(Image via thinksask.ca.)
Canada’s mining story often references the success seen in Ontario’s Red Lake gold field, or Québec’s Abitibi gold belt, but Saskatchewan’s wide open landscape has a lot to offer for both mining companies and governments to explore.
The province boasts the largest known high grade reserves in the world for uranium and potash, while producing more than 85% of Canadian potash with roughly half of the world’s potash reserves under its surface. It is home to both the world’s largest potash mine, the Mosaic Esterhazy mine complex, as well as the world’s largest uranium mine Cameco Corp.’s ( TSX: CCO) McArthur River, when operating at normal production levels.
Amid years of uranium price weakness, Cameco has reduced its production to focus on purchasing from the spot market to meet contracted deliveries. In the long term, CCO has the ability to increase its annual uranium production by restarting shut mines and investing in new ones.
Beyond uranium and potash, Saskatchewan has largely flown under the radar when it comes to precious metals and rare earth elements, but it is also developing other mineral resources such as gold, coal, diamonds, platinum, palladium, rare earth elements, copper, zinc, nickel, sodium and potassium sulphates and mineralized brines.
Despite the current economic downturn in the province, Saskatchewan is still one of the world's highest ranked mining jurisdictions. It was ranked #11 in mining investment attractiveness in the world by the Fraser Institute in 2019.
The blue sky potential on the horizon was one of the chief topics that Saskatchewan’s Minister of Energy and Resources Bronwyn Eyre spoke of at the “Sask Night" reception gathering at the 2020 Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC).
In her speech, she told the crowd that in the face of economic challenges, and the people impacted by them, the province, over the past number of years, has seen intense and sustained exploration activity. She noted that an estimated $36 billion has been invested in mineral exploration and development in Saskatchewan from 2008 to 2018 - “And that dollar figure continues to grow.”
Current mineral exploration spending has been trending well above historic annual totals. In 2018, spending in the province was $229 million. In 2019, it is estimated that spending will have been more than $280 million.
“Last year I was here, I was so heartened to hear the ENTHUSIASM about our mining sector: the renewed spring in people’s step on the trade floor about prospects in Saskatchewan. And how one delegate told the government of PERU that it should be ‘more like Saskatchewan’.” - Hon. Bronwyn Eyre , Minister of Energy and Resources.
Minister Eyre added that a new provincial program should provide an added boost to the industry. Mineral companies who are eligible will receive a grant of up to $50,000 a year to support their exploration efforts. A net increase of roughly 628,000 hectares of new mineral dispositions has been triggered by this program and more than 600 raw data and maps of provincially-funded geophysical surveys have been downloaded.
This is good news for companies like Canadian precious metal explorers with properties in the province, such as SKRR Exploration Inc. (TSX-V: SKRR, Forum).
In SKRR’s search of world class precious metal deposits, its primary exploration focus is on Saskatchewan’s Trans-Hudson Corridor. The Trans-Hudson Orogen - although extremely well known in geological terms, has been significantly under-explored.
Stockhouse Editorial covered the Trans-Hudson Corridor and SKRR’s efforts earlier this year, where its CEO Sherman Dahl compared this area to be similar to Abitibi, but with a mere 1/100th of the exploration.
On March 4th 2020, SKRR announced its intent to acquire 100% of the Ithingo Lake property in Saskatchewan, with total unencumbered title rights to 12 contiguous mineral claims encompassing approximately 2,849 hectares. High-grade gold mineralization had been discovered in surface trenches in the property in the 1980s.
The current economic climate has been concerning for many in the resource industry and investors, but there is good news coming out of places like Saskatchewan, which saw a record amount of gold produced in 2019, for the fourth year in a row.
Are you bracing for a bear market in resources? Or does this news offer some reassurance that there is still potential to be unearthed? Let us know in the comments below.
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FULL DISCLOSURE: SKRR Exploration Inc. is a client of Stockhouse Publishing.