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"Prospecting
is fun and I enjoy what I do," offered Bernie Kreft, who was named
this year's top prospector by the Yukon Prospectors' Association.
The Association
receives names submitted for the award anually. And the membership votes
on candidates by a balloting process.
Kreft was chosen for the enormous efforts injected into his work over
the past 10 years. The presentation was made to him at the Geoscience
Forum banquet on Sunday night (Nov. 22, 1998).
"It's a healthy lifestyle," continued Kreft in an interview.
"I hike for a living. But prospecting is not a game. It is not a business
that can be treated as a hobby.
"I take what I do very, very seriously. I take my profession as seriously
as any accountant or lawyer takes theirs."
But he made it perfectly clear that without his supportive wife, Shari,
he couldn't do what he does for a living.
"I have to be operating on a mental high. I have to be excited about
what I'm doing all the time. Otherwise, I shouldn't be in this business.
She helps me maintain that positive outlook."
Whereas a prospector must fall in love with the right woman, rule number
one in the business is to never fall in love with a property.
At the end of each season, Kreft, who equates prospecting to a renewable
resource, evaluates his holdings methodically.
"I've
done exploration on properties where I'm the fourth, fifth, even sixth
guy through.
"Everytime somebody comes through, wages are made. Money is going
into the economy."
And 90 per cent of a prospector's work--rock and soil sampling, geophysical
surveys, hand trenching--does nothing to harm the environment, he reminded.
A prospector is a recycler. Just because the first person didn't find
the goodies doesn't mean that the next person won't.
"I spend a month looking at the portfolio, deciding what to get rid
of, what to definitely keep, what to keep 'just in case', and what to
dump."
It costs money to keep claims, he advised. And time can be wasted in managing
too many properties rather than devoting attention to prospecting.
He used to keep a mixed-bag inventory. Now his leans more toward a balanced
diet of gold and lead-zinc-silver properties.
When mining is on an upswing, money is being spent, he says.
In the good times, he can option his mineral properties to big companies
while he carries out exploration work for smaller ones.
"When metal prices are low and the stock market is in the tank, I
have to make money on my own.
"I have quartz properties that are high-gradable and can be mined
on a small scale. I also own placer ground. I can throw diesel in the
'dozer and start producing gold."
Yet, often, a prospector can only spend a fixed amount of his own money
developing properties before the risk becomes greater than the returns.
Kreft, who describes himself as an ideas man, doesn't always have the
necessary capital to achieve his goals.
"You grow in spurts. Grow. Plateau. Grow. Plateau. You reach a certain
plateau. The trick is not to regress and start falling back down."
Kreft was deliberating on how to achieve the next level.
At the
same time, Eagle Plains Resources and Miner River Resources, owned by
the Termuende father-son combo, wanted to branch out farther into the
Yukon.
A Northern Affairs geologist, acting as matchmaker, brought Kreft together
with the two Alberta-based junior companies.
"Hooking up with them has been good for me. Hopefully, it's been good
for them, too."
Kreft, who was born in Whitehorse on November 14, 1968, learned on the
eve of his 30th birthday about winning the prospector prize.
He immediately called his father, Erwin, who owns the Takhini Hot Springs,
and has watched with vicarious delight as his son's career unfolded.
As far back as Kreft's memory extends, he has picked up and pocketed rocks.
His dad taught him to identify minerals at an early age.
By the time he was seven years old and attending Selkirk Elementary School,
he owned a miniature rock hammer.
He became his dad's prospecting partner and soon experienced helicopters,
diamond drills and bulldozers.
"Dad would take the family on camping trips," Kreft recalls. "There
just happened to be mineral potential in the area.
"Off we'd go to spend a day checking out the mineral showing.
"My mother always said that of all the family pictures, my biggest
smiles were when we were out hiking in the woods, packing and prospecting."
Kreft repeats the procedure with his own family. When his two little boys
turned ages five and three, he bought them miniature gold pans.
"I try making the trips as much fun as the trips were with my family.
We take along hot dogs, spend a day on an outing, sleep in a tent."
By the time Kreft was age 12, he'd received his full-sized rock hammer.
Shortly after graduating from F.H. Collins Secondary School in 1986, he
struck out independently.
One of his first projects was to work on his father's property in the
Livingstone area, 100 kilometers north of Whitehorse.
"It never did pan out, so to speak, for numerous reasons. One was
lack of planning in early stages of the program. I learned from some
of the mistakes."
Kreft believes that investing too much of one's own money into a property
removes the mystery for any company willing to pay a few bucks for the
privilege of investigating it.
With a change in strategy, he began to carve out a decent living in an
industry he cares about a lot.
"Some years, it's been hard. I'm not rich. But neither am I destitute."
Still, it wouldn't hurt his feelings to see big royalty cheques coming
in from a producing mine.
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