NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Seabridge Gold is planning more than $10 million worth of work this summer at its Courageous Lake gold exploration site.

To date, Seabridge Gold has discovered 11 million ounces of gold at its Courageous Lake site in the NWT. - photo courtesy of Seabridge Gold

The program will include environmental, engineering and exploration activities on a deposit located approximately 280 km northwest of Yellowknife, according to Seabridge Gold president and CEO Rudi Fronk.

To date, Seabridge has identified 11.3 million ounces of gold in the area.

"When we acquired the project in 2002 we believed that there was considerable upside," Fronk wrote in an e-mail. "At the time of acquisition gold resources (on site) stood at 5.7 million ounces."

The deposit was discovered by Noranda in the early 1980s.

By comparison, Agnico Eagle has 3.5 million ounces of proven and probable gold at its Meadowbank gold mine near Baker Lake, Nunavut.

Gold prices topped $1,520 an ounce last week.

On average, Seabridge will employ about 40 people a week at camp between June and the end of September.

Fronk said his company is committed to working with local experienced contractors whenever possible, including workers from NWT First Nations.

"We provided close to 800 man days of labour to the local aboriginal population last year and expect to provide a similar amount of labour this year," he said. 

The company also recently met with community members – particularly aboriginal people who use the Courageous Lake area -- as the company seeks to renew its existing Type A land use permit.

The consultation included site tours, community meetings and technical information sharing, Fronk said.

In terms of how much gold could eventually come from the area, Fronk believes there is potential for considerable upside since the known deposit is situated on 2 km of a 52 km greenstone belt.

Access to the site during winter is planned by using the existing Tibbitt to Contowyto winter road and an existing spur road route on MacKay Lake that accesses Matthews Lake.

A lack of infrastructure and power supplies, as well as non-existent year-round roads, provide logistical and environmental challenges in the area.

"As with any project we are looking at minimizing land disturbance and potential impacts to the local wildlife, and designing a project that we can safely and responsibly close," Fronk said.

Work related to the deposit is still in its very early stages, he added, with a lot of technical work to be done and reviews by NWT regulatory agencies to be completed before any mining can start.

"If we are successful in defining a viable project, Courageous Lake has the potential to provide a new source of jobs and revenue for the residents of the Northwest Territories," he said.

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