YELLOWKNIFE - With Northern mineral exploration work booming, Acme Analytical Laboratories is taking its operation out on the land.

The firm is opening a sample preparation lab at Tyhee Development Corp.'s Yellowknife gold project 90 km northeast of Yellowknife.

The new lab will be a satellite operation of Acme's facility in Yellowknife.

Tyhee sent 15,000 samples to Acme's Yellowknife lab last year, with each weighing about three to four kilograms. To transport 60,000 kg by plane is expensive, said Tyhee president and chief executive officer David Webb.

Tyhee has one flight a week between its camp and Yellowknife during its slow winter season, and two during the busier summer months.

Webb does not anticipate that these numbers will change, but said that they will now be able to get away with smaller flights.

"Not a significant amount of cash will be saved," he said. "There will only be minor cost savings."

The advantage of the new lab is that samples will be processed promptly, he said.

"It's evidence that we're serious and that our suppliers are supporting our attitude," he added.

Tyhee stores samples for archival purposes, which are taking up a lot of room outside of Acme's lab on Bristol Avenue.

"We can now store it up on site," he said.

Acme decided to build the split-and-crush lab to take the workload off its Yellowknife facility, said Angelo Karitsiotis, Acme's manager of sample preparation for Canada.

Tyhee is currently one of its busier customers.

Five or six preparatory lab technician positions will be created for Northerners at the gold property.

Last year Acme employed nine people at its Yellowknife lab. With the new jobs at Tyhee's camp, and a planned expansion of its facility in the city, Acme expects it will eventually employ 18 people between the two sites.

The price of gold isn't going down for the next three to four years, Karitsiotis said and added he is optimistic about exploration work being done elsewhere in Nunavut and the NWT.

"The new lab will clear up a lot of volume in our Yellowknife lab," he said. "There will be a faster turnaround time for Tyhee, and it will be easier to manage quality control, being on their site."

The building housing the lab is up and the equipment is being shipped to the camp. Karitsiotis expected operations would begin there by April 1.