NRC forecasts big decline in Nunavut mineral exploration this year

A view of the Peregrine Diamonds Ltd. exploration camp at Chidliak in April 2011, a year when mineral exploration expenditures in Nunavut reached $535 million, an all-time high. Peregrine will continue to advance the project this year, especially in and around its promising CH-6 kimberlite deposit. But overall exploration spending in Nunavut this year is expected to decline sharply. (FILE PHOTO)

New figures on mineral exploration released March 3 by Natural Resources Canada show Nunavut likely faces a lean year in 2014.

A look at the exploration and deposit appraisal expenditures by province and territory, 2009-2014 reveal that in 2014, Nunavut will see a significant drop in money spent on mineral exploration: from a high of $535 million in 2011 to $166.5 million in 2014.

That figure is also lower than for 2013, when mining and mineral exploration companies spent $270 million in Nunavut and even lower than for 2009, when they spent $187 million.

The tally includes on-mine-site and off-mine-site activities, field work, overhead costs, engineering, economic and pre- or production feasibility studies, environment and land access costs.

Forecasted expenditures for Northwest Territories are also down from 2013 to 2014, although Yukon is set to see a slight increase in the amount of money that mineral exploration will bring to the territory.

Despite the drop in exploration activity, Nunavut is still set to remain the strongest of the three territories, accounting for 7.8 per cent all money spent on exploration in Canada.