2021 was a good year for mining in the Yukon, experts say

Production is increasing at the territory's three quartz mines, there is an uptick in mineral claim staking and at least one junior exploration company is making inroads in eastern Yukon. 

That's all from experts, who attended this year's Roundup, the global mineral exploration industry's annual conference, both virtually and in Vancouver.

While some reasons behind that growth are circumstantial, one boils down to brass tacks economics – the going's good for suppliers specializing in the extraction of precious metals.

"Metal prices, for gold, copper, silver, have all been increasing, which has benefited operations," Scott Casselman, the head of mineral services at the Yukon government, told CBC News. "Because of that, there's more impetus on them to work harder to try to increase their throughput and maximize the amount of revenue from the operations."

During Cassleman's presentation at Roundup earlier this week, he said COVID-19 restrictions hamstrung the mining sector in 2020. But that changed the following year. As public health restrictions started to ease, production at major mines started to increase.

Alexco Resources, which operates a silver mine in the Keno Hill district, saw its tonnage of extracted ore increase by 72 per cent in 2021 compared to the year before. Casselman said there's a caveat to this increase – much of it can be attributed to the mine coming online in late 2020. 

The two other hard rock mines, which have been producing for longer, saw gains, too. Victoria Gold's Eagle mine, near Mayo, saw a 27 per cent increase in production; at the Minto Mine, which is closer to Carmacks, output climbed by 46 per cent.

Not all news is rosy. 

"The industry did experience a significant shortage of workers," Casselman said, "and we noticed that particularly diamond drillers and underground miners, those companies that required those services had difficulty getting those workers."

Asked how many workers the industry is lacking exactly, a spokesperson with the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources said the shortages are anecdotal.

Exploration company is making strides in eastern Yukon

A junior exploration company operating in eastern Yukon announced last month it struck gold not once, but twice. 

Scott Berdahl, the CEO of Snowline Gold, said drilling operations at one of the company's projects unearthed trace amounts of gold in mineralized veins that were particularly noteworthy – roughly one gram of gold per tonne over 135 metres.

"We're very lucky," he said. "We're excited to see these discoveries in themselves. Either one of them we feel could be a company-making discovery. But beyond that, they really validate our thesis that we set out when we built Snowline and decided to focus in this area, that this is a very prospective new district and it is under-recognized and it does have potential."

Snowline Gold is waiting on results for two other drilling tests it conducted recently.

Casselman said while the project is in its early stages, it has potential. 

"What they're getting is very significant," he said. "It's roughly the same concentration of expansive gold that you would see at a project like Eagle.

"Now, one drill hole does not make a mine, so they'll need to do a lot more to define if the gold is extensive in a sizable area."

Mineral staking is up slightly

Nearly 4,000 new claims were staked last year, Casselman said. More than 2,500 were staked in the Mayo area. In Whitehorse, the number hit 854.

The Dawson area also made the list. Casselman said almost 500 new claims were staked there.