QAMANITTUAQ/BAKER LAKE - It's like something out of a horror movie: a team of geologists working for Kivalliq Energy Corporation (KEC) touch down on a remote camp at Lac Cinquante, about 210 km north of Inuvik, and discover uranium drill core samples that have survived the elements for more than 20 years.

Aurora Geosciences staffer Gary Vivian works on the Lac Cinquante site, where Kivalliq Energy Corporation will be spending $1.5 million on drilling this summer. - photo courtesy of Kivalliq Energy Corporation

No, the core samples didn't sprout massive tentacles and swallow the team up, but they did provide a unique window into a project that was abandoned years ago as the price of uranium took a dive in the mid-1980s.

Now, the Lac Cinquante project is being revived by KEC, which signed a memorandum of understanding with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. last year granting it permission to explore the property.

The Lac Cinquante deposit, thought to contain as much as 20 million pounds of high-grade uranium, was essentially abandoned by Aberford Resources, with little historical data from the deposit's original discoverer, Pan Ocean Oil Ltd, left behind.

"Much of the information was actually destroyed," said John Robins, president and CEO of KEC. "We contacted every geologist who ever worked on the project to see what kind of information we could get. It's almost like doing forensic anthropology."

Recovering the drill cores is only the first step in an effort to confirm the historical findings at Lac Cinquante before moving on to further exploration. This summer, KEC will spend $1.5 million at the site, mostly on confirmation drilling. This comes after a $1.5 million airborne geophysical survey conducted last year.

In addition, work will begin on a baseline environmental study.

"Uranium is ubiquitous," said Robins. "It's in about every lake and river in the country, so it's important to bring our data up to the highest level of compliance."

Because the project is at the very early stage of exploration, there will be few opportunities for employment among community members in Baker Lake or in Arviat and Rankin Inlet, which are 300 and 350 km east of the deposit, respectively.

KEC will be encouraging contractors to hire Northerners to help in whatever capacity possible, though contracts have not been tendered yet, said Robins.

"As the project increases in size and people, local benefits like training and jobs will become more available," he said.

Carson Gillis, director of lands and resources for NTI, said it's typically not until projects like Lac Cinquante enter the bulk sample stage that more employment opportunities arise.

He added, given the slowdown of exploration in Nunavut this year, NTI is "really happy to see that (KEC) are going through with the drill program."