The Yukon Prospector’s Association named Carl “Sarge” Schulze the 2019 Prospector of the Year at the Yukon Geoscience Award Banquet on Monday.

“I feel great,” Schulze said in an interview this morning. “I think it is the biggest honour I have had in my career.”

He said it’s special to be recognized by your peers.

Schulze graduated as a geologist in 1984 from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ont.

In 1990, he discovered a gold vein in Northern Ontario which he named the Sugar Zone. The Sugar Zone Gold Mine went into production last year – a short 28 years after discovery. It’s expected to produce more than a million ounces of gold.

Schulze arrived in the Yukon in 1992, and it has been home ever since, except for a few years in Nunavut. He is a family man, and has been very active as a volunteer in the community, including several stints as president of the Yukon Chamber of Mines, his first term dating back to 1998.

The 60-year-old geologist likes to tickle the ivory too. Every year at the annual Yukon Geoscience Forum, Schulze is up on stage at the trade show with his piano entertaining the crowds, just like he was doing over the weekend.

Discoveries in the Yukon by Schulze include the Sass and Sprogge showings in 1996, which subsequently became part of the currently active Golden Culvert and 3 Aces properties in the Hyland River region.

Also at the 3 Aces camp, he found the Sleeping Giant zone in 2010, which was rebranded as the “Spades Zones”.

He discovered the Harlan or Cache Creek occurrence in the South Macmillan River area in 1997.

In 2006, he discovered the Amadeus zone at Sonora Gulch.

In 2012 and 2015, he discovered or co-discovered the Mars and Callisto zones in the Einerson Lake area.

He has also made discoveries in B.C. and Nunavut, and currently holds two Yukon properties available for option.

Schulze said today the Sugar Zone discovery in Ontario is still his most significant.

It’s rare to see a discovery become a producing mine, he pointed out.

Schulze said the exploration and mining industry is a different kettle of fish.

In many industries like forestry and agriculture, the product is there in front of your eyes, he said.

Schulze said in the exploration industry, there’s nothing there until it’s found.

And it’s prospectors who do the finding, who are at the front end of what can be profound developments.

“Sometimes it pans out,” he said. “And when it works out all the way to production, you have created wealth where there was none before.”