Mike Burke, the president of the Yukon Chamber of Mines, is confident interest in the territory’s potential is alive and well.

The past summer’s purchase of Kaminak’s Coffee gold project by Goldcorp, one of the world’s major gold producers, didn’t hurt, he said Wednesday morning from a local hangar while waiting for his charter flight back to the bush.

Burke was acclaimed Tuesday to his second term as president at the chamber’s annual general meeting held during this week’s annual Yukon Geoscience Forum.

Burke said there are always a few of the major mining outfits sniffing around during the geoscience forum.

But there were a few new faces in town for this week’s 44th annual, he said, suggesting Goldcorp’s decision to move in has added a little lustre to the territory’s attractiveness.

Burke said there’s no burning issue confronting the industry.

It’s pretty much stay the course for the months ahead. That includes the ongoing effort to educate people about the importance of the exploration and mining industry, to demonstrate those in the industry are not big, bad people, he said.

Burke mentioned how last weekend, speaking at the forum, Phil Fontaine, the former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, summed up the importance of the industry as Canada’s largest private sector employer of aboriginal people.

University professor Ken Coates – raised in Whitehorse during the 1960s and ’70s – emphasized governments must embrace the wisdom of sharing revenue from resource royalties with First Nations to make them a larger player in the economy, he pointed out.

Burke said partnering with First Nations in the development of the territory’s resources ensures everybody wins.

The chamber president said he spent his adult life as a geologist benefiting from the industry in the Yukon, going back to the days in the 1980s and his involvement in the discovery of the Ketza River gold mine near Ross River.

He and others in the industry know and have seen the benefits exploration and mining creates for Yukon communities, he said.

“A lot of people don’t see the need to turn the Yukon around,” Burke said. “But they are in Porter Creek and Copper Ridge, and the view is pretty good from there.”

Ever since the discovery of noteworthy gold deposits in the mid-2000s, there’s been additional interest in the territory’s potential for gold, he said.

Burke said it’s reflected in this year’s exploration figures. They indicate well over half of the $61 million spent on exploration so far in 2016 was in the pursuit of gold deposits.

But that’s not to suggest the future hinges on gold, he said.

Burke noted the work BMC Minerals is doing on its Kudz Ze Kayah lead-zinc property southeast of Ross River, with the Kaska fully on board as it moves forward.

BMC Minerals, a private company registered in the United Kingdom, is looking to have its project filed with the assessment board in the spring.

“And they are intent on building a mine,” said Burke.

Historically speaking, he said, the $61 million spent on exploration is about average.

But it appears there’s a resurgence of interest in exploration by investors, Burke said.

“It might not take off like 2011 and get to the moon right away,” he said. “But I think we are on a positive track.”

Exploration financing hit $300 million in 2011, more than double the amount spent in any previous year – with the exception of the $160 million in 2010 – and any year since.

“I think there is a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel, and of course the Goldcorp acquisition opened people’s eyes,” Burke said before flying back to Golden Predator’s gold property off the Nahanni Range Road.

“To have a major come in and invest to that extent, certainly that opens people’s eyes.”

At the chamber’s meeting Tuesday, Sue Craig from Tintina Consulting was returned as vice-president by acclamation, as was Ron Light, the manager of the Minto Mine.

Brad Thrall from Alexco Resource remains on a past president.

Confirmation of the election for the six directors is pending.