NWT Mining and Mineral Exploration Update 2016
NWT Mining and Mineral Exploration Update 2016 This year marks 25th anniversary of the diamond discovery at Lac de Gras by geologists Chuck Fipke and Stewart Blusson. This news caused the largest staking rush in Canadian history. Their discovery resulted in Canada’s first diamond mine, Ekati, and ignited a $28-billion-dollar industry that established Canada as […]
Faces in Mining: Leni Keough
Leni Keough remembers when people thought it was crazy to look for diamonds in the North. Keough, now president and chief executive officer of exploration company Olivut Resources, was one of those “crazies” in the late 1980s. As a young geologist, Keough searched for diamonds, and over time, worked on many successful diamond exploration programs. […]
Faces in Mining: Dr. Catharine Farrow, Ph.D
Watching the first molten gold stream from the blazing furnace at TMAC’s Doris Mine complex was “fabulous,” recalls Catharine Farrow, CEO of TMAC Resources Inc. That event, late on the night of February 9, 2017, marked nearly 30 years since the discovery of the huge Hope Bay deposits on the mainland shore of the Coronation […]
Upwardly Mobile: The New Northern Middle Class
If sleek new Lunds and speedy Arctic Cats are one measure of whether northern families are better off these days, look around places like Baker Lake, Behchoko, and Cambridge Bay, three Northern and mainly indigenous communities that are seeing profound changes in the ways their economies are evolving. It’s due in large part to the […]
In the Shadow of the Head Frame
Kerry Knoll says there are three niches in the mining industry: exploration, construction, and operation. “I never really liked exploration because your business plan depends on luck, and operation of mines isn’t that exciting for me,” says Knoll, who is the executive chairman and director of Pine Point Mining Limited. “So what I go for […]
Faces in Mining: Gabriel Olayok
When Gabriel Olayok signed on at Agnico Eagle’s Meadowbank gold mine six years ago, he was a 30-year old father of three, with his late father, Vital Olayok, looking over his shoulder. He wanted “to follow my dad’s footprints” in the same job – heavy equipment operator – his father had in their home community […]
Faces in Mining: Dr. April Hayward
April Hayward thought she was destined for a life in high-level sciences when she decided it was time for a change. It was a good call. She changed jobs and found a new passion to help make mining cleaner. “The reality for me was I was in my mid-30s, on an academic path, and realized […]
Faces in Mining: Cara Benoit
There are lots of moms working at mines around the North, but here’s a claim few can make – Cara Benoit gets to have breakfast once in a while with her sons, Garrett and Damon Benoit, who both work for site contractor Nuna Logistics on Diavik’s A21 kimberlite construction project. Benoit, the Occupational Health and […]
NWT Mining and Mineral Exploration Update 2017
The Northwest Territories (NWT) mineral industry showed signs of an upswing in 2017, based on improved commodity prices and an increase in claim staking. In 2016, 85 claims covering 42,000 ha were staked, in 2017, over 270 claims covering 182,000 ha were staked in the first three quarters of 2017. Diamonds There were major changes […]
Exploration and Production on the Rise Across Nunavut
Worldwide mineral exploration and development activities rebounded moderately in 2017, and Nunavut followed the general trend. The territory covers approximately 20 percent of Canada’s total land mass and hosts mineral deposits of gold, diamonds, iron, uranium and base metals spread through its three regions: Kitikmeot, Kivalliq and Qikiqtani. As of September 2017, over 6.5 million […]
