Province sees growth in mineral exploration in 2012

Companies will spend about $325 million on mineral exploration in the province by the end of 2012, said Gary Delaney, chief geologist with the Saskatchewan Geological Survey.

Delaney presented an overview of Saskatchewan mineral exploration and development in 2012 at the 43rd Annual Saskatchewan Geological Open House being held in Saskatoon.

“Saskatchewan’s mineral sector is heading into the 10th year of a major cycle of exploration, discovery and development,” Delaney said.

Last year $293 million was spent on mineral exploration and in 2010 it was $321 million.

Once again, the majority of spending in 2012 is on potash and uranium projects.

Delaney said there are a number of uranium projects on the go, including Cigar lake (Cameco 50 per cent, Areva 37 per cent, Idemitsu eight per cent and Tepco five per cent) that is expected to come on stream in late 2013; Midwest (Areva 69 per cent, Denison 25 per cent and OURD five per cent), Millenium (Cameco 70 per cent, JCU Exploration 30 per cent) and Rio Tinto continues to develop the Roughrider project in the Athabasca Basin.

The largest producing uranium mine in the world, McArthur River (Cameco 70 per cent, Areva 30 per cent), is expected to produce about 18.7 million pounds of uranium while Cameco’s Eagle Point mine will produce 3.7 million pounds of uranium.

Delaney said continuing exploration and development in the uranium sector is a positive sign for the industry.

There was also a lot of interest in potash.

“We are also seeing tre- mendous exploration and development activity in the potash sector,” Delaney said.

There are currently eight conventional underground mines and two solution mines operating in the province.

“Those three companies (PotashCorp, Agrium and Mosaic) that own those 10 mines are currently investing about $13.9 billion to basically almost double capacity by 2020,” Delaney said.

“THERE ARE A FEW STORM CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON,”

GARY DELANEY

Projects in development include K+S’s Legacy mine, BHP’s Jansen project, Karnalyte Resources Wynyard project and Western Potash’s Milestone project.

Delaney said the outlook for mineral exploration and development is generally positive.

“There are a few storm clouds on the horizon, in particular our junior sector is starting to experience some speed bumps related largely to the uncertainty in global markets,” he said. “Another dynamic is the pace and scope of the uranium recovery post-Fukushima (nuclear disaster).”

The geological open house, which wrapped up Wednesday, is an annual meeting that includes a presentation of geoscience research carried out by the province and its partners over the past year. It is organized by the Ministry of the Economy, in partnership with the Saskatchewan Geological Society. Sessions included geoscience research presentations on uranium ore systems, gold, base metals and generative mapping, and industrial minerals.