QAMANITTUAQ/BAKER LAKE - Buoyed by promising results from its summer 2010 exploration program, North Country Gold is looking to triple its exploration budget on the Committee Bay gold project near Baker Lake next year.

From left, Romeo Kopak, Darla Kopak and Jimmy Kopak stand at the site of North Country Gold's Committee Bay gold project, located 300 km northeast of Baker Lake. - photo courtesy of North Country Gold

"With the drilling that we've done this year, I think that we've shown, unequivocally, that the ... deposit has the potential to be the next major gold deposit in the eastern Arctic. That would be in the Meadowbank and Meliadine size range," said John Williamson, president and CEO of North Country Gold.

The company has owned Committee Bay for 18 years, during which it has spent $47.5 million, including $10 million this year.

This summer's drilling program – which employed a peak workforce of 60 people, including 14 residents of Kugaaruk, Repulse Bay and Rankin Inlet – "was partly to increase our resources, which with the drilling that we did this year, we're certainly convinced that the resource has grown," said Williamson.

"It's currently under review, so I can't give you any of the numbers."

Committee Bay entered the summer exploration season with 508,000 in indicated ounces of gold and 244,000 in inferred ounces of gold, but it needs reserves in the area of one to two million ounces before the project can move towards development, said Williamson.

With a reserve count like that, "you can produce it at a significant rate per year – say, 100,000 to 200,000 ounces a year – and that gives you the mine life for a 10- to 20-year operation."

To put it in perspective, Agnico-Eagle's Meadowbank gold mine – which began production in March with a 10-year mine life – is on track to produce 300,000 ounces of gold in 2010.

Inuit benefits

Of the 14 Inuit staffers at site this summer, two were being trained as driller's helpers – a crucial step on the path to actually operating a drill.

"Being a driller's helper is sort of an apprenticeship start to becoming a driller," said Williamson. "Normally, a driller's helper apprentices for five years as a sort of rule. Drilling up in the Arctic, up in the permafrost, is a very knowledge-based technical job. Not only do you have to be able to run the drills, but the problems that you encounter on a day-to-day basis – you need about five years of being a helper to have run into every problem that you can."

Otherwise, Inuit staff typically provide logistical support or help run the camp, added Williamson.

"We shop locally first for all of our goods and services, and then if we can't get them in Baker Lake, Rankin Inlet, Repulse or Kugaaruk, we have to ship them in from somewhere else," said Williamson.

"All the helicopters, planes, all the other logistical support is all Northern-based."

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