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SEPTEMBER 4—17, 2023 / VOL. 109 ISSUE 18 / GLOBAL MINING NEWS • SINCE 1915 / $5.25 / WWW.NORTHERNMINER.COM
Don Bubar remembered as ‘key architect’ of critical minerals narrative | Avalon founder pushed for Indigenous participation in mining
OBITUARY
A Snowline Gold’s Rogue project in eastern Yukon lies along the Tombstone gold belt. SNOWLINE GOLD
Snowline Gold stuns investors with near-record drill results on Rogue project YUKON
| Shares hit new high after recent assays
BY COLIN MCCLELLAND
D
awson City, Yukon — Shares in Yukon-focused Snowline Gold (TSXV: SGD; US-OTC: SNWGF) continued their ascent in August, with analysts saying the latest discovery at its Rogue project makes it a pumped-up version of Kinross Gold’s (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) Fort Knox mine in Alaska. Snowline reported a new highgrade zone of more than 2 grams gold per tonne at depth in its Valley target on Aug. 3 along with its strongest gold intersections so far. The company said they rank among the Yukon’s best ever. It’s the latest in a series of drill results that have driven investor interest past the $19 million investment by B2Gold (TSX: BTO) in March, despite the project’s early stage and remote location about 200 km beyond developed roads. “Valley is Fort Knox on steroids,” Michael Gray, a mining analyst at Agentis Capital, said in a note after Snowline reported 2.5 grams gold per tonne over 553.8 metres from surface including 5 grams over 132 metres from 6 metres downhole.
SNOWLINE REPORTED A NEW HIGH-GRADE ZONE OF MORE THAN 2 GRAMS GOLD PER TONNE AT DEPTH IN ITS VALLEY TARGET ON AUG. 3 ALONG WITH ITS STRONGEST GOLD INTERSECTIONS SO FAR. THE COMPANY SAID THEY RANK AMONG THE YUKON’S BEST EVER. “We consider it a breakthrough to see more than 2 grams gold per tonne mineralization over a broad interval to more than 450 metres vertical depth.” Snowline is the standard-bearer of a surging exploration scene in
the Yukon along the Tombstone gold belt. It arcs north from British Columbia then sweeps west from the Northwest Territories into Alaska, where Fort Knox has produced more than 9 million oz. gold over 27 years. Along the way is the Yukon’s only operating hard rock gold mine, run by Victoria Gold (TSX: VGCX), plus juniors Banyan Gold (TSXV: BYN; US-OTC: BYAGF), Sitka Gold (CSE: SIG) and St. James Gold (TSXV: LORD) with early-stage projects. Shares in Snowline Gold rose to a record $6.06 apiece on Aug. 9 before easing to $5.15 closer to press time. The company has a market cap of $731.2 million. Investor darling The Rogue project, like others along the belt, is on a reduced intrusion-related gold system but the grades in its drill results — like the 2.5 grams gold per tonne over 383.8 metres from surface, including 4.1 grams over 120 metres reported in August — are magnitudes more than Fort Knox’s 1 gram or Victoria’s 0.7 gram gold. See ROGUE / 8
BY BLAIR MCBRIDE
s enthusiasm for zero-emission technologies accelerates into the mainstream, Canada has lost one of its earliest and most ardent champions of critical minerals. Donald Stephen Bubar, founder and longtime president of Avalon Advanced Materials passed away on July 30 at the age of 68. The mining veteran, who worked as a field geologist and with several base and precious metals projects, recognized years before most others the importance of critical minerals for the future economy. And in his decades of involvement with the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), advocated for greater and earlier engagement with Indigenous communities. Bubar was born in Ormstown, Que., the eldest of two children. His early years were spent in Beaconsfield, near Montreal, where his father was a lecturer at McGill University’s MacDonald College. His family moved to Truro, N.S., in 1967 when Bubar’s father John began working at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College at Dalhousie University. His son Andrew, who was inspired by his father to become a geochemist and now works with First Nations on major projects, believes Bubar’s time in Nova Scotia formed his sense of the connection between community and development. “It made perfectly intuitive sense… that the people local to a project should benefit from it,” Andrew said. “He saw the writing on the wall that advancing a project requires a social licence to operate. And the importance of buy-in from neighbours.” Bubar earned his Honours B.Sc. in geology from McGill in 1977 followed by his applied M.Sc. in Mineral Exploration from Queen’s University. In 1994, he started Avalon Ventures (now Avalon Advanced Materials) as a junior miner focusing on base metal and gold projects. It acquired the Separation Rapids lithium project in northwestern Ontario in 1996, marking Bubar’s new focus on non-traditional commodities. Seven years
GRANITE CREEK SEEKS COPPER MAJOR FOR GIANT YUKON RED METAL PROJECT / 7
Don Bubar. ANDREW BUBAR
later, Avalon acquired the Thor Lake (Nechalacho) project in the Northwest Territories, which in 2022 began production of rare earths as a demonstration project. His son recalls as a child hearing Bubar talk about those projects. See BUBAR / 6 PM40069240