by Glenn Taylor
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Sep 19/97) - Darnley Bay Resources Ltd. is finally moving ahead with plans to explore its one million acres of potential mining property near Paulatuk.

Airborne magnetic surveys of the property began this week.

Flying in a modified Chieftain aircraft -- a small twin_prop plane -- geophysicists will map the area using highly sensitive magnetic equipment, which records the amount of magnetic pull from the land below and records it onto tape and disk.

The $500,000 project will pinpoint the location of the nickel, copper and platinum elements believed to be in the ground there, near Darnley Bay.

The Geological Survey of Canada gave a "moderate to high" potential rating for those minerals in 1993.

It's late in the season for such projects. Darnley Bay logistical manager Paul Chidgzey has his fingers crossed, hoping that good weather will hold for the next five weeks while the overflights continue.

With approval from the Securities Commission to sell public stocks in the company still pending, and with time running out on an agreement with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation to complete the airborne survey this year, the company had no choice but to get on with it.

"We're concerned with the weather, naturally, at this time of year," said Chidgzey.

Linked to a highly sensitive global positioning satellite (GPS) system with accuracy of five metres, the plane will fly patterns over the area for the next three to five weeks. It will try to locate "geophysical targets," for ground crews to probe in more detail later.

Flying 150 metres off the ground, the aircraft will follow lines 800 metres apart. By the end of the project, the plane will have flown 12,000- to 15,000-line kilometres, according to Chidgzey.

"The problems we encounter is that at that height, if you have any ground fog, you're grounded," he said.

Ice build-up also increases at that height, creating more worries.

The information received in the air will be stored on tape and disk, for later review by a technician in Paulatuk. The technician downloads the information to make a geophysical map of the area. Large magnetic spikes on the map will appear as mountains, and show where likely targets will be.

"The airborne magnet measures the magnetic field on the ground, and we look for anomalies, greater or lesser than the background (magnetic) field," he said.

Scintex of Toronto has been hired to complete the airborne magnetic survey, at a cost to the company of about $500,000. The company arrived in Paulatuk last Friday night, after being weathered in at Norman Wells for a day.

The company plans to give informational talks to schools in Paulatuk and Inuvik after the survey, followed by extensive meetings with Paulatuk leaders.

The company paid for a airborne caribou monitoring program last month, to ensure most of the calving herd had left the area before work began.

This is a make or break time for the company. The results of the survey will either increase interest in the area, or show less potential for mining than hoped for.

"We're very hopeful this will be a success," said Chidgzey.

"The outcome will show us what potential this area has and whether there's potential for further study."