Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Mar 27/00) - Leon La Prairie dropped into Inuvik recently to talk shop, and a lot of people are listening, to what he has to say.

Based in Toronto, La Prairie is president of Darnley Bay Resources. The company is currently exploring Inuvialuit settlement land south of Paulatuk for what he says could shape up to be one of world's richest mineral basins.

"There's enough oil up there to supply Paulatuk for hundreds of years," he said.

His public meeting at the Inuvik campus of Aurora College on March 16 attracted some 30 shareholders, would-be shareholders and interested members of the public.

La Prairie and his communication consultant, Phil Chidgzey, staged an hour-long introduction to their four-year-old project, complete with slides, maps and diagrams.

He compared Paulatuk's potential to what has proven to be incredibly productive sites in other parts of the world -- including the Sudbury Basin in Ontario, Noril'sk in Russia, Jinchuan in China and South Africa's Bushveld -- in terms of its potential to contain metals like gold and nickel. He also talked of oil and gas.

La Prairie seemed confident at the meeting, but that's not surprising with the company's strong survey results and the consequent continuing strong performance of Darnley Bay stock on the Canadian venture exchange.

Darnley Bay shares were trading as high as $1.99 mid-day Friday after opening at $1.85. The company's stock is up about 230 per cent over the past two months. The jump followed Darnley Bay presentation to potential investors in the U.K.

La Prairie said testing has already helped pin-point some likely mining areas and that Darnley Bay hopes to begin drilling this spring.

Chidgzey added that answers as to exactly what minerals are under the surface should be known by summer.

"Given good conditions it will take from 35 to 42 days to drill the first hole," he said, "and once the results are sent to the lab, it should take six to eight weeks to know what we're dealing with.

"We'll have the answer, or a lot of the information, this summer," added La Prairie.

In fielding questions, La Prairie also addressed environmental issues, saying the company was working closely with the Inuvialuit Land Association, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development.

He also took the opportunity to promote the project further.

"The only group that's opposed to this is the people of Yellowknife," he said with a grin, "because they know that if this thing develops, the capital of the Northwest Territories is going to go up to Paulatuk."

People at the meeting were generally receptive to La Prairie's presentation, and resident Dev Sharma said, combined with survey results, it was very intriguing.

"Like these guys, I'm an engineer, too, and I have a copy of the results from the Geological Survey of Canada," he said. "Even they say the studies of the magnetic field look like they hold very high potential; they give it a very high rating, and that's with a very small survey."

Sharma said he's been impressed enough with the surveys and with Darnley Bay in general and La Prairie in particular to buy some stock.

"My personal belief is that it's a very good thing," he said. "Leon is an engineer and can also present the project in a way to raise a lot of money ... but he also didn't want to avoid the (Inuvialuit Regional Corporation). He's planning this in a way to benefit the people of the North."