Guy Quenneville
Northern News Services
Published Monday, November 26, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Veteran attendees mingled with new delegates at the 35th annual Geoscience Forum in Yellowknife last week, the biggest draw in the North for hundreds of companies in and around the mining industry.

Donald M. Vigue, a sales representative with IRL Supplies (with many customers in the North) displays a geotul, a pick frequently used by explorers when collecting and examining rocks. Vigue said the forum is instrumental is creating new sales opportunities for his company. - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo

The event included technical reports and year-to-date updates from various mining companies, held inside the Capitol Theatre, as well a the trade show in the gymnasium at Weledeh Catholic school.

"We've hit a record number of registered delegates already," said Cheryl Wourms, office manager for the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines and an organizer of the event, on Wednesday afternoon.

The forum drew 871 registered delegates, including service providers at the trade show and mining companies making presentations, compared to the 844 guests it welcomed last year.

"I think it's a sign of the times in our industry," said Wourms.

More attendees came from Nunavut this year, added Wourms.

The Kivalliq Inuit Association had a booth at the forum.

Luis Manzo, director of lands for the association, said the forum helps him keep track of lands within the association's interest.

"Sometimes, properties change hands," said Manzo. "And we need to be aware of it, so being in this symposium makes things easy."

The Tlicho government had a booth as well.

"We were here last year but we didn't have a booth," said delegate Eddie Erasmus, director of lands protection for the Tlicho government, speaking from the floor of the trade show.

"We participated last year and we learned a lot, so this year we decided we should try to get a booth, and we were lucky enough to get one."

Lucky is right - booths at the trade show are becoming harder to get.

"I've already got 26 people on the waiting list for tables for next year's booths," said Wourms.

"The demand for booth space is at a premium."

Erasmus was at the forum to spread the word about the Tlicho government's current work on readying its land - spanning some 39,000 square kilometres - for mining.

Erasmus said the land use planning should be done by March or April of 2009.

"We're deciding what parts could be opened up to (mining)," said Erasmus.

"Tlicho will be open for business."

Erasmus added that the Tlicho government is already in discussions with companies in different areas of the country, including Fortune Minerals, a natural resource company based in London, Ont., that plans to develop a cobalt-gold-bismuth deposit north of Behchoko.

Technical talks at this year's conference covered topics such as environmental sciences, remediation, consultation, diamonds, and geoscience education and outreach.

The Charles Camsell Talk Tuesday night, which was open to the public, was by Dr. Tim Patterson from Carleton University, who spoke on climate change.

Keynote speaker Dr. Steve Grasby with the Geological Survey of Canada spoke about Geothermal Resource Potential in Canada.