Canada’s Arctic mineral conundrum: Commentary

Canada has two nickel/copper mines, two highly profitable gold mines (with a third coming on stream in 2025), and an extraordinarily rich iron-ore mine that helps European smelters meet green initiatives.

But what, if anything, is in the pipeline? And how easy is it to develop Canada’s mineral-rich Arctic region?

There’s certainly plenty of potential. While Canada’s North is not exactly terra incognita (unknown land), it is – like much of Greenland – definitely terra subexploratus (underexplored land).

There is probably only one well-known exploration region in northern Canada: Ontario’s “Ring of Fire” at the southern end of Hudson Bay. Lesser known regions are the Cape Smith Belt in Northern Quebec (aka the Ungava Nickel Belt), and the Slave Geologic Province in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. What may not be  appreciated is that much of Canada’s Arctic and sub-Arctic mining activity – both historic and current – has been well outside these mineral-rich regions.

Mineral deposits were often found as much by accident as design. For example, observant geologists discovered a major nickel-copper-cobalt deposit at Voisey’s Bay Labrador while flying over the area in search of diamonds.

Sometimes with these deposits, the stars align and a well-heeled mining company can go it alone, as Cominco did with Polaris. In other instances, it needs public-sector intervention for the mine to proceed. This was the case at the Nanisivik mine, where the federal government took an 18% stake in the mine by building the town site, airport, roads and dock. It also happened at Pine Point NT, where the federal government contributed a 640 km rail link to the TransCanada Mainline.

Ring of Fire

Technically, the Ring of Fire  is in a sub-Arctic region, but it exemplifies mineral opportunities currently out of reach due to a lack of infrastructure. The only access at the moment is by air, or a two-month winter ice road. However, climate change is shortening the season when temperatures are cold enough to create the road, and making it more difficult to keep the ice thick enough to hold fully laden trucks. You can read  a description of a critical ice road in NT here.

Resources in the Ring of Fire include chromite, nickel, copper, platinum group metals, zinc, gold and diamonds. The most advanced project is Wyloo’s Eagle’s Nest prospect, which has the potential to produce 15,000 tonnes of nickel annually for about 20 years.

Slave Geological Province (SGP)

This region hosts virtually every metal on the periodic table, although the best-known (and most recent) mines are the diamond kimberlites north of Yellowknife. The SGP is considered to be the most mineral-rich region of Canada, but exploration thus far is acknowledged to have only scratched the surface because of a lack of infrastructure and access.

The SGP is essentially bracketed by two massive base-metal occurrences: Pine Point in the south and Izok/High Lake in the south. The former was in operation between 1964 and 1988, and may be reactivated. For its part, Izok/High Lake is a very rich zinc/lead/copper/silver prospect and one of the largest undeveloped base-metal properties in North America.

At the northeast end of the SGP sit two massive gold mines. Back River, which is being developed by B2 Mining, will pour 100,000 ounces of gold in 2025, and is expected to deliver more than 300,000 ounces per annum for many years to come.

The other potential northern gold mine is at Hope Bay, although the prospect has had a chequered history. It was originally explored by BHP, and then by Miramar. In 2007,  Newmont took over the mine, only to eventually walk away from a $2 billion investment.

TMAC Resources acquired the property in 2013 and actually produced gold there. In 2021, TMAC was acquired by Agnico Eagle, which put the mine on hold a year later and is, in its words, currently undertaking an “active exploration program.” No doubt the company wants to be assured the mineralogy will support a 4,000 tons-per-day milling rate over an extended period.

Ongoing exploration projects in, or near, the SGP include:

• NICO (160 km NW Yellowknife) has proven and probable reserves of 37,000 tons of cobalt, 47,000 tons of Bismuth, 1.1m ounces of gold, 12,000 tons of copper.
• Nechalcho, a Polymetallic deposit 110km southeast of Yellowknife with strong Rare Earth Elements prospects.
• Hackett River, a silver, zinc, copper, lead and gold prospect adjacent to the B2 Gold property. This property is now owned by Glencore, and was the “Silver” in Sabina Gold and Silver.

Cape Smith Belt

This region in Northern Quebec is currently home to two active mines, both of which will be covered in more detail in an upcoming article on mining. These mines are at the Ungava Bay side of the belt, where past exploration access was easier. However, the region stretches about 370 km between Hudson and Ungava Bays, and the West Raglan area has excellent nickel, copper, and platinum reserves. Preliminary exploration in other areas has also shown strong gold, silver, zinc and lithium prospects.

Nunavut

There are many areas in Nunavut that have been explored and are awaiting development. Here are some examples:

3Bluffs Gold

Currently owned by Fury Gold Mines, the Committee Bay Greenstone Belt prospect is 180 km northeast of Agnico Eagle’s Meadowbank Complex. 3Bluffs is one of several high-grade gold plays in the region.

Base Metals near Kugluktuk

Several companies are exploring for copper in this area. That seems reasonable, given that the old name for the community was Coppermine and the Inuit historically made tools from native copper (an uncombined form of copper that occurs as a natural mineral) from the area. Early results show excellent prospects.

Aston Bay zinc/copper

The Seal (zinc) and Storm (copper) deposits on West Somerset Island were found in the 1960s during oil and gas exploration. They are close to tidewater and amenable to open-pit mining. The Storm Copper prospect is part of a 110 km belt that has only been adequately explored over 5% of its length. Indicated and inferred resources so far could yield about 150,000 tons of copper and 1.5 million ounces of silver. The Seal Zinc prospect reportedly has characteristics similar to the historic Polaris mine on Little Cornwallis Island.

Diamonds

The north probably has many more commercially feasible kimberlites than have been discovered so far. Known prospects include Chidliak (now owned by De Beers), which consists of more than 70 small but high-quality kimberlites and is about 120km northeast of Iqaluit.

A very interesting series of kimberlites north of Naujaat that is being explored by North Arrow is yielding a high proportion of exceptional – and valuable – yellow diamonds. Burgundy Diamond Mines has a significant role in the project.

The region around Kugaaruk is also showing interesting results. However, diamond prices have been in decline since 2022, and it probably needs a significant, and sustained, price uptick for exploration in this area to recover.

Uranium

The Thelon Basin (explored by Urangesellschaft in the mid 1980s and Areva in the 1990s) is hosting a rush of exploration activity. This includes Forum Energy Metals at Aberdeen Lake; Uranium Energy Corp. at Kiggavik; plus Orano and several other companies including Australian based Cosmos Exploration. Further south, ATHA Energy Corporation’s Angilak uranium prospect southeast of Baker Lake in the Kivalliq region is showing promise.

As you can see, northern Canada’s mineral-extraction industry has huge potential.

The terra subexploratus really is proving to be a goldmine (and just about every other kind of mine as well). However, without a solid recognition of the infrastructure investment needs, not much is likely to happen.

Christopher Wright is the former president of The Mariport Group Ltd, a marine and port consulting company that he formed in 1989. After retiring in 2013, Wright joined WorleyParsons Canada (now Advisian) as a marine logistics specialist.

He has written two books: “Arctic Cargo; A History of Marine Transportation in Canada’s North” (2016) and “Of Penguins and Polar Bears, a History of Coldwater Cruising” (2020).