Grizzled prospectors wielding pickaxes and gold pans are a sight seldom seen in B.C. these days, but that doesn’t mean all the treasure hunters have fled the wilderness.
In fact, strong commodity prices buoyed by Asian demand have generated a new rush for B.C.’s storied resources.
“There are more people getting involved in it,” said “Yukon” Dan Moore, a professional gold panner from Delta.
Business in Vancouver caught up with the career treasure hunter on the sidelines of the Association for Mineral Exploration BC’s (AME BC) annual Roundup conference downtown last week.
Moore said recent record gold prices ($1,422 per ounce on January 3) have resurrected a phenomenon not seen in this province since the original gold rush, when thousands of prospectors migrated through B.C. in search of their fortunes.
“Unfortunately, there are people who have gold fever, which is a sickness for gold, selling everything they own and buying heavy equipment and getting skunked, not findin’ nothin’,” he said. “That’s because they were not patient enough and [didn’t learn] how to pan for gold first.”
Whether it’s panning for gold or searching for a few promising rocks that could one day lead to a mine, prospectors say patience is key.
For the last 15 years, Walter Crombie has had nothing but patience.
The former logger set up a small booth at Roundup last week, showcasing maps and a select few rock samples from properties he’s explored for a decade and a half.
Crombie got into the prospecting game after he left the forestry industry.
It was a hobby at first, spurred on by a few promising rocks he noticed near logging roads.
“I didn’t know nothing,” Crombie said of his second career. “The only way I learned was by sending rocks to a lab, and I learned off that.”
One of his prospective properties is on Vancouver Island near Strathcona Park.
He’s staked claims and found some surface-level rocks that he said contain high levels of copper, another metal in the midst of a record price cycle.
But prospecting isn’t for the faint of heart.
After 15 years, Crombie’s “hobby” has yielded little or no return.
The 73-year-old ended his bushwhacking days last year, citing health problems.
Now, he’s hoping a junior mining company will buy the claim from him, validating years of work.
“I spent $130,000 just out of wages and now I’m flat broke,” he said. “So I’m waiting for someone to come by and do some drilling. I think I’ve found enough to make it worthwhile.”
Fortunately for some, prospecting is a fickle game.
Ron Schneider considers himself a “classical” style prospector.
The fruit farmer from Cawston is a trained mining technologist, but got into the prospecting game so he could have an excuse to occasionally leave his orchard.
Schneider uses his tractor to salvage basalt flagstones from the Interior’s many slide areas, which he then sells to landscaping companies in Kelowna.
He’s also used the provincial government’s plethora of old geological reports to find areas near his orchard that could yield gold or silver.
He then uses the province’s online staking system to secure claims, and scours the properties with a rock-busting hammer.
Schneider said he’s sold three properties to junior mining companies in the last two years, one of them being Vancouver-based Silver Field Resources Inc. (TSX-V:SF).
Each sale has netted the prospector a $10,000 initial payment, he said, plus future options, though the extra income is not enough to replace his orchard.
Even though prospecting might not always yield the riches that are the stuff of legend, AME BC president and CEO Gavin Dirom said it’s still a crucial part of B.C.’s exploration community.
“The heart and soul of mineral exploration is prospectors,” said Dirom. “Historically and even now they play a major role in discoveries and the early stage grassroots exploration that happens not just here in this province but around the world … there is still a strong need and relevance for prospectors.”