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"This is an operation that requires geological love", says Richard Goodwin, the new Vice President, Mining at Fire River Gold. He's talking about Fire River's Nixon Fork operation up in Alaska, where, to put it politely, some of the previous owners were less successful than others. Former owner Nevada, for example, had two underground operations going, one at the Mystery mine, and one at the Crystal mine, and managed to mine both successfully for five years at an average grade of 42 grammes per tonne. Subsequent owner, St Andrews Goldfields, however, only kept the Crystal mine going, and the grade dropped to 17 grammes per tonne. At that time St Andrews seemed to be pressing the self-destruct button all over the place, and Nixon Fork was no exception. St Andrews, it seemed, just couldn't get it to work. And so the project languished, looking for someone to provide it with a little geological love.
 
It's been getting that in spades, lately, and not just from Richard Goodwin. Harry Barr, the Canadian entrepreneur who stands behind Fire River, as well as Pacific North West Capital and El Nino Ventures, orchestrated a deal in June last year whereby Nixon Fork was acquired by Fire River, and on pretty favourable terms too. Harry saw the weakness of the market as an opportunity, and, in May 2009, when he brought Fire River onto the Canadian National Stock Exchange, was one of the only people anywhere in the world to be list a mining company anywhere. That listing was hard graft, but it's paying off now. Fire River has subsequently moved onto the TSX-V, and is getting closer to putting Nixon Fork back into production, thanks to Richard Goodwin's geological love, combined with a couple of further fundraisings along the way. Indeed the company is currently well into the latest raise, having already closed off C$3 million of an already announced C$10 million brokered deal arranged through Loewen, Ondaatje, McCutcheon Limited (LOM). That money will go towards a 20,000 metre drill programme designed to prove up resources at the two existing underground operations, and to identify new targets which may, in the longer term, end up hosting future mines similar in nature to Mystery and Crystal.
 

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