It's standing room only at this year's 38th Annual Yukon Geoscience Forum.

"I know we have a new record,” Carl Schulze, president of the Yukon Chamber of Mines, said in an interview this morning. "There was more than 450 registered yesterday afternoon, so we're probably pushing 500.

"So it is looking really good.”

It's a far cry from a decade ago, when expenditures by the exploration industry bottomed at about $6 million and there were no operating hardrock mines in the territory.

The landscape is looking quite different today, geologist Mike Burke of the Yukon Geological Survey told the audience.

He said with the Bellekeno Mine owned by Alexco Resource going into production, along with the ongoing success of the Minto Mine and the Wolverine Mine ramping up, the industry in the territory is entering the "wealth-generation phase.

"That is a pretty enjoyable phase.”

So far this year, exploration expenditures are sitting at between $140 million and $150 million, Burke said.

He said money spent on mine development is at about $150 million, down from the $160 million spent last year, when Yukon Zinc Corp. was at the peak of expenditures advancing its Wolverine project.

Most of the exploration work this year has been focused on gold properties, and there are still several drills operating, he pointed out.

Burke said there has been some really significant discoveries in the last few years, and they are not confined to one area but are spread out across the territory.

With technology today, he insisted, companies are better equipped to enhance their exploration efforts, which has added to the recent success.

The territory is very much on the radar internationally, he said in an interview following his technical presentation.

The Yukon, Burke added, is looked upon quite favourably as a place to invest because of the ability for companies to see their exploration efforts through to a working mine.

The geologist emphasized the potentially huge importance of a new discovery this past summer at the Rau property North of Mayo owned by ATAC Resources.

There is early evidence the deposit could be of the same type which drove the Nevada gold rush back in the early 1960s, he said, adding the Yukon's geological history is similar to Nevada's.

Burke said ATAC is scheduled to release the results of several more holes in the next week or two.

"And everybody is on the edge of their seats waiting to see what those results are like,” he said. "People have always looked in the Yukon for these type of deposits but really never had any success.”

Burke said there's also more encouraging exploration results coming out of the recently discovered White Gold District south of Dawson City, suggesting the area does truly hold a significant amount of gold resources.

The Yukon's Department of Economic Development is estimating the total value of gold, copper and other minerals produced this year in the Yukon is expected to hit $260 million.

While the Minto Mine is contributing most of the value through its open pit operation, the production of silver, lead and zinc at the Bellekeno Mine is getting underway, and the placer gold industry contributed in excess of $50 million.

Premier Dennis Fentie congratulated the industry for its success in his welcoming remarks this morning, citing several of the promising and advanced projects on the go.

Mining, said the premier, has strengthened the territory's economy.

Fentie told the audience the Yukon and Manitoba are the only two jurisdictions in Canada who saw the value of their gross domestic products increase in 2009.

The Conference Board of Canada predicted in August the Yukon's GDP would rise by another 4.9 per cent this year because of mining and exploration, Fentie pointed out.

The premier also applauded the contribution of staff with the Yukon Geological Survey for their efforts in gathering technical data and providing it to industry as a means of fostering interest.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have revitalized the Yukon's mining industry,” said Fentie.