A gold exploration hotspot with more discoveries to come

The Gold Report: It's a treat to interview someone with such extensive knowledge of the Yukon, probably the hottest gold area play anywhere. Mike, you have been working with the Yukon government since 1990. These days, one company will spend more exploring for gold in one season in the Yukon than did all the juniors combined just a few years ago. Did you think you'd ever see such a remarkable gold rush?

Mike Burke: Yes, I did, actually. I think I've proven over the years that I'm a great believer in the mineral potential of the Yukon. In 1983, as a student, I worked for Canamax Resources, which was looking for gold and tungsten in the Yukon. When I graduated in 1987, Canamax opened up the Ketza River mine. I worked there as a mine geologist through development, production and closure. We mined out the oxide portion of the Ketza River deposits, but there are substantial sulfide reserves there, as well as a ton of exploration potential. Yukon-Nevada Gold Corp. (TSX:YNG) has been working there in the last few years, but Ketza River is far from reaching its full potential. We're now seeing exploration success there.

A number of placer gold districts in the Yukon have produced a substantial amount of gold from creeks. I'm pretty sure it didn't fall from the sky. There hasn't been a discovery of a substantial gold deposit in those areas except for Victoria Gold Corp.'s (TSX.V:VIT) Dublin Gulch, in the Mayo Mining District. Dublin Gulch is a 2.5 million-ounce (Moz.) gold deposit, but in the Klondike or Livingston Creek or other placer mining areas there's no substantial multi-million ounce gold deposit. That's always been a mystery. There hasn't been much modern exploration in these areas, but we're seeing it now. Companies are using new technology to augment old techniques like soil geochemistry. When I worked as a student, we'd go out and get our 50 soil samples a day and come back and plot by hand where they were on a field map. In the fall, we would take that information to draftsmen in the Vancouver office who would draft a master set of maps with the locations and assay data. Now GPS is used to collect that data in the field so locations with assay data can be plotted instantly when the assay data is received, sometimes while still in the field. I knew that once we started seeing money spent in the right areas, hidden gold deposits would be discovered. And we've definitely seen a couple in the last few years. (more)