"I want to stress no decision has been taken to close Colomac yet," he said Thursday from the company's headquarters in Kirkland, Wash.

Low gold prices, diminishing reserves, falling ore grades and high cash costs to extract the gold have made Colomac's ore too expensive to mine, Eacott said.

One day earlier, however, Eacott went further. On Wednesday he said the mine could stay open only to January or March of next year. Supplies for next year are already on site, including explosives, products for the mill, parts and fuel used to for the mine's diesel generator, he said.

Colomac employs about 250 people. Not all of them may be left without a job if the mine closes, though.

"There would be an opportunity for them at the Kemess project in B.C. We'll be employing 350 people on the Kemess when it comes into production in April, 1998," said Eacott.

The Kemess mine is scheduled to produce about 250,000 ounces of gold and 60 million pounds of copper per year.

Eacott said Kemess will go ahead, even if gold prices keep dropping because the cash cost is relatively low -- about $200 (US) an ounce. So, it's still economically viable.

Gold is selling for about $318 an ounce this week.

The Colomac open pit mine is a two-week fly-in, fly-out operation for workers based largely in Yellowknife, Hay River and Edmonton. It's near Snare Lake, about 210 kilometres northwest of Yellowknife.

Should Colomac mine close, there'd be six producing mines remaining in the NWT. Treminco's Ptarmigan mine recently announced its closure.