The mineral exploration and mine development industry has spent $731 million in the territory so far this year.

The figure was presented at the recent Yukon Geoscience Forum by Scott Casselman, a geologist with the Yukon Geological Survey.

He said the year, however, is not over, suggesting the figures may change before Dec. 31.

He presented figures showing most of the expenditures – $543 million – was spent on production.

An estimated $124 million was spent on exploration, the geoscience forum heard.

Approximately 60 per cent of the exploration expenditures were spent looking for gold.

The search for copper deposits attracted the next-highest investment at 15 per cent while 14 per cent was spent looking for lead-zine deposits and nine per cent was spent on the search for silver.

Casselman told the audience exploration activity this year returned to somewhat normal, following the COVID-19 pandemic.

There were many headwinds, he said, citing a shortage of workers, rising labour costs, high fuels prices, supply chain issues and very tough financial markets.

Casselman said a surprising number of companies were not able to raise the funds necessary to execute exploration programs.

The good news was that metal prices were generally strong, although they weakened toward the end of summer, he said.

Casselman said there was a number of significant new discoveries.

There were 6,245 hardrock minerals claims staked this year, or more than double the 2,933 claims staked in 2021, he pointed out.

The number of claims in good standing at the mining record’s office fell by 8,085 from 2021, down to 164,972.

Of the total number of claims staked, 4,530 or 73 per cent were staked in the Mayo district.

The Whitehorse district saw the second-highest exploration activity with 856 claims staked, or 14 per cent of the total.

The Dawson district was a close third with 842 claims staked, or 13 per cent of the total.

There were just 17 claims staked in the Watson Lake district, representing 0.3 per cent of the total.

Overall, the level of exploration was the lowest going back to 1980.

Casselman said there are a number of projects reaching a mature state of exploration, resulting in more money spent on a smaller number of projects.

The Yukon is not seeing very many new, early-stage grassroots projects, he said, adding the number of companies and prospectors active in the territory could drop to a 57-year low.

Casselman pointed out the government’s Yukon Mineral Exploration Program (YMEP) distributed $1.4 million in funding this year, resulting in companies leveraging $4.5 million in exploration expenditures.

The program funded 41 exploration projects: 18 placer projects; two grassroots projects; six focused regional projects and 15 target evaluation projects.

Seventy-nine per cent of the YMEP funding stayed in the Yukon.

More than half – 52 per cent – of the funding went to Yukon-based contractors – drilling, earth works, camp services, expediting and air charters.

The Yukon Mineral Exploration Program has been operating since 1986, taking over from the Prospectors Assistance Program that operated from 1962 to 1985.

Casselman noted for every $1 of YMEP funding, the recipient has directly contributed an additional $2.61.

Of the total project expenditures, 19 per cent was spent on wages for Yukoners.

Seventy-one per cent of workers on YMEP projects were Yukon residents.

Eight per cent of total project expenditures went to Yukon-based suppliers – groceries, lumber, hardware, field supplies, fuel and so on.