David Ryan
Northern News Services
Friday, February 19, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - There maybe fewer companies lining up, but 222 prospecting permits covering millions of acres of land in the NWT and Nunavut have been awarded for 2007 by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC).

In the NWT, 72 new permits were issued to companies and individual prospectors.

The permits issued will cover 2.9 million acres of land in the territories. Those numbers dropped slightly compared to 2006, during which 138 permits were issued over 6.1 million acres.

In 2005, 449 prospecting permits were issued in the NWT covering 19.5 million acres.

The drop may be caused by a number of different factors, said NWT/Nunavut Chamber of Mines general manager Mike Vaydik.

Most of the prospective ground to be explored in the NWT has been already been permitted and in a cyclical nature there tends to be some slow downs, he said.

"Permits have tended to tail off," said Vaydik.

Uncertainty over how permits are issued could also be keeping companies away from potential exploration, he said.

Confusion between Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and prospectors led to permits being issued and than revoked in the Deh Cho region last year, leading to some uncertainty for exploration, he said.

Prospectors may also turn their backs on the NWT because of the amount of time needed to get a land use permit from the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board, he said.

Early-stage exploration projects are being extended too long and are costing too much, he said.

While there may be some uncertainties in exploration, with commodity prices remaining high there certainly is still a great deal of interest in the North, he said.

150 permits covering 6.3 million acres were issued this year.

Those numbers dropped slightly from 2006 when 161 permits went out over 6.4 millon acres.

Both this year and last were down considerably from 2005 when 1,136 permits were issued in Nunavut covering 47.6 million acres.

While permitting has tailed off, that doesn't mean there is any less exploration work in the territory, said Spencer Dewar, manager of land administration for INAC.

"This is not an indication that interest is cooling," he said.

There may have been a spike in 2005 due to a lot interest in diamond prospecting, but there is still widespread interest in all three regions of Nunavut, he added.