SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Out in the bush, isolated from civilization, exploration and mining companies typically fly in groceries and other dry goods for their employees. In Old Town, Weaver and Devore supplies groceries and dry goods to remote diamond mines and exploration camps across the territory.

Owner Bud Weaver is about to open a box of wine bottles in the back of Weaver and Devore Trading in Yellowknife April 26. The store had a "mediocre" year supplying bush camps, he said. - Jeanne Gagnon/NNSL photo

Bud Weaver said camp sales account for half of the store's business, which also features clothing, winter wear, boots, sleeping bags and camping equipment, for instance.

"It's a mediocre year," said owner Bud Weaver. "We're not having a fantastic year and we're not having a bad year. It's just an average year."

He added most of the orders were for groceries. The quietest months for his business are October, November, January and February.

"Mediocre does not mean bad. Mediocre means mediocre," he said. "It is slightly better than last year. It's just basically a regular year."

Natural Resources Canada said exploration expenditures in NWT were at $29.5 million in 2009, down from $148 million in 2008 – an 80 per cent drop.

For 2010, the NRCAN's preliminary estimates shows expected exploration expenditures in the NWT to more than double at $66.3 million.

Rob Sasseville, NWT and Nunavut operations manager for Northern Industrial Sales on Old Airport Road, said sales from the exploration sector are up this year.

"Other than last year, we've seen an increase (in sales every) year. We were a little even last year," said Sasseville.

With both De Beers Canada's Snap Lake and Rio Tinto's Diavik diamond mines shutting down for six months last summer, the company decided it had to diversify.

"We aggressively went after other markets that we normally didn't have and were able to successfully gain new market share there," said Sasseville, citing Newmont Mining Corporation's Hope Bay gold project – located 130 km southwest of Cambridge Bay – and Agnico-Eagle's Meadowbank gold project – located 70 km north of Baker Lake – as examples.

"We went further north," he said.

And while the company will continue to pursue mining and oil and gas projects in the Kitikmeot and Baffin Island regions of Nunavut – as well as the Beaufort Delta – this year is looking up generally.

"We've seen an increase in activity and response to the economy. We're very pleased," said Sasseville.