N.W.T. mineral prospecting claims down so far in 2015
16 new claims recorded in first half of 2015; 412 were recorded all of last year
The Northwest Territories could be on its way to a record low year for mineral prospecting, as only 16 new claims have been recorded so far this year.
That's a dramatic drop from the hundreds, even thousands of claims recorded in past years. Last year 412 claims were recorded.
Lou Covello, a Yellowknife prospector who has staked thousands of claims over nearly five decades, says he has never seen so little prospecting activity on the land.
"[It's] not a trivial low. It's a significant low," he says.
Since 2007, the number of new claims have declined and land available for staking has also decreased because of more protected areas and settled land claims in the territory
Rod Thomas, president of the Prospectors and Developers Association, says the global economic downturn has affected exploration spending across the country.
"We have been through these cycles before but this one seems particularly vicious," he says.
Funding for exploration activities dropped by 90 per cent between 2007 and 2014.
"It will have an impact if we don't do anything about it. Exploration essentially generates the pipeline of discoveries for future mine development."
Thomas says the North is hit harder because of the costs of doing business and lack of infrastructure and because of unsettled land claims.
He says with most staking work starting in the summer months the numbers could go up but it's unlikely they'll match the number of claims recorded in previous years.
The N.W.T. and Nunavut Chamber of Mines tracks exploration and despite the overall downturn, it says Nunavut and Yukon continue to attract investors while the N.W.T. lags behind.
"Nunavut, for example it's a single land claim, which makes it a lot easier to work," says chamber executive director Tom Hoefer.
"Here we have some areas that are settled, some that aren't. The rules in the settled areas are different."
Hoefer says those differences have shaken investor confidence.
"We see projects like all-weather roads and frack wells being conducted without environmental assessment and you see very small exploration projects like Husky's being pushed to environmental assessment. Very inconsistent."
The N.W.T. government announced Tuesday that its Mining Incentive Program will help fund 12 exploration projects in the Sahtu and North Slave regions this year.
Lou Covello says that might not be enough to improve the numbers this year, and says settling land claims and making the rules clearer would do more.