Delegates at this year’s Yukon Geoscience Forum received an overview this morning of the various mining and exploration projects underway in the territory.

Scott Casselman, head of minerals geology for the Yukon Geological Survey, addressed a standing-room-only crowd at the Coast High Country Inn for his presentation on hard rock mining in the territory this year, up until now.

The figures show a total of $611.6 million spent on exploration, development and mining revenue.

Of that, $114.6 million has been spent on exploration, down slightly from a year earlier.

Gold was the main focus of the exploration spending, constituting 81 per cent of the work, followed by zinc-lead at seven per cent, copper and silver each at five per cent, and nickel at two per cent.

Claim staking is also down, with 5,070 claims staked in 2018 up until Nov. 9 – a drop of 50 per cent from last year.

There’s a total of 185,000 claims in good standing throughout the territory – down 2,000 from 2017, when there were 187,000 claims in good standing in the Yukon.

The Dawson City region remains the most popular area for staking at 43 per cent, followed by Whitehorse at 26 per cent, Mayo at 21 per cent and Watson Lake at nine per cent.

Casselman then highlighted a number of projects that are underway.

There continues to be big news, he noted, in the ongoing development of Victoria Gold Corp.’s Eagle project.

Displaying photos of the work underway, Casselman said the company is on track to have its first gold pour late next summer.

Unfortunately, he went on, the story this year is not so positive for Capstone Mining Corp.’s Minto Mine after a deal to sell the mine to Pembridge Resources Inc. fell through to difficult market conditions earlier this year. The mine then announced it would cease operations.

Speaking to reporters following his presentation, Casselman said he’s hopeful that should demand for hard rock rise over the next few years, given that the mine is already in place, it would not be a difficult process for it to reopen.

“It’s a very rich deposit,” he said.

Also updating delegates at the conference on the state of placer mining in the territory was Jeff Bond, head of surficial geology for the Yukon Geological Survey.

Up until now in 2018, Bond said, a total of 66,000 crude ounces of gold valued at $83 million (compared to 74,000 crude ounces in all of 2017) were mined, with much of that coming from the Indian River.

“Once again, it was a big year for the Indian River,” Bond said.

He then also outlined a number of projects underway in the placer industry, pointing out the impact technology is having.

He mentioned work by Ryanwood Exploration showing drilling work on the ground with controls of the drill happening from a helicopter flying above.

The territory also hosted international visitors on a tour of placer mining, looking at how things are done in the territory.

Bond commented that the Yukon has a lot to share with the rest of the world about regulatory regimes and mining processes here.

See related forum coverage.