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KUGAARUK/PELLY BAY - Teck Cominco Ltd. doesn't plan on shedding any assets or properties north of 60, but neither does it plan to invest any money in the North.

The international mining giant is working hard to climb out of the red and pay down nearly $10 billion in debt, the company confirmed last week.

Indicator Minerals project geologist Andrea Maynes shows off a kimberlite boulder at the company's Darby diamond exploration site in Nunavut's Kitikmeot region. - photo courtesy of Indicator Minerals Inc.

"Teck is not planning to spend any exploration dollars in the NWT or Nunavut in 2009," said Sarah Goodman, director of corporate affairs.

Teck Cominco is currently one of the main shareholders in Nunavut's beleaguered Jericho diamond mine, which officially ceased operations last December and was handed over to Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.

Teck has earned a right to a 51 per cent interest in the Darby diamond project, located 200 km southwest of Kugaaruk in Nunavut, by spending more than $14 million in exploration on the 692,000-acre property.

"We are still a shareholder of Tahera, but the project is inactive and we have no plans to invest further in the property," said Goodman.

"Teck has earned a 51-per cent interest in the Darby diamond project, but at this point Teck and Indicator Minerals are not anticipating active exploration in 2009," she added.

While Teck's closed wallet means minimal work will be done on the Darby site, Vancouver-based Indicator Minerals Inc. does plan to spend some dollars drilling at its Nanuq North site, located 300 km east of Baker Lake in Nunavut.

Indicator president and CEO Bruce Counts said all four of their main properties in Nunavut were ready to start drilling, but after the credit crisis hit the company decided to hold off on all but the promising Nanuq site, hoping for a more responsive market.

"Everybody pulled their wings in," he said.

Counts likened the situation to musical chairs.

"Your treasury is your chair," he said, and when the music of good times in the mineral market stopped, the question on everybody's mind was 'what do I have in my treasury?'"

Presumably, many were left scrambling for a different chair. Numbers recently released by Natural Resources Canada on exploration spending intentions for 2009 show a 39 per cent drop in spending for Nunavut.

In the exploration business, however, you "can't stand still," said Counts. "You have to keep moving. You have to keep going forward."

In order to be able to make that move forward at Nanuq, Indicator had to reduce office overhead by 40 per cent.

"That means we had to let some very good people go," said Counts.

While he would not say how many employees were laid off, he did confirm the layoffs were company-wide in addition to reducing consultant work.

While Counts said cutting jobs was tough, he is hoping it will keep the company's treasury buoyant enough to keep exploration going as long as the crunch - and the inability to raise funds - lasts.

In the exploration industry, "if you're not doing something ... then you're moving backwards," he said.