Sept 24 Whitehorse Star
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10 YUKON The Whitehorse STAR, Friday, September 24, 2004 Jim McFaull finds his career niche By JANE GAFFIN consistently reject hundreds of disap- pointed entry-level applicants. Keno, the venerable old gentle- Sometimes they could be accom- man mine, refuses to die a natural modated the first two years with dupli- death as long as a probable hundred cate programs offered by regional col- million ounces of silver keep its heart leges, if those classes weren’t over- beating. Yet, the federal government flowing, then transfer in the third year is bent on subjecting the mine to to UBC. euthanasia. Each summer, McFaull inter- I believe the mine deserves a dig- spersed studies with field work nified burial. throughout British Columbia, a In a series of articles being pub- province that Mother Nature blessed lished in the Star each Friday, I’m with spectacular geology and plenty of saying last rites and farewell to a surprises. He was gaining practical great mine that served as the experience bagging dirt, staking claims Yukon’s lifeblood off and on for and cracking rocks for a variety of more than 80 years. exploration companies. Here’s part 8. Then the political climate changed. Jim McFaull was 21, tall, bearded, A glut of those enthusiastic young geol- quick-witted and related easily to peo- ogists were vainly pounding on doors ple. He was armed with a geology instead of out pounding rocks. Mining degree from the University of British companies could be choosy as they Columbia (UBC), and hopelessly cycled down into a slump. hooked on rocks and industry. From 1972 onward, McFaull Yet, when graduating from a Win- always found work. However, by 1974, nipeg high school four years earlier, he the year he graduated from university, didn’t know what geology was and had the B.C. exploration industry was no exposure to industry. destroyed. He ended up checking out geology The New Democrat Party govern- because a friend explained it was run- ment had come to office two years ear- ning around in the bush looking at lier. Premier Dave Barrett delivered a rocks. He ended up with industry scorched earth dictum. “Leave the ore because jobs were plentiful and the in the ground; it won’t rot,” he money was good. declared. Besides, geology was considered True, but British Columbia did. an honourable profession somewhat Thirty years later, the westernmost equated with the purity of sainthood. province is still digging itself out from UBC’s topnotch geology program was under that brainless policy. so popular, the science faculty had to Companies had no legal secure Photo submitted UNDER SCRUTINY – Jim McFaull (left) looks on as Harvey Keats examines a rock speciman at the United Keno Hill Mines Ltd. site in central Yukon. tenure on properties. New anti-indus- ration companies brought their money reserves. try mining regulations were unclear, to the Yukon, where five hardrock The Galkeno Open Pit, on the north- unsettled and disincentives for explor- mines already produced an annual east slope of Galena Hill facing Keno ing and mining Royalties were exor- $185 million worth of minerals. It was City, was the first prospect he devel- bitant and taxes were levied on ore still only a preview. The next summer, 150 oped. It was the first of a string of his in the ground. exploration companies crossed the seven finds that would become pro- Metal prices slipped a bit. Mines North of 60 threshold. ducing mines. closed that couldn’t weather the polit- McFaull hired on with a company He turned attention to the Galkeno ical buffeting. Exploration companies already anchored in Whitehorse. It was in the spring of 1978. It was drilled that laid off employees and folded their the fortuitous beginnings of mapping summer and again in 1979 before going tents. out a comfortable career and lifestyle. to production in the fall. Some went offshore to friendlier He went grassroots reconnaissance An exploration geologist takes a pastures while others looked toward prospecting during the 1975 season prospect to the point where it is rec- the Yukon as an attractive place to with United Keno Hill Exploration. ommended for production. Then the invest mobile venture capital. His mentor was Dutch Van Tassell, project is transferred to a different Probably 75 per cent of Vancouver- who had found the Husky showpiece expertise in the production department. based exploration companies arriving which was producing the majority of A mine geologist maps, blasts and in the Yukon were forced to slacken or all the millions of ounces of silver com- determines the economics of extract- not start fresh exploration projects due ing from the United Keno Hill mines ing the vein-type ore. simply to B.C. politics. David Barrett at Elsa. The open pits were small, good was heralded as the best premier the In March, 1969, the officials had trade, high tonnage and economical. Yukon ever had. opted to expand the company’s explo- Heavy equipment scooped off the top McFaull was on the payroll with ration horizons. Van Tassell was des- 30 to 45 metres (100 to 150 feet) of Amoco Canada’s mineral division. ignated superintendent of United Keno overburden, essentially the depth limit After dusting its hand of B.C. business Hill Exploration. He was dispatched before a more-expensive underground in the summer of 1974, a 35-man, zinc- to Whitehorse to choose a company method might render extraction uneco- hunting crew was shipped to the house and set up an exploration depart- nomical. Yukon’s Bonnet Plume area. ment financed by United Keno Hill Life was good, the geology was Staging places like Mayo were Mines, Falconbridge Nickel and Cana- good, the money was good, the fishing bustling hives of people; planes were dian Superior Exploration (pronounced was good, the people were great. But coming and going supplying camps Cansoup). 30 months of bunkhouse living and transporting crews. He and party chief Dick Joy imme- prompted McFaull to seek freedom and As Trans North’s Beaver aircraft diately found the DEF copper deposit fresh air. motored up the McQuesten Valley, in the Dawson Range, then undertook He quit his job to form an indepen- pilot Hans Lammers pointed out other ambitious exploration and stak- dent prospecting syndicate with three United Keno Hill Mines’ Elsa opera- ing projects. friends from Van Tassell’s exploration tion below. McFaull’s tradition of wintering in school of hard rocks. McFaull peered out the window in Montreal, where his parents and two The financial partner stayed behind disbelief. “Who in their right mind older brothers lived, changed in 1977, while McFaull, Andre Ouellette and would ever want to live there?” the year he became a permanent Yukon Tom Mustopic romped through the Him. resident. mountains 80 kilometres (50 miles) Three years later, he would join the After the field season finished, he northeast of Keno Hill. They were Photo submitted 350 residents in the remote mining was hired as a junior geologist at Elsa, equipped with everything from a HAPPIER DAYS – Elsa, Yukon is seen circa 1979. The townsite community that looked better from the where he learned exploration tech- Zodiac motor-powered rubber boat to was largely abandoned after the silver mines’ closure in Jan- trenches than the air. niques with an actual operating mine uary 1989. More than a hundred mining explo- that needs to continuously find new ore Continued on page 11 The Whitehorse STAR, Friday, September 24, 2004 YUKON 11 Flashback to summer: August was balmy August in the Yukon was warmer above normal for the month. fell on the Ogilvie highway station. only 30.2 mm falling compared to the The next-warmest summer was this year than average throughout the The warmest monthly average In Whitehorse, August ended the city’s normal level of 39.4 mm. It was 1994, when the mean was 14.9. The Yukon, the Meteorological Services temperature was recorded in White- summer continuing the streak of a quiet month for the winds, as only rainfall, while light, was only the 22nd of Canada reports. horse, where the mercury reached above-normal temperatures that 2004 two days saw the speed equal the driest in the 62 years of records. Meanwhile, rainfall was below 14.8. has seen. city’s minimum recording value of 30 The outlook for the fall sees nor- average, and well below average in The coldest mean temperature was The past August was the fourth km/h for recording peak gusts. mal temperatures forecast for virtu- the central areas. Watson Lake, how- recorded at the Klondike Highway sta- warmest on record with a mean tem- The strongest wind was from the ally all of Canada. ever, had almost a third more rainfall tion on the Dempster, where the tem- perature of 14.8C. The highest tem- south at 35 km/h on Aug. 26. Above-normal precipitation is than average. perature only averaged 9.7 for the perature of 28.1C occurred on Aug. With records going back to 1942, forecast for the Yukon and most of Temperatures were 2.4 C degrees month. 17 while the coldest morning was the Whitehorse has never exceeded this B.C., with northern Alberta, north- above normal at Beaver Creek while The highest rainfall in the territory last day of the month when the tem- year’s summer mean temperature of eastern B.C. and parts of the North- Old Crow, with the smallest deviation of 78.4 mm occurred at the Swift River perature fell to 2.0. 15.7, or 2.9 degrees above normal for west Territories near to below normal, from normal, was only 0.4 degrees highway station while only 4.9 mm Rainfall was below average with the three-month period.