The Canadian Press

David Aksawnee knows what another year of record spending for mineral exploration in the Eastern Arctic looks like.

“I see a lot of happy faces,” says the mayor of Baker Lake, Nunavut, the centre of several major exploration and development projects. “[People] are making an income now and supporting their families.”

This week, the government of Nunavut released figures suggesting the territory is heading for its eighth year of record spending on mineral exploration out of the past nine. A sector that injected about $26-million into the economy in 1999 is now expected to pump in nearly $230-million in 2007.

That’s nearly one-quarter of Nunavut’s entire GDP and a 17-per-cent climb from last year.

“It has a huge impact on the economy and it’s good for the region,” said Economic Development Minister David Simailak.

As in 2006, most of the exploration was driven by uranium. Although prices for the silvery metal tumbled this summer, they are recovering and are expected to average more than $100 a pound in 2008 — a long way from the $7-a-pound average a few years ago.

Of Nunavut’s 135 active exploration projects, 49 involve uranium. Diamonds come next at 41 projects, followed by gold with 25.

High commodity prices have even spurred interest in lower-value resources. Nunavut has nine base metals projects, six companies examining nickel-copper deposits and two focused on iron.

The activity is spread all over the territorial map – from the massive Mary River iron project on the tip of Baffin Island to the advanced gold and uranium projects around Baker Lake and Rankin Inlet in the central region to diamond exploration around Coronation Gulf in the far west.

Territorial figures show about half the money is spent in the central region. The rest is equally divided between Baffin Island and western Nunavut.

The good times for miners aren’t expected to stop any time soon.

Economic Development spokesman Gordon MacKay said exploration spending should stay above $200-million for the next several years. That will be in addition to money being spent developing actual mines when gold projects near Baker Lake and on the central coast go into construction.

Those expenditures could exceed $500-million a year, Mr. MacKay said.

As well, much of Nunavut is just now being closely mapped.

“A lot of the areas being explored in Nunavut have never been explored before,” he said. “The new potential of the territory … will sustain exploration here for years.”

Already, people are camped in front of a federal office in the capital of Iqaluit, waiting for their chance to snap up the prospecting permits that become available Dec. 1.

The world has noticed, too. In 2007, two more major mining multinationals, Zinifex Ltd. and Newmont Mining, have bought out junior companies with projects in Nunavut.

That means prosperity back in Baker Lake, where dozens of people are already at work building an all-weather road to the planned Meadowbank gold mine.

“They’re getting what they want,” Mr. Aksawnee said. “Vehicles, snowmobiles, boats. …”

Steady work also seems to have created a little more social peace.