GN seeks keen prospectors for assistance program

If you have taken a course on prospecting in Nunavut, you may be eligible for up to $8,000 to cover your costs this summer. (FILE PHOTO)

If you’re a Nunavut prospector, you may be eligible for up to $8,000 to help pay for assistant wages, materials and supplies when you’re out looking for minerals.

That money is available through the Government of Nunavut’s Department of Economic Development and Transportation, which is now accepting applications for its prospectors program.

Eligible applicants must:

• Be a Nunavut resident

• Be 18 years of age or older

• Have prospecting experience or have completed the Introduction to Prospecting course

The deadline to apply is April 30.

For more information, you can call 1-888-975-5999, email minerals@gov.nu.ca or visit the department’s website and click on the Programs/Funding tab. You can also visit your regional ED&T or hamlet office for help.

Since 2001, more than 1,000 Nunavummiut have taken the GN’s prospecting course—and their later prospecting efforts have sometime turned into money.

Two men from Kimmirut made headlines in early 2004 when they discovered blue sapphire deposits near the community and sold their claims to True North Gems.

Meanwhile, the mining industry is investing less money in exploration in the territory.

While there’s no figures available for 2017 out yet, Natural Resources Canada’s most recent report on exploration, issued in March 2017, had projected a 20 per cent decrease, of $41.5 million, in spending on exploration in Nunavut.