Inuit-owned firm explores for minerals in western Nunavut

This map, taken from a Transition Metals Corp. presentation to investors, shows the land parcels in the western Kitikmeot region that the company hopes to explore in an alliance with the Inuit-owned Nunavut Resources Corp.

An alliance between the Inuit-owned Nunavut Resource Corp. and a Sudbury, Ont.-based company called Transition Metals Corp. has turned up potential sites for gold and base metal exploration following aerial surveys on Inuit-owned land done this past summer, Transition Metals said Oct. 8 in a news release.

In April 2013, the two firms struck a deal to work together for five years hunting for potential mineral deposits within an area known as the Izok Corridor.

The Izok Corridor is an area stretching from Izok Lake to Coronation Gulf that’s the proposed location for a moribund scheme promoted by MMG Ltd. to build a chain of lead-zinc mines linked by an all-weather road.

MMG halted that project in 2013 because of low metal prices and there’s no sign that MMG will restart it any time soon.

But Transition Metals, who aim to spend at least $18 million on exploration through their deal with Nunavut Resource Corp., says Nunavut is a great place to do business.

“At a time when exploration activity in the North is at a low, the Alliance is positioning itself for success by adding value to its projects with excellent support from the Kitikmeot Inuit Association,” Transition Metals’ CEO, Scott McLean, said in a news release.

The company, whose stock was trading at less than 10 cents a share as of Oct. 14, says Nunavut is a “safe, stable, mining friendly jurisdiction,” with “no land claim issues” and that their deal with Inuit landowners gives them social licence.

In 2014, the alliance struck a mineral exploration deal with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. for two parcels of land on which Inuit hold sub-surface rights in an area called C-20 near the Ulu gold property, about 175 kilometres southwest of Cambridge Bay.

Their release says their aerial survey last summer revealed “high potential gold and base metal target areas within the north portion of Inuit Owned Land parcel IOL CO-20.”

Although the exploration work is in its earliest stages, Charlie Evalik, the president and chair of Nunavut Resource Corp., said he’s happy with the work of the alliance.

“We continue to be pleased with the good work that the alliance is executing for the benefit of Inuit. We are also extremely appreciative of the ongoing support provided by our shareholder, the Kitikmeot Inuit Association,” Evalik said.

Evalik also described his company as the “only active 100 per cent Inuit-owned exploration business.”

At the recent KIA annual general meeting in Cambridge Bay, delegates heard how the past year marks one of “the slowest periods for the exploration industry in the Kitikmeot region in 15 years.”