The Yukon: A Brief Photo Tour

Today's post has some of my favorite photos from the wild and scenic Yukon Territory of Canada.  It is a wonderful place for a vacation.  It is so popular with German tourists that there are non-stop flights from Frankfurt to Whitehorse.  The Japanese are also common visitors to the Yukon.

 

Map from the Yukon Travel website.  The site is an excellent website for planning a trip to the Yukon.  The link is below.

 

Source of Map Yukon Travel Website

 

 

Plaque memorializing the early prospectors making their way over Chilkoot Pass.

Helicopter with the Yukon River in the background, fire weed, placer gold nuggets mined by modern-day, small miners, and abandoned exploration and mining equipment (1970's Ford Bronco).

 

 

Photo of large landslide on the south side of Little Salmon Lake between Carmacks and Faro (photo date August 7, 2012).  Oblique view of landslide from Google Earth (lower left),  vertical Google Earth image (north is up).  The arrow shows the approximate location and direction of the photo of the landslide taken from Highway 4.  Google Earth images from 2004 through 2008 show that the slide develop and moved over a 5-year period.

 

 

The beauty of the Yukon and a bear footprint next to a rock hammer.

  

Majestic mountains in the southeastern area of the Yukon looking towards the Northwest Territories.

 

The Yukon River at sunset.

 



Gold Discovery: 10 Basic items needed for a successful transition from exploration to a mine.

I dug up an old memo written in 1983 by Neil Muncaster, Vice President of Exploration for Tenneco Minerals Company.  I worked for Neil in the mid-to-late 1980's.  At that time most geologists, especially exploration geologists, did not use computers.  He commented to me that if he had a geologist using a computer to contour geochem or other assay data he would fire them.  He also wanted to see individual assays on cross sections, not composites or mineralized intercepts.  Mostly he was a ore finder, whether directly or in managing exploration departments as the VP.

This is a copy of that brief memo...

 

 

The memo is rather dated.  Now with GPS and GIS geologists routinely have real-world coordinates.  Software like Leapfrog https://www.leapfrog3d.com/  and GeoReka  http://www.geo-reka.com/ puts high tech computer modelling in the hands of exploration geologists. 

 

It has been my experience that the greatest weakness in exploration "discoveries" is the lack of early metallurgical testing.  Hot cyanide assays and bottle roll test for gold extraction are inexpensive and should be done a soon as ore-grade intercepts are made.

 

This is a good check list for projects that have ore-grade intercepts and for projects just getting started.  Best of luck with your drilling projects!