Yellowknife (Apr 05/06) - With the closure of the Tibbitt-Contwoyto ice road, some mining companies have been scrambling to find alternative ways to transport supplies, but others have not faced such problems.

Tyhee Development's chief geologist Val Pratico stands outside of the Ormsby portal at the company's Yellowknife gold project. It successfully shipped all of the fuel and supplies it will need this year over the Discovery ice road. - photo courtesy of Tyhee Development Corp.

Fortune Minerals and Tyhee Development Corp. were able to have longer access to their ice roads allowing them to transport the bulk of their supplies.

Both operate on properties located northwest of Yellowknife and did not have to rely on the same road as the diamond mines.

"We weren't sure if we would be able to do it," said David Webb, Tyhee president and chief executive officer.

The company reached its goal of transporting 40 full capacity truckloads to its Yellowknife gold project site, which is situated near the old Discovery mine some 90 km from the city. It now has enough supplies to last 12 months.

"There is a lot less traffic and much less pressure on this road," said Webb.

Tyhee currently employs 24 people and is planning on expansion with a projected $6 million to $6.5 million budget this year, he said.

The winter road Tyhee used hadn't seen much traffic since the 1970s until it re-opened the route six years ago.

"We were very nervous, but we are very pleased," said Webb.

Fortune Minerals needs to get a total of 60 loads into its cobalt, bismuth and gold NICO property if it hopes to get a bulk sample collected this year, said Julian Kemp, vice-president and chief financial officer.

About 160 km from Yellowknife, the property is accessible via the winter road leading out of Behchoko to the other Dogrib communities.

It has not done as well as Tyhee, but with the road still open it has a chance to get what it needs delivered to supply the $9.5 million sampling effort.

"We've got all of our equipment in and now we're just waiting on camp supplies, fuel tanks and fuel," he said, adding the road was still open and being maintained as of Monday.

The sampling program has been fully permitted.

The KeTe Whii Procon joint-venture between the Tlicho, Yellowknives and Lutsel K'e Dene First Nations and Procon Mining & Tunnelling of Burnaby, B.C., has been contracted to do the underground work commencing in May.

It is expected to be completed by October and result in 20-25 jobs.

If all of the fuel and supplies don't arrive, exploration could be scaled back.

"It could mean less jobs for 2006, or for shorter periods of time," he said. "We're not anticipating a problem with the camp supplies, but the fuel tanks are the heaviest loads remaining."

NICO is currently being assessed in a full mine feasibility study led by Micon International, which is expected to be complete later this year.