William LeBarge
Placer Geologist

As Exploration and Geological Services Division’s Placer Geologist, Bill has studied Yukon placer gold deposits and followed the history, production and mining activity of the Yukon’s placer mining industry since 1993. Bill is continuing this role with the Yukon Geological Survey after EGSD’s devolution to the Yukon Government.

One of the main activities that Bill enjoys is liaison and consultation with the Yukon’s placer miners. During the mining season, Bill visits as many operators as possible to discuss gravel, gold and black muck over coffee. This, along with a visit to the active mining pit for a look at stratigraphy and collection of a pay sample and the process is complete. The valuable information gathered from these site visits and volunteered by the placer miners is used to update the Yukon Placer Database and the Yukon Placer Mining Industry series of reports, and sometimes leads to a more extensive detailed placer deposit study.

Recent work that Bill has been involved with includes the Yukon Placer Database compilation (released in 2002), and the Yukon Placer Deposit and Water Quality Study, an ongoing study of placer sediment and water quality characteristics conducted in cooperation with Mark Nowosad, Water Quality Technician with Client Services and Inspection Division. Bill has also worked on placer-related studies and compilations with other researchers at the Yukon Geological Survey including Grant Lowey, Jeff Bond and Panya Lipovsky.

Bill began his career with Indian and Northern Affairs as a seasonal forest fire fighter in 1979, and joined the Exploration and Geological Services Division of Northern Affairs in 1986 after finishing his B.Sc. in Geology at the University of Alberta in 1985. While working for EGSD as a Staff Geologist Bill became interested in the geology of Yukon placer deposits, and subsequently completed an M.Sc. in Geology (Sedimentology) at the University of Calgary (1993). His Master’s thesis focused on the sedimentology and stratigraphy of placer gold deposits in the Mount Nansen area west of Carmacks.

Bill often spends his holidays in Russia, and it is on these trips where he has managed to visit several historic and actively-mined gold, platinum and titanium placer deposits in the Ural Mountains and southern Ukraine. He also recently attended a two-month course in Russian language at Moscow State University.

Selected List of Publications

LeBarge, W.P., 2002. Yukon Placer Mining Industry - Environmental Regime and Socio-Economic Impacts. Presented at Russia/Canada Initiative to Share Canadian Best Practices Workshop, Novosibirsk, Russia, June 2002.

LeBarge, W.P. (compiler), 2002. Yukon Placer Database 2002 - Geology and Mining Activity of Placer Occurrences. Exploration and Geological Services Division, Yukon Region, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.

LeBarge, W.P., Bond, J.D., and Hein, F.J. (2002). Placer Gold Deposits of Mayo Area, Central Yukon. Exploration and Geological Services Division, Northern Affairs Program, Yukon Region, Bulletin 13, 202 p.

LeBarge, W.P., 2001. Geology and Environmental Regime of Technogenous Yukon Placer Deposits. In: Abstracts, International Scientific-Practical Conference on Technogenous Placers, Simferopol-Sudak, Ukraine, September 24-29, 2001.

LeBarge, W.P., 2000. Quaternary History and Placer Gold Potential of Dawson Range, Central Yukon. In: Abstracts, Natural and Technogenic Placer and Weathered Rock Deposits at the Turn of the Millennium, p. 105, presented at the XIIth International Symposium on Placer and Weathered Rock Deposits, Moscow, Russia, September 25-29, 2000.

LeBarge, W.P., 1998. Placer Deposit Models in Glaciated Terrain: Examples from Ice Marginal Settings in Central Yukon. In: Abstracts, Main Results of the Study of the Quaternary Period and Principal Directions of Research in the XXI Century, p. 302, presented at the All-Russian Meeting of the Quaternary Investigations, St. Petersburg, Russia, September 14-19, 1998.

LeBarge, W.P. 1997a. Geological Setting, Production and Exploration Potential of Yukon Placer Gold Deposits, In : Abstracts, Major Geological and Commercial Types of Placers and Weathered Rock Mineral Deposits, Technology of Estimation and Development, p. 114, presented at the XIth Symposium on Mineral Deposits Associated with Placers and Weathered Rocks, Moscow, Russia, September 15-19, 1997.

LeBarge, W.P., 1997b. Overview of Yukon Placer Geology, Gold Production and Prospects, In: LeBarge, W.P. and Roots, C.F, (eds.). Yukon Quaternary Geology Volume 2, Exploration and Geological Services Division, Northern Affairs Program, Yukon Region. p. 1-9.

Hein, F. J. and LeBarge, W.P. 1997. Geologic Setting and Stratigraphic Framework of Placer Deposits, Mayo Mining District, Central Yukon, In: LeBarge, W.P. and Roots, C.F. (eds.). Yukon Quaternary Geology Volume 2, Exploration and Geological Services Division, Northern Affairs Program, Yukon Region, p. 10-29.

LeBarge, W.P. 1996a. Placer deposits of the Yukon: Overview and potential for new discoveries. In: LeBarge, W.P. (ed.) 1996. Yukon Quaternary Geology Volume 1, Exploration and Geological Services Division, Northern Affairs Program, Yukon Region, p. 1-12.

LeBarge, W.P. 1996b. Sedimentology and stratigraphy of Duncan Creek placer deposits, Mayo, central Yukon. In: LeBarge, W.P. (ed.) 1996. Yukon Quaternary Geology Volume 1, Exploration and Geological Services Division, Northern Affairs Program, Yukon Region, p. 63-72.

LeBarge, W.P. 1995. Sedimentology of placer gravels near Mt. Nansen, central Yukon Territory. Bulletin 4, Exploration and Geological Services Division, Northern Affairs Program, 155 p.

LeBarge, W.P., 1993. Sedimentology of placer gravels near Mt. Nansen, central Yukon Territory, Unpublished M.Sc. Thesis, University of Calgary, 272 pp.

LeBarge, W.P., and Morison, S.R., 1990. Yukon Placer Mining and Exploration 1985 - 1988; Exploration and Geological Services Division, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, 151 pp.