Geology attracts unprecedented staking rush: what a difference a year makes. Last year the map of exploration properties in the Athabasca Basin detailed a thin strip of land where a half-dozen colours represented the few companies active in the search for uranium in northern Saskatchewan.

This year the map makers had to break out the big box of crayons to show where approximately 30 companies hope to find uranium.

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Charles Roy, Saskatchewan Mining Association (SMA) Exploration Section Chairman, marvels at what he calls an unprecedented staking rush.

"With the exploration dollars being spent by the larger companies combined with the amount of money being raised on the equity market by the junior companies, I would say that $50 million in uranium exploration activity is not out of the question for 2005," Roy says, noting total exploration expenditures are likely to top $100 million.

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Riding the wave of a uranium spot price higher than it's been since 1983, companies and investors are willing to go the extra mile to find uranium anywhere within the large circle of land extending southeast from Lake Athabasca.

Diamond exploration in the Fort a la Corne area has accelerated and gold exploration in the La Ronge belt and in the vicinity of the thriving Seabee operation is still strong. Gold hunters are focused on locating satellite bodies that would feed into either the Jolu or Seabee mills while diamond exploration companies are being spurred on by the results from the Star Kimberlite.

"The Fort a la Corne diamond play has taken on a life of its own," Roy says. The Shore Gold results from this year have been positive and the Kensington-DeBeers project has allocated $90 million to exploration over the next three years in an attempt to advance the project to pre-feasibility.

The simultaneous popularity of uranium, diamonds and gold has many exploration companies stretched to the limit as they search for qualified people. Junior companies are reaching out to different sectors and other provinces to find contractors while companies with significant in-house capabilities are also feeling the pinch.

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Line-cutting crews, geophysical crews, diamond drill operators and geologists are all in high demand. In diamond exploration alone, Roy expects geologists will be kept quite busy analyzing the more than 30 kilometres of core samples scheduled to be drilled this year on the Fort a la Corne Joint Venture alone.

"There were several years where geology classes at universities were fairly small and now that times are good we're seeing the effects--there's not enough people to go around," Roy says. Educating young people about the many trades in the field and showcasing the attractiveness of the lifestyle, pay and quality of work that abound in exploration are priorities.

"We work extensively with Aboriginal and northern communities and everywhere we go the first thing people want to talk about is jobs for youth. We know there are people out there who would relish further training so anything we see from the government side about supporting prospector and technician training is encouraged whole-heartedly."

Companies scrambling to find workers to fill their shifts during the winter exploration season also battled the worst weather conditions in 25 years. Cold temperatures arrived after the ground was insulated by snow which didn't allow proper freezing and resulted in thin ice and slush on lakes and deep snow on land.

Territory that had been passed over years ago is being looked at with fresh eyes and improved technology. Exploration companies are using advanced techniques and searching deeper than ever for uranium in the Athabasca Basin, a territory Roy describes as the most prolific terrain in the world. They may be playing hunches, but with higher prices on the horizon investors are affording them greater latitude in finding a viable deposit.

The end goal of exploration companies large and small is a discovery such as the one made at Cigar Lake in March of 1981. Even though it has taken 24 years of market fluctuations, regulation checks and technology advances to turn it into a working mine, construction is underway and production is scheduled for late 2007.

"Any time a discovery results in a viable operation, the ones who were there consider it a measure of success," Roy says of a Cigar Lake discovery team that has long since parted ways. "It's the geologists, technicians, managers and senior management working together who initiate the discovery, then the engineers design a mine and steer it towards production."

With demand for uranium exceeding supply, the industry would be well-served by another red-letter day from the exploration community. Saskatchewan could prove its dominant position yet again with another uranium find.

"The uranium industry needs several new discoveries to confirm to the utilities that there will be sufficient inventories of this clean, cheap source of energy for the next hundred years and give them the confidence we will be able to supply the fuel for new reactors," Roy says.

Exploration companies anticipate the province will be a big part of that future and they look forward to its involvement. Several initiatives to encourage exploration have recently come from the provincial government and the industry would welcome the type of one-stop shopping the province could offer.

"The ideal situation would be if the provincial government were to streamline some of the barriers the industry faces," Roy says, pointing to federal involvement in uranium licensing and permitting and the issue of Aboriginal land claims on Crown property. "We have a history of good governance and the theme we would like to see going forward has the province taking a more active role in creating a flat structure with fewer layers of bureaucracy."