KUGLUKTUK/COPPERMINE - Exploration activity in Nunavut's Kitikmeot region is substantially more robust this summer season compared to a year ago, creating more, albeit short-term, job opportunities for residents of the region.

MMG's Izok Lake exploration lies 255 km southwest of Kugluktuk. Between it and sister base metals exploration project High Lake (located 190 km southeast of the community), MMG is spending $15 million on summer exploration work – triple what it spent last year, which was a relatively quiet year for Nunavut exploration. - photo courtesy of MMG Resources Inc.

Case in point: MMG Resources Inc., which is actively pushing ahead with two base metals projects this year - High Lake, located 190 km southeast of Kugluktuk, and Izok Lake, situated 255 km southwest of the hamlet.

"We're basically tripling the amount of money that we spent on our program," said Martin McFarlane, president of MMG's Vancouver-based Canadian division. McFarlane cited the total budget for the company's Slave Geological Province projects this year at around $15 million.

While the resource at High Lake - which, like Izok Lake, contains zinc, copper, lead and silver - is less defined than the more advanced Izok Lake, the aim of exploration at both sites is essentially the same: to beef up the resource count to make the projects more economically viable and possibly move toward production.

By the end of the year, the company hopes to update and release the pre-feasibility study for Izok Lake, including provisions for use of the Bathurst Inlet Port and Road Project, a project that, if it goes ahead, could create 260 construction jobs and 57 full-time jobs during operations.

The pre-feasibility study is the second in a series of three economic assessments, each discussing in increasing detail a potential mine's financing, construction and operation.

Until then, the most MMG can offer are part-time, seasonal jobs at its exploration sites. The good news is, thanks to MMG's substantially increased budget (which McFarlane said the company hopes to at least maintain next year), there were more of those jobs available for residents of Kugluktuk and, increasingly, Cambridge Bay.

According to Donald Havioyak, approximately 15 people from those hamlets found work at Izok and High Lake this year.

"We have more people working than last year," said Kugluktuk-born Havioyak, who works as a community relations officer for MMG from his home community.

"Our time frames have been longer. So locals are coming in to my office, and there's more awareness of the company (among) locals and (people from) Cambridge Bay."

MMG's projects aren't the only things creating economic opportunities in the region. North of Kugluktuk, local business Kikiak Contracting is cleaning up a DEW line site for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, employing 20 people from across the Kitikmeot region, said Havioyak.

Factor in Newmont Mining Corporation - which is spending $140 million developing the Hope Bay gold project located 130 km southwest of Cambridge Bay - and getting enough people for MMG's own projects is proving difficult.

"The biggest challenge is finding more workers," said Havioyak.

For some who are currently working for MMG, the four-weeks-on, two-weeks-off work schedule is proving challenging, he added.

Those shifts "might be a bit long, which we've got to work on in the future for each employee. Some get homesick. Some, for personal reasons, miss their plane going through Yellowknife."

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