Guy Quenneville
Northern News Services
Published Monday, November 26, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - The price of one of the north's most prized commodities has dipped on the world market, but it's hardly a blip on the radar of several northern gold-mining companies.

John Wakeford of Miramar Mining Corporation at the Geoscience Forum held last week in Yellowknife. Wakeford said recent fluctuations in the price of gold are not of great concern to the company because the long-term forecast for the commodity is very good. - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo Historical London Fix gold prices (dollar per ounce) Nov. 20, 2007: $795.50 Nov. 12, 2007: $803.50 Nov. 08, 2007: $841 Nov. 01, 2006: $614.10 Nov. 01, 2005: $459.50 Nov. 01, 2000: $266 Nov. 01, 1990: $380.40 Jan. 21, 1980: $850 - source: www.kitco.com

Since reaching a 27-year high of $841 per ounce on Nov. 9, just $9 short of the all-time high of $850 an ounce in 1980, gold has undergone a gradual decline, coming down to $795 per ounce as of the middle of last week.

John Wakeford, vice president of exploration for Miramar Mining Corporation, said that while the company is closely monitoring gold's activity on the market, the recent fluctuation is not a matter of concern.

Miramar is currently building a small gold mine at Hope Bay (located 160 kilometres south of Cambridge Bay). Production is slated to begin in mid-2008.

"We just have to make sure our project is robust enough to tolerate a little movement in the gold price, because it will continue to go up and down, as it has in the past," said Wakeford, speaking from the floor of the Geoscience Forum held last week in Yellowknife.

"Generally, the life of a mine is related to the cost of money, so you look at gold prices for a sort of 10-year period," he said.

"You can't watch (gold) every day. You'd go crazy if you did that."

Whatever fluctuation gold undergoes, it's come a long way in the last few years, said Wakeford.

"In 2003, Miramar did its original feasibility study on Doris North and used a $325-an-ounce gold price," he said.

"If you look at gold and where it was two or three years ago, compared to where it is now, it's actually quite ahead of the game."

Robert Ginn, president and CEO of Viking Gold Exploration Inc., said the recent fallback in gold prices is natural.

Viking is planning several mining projects in the Yellowknife Greenbelt area that are under feasibility review.

"These things are rather cyclic," said Ginn. "Gold prices are going to go up and down a little bit. I think most of us accept that it's going to go up over the long trend, and I don't think that our work is in jeopardy from a collapse in the gold price.

"We should be able to achieve our goals and enter the market before there's any serious downturn."

Val Pratico, the chief geologist for Tyhee Development Corporation's Yellowknife Gold Project, which includes sites such as Nicholas Lake that are currently being explored, agrees that the long-term future for gold is growth.

"The forecast seems to be for continued, relatively high prices for a while at least," said Pratico. "So day to day fluctuations don't really have an impact on Tyhee at all, or not very much anyway.

"The price of gold only bears on our longer-range planning."