Miner claims for 2012 have increased in British Columbia, Canada, indicating a prospecting boom in the country’s western province. Mineral claims have been filed over the last three years but more than 11,000 have been filed in the first seven months of this year alone. With $463 million spent on mineral exploration in 2011 and industry revenues reaching up to $9.8 billion last year, it comes as no surprise that prospectors dream of finding mineral deposits and of course, striking gold.
One of them is geologist Leslie Hunt who has not let her medical problems deter her from prospecting. She, her husband, and their two dogs now live in a cabin on the shores of a lake in Northern B.C. where the idyllic setting of moose frolicking in the waters outside belie the constant buzz of computers inside looking for fortune.
Featured on CTV BC news, Hunt lives close to a mine which had produced more than 70,000 ounces of gold before it was shut down some years ago. Because of the high price of gold, Chinese investors are said to be interested in reopening the mine.
Although she has never made it rich before, Hunt remains hopeful. Picking up a rock with gold in it, she estimates: “This would run about a hundred ounces a ton, which is an awful lot of gold.” Not all mineral claims will become mines but those that do can become very profitable for its owners.
Prospectors like Hunt meet in Vancouver each year where they try to sell their claims to junior mining companies who in turn sell it to senior mining companies. In this event, dubbed as a “roundup,” the focus is always on trying to get investors to part with their money. Needless to say, the provincial economy benefits from all the funds that flows in from mining.
Despite the speculative nature of their job, prospectors continue to hope to strike it rich. For Hunt, it has become a lifestyle. In fact, the virus that attacked her heart several years ago which led to a full heart transplant did not stop her from looking for gold again. Now, she is again diagnosed to need a new heart and a new kidney but that won’t stop her from going back to the mountains after she gets well. She declares: “Probably, needing a new heart and a new kidney, it’s going to be a little bit dicey as far as work is concerned. But we’ll just get through it.”
The mining sector in B.C. accounts for 28,000 jobs.
For further information please visit:
http://bc.ctvnews.ca/miner-claims-see-major-spike-in-b-c-1.967911
http://www.mining.com/record-surge-of-mining-claims-in-west-canada-30689/
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