OPINION: Golden opportunities

Mineral exploration spending in Canada will top $4 billion for 2012, up 33% from a year earlier, according to figures from the Ontario Mining Association. This country remains a favoured place for explorationists of all sizes because of its...

Mineral exploration spending in Canada will top $4 billion for 2012, up 33% from a year earlier, according to figures from the Ontario Mining Association. This country remains a favoured place for explorationists of all sizes because of its stable political conditions, still-vast potential for new discoveries, and reasonably transparent system of permitting.

If one adds in the high price of gold, readers won't be surprised to learn that the gold hunters are active from sea to sea to sea. Here's a quick look at some of the news that has crossed our desk in the last week or so.

For high grades, few can beat the 15,280 g/t Au in grab samples recovered by Vancouver-based BCGold Corp. from its Engineer mine 32 km west of Atlin, BC. Nice grade if a mine has more economic grades to back it up. (BCGoldCorp.com)

Vancouver-based Eagle Hill Exploration has drilled 21.02 g/t Au over 4.8 metres at the Windfall Lake in northwestern Quebec. The intersection occurred in the upper extension of zone 27 at 105.0 metres below surface, and that, in the worlds of president and CEO Brad Kitchen, "…demonstrates the near surface mineralization is consistent and shows good lateral continuity." (EagleHillExploration.com)

Explor Resources of Rouyn-Noranda, QC, intersected 7.64 g/t Au over 6.0 metres on its Timmins Porcupine West property. This in mineralization with a strike length of over 2,000 metres – and it remains open on strike and at depth. (ExplorResources.com)

Vancouver-based Klondike Gold Corp. has recovered grab samples that assayed 179 g/t Au and 78 g/t Ag from the Nugget zone of the Lone Star property in the Dawson district of Yukon. The company plans to drill the Nugget zone in the future in hopes of finding the location where it may intersect the Buckland zone. (KlondikeGoldCorp.com)

Edmonton-based Northern Tiger Resources has assays of up to 8.5 g/t Au over 6.8 metres from trenching at its Sprogge project just east of the 3Ace property in Yukon. Earlier this year, drilling at 3Ace returned 1.5 g/t Au over 45.4 metres and 3.6 g/t over 8.6 metres. (Northern-Tiger.com)

Northquest Ltd. of Toronto says it has cut 163.2 metres grading 2.11 g/t Au at the Vickers target at its Pistol Bay project between Rankin Inlet and Whale Cove in Nunavut. The company holds 675 km2 of mineral rights covering a 50-km strike length of a 2-km-wide alteration zone know as the Pistol Bay Corridor. Although this corridor is said to resemble a mirror image of the Meliadine trend 80 km to the north, this is the first modern exploration done along Pistol Bay. (Northquest.biz)

From the nothing is too small to be tested department: Prosperity Goldfields Corp. of Vancouver has analyzed gold grains from its Kiyuk Lake project near Nueltin Lake in Nunavut. The large number of grains (926) in a sample 400.0 metres down-ice from the original Rusty discovery may indicate a proximal bedrock gold source and a southward extension of known Rusty mineralization. (ProsperityGoldfields.com)

Vancouver's Rockhaven Resources reports results from step out drilling at its Klaza property 50 km west of Carmacks, YT, of 6.86 g/t Au and 153.0 g/t Ag over 2.27 metres in the BRX zone. The final hole cut the zone 400 metres down-dip of surface and assayed 3.66 g/t Au and 112.0 g/t Ag over 2.64 metres. (RockhavenResources.com)

Sabina Gold & Silver Corp. of Vancouver calls its 2012 program at the Back River project in Nunavut, 520 km northeast of Yellowknife, "successful". In fact, one hole in the George deposit returned 24.20 g/t Au over 25.45 metres. The company is also focused on the Llama and Umwelt deposits for their open pit potential. (SabinaGoldSilver.com)

With so many hopeful results from gold exploration in Canada, and more to come, certainly, we look forward to several new mines in the coming decade.

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