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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Former Yellowknife geologist Regan Chernish is returning to the city to hunt for gold.

Regan Chernish, president of Manson Creek Resources Ltd. The Calgary-based exploration company is hunting for gold at the Up Town Gold property, adjacent to the historic Giant Mine site. - photo courtesy of Manson Creek Resources Ltd.

Last month, Chernish, the president and director of Calgary-based mineral exploration company Manson Creek Resources Ltd., collected samples by snowmobile across Panarc Resources' 3,388 hectare Up Town Gold property, adjacent to the historic Giant Mine. Last week, Manson Creek announced it is acquiring a 100 per cent interest in the project.

"My samples ranged well within what we hoped, so that gives you kind of that base level yes, you know there's mineralization present," Chernish said. "The challenge is to find, essentially, a plumbing system that would distribute this gold over a large area. You need big targets for people these days."

The fact that the property is adjacent to the Yellowknife greenstone belt that produced 12 million ounces of gold from Giant and Con mines, helps, said Tom Hoefer, executive director of the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines, citing an old expression in the mining industry:

"If you're going to go hunting elephants, go to elephant country. Which means, if you're going to explore for gold, go where gold has been found before."

Led by a technical team of four professional geologists, the company's focus is the acquisition and exploration of early stage gold projects across Canada, but Manson Creek's directors have had reservations regarding the permitting situation in the territory.

"I think it's encouraging that Regan and Manson Creek have decided to come back," Hoefer said, noting it's been "sadly quiet" in the territory considering the geological potential of the Yellowknife gold belt, which has seen 60 years of gold production. "Which is pretty phenomenal in Canada or anywhere else in the world to have gold production for that long. It says it was a very rich gold belt that can support mining for that length of time."

The drop in activity in the region has allowed Manson Creek to seize on the opportunity presented by the Up Town Gold property, Chernish said.

Previous exploration on the property, done primarily in the 1960s, largely ignored altered granite as a host for mineralization, he said. While the grade of gold from the archean granite might be a fraction of the grade of Giant Mine, potential value has been demonstrated in this type of geological model as a bulk mine-able target in other parts of the country, he added.

"It's an extremely conceptual idea at this point, so the first round of work will consist of geology, and mapping," Chernish said. "Just to ensure that what we can map on surface lines up with what we hope is there."

The company has not yet firmed up its 2012 budget, but expects to spend no more than $100,000 on the property this year, with work targeted to begin by late spring.

Manson Creek is publicly traded on the TSX Venture Exchange.

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