There’s gold in them thar Saskatchewan rocks; it just has to be found.
That was the conclusion of a 2012 study by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Energy and Resources, a study that declared the province under-explored for gold.
That Energy and Resources study outlined over 800 gold occurrences. The first gold here was “flour” gold found in 1859 near Prince Albert.
The province has a long history of gold mining that goes back to the early 1900s. Over the years 40 gold mines, mostly small operations, have been developed in the province. Those still open when the Second World War broke out were closed as non-essential.
Operations were mostly in the early part of the last century with some in the 1950s mineral boom that developed uranium mines around Uranium City on Lake Athabasca.
The 1.5 million ounce low grade Box deposit was revealed near the uranium mines and was mined for three years until the war broke out.
The biggest gold production of 3.6 million ounces came as a byproduct of the Flin Flon mines near Creighton.
The SeaBee mine district northeast of La Ronge, which was in production twice before the current mine, that had produced over one million ounces by 2012 with about 100,000 ounces a year since.
This low cost mine, owned by SSR Resources of Vancouver, is one of three mines the company owns, along with mines in Nevada and Argentina.
At $29.35 a share SSR has the financial muscle to develop more of the north. The SeaBee mine has a reported 1.5 million ounces of gold left to dig out.
Some of the other small mining company exploration projects may have been encouraged by the 2018 Saskatchewan government Targeted Mineral Exploration Incentive. The program offers $50,000 a year grant to explore eligible properties.
The incentive helped to get the province rated number two most mining-friendly jurisdiction in Canada by the Fraser Institute.
Now that gold prices have the momentum to move well past the current $1,700 US range, the explorers have turned an eye to Saskatchewan’s Precambrian Shield, which contains geology similar to the gold mining regions of Ontario and Quebec.
At least three other mining exploration companies are exploring the northern Saskatchewan mining districts.
MAS Gold Corp of Vancouver, trading at 7.5 cents a share, has outlined unproven resources of 140,000 ounces relatively high-grade gold near the Seabee property as well as 417,000 ounces of low-grade gold.
The company has a joint venture on the high-grade property with Golden Band Resources. Saskatoon-based Golden Band has filed for bankruptcy and assigned many of its assets to Procon, an exploration/mine driller.
Eagle Plains Resources of Cranbrook, B.C., has a promising gold property near Stoney Rapids close to Highway 905 as well as two copper/zinc deposits among five lake properties. The shares trade at 16.5 cents.
Comstock Metals, also of Vancouver, has outlined 429,000 ounces of unproven gold resources north of La Ronge. Comstock shares are a mere two cents.
CAUTION: Remember when investing, consult your adviser and do your homework before buying any security. Bizworld does not recommend investments.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
