Mineral Exploration

Spring 2017

Mineral Exploration is the official publication of the Association of Mineral Exploration British Columbia.

Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/789828

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 21 of 23

22 Mineral Exploration | amebc.ca PROFILE PHOTOS: COURTESY SEABRIDGE GOLD INC. I f finding a gold deposit is like finding a needle in a haystack, then starting the search at an old gold mine is like removing the hay from the equation. "A lot of mines have been found around other mines," points out Bill Threlkeld. It was one of the reasons the exploration VP at Seabridge Gold Inc. pushed the Toronto- based company to acquire SnipGold Corp. and its Iskut property in 2016. Mining dates back to the 1920s at the property north of Stewart in the Coast Range. And with 10 years of exploration work under his belt at Seabridge's KSM property, just 30 kilometres away, Threlkeld knew the geology. After just one summer of exploration, the results suggest Seabridge is close to finding the needle at Iskut. And Threlkeld realizes the more he looks at rocks, the more he sees the same things repeating themselves. "I've worked in Africa, Asia, the Andes and all over North America," he says. "I've had the chance to see a whole lot of things, and certain setups will give the same thing no matter where you are on the planet. People told me that but I didn't believe it until I saw it." Threlkeld's initial attraction to geology was more vegetative than inspirational. At high school in Denver, Colorado, he took a general geology course. "The teacher would turn o¤ the lights and show slides," he remembers. "It was a lot better than anything else we were doing." Something resonated in that dark classroom. He enrolled in a geology program at Colorado State University, focusing on economic geology. He finished his degree at the end of the summer term and tumbled out of school with no job prospects. Out of the blue, a school friend called. His boss, Eliseo Gonzalez-Urien, needed a geologist at Noranda Inc. "I've been working with Eliseo ever since," Threlkeld says. "He's the kind of guy that somehow gets you to put out more e¤ort than you think you're capable of. I fell in love with his love – finding things." After working with Noranda – mostly in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho – Threlkeld was o¤ered a chance to go to grad school at the University of Western Ontario. The company had a relationship with the school and Threlkeld took full advantage, expanding his understanding of exploration geology in general and the emerging epithermal gold niche. In the early '80s, when Threlkeld was at Western, gold prices were too low for epithermal gold deposits to be economical. Threlkeld says one of the few people studying this type of deposit in the early 1980s was Bob Hodder, one of his professors at Western. "Bob had been working on them for seven or eight years at that point," says Threlkeld. Threlkeld moved on from Noranda to stints at Placer Dome Inc. and Greenstone Resources before eventually turning to consulting. With the industry in a downswing, it was not inspiring work. "Everyone was looking to fill holes in the dyke," he says. "I wanted to build something." So when a former colleague at Greenstone called and invited him to join a team starting Seabridge Gold, Threlkeld didn't hesitate. "They were looking to acquire properties while everyone else was getting rid of stu¤," he says. Seabridge began building a portfolio of plays, all with previous exploration e¤orts. The plan was to do more ground work and then sell or partner with a company wanting to progress the project into a mine. Within the first three years, Seabridge bought nine properties worth $15 million. The work was di¤erent from what Threlkeld had done in the past – more data mining than prospecting. "It's exciting working where no one has ever looked before," he says. "But the amount of time it takes to get a project built is frustrating. Working on a project where data already exists, you know what questions to ask before you get on the ground. You get to success sooner and you're more likely to achieve financial success. That's how everyone but geologists rate success." Bill Threlkeld The more he sees, the more it looks the same By RYAN STUART Bill Threlkeld (right) at Seabridge Gold Inc.'s KSM property.

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Mineral Exploration - Spring 2017