Shawn Ryan (b. ~ 1963)

Shawn Ryan was born in Ontario. In 1989, Ryan was working for a mineral exploration team in the Timmins Camp when he lost his job after the federal government changed funding for exploration on domestic soil. He moved west and met his future wife, Cathy Wood, picking mushrooms in British Columbia.¹⁾ In 2001, they were picking in northern British Columbia and Yukon. Ryan failed to get the Yukon Government to acknowledge wild mushroom picking as an agricultural program and so the couple turned back to mineral exploration. They focused on the Yukon believing it was under-explored. They started with a $10,000 prospecting grant from the Yukon Geological Survey [Mining Incentive Program].²⁾

The Woods started prospecting in the Yukon around 1997 just when the mineral exploration industry was reeling from the Bre-X gold scandal. For six years, times were so tough that Ryan asked if he could pay off a $40 speeding ticket in installments. They used an exploration approach called soil sampling, taking soil from a couple of feet and deeper under the surface to look for a mineralized system.³⁾ They were looking in an area near the White River about 100 km south of Dawson, an area now known as the White Gold District. Their work started a staking rush with 8,000 claims staked in the region. Ryan thought they may have found the motherlode to the Klondike gold and he was named the Prospector of the Year in 1999.⁴⁾

In 2009, the company had eight or ten agreements to option off mineral claims, including several hundred claims in the White Gold District. In 2008, Ryanwood optioned off three properties in the district, just south of the blocks controlled by Underworld, to Kaminak Gold Corp. In 2009, Ryanwood had 8,000 to 10,000 mineral claims and eight or ten agreements to option off mineral claims, including several hundred claims in the White Gold District. The sale or lease of RyanWood claims included a requirement that Ryanwood would be hired for soil sampling and ground exploration. The company had a crew of twenty-eight working on Underworld’s claims, seventeen of whom were collecting 26,000 soil samples and mapping their location. Ryanwood Explorations was named 2009 Prospector of the Year at the geoscience forum’s gala in recognition of the company’s role in driving what was called the Yukon’s second gold rush.⁵⁾

Ryan’s exploration technique requires many soil samples from a property. Ryan’s clients wanted 5,000 good samples before they were interested in an area. This was proven to be the magic number at Kaminak’s Coffee Creek property. In 2010, Ryanwood had a staff of fifty divided between soils team, a trenching team, and an office group. When Ryan accepted the 2009 Association for Mineral Exploration B.C. award, he told the audience that his wife deserved half the credit for her business acumen and gambling nature. She does the option negotiations. In 2010, The Northern Miner named Shawn Ryan and Cathy Wood as their Mining Persons of the Year.⁶⁾The pair eventually formed Ryan Gold to free them from their administrative duties, allowing them time to search for new areas of interest and canoe with their two children.⁷⁾