Mineral exploration company loading up on northern gold projects

A mineral exploration company with roots in Yellowknife is buying up prospective northern gold deposits with the hope a recent run up of the price of precious metals continues into a longer term trend.

Mike Power, president and CEOof Silver RangeResources, said the company has shifted focus from developing silver properties in Yukon to generating gold projects in Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

"We have had a few soft years and now it is coming back. This is just the nature of price cycles and precious metals," Power said.

"This is a good time to get in and position ourselves for that."

On Thursday, the company announced it had acquired theItchenProperty near Nunavut's Lupin Gold Mine, on the N.W.T. side of the border.

The company also closed a deal in Julyto purchase six gold projects. Three are located in Nunavut, and one is adjacent to Yellowknife's Giant Mine (Uptown Gold Property). The other two projects are in Nevada.

Giant Mine produced more than seven millionounces of gold in its lifetime.

"Right adjacent to Giant, within a little over a kilometre, there is gold out in the granite. And some of it is quite high grade. We are trying to determine if there is the possibility of being a larger deposit out there," Power said.

"Worldwide there are quite a few gold deposits that actually occur in the adjacentgraniticrocks."

Power hopes to bring Uptown Gold to the drilling stage by the fall.

"Once we developed a drill target on any of these properties we will be looking to find joint venture partners to come in and drill them. That's the business model," Power said.

Power is also a founding member of Aurora Geosciences Ltd,a northern company that is providing Silver Range Resources with geology and geophysics services.

"This is very much a solidly northern exploration company. The technical people behind it and the major investors in this company have a long experience in the North. They have found deposits and they are hoping to do it again."

The price of gold has risen to$1,367 US as of Aug.4from $1,060 USin January an increase of about 29 per cent.