Sydney Selvon
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 18/06) - A week-long prospecting course enabled about 30 residents to learn how to go out and stake a claim for diamonds, gold and a variety of minerals in NWT.

Their instructor, Walt Humphries, has been prospecting since 1968.

Walt Humphries with a rock sample for students to view during a week-long prospecting course in Yellowknife. - Sydney Selvon/NNSL photo

You don't need to be a geologist to hunt Northern minerals, he said.

"We have always stood for that and won. Any reasonably qualified person can be a prospector and most of the NWT is open ground for people to stake claims," he said.

Coming from all walks of life the students included teacher Kate Bruce, accountant James Wong, engineer Wayne Sweeney. All of the students expressed an interest in prospecting for material gains. Their reasons are also to satisfy a passion for adventure and discovery.

"I took a diamond course before. The course we are now following allows you to study all the rocks and minerals," said student Sol Chalker. "I intend to be a prospector of gold and of anything that's available around Yellowknife."

"I want to find diamonds for myself and for the NWT," Wong said.

Humphries stated he never did strike it rich, but has made a living from prospecting.

"Striking it rich is like winning the lottery or finding a needle in a haystack," he said. "Prospecting is a way of life that I love. "If you are in prospecting to strike it rich and you don't, you will quit after two years and do something else," he said.

"One of the fascinating aspects of prospecting is finding things that nobody else found before."

He lists his biggest find as Gordon Lake.

"I found a small showing of gold, but I was working for a company," he said. "A larger underground finding followed and may be exploited some day."

For those who don't enjoy life out on the land, he said that doesn't mean you can't be a prospector.

"I know somebody who recovered $7,000 worth of gold in one summer from electronic waste in the dumps," he said.

Last week's course was sponsored by the NWT Geoscience Office and delivered as part of the Prospectors Grubstake Program.

"Aspiring prospectors can get a grant of about $8,000 to cover various costs: supplies, sampling, bags, flagging tape, rock hammers and other pieces of equipment," said community minerals advisor Diane Baldwin. Diane assisted Humphries during the course.