The Yukon’s New Motto: In Dixon We Trust, In Gold We Drill
How Premier Currie Dixon is unleashing a new era of mining-friendly policy in Canada’s north

If you thought the Yukon was already Canada’s wild frontier for mining, buckle up. Currie Dixon, the 38-year-old freshly minted Premier who was literally born and raised in Whitehorse, has wasted no time telling the world that mining, especially gold mining, is about to get a serious shot of adrenaline.
In his first major speech since taking the premier’s chair on November 22, Dixon strode into the Yukon Geoscience Forum last week and declared the territory is sitting on a “a tremendous opportunity” for the mining sector. Translation: the red tape is getting trimmed, the power lines are getting beefed up, and anyone sitting on a promising gold or copper showing just got a very friendly wink from the top office.
Dixon’s opening moves have been anything but subtle. He handed the Energy, Mines and Resources portfolio to Ted Laking, a former employee of Whitehorse-based mining supply company ALX Exploration Services – the same outfit Dixon himself once worked for. Industry insiders call that a neon sign that reads “open for business.”
Among the biggest promises now turning into policy: a complete rewrite of the outdated Quartz Mining Act and Placer Mining Act, faster permitting timelines, and an all-hands push to fix the territory’s creaking electrical grid so mines don’t go dark every time the wind changes. Dixon has also made it clear he has zero intention of touching the “free entry” staking system that explorers love and some environmental groups love to hate.
Gold miners, in particular, are popping champagne early. Yukon placer miners pulled a record 85,799 crude ounces out of the creeks in 2024, the best year since the Klondike Gold Rush era, worth roughly $230 million at current prices. Dixon celebrated that number on the campaign stops and has vowed to keep the taps flowing. Hard-rock gold explorers are equally upbeat: over half of the territory’s 84 advanced exploration projects are chasing the yellow metal, with giants like the Casino copper-gold project and the troubled-but-still-valuable Eagle Gold mine squarely in the new government’s sights.
Perhaps the clearest love letter to gold came when Dixon said outright that the Eagle mine, site of the infamous 2024 heap-leach failure, should be restarted as a heap-leach operation once the independent review panel’s recommendations are implemented. That single decision could claw back an estimated $1.5 billion in lost GDP over the next five years.
Add in plans for new LNG generation, accelerated resource access roads, a pause on the unpopular extended producer responsibility recycling program, and a promise to claw back a bigger slice of federal resource royalties for Yukon coffers, and it’s clear Dixon intends to make the territory the most miner-friendly jurisdiction north of 60.
Whether you’re a junior explorer nursing a drill program on a shoestring budget or a major looking to pour hundreds of millions into the next big deposit, Currie Dixon just turned the lights green and cranked the music.
Gold bugs, you have a new best friend in Whitehorse, and he’s not even pretending to be subtle about it.
Sources:
- Yukon Government News Release, November 22, 2025 – Swearing-in of Premier Currie Dixon and Cabinet
- Premier Dixon’s keynote address, Yukon Geoscience Forum, Whitehorse, November 18, 2025
- Yukon Geological Survey 2024 Mineral Production Report
- Yukon Mining Alliance industry update, November 2025
- Government of Yukon transition announcements (Ted Laking appointment, Jeff O’Farrell deputy minister appointment)
- CBC North, Yukon Party campaign coverage, August–November 2025
- Mining.com & Northern Miner reporting on Casino and Eagle projects, 2024–2025
