is working on a prefeasibility study for its North Island copper-gold project near Port Hardy on northern Vancouver Island and recently closed a $115-million financing to help move the project towards environmental assessment and permitting. The project was accepted into B.C.’s Critical Minerals Office initiative in February.

A February 2025 PEA estimated an after-tax NPVof $2 billion at a 7% discount rate, an after-tax IRR of 29% and a 29-year-mine life.  

The assessment was based on a proposed two-stage development of the Northwest Expo and Red Dog deposits, followed by the Hushamu deposit concurrent with a plant expansion. The previous PEA only included the Red Dog and Hushamu deposits.

In the first stage, the plant is to process material at a throughput rate of 40,000 tonnes per day to produce gold doré and gold-rich copper concentrate for five years. The second stage contemplates twinning the mill to double the capacity at 80,000 tonnes per day in the sixth year to produce copper concentrate (containing significant payable gold), additional gold doré and a molybdenum concentrate.

Initial capital for the first stage was pegged at $1.14 billion with expansion capital needed for the second phase of $693 million. The initial capital could be repaid in about 1.9 years based on the base case scenario.

The project hosts 906 million indicated tonnes grading 0.16% copper, 0.24 gram gold and 75 ppm molybdenum, for contained metal of 3.11 billion lb. copper, 6.94 million oz. gold and 149 million lb. molybdenum, plus an additional 214 million inferred tonnes grading 0.12% copper, 0.22 gram gold and 52 ppm molybdenum for 571 million lb. copper, 1.53 million oz. gold and 24 million lb. molybdenum.

Infill drill results from the Northwest Expo deposit in March included 117 metres grading 1.22 grams gold, 0.2% copper and 99.3 ppm molybdenum from 231 metres in drillhole NW25-57; and 75 metres at 1.09 grams gold, 0.21% copper and 79.1 ppm molybdenum from 246 metres depth in drillhole NW25-54 and 107.7 metres grading 1.02 grams gold, 0.16% copper and 8.89 ppm molybdenum from 254 metres depth in NW-25-53.

The 340-sq-km project is located next to BHP’s (NYSE, LSE, ASX: BHP) now-closed Island copper mine.

Northisle Copper and Gold has a market cap of about $923 million.

Sitka Gold

Sitka Gold (TSXV: SIG; US-OTC: SITKF) is drilling 60,000 metres this year at its RC gold project in the Yukon’s Tombstone gold belt, about 100 km east of Dawson City.

The fully funded program is to focus on expanding resources at RC’s Blackjack, Eiger and Rhosgobel deposits, all of which remain open, and following up on other high-priority targets.

The first drillhole completed this year at Blackjack returned 273.8 metres of 1.1 grams gold from 642 metres depth, including 94 metres grading 1.8 grams gold and 19.3 metres of 5.04 grams gold.

The hole, DDRCCC-26-21, was drilled about 370 metres below the existing Blackjack resource and is the deepest hole drilled so far at the project at 1,093 metres.

The company says it anticipates updating Blackjack’s resource after the 2026 exploration program has been completed. Blackjack holds 39.96 million indicated tonnes at 1.01 grams gold for 1.29 million oz. and 34.6 million inferred tonnes grading 0.94 gram gold for 1.05 million contained ounces.

About half of the drill program this year will focus on the Rhosgobel deposit, which the company discovered in late 2024. In May, Sitka updated Rhosgobel’s pit-constrained resource to include tungsten and silver. The deposit now contains 100.68 million tonnes grading 0.7 gram gold, 0.9 gram silver and 0.05% tungsten oxide (WO3) for 2.2 million oz. gold, 2.93 million oz. silver and 51,345 tonnes WO3.

The Eiger deposit holds 32.14 million inferred tonnes grading 0.52 gram gold for 535,000 ounces.

All three deposits begin at surface and have potential for open-pit mining and heap leaching. Initial metallurgical testing confirmed that the ore is non-refractory and returned gold extraction rates averaging about 85% for both Blackjack and Eiger. Testing of two composite samples from Rhosgobel yielded gold recoveries of 89% and 96%.  

RC sits on a 441-sq.-km property that ranks among the largest consolidated land packages in Yukon. It is positioned midway between the former Victoria Gold’s Eagle mine and its Brewery Creek gold mine.  

The project is at the headwaters of Clear Creek and Big Creek, an active placer mining district serviced by a network of gravel roads and trails.

Sitka’s other projects in Canada include Coppermine River in Nunavut, about 600 km north of Yellowknifeand the OGI property, 50 km east of Dawson.

Sitka Gold has a market cap of about $474 million.