Alex McMillan
Alex McMillan began prospecting in 1964 when he was employed by Watson Lake Construction. He and Bob Kirk prospected, took samples, staked claims, and did assessment work on claims in the Four Mile River area of the Cassiar Mountains. The claims became part of the Cassiar Asbestos Mine.1)
In 1965, Alex was employed by Tay River Mines under geologist Hugh Naylor to prospect in the Faro area and he also worked for Nufort Resources in the Quartz Lake area near Watson Lake. The latter property, the McMillan Claims, were originally discovered by his father, Kenneth McMillan. In 1966, Alex worked for Buster Groat who operated Rakla River Mines in northern British Columbia.2)
Starting in 1967, Alex worked on his own and for various companies staking claims and doing assessment work in British Columbia and Yukon. He discovered and optioned property in the Wolverine Lake and Finlayson Lake areas. He discovered the 2 ACE claims in the Little Hyland River area north of Watson Lake in 1999 when he found himself in a small staking rush. He was on snowshoes, competing with Hudson Bay Exploration and Development Co. Ltd.’s helicopter-supported crew. Alex staked 120 claims and Hudson's Bay staked a nearly equivalent number of adjacent claims to the north. A Hudson’s Bay geologist admitted that Alex beat them to the best claims.3)
Alex optioned 3 ACE to Hudson Bay Exploration and worked for them prospecting and cutting line. Hudson Bay terminated their option agreement in 2001 and it took Alex fifteen more years to find a site covered with a massive amount of gold. It was the highest-grade hard rock gold discovery in Yukon history, and Alex optioned the property to Northern Tiger Resources. Alex’ nickname among northern geologists was “Iron Man.”4)
Alex McMillan received the 2012 Prospector of the Year Award for his discovery of the high-grade gold occurrence on the 3 ACE Property in the Hyland River area.5)