EXPLORATION ’92 — Yukon’s MacMillan Pass has seen more

Exploration activity has slowed this year in the isolated, mineral-rich area of MacMillan Pass, up the North Canol Road near the Yukon-Northwest Territories border.

“It’s getting marginal whether they’ll keep this road going or not,” said trapper Bill Carson. “The mining companies are tearing their camps down.” Cominco (TSE) has dropped its option with Hudson Bay Exploration and Development Co. Ltd. on the Tom base metal property. Although Cominco retained the nearby Nidd property, it didn’t do any work this summer. Phelps Dodge Corp. of Canada also gave up its option on the Jason, another lead-zinc-silver property.

And Canada Tungsten Mining (TSE) hasn’t done any work recently on the huge MacTung tungsten deposit — the largest known unmined tungsten deposit — located on the N.W.T. side of the border.

Ross River businessman Brian Hemsley said his mining-related expediting totalled $88,000 in 1988, and will be about $4,000 this year. He said Falconbridge and Aurum Geological of Whitehorse both had small low-budget camps this summer but little else was going on.

Rob McIntyre, managing director of the Yukon Chamber of Mines, said the problem with the region is lack of infrastructure, including cheap power and highways suitable for heavy transport.

“It is for sure on the frontier,” McIntyre said.

Carson, who works with the highways crew in the summers, has lived in the area since the early 1950s, when he helped salvage equipment from the U.S. Army’s construction of the road in 1942.

The Canol Road was a war-time link with an alternate supply of oil in Norman Wells, N.W.T., but quickly fell into disuse. Abandoned army vehicles still remain on the gravel highway, which sees limited traffic except in hunting season.

Mineral exploration took off in 1951 with the staking of the Tom base metal deposit for Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting (TSE).

“The MacMillan River stopped us in those days,” Carson recalled. “Hudson Bay paid us to put a bridge in,” hauling pipe out of MacPass and fuel in, he said. Cominco was the latest company to work on the Tom, from 1982 until last winter, when it gave up its option.

Cominco senior geologist Derek Rhodes said it was a corporate decision, after some projections didn’t materialize and the company had fairly hefty payments to make at a time of low metal prices.

Published minable reserves for the Tom East and West zones are about 9.3 million tonnes grading 7.5% lead, 6.2% zinc and 69.4 grams silver per tonne, using a 7% combined lead-zinc cutoff, 15% dilution factor and 90% recovery. Cominco retains the Nidd property in MacPass, but didn’t work on it last summer.

“We need a pretty big ore body to make it go,” Rhodes said from Vancouver. The Jason, staked in 1974, contains geological reserves of 14.1 million tonnes grading 7.1% lead, 6.6% zinc and 79.9 grams silver, using a cutoff grade of 8% combined lead-zinc.

Phelps Dodge spent about $1.5 million on exploration at the Jason in 1990 and 1991, drilling a total of 15 holes to a depth of 3,599 metres before turning its option back to MacPass Resources Ltd., a private Yukon corporation 60% controlled by Goldcorp (TSE).

Dave Barr of Goldcorp’s controlling shareholder, CSA Management of Toronto, said from Vancouver that MacPass has by no means given up on the Jason. The area has excellent potential for lead, zinc and silver, he said, and a joint venture partner is currently being sought.

A contractor in the Yukon town of Ross River tore down the Jason camp this summer so a caretaker wouldn’t be needed while exploration isn’t being done, Barr said.

The MacTung tungsten deposit contains estimated reserves of 63 million tonnes averaging 0.96% tungsten trioxide.