Yukon hardrock mining, development and exploration overview 2024
The Yukon hardrock mineral exploration sector continued to thrive in 2024 with the release of exciting results and the announcement of seven new mineral resources. Although there were many successes in the Yukon’s exploration industry this past year, they were not immune to the negative impact of the heap leach pad failure that occurred on June 24, 2024, at Victoria Gold Corp.’s Eagle Gold Mine. At the time of writing, the Yukon Geological Survey (YGS) estimates exploration expenditures in the Yukon to be $145M for the year, based on company press releases, System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) postings, and conversations with industry clients. This estimate of the exploration expenditure is down 9% from $160M in 2023. Development expenditures for 2024 are estimated to be $40M, down from $84M in 2023. The decrease in exploration expenditures in 2024 compared with 2023 can be attributed to the heap leach pad failure at the Eagle Gold Mine, which impacted exploration programs across the Yukon. This led some companies to temporarily pause or completely halt their program for the remainder of the 2024 exploration season. The halt in exploration programs was, in part, a response to the demands voiced by some First Nations, such as the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun, who called for an immediate halt to all mining and exploration activity in their Traditional Territory (First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun, 2024). The Government of Yukon responded stating that the territory cannot halt all existing, permitted mineral development activities, as mining and exploration companies are protected under the federal and territorial legislation and the Umbrella Final Agreement (Government of Yukon, 2024b).
Mineral production is estimated to be at least $190M (approximately 57.5% attributed to silver production and 42.5% attributed to gold production), down from $513M in 2023. Mineral production was low in 2024 due to the current closure of the Eagle Gold Mine, which was one of the two active hardrock mines in the Yukon. However, production revenue at Keno Hill Mine remains high due to precious metal prices reaching an all-time high and remaining strong in 2024.
As of November 30, 2024, there were 84 active exploration projects in the Yukon, which is comparable to the number of projects in 2022 and 2023; 29 of these were partially funded through the Yukon Mineral Exploration Program (YMEP). In 2017, the Yukon began to experience a decline in the number of active exploration projects along with fewer active companies and individual prospectors, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, those numbers have stabilized since 2022. In 2024, the majority (approximately 70%) of active exploration projects occurred within the Traditional Territories of the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun(29 projects; 30%), Kaska Dena Nations (17 projects; 18%), Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation (11 projects; 11%) and the Selkirk First Nation (10 projects; 10%; Fig. 5). Similarly, the highest-combined expenditures across the First Nations’ Traditional Territories were approximately $132M for the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun, $51.5M for the Kaska Dena Nations, $13.0M for Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation, and $11.3M for Selkirk First Nation.
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Additional Info
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| Last Updated | October 20, 2025, 02:23 (UTC) |
| Created | October 20, 2025, 02:23 (UTC) |
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Domain / Topic
Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
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Title
Title for the Dataset.
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Yukon hardrock mining, development and exploration overview 2024 |
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Description
A description of the dataset.
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The Yukon hardrock mineral exploration sector continued to thrive in 2024 with the release of exciting results and the announcement of seven new mineral resources. Although there were many successes in the Yukon’s exploration industry this past year, they were not immune to the negative impact of the heap leach pad failure that occurred on June 24, 2024, at Victoria Gold Corp.’s Eagle Gold Mine. At the time of writing, the Yukon Geological Survey (YGS) estimates exploration expenditures in the Yukon to be $145M for the year, based on company press releases, System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) postings, and conversations with industry clients. This estimate of the exploration expenditure is down 9% from $160M in 2023. Development expenditures for 2024 are estimated to be $40M, down from $84M in 2023. The decrease in exploration expenditures in 2024 compared with 2023 can be attributed to the heap leach pad failure at the Eagle Gold Mine, which impacted exploration programs across the Yukon. This led some companies to temporarily pause or completely halt their program for the remainder of the 2024 exploration season. The halt in exploration programs was, in part, a response to the demands voiced by some First Nations, such as the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun, who called for an immediate halt to all mining and exploration activity in their Traditional Territory (First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun, 2024). The Government of Yukon responded stating that the territory cannot halt all existing, permitted mineral development activities, as mining and exploration companies are protected under the federal and territorial legislation and the Umbrella Final Agreement (Government of Yukon, 2024b). Mineral production is estimated to be at least $190M (approximately 57.5% attributed to silver production and 42.5% attributed to gold production), down from $513M in 2023. Mineral production was low in 2024 due to the current closure of the Eagle Gold Mine, which was one of the two active hardrock mines in the Yukon. However, production revenue at Keno Hill Mine remains high due to precious metal prices reaching an all-time high and remaining strong in 2024. As of November 30, 2024, there were 84 active exploration projects in the Yukon, which is comparable to the number of projects in 2022 and 2023; 29 of these were partially funded through the Yukon Mineral Exploration Program (YMEP). In 2017, the Yukon began to experience a decline in the number of active exploration projects along with fewer active companies and individual prospectors, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, those numbers have stabilized since 2022. In 2024, the majority (approximately 70%) of active exploration projects occurred within the Traditional Territories of the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun(29 projects; 30%), Kaska Dena Nations (17 projects; 18%), Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation (11 projects; 11%) and the Selkirk First Nation (10 projects; 10%; Fig. 5). Similarly, the highest-combined expenditures across the First Nations’ Traditional Territories were approximately $132M for the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun, $51.5M for the Kaska Dena Nations, $13.0M for Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation, and $11.3M for Selkirk First Nation. |
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Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.
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Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc)
File format of the dataset.
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Dataset Size
Dataset size in megabytes.
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Metadata Identifier
Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
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Published Date
Published date of the dataset.
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2025-01-18 |
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Time Period Data Span (start date)
Start date of the data in the dataset.
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Time Period Data Span (end date)
End date of time data in the dataset.
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GeoSpatial Area Data Span
A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.
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Access category
Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
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License
License used to access the dataset.
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Open Government Licence - Yukon |
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Limits on use
Limits on use of data.
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Location
Location of the dataset.
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https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/3b3f19d4-3527-4405-877b-a851e3192498 |
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Data Service
Data service for accessing a dataset.
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Owner
Owner of the dataset.
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Government of Yukon | Gouvernement du Yukon |
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Contact Point
Who to contact regarding access?
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Yukon Geological Survey |
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Contact Point Email
The email to contact regarding access?
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Publisher
Publisher of the dataset.
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Publisher Email
Email of the publisher.
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[email protected] |
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Author
Author of the dataset.
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Author Email
Email of the author.
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Accessed At
Date the data and metadata was accessed.
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Identifier
Unique identifier for the dataset.
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Language
Language(s) of the dataset
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Link to dataset description
A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
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Persistent Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
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Globally Unique Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
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Contains data about individuals
Does the data hold data about individuals?
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Contains data about identifiable individuals
Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
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Contains Indigenous Data
Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
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Portal Type
Platform type of the source portal.
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Version
Version of the datatset
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None |
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Source
Source of the dataset.
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None |
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Version notes
Version notes about the dataset.
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Is version of another dataset
Link to dataset that it is a version of.
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Other versions
Link to datasets that are versions of it.
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Provenance Text
Provenance Text of the data.
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Provenance URL
Provenance URL of the data.
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Temporal resolution
Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
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GeoSpatial resolution in meters
Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
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GeoSpatial resolution (in regions)
Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.
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Indigenous Community Permission
Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
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Community Permission
Community permission (who gave permission).
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The Indigenous communities the dataset is about
Indigenous communities from which data is derived.
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Number of data rows
If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
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Number of data columns
If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
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Number of data cells
If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
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Number of data relations
If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
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Number of entities
If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
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Number of data properties
If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
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Data quality
Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
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Metric for data quality
A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.
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