Breakthrough gold find in high Arctic

Gary Park

Petroleum News Calgary correspondent

A remote corner of Canada�s Nunavut Territory has suddenly emerged as a gold mining prospect, with the first significant discovery reported by Committee Bay Resources. The Edmonton-based junior, backed by South African-based Gold Fields, said it has found as much as one ounce of gold per metric ton from drill results on its 450,000-acre exploration property near the Melville Peninsula.

John Williams, Committee Bay president and a professional geologist, rated the discovery �the best thing I have found in 20 years of exploration.�

The company collected 1,477 meters of drill core samples during its C$1.4 million summer exploration program and reported gold in a range of grades, with at least four of the core samples yielding the best results. Gold Fields is financing the exploration work in return for an option to earn a 65 percent stake in the project if it spends C$15 million by 2011. However, the initial results are categorized as highly preliminary, since the major objective was to identify areas for future exploration.

The project area has been largely overlooked because it has been too remote and because it was thought to more likely be a source of diamonds. Even if the initial find is confirmed, building a mine in the high Eastern Arctic could also be years away.