Page 46 Contd on pg 48 Kevin V incent There are many many theories about trying to fnd gold The sim plest most tested and clearly the most successful method is to look where gold has been found in the past Nowhere does that ring more true than in Red Lake Ontario the in conspicuous yet prolifc gold min ing district where nearly 45 mining companies are either operating or exploring Y es 45 It seems that the appetite for the area is growing daily The area s Resident Geologist Bill Paterson took over the position in March just after the annual Pros pectors and Developers Conven tion PDAC There was certainly no shortage of work to tackle for the former District Geologist and Red Lake Gold Mine geologist It seems that every day mining news releases hit the industry wire services the Red Lake mining re gion is mentioned It surprised us too said Paterson A lot of my colleagues other resi dent geologists around the prov ince are working with their old cli ents but for us our usage here in our ofce has gone exponential in the last couple of years Is it the price of gold The geology has been the same for 28 billion years so yes it probably has some thing to do with the gold price Pat erson told Mining Life He adds that Red Lake has been isolated from the rest of the world when it comes to the impact of things like the 2008 fnancial crisis or the COVID19 pandemic of 2020 Probably the big source of interest in Red Lake has been the discov ery of Great Bear Resources about 15 minutes south of town he said Great Bear has a 90000 metre drill program underway They raised 33 million and are fullyfunded all the way through 2022 That s been the catalyst for prob ably a 200250 increase in the areas under claim in the entire Red Lake Belt and renewed interest with a large group of juniors and new companies and private com panies coming into Red Lake he added Paterson says Red Lake has large ly been ignored by largescale ex ploration for the past 2030 years Between the junior exploration companies already drilling and pro ducers doing surface or infll drill ing Paterson estimates there are about 15 companies with active drill programs a big leap from the RED LAKE Page 46 MLEN SPRING 2020 Core Photo Great Bear Resources IS RED HOT Photo Great Bear Resources drilling the Dixie Project in 2017