Nicolai Goeppel is feeling floored by Monday’s recommendation from an assessment board not to allow the development of his placer mine on Judas Creek.

In an interview this morning, the born-and-raised Yukoner was obviously still grappling with the question of: what now?

What of the $500,000 he estimates he’s invested in time and money over the last five years on grassroots exploration to ensure the dream he was chasing was real, was economically viable?

Last year alone, there was $200,000 in assessment work after he had found a partner who believed in his results and was willing to invest his own time and money, and his excavator for more advance exploration work last summer.

What of the other placer claims in the area he spent morning ’til night staking, cutting and putting up claim posts?

“Through this whole application process, I started to realize there is a history of projects not going through in this area,” he told the Star.

“I just wish it was withdrawn before I started putting in all this time and money.”

“... I am pretty disappointed and not proud to be a Yukoner today, and I never thought I would say that.”

The Teslin office of the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board recommended Monday that Geoppel’s placer mine project not be allowed.

The assessment board found while most environmental impacts could be addressed by imposing conditions, there was no way to manage the disturbance and negative impacts the project would have on the protected Carcross caribou herd.

First Nations were opposed to the project, largely out of concern for the caribou.

Environment Yukon recommended it not be allowed to proceed out of concern for the caribou, as the project area was within the range used frequently by the caribou.

The board’s recommendation to reject the application has been forwarded to the Yukon’s mineral resources branch and the branch now has 30 days to accept, reject or alter the recommendation.

The proposal did receive some support in correspondence filed with the board during the public input period but there was far more opposition.

Much of it focused on concerns for the caribou herd. The herd has been the subject of a recovery program for nearly 30 years.

Historical records show the Carcross herd once numbered in the thousands, so numerous that the hills looked alive as the caribou moved through.

The herd was estimated in 1992 at 400 animals, an all-time low. Today, it’s estimated at 775 animals.

Goeppel’s claims are on the east side of the Alaska Highway about 4.5 kilometres north of Jake’s corner.

The 27-year-old Goeppel said he spent 10 summers on the family placer mine at the end of the Freegold Road west of Carmacks. He and his brother, his mom and dad, grandparents all worked the operation.

It’s been his dream to mine for gold, said the recent university graduate in geology.

Goeppel found what he was looking for on Judas Creek. He started off with a gold pan, graduated to digging test pits by hand and eventually using the excavator for more advanced exploration.

“This could be the find of a lifetime for me.”

The proposal called for a small operation with minimal impact, he pointed out, adding there would be no camp because the placer ground is within driving distance, no need for major fuel storage. The water discharge would be minimal, if not zero.

There are existing roads in the area.

Goeppel said the Carcross caribou herd shares its winter range with 80 per cent of the Yukon’s population, the same area as Whitehorse.

“If this doesn’t go through, nothing will,” he said. “I thought this was a straightforward application.”

Goeppel said he and a buddy have already built a sluice box.

As for what to do now, he’s still not sure, he said.

Does he continue doing assessment work on adjacent claims to the keep the claims in good standing with the mining recorder?

He said he would like to re-apply, but everything is so uncertain today.

“It is pretty hard to spend all that time and money and then turn your back on it and cut your losses,” Goeppel said.

“It’s even hard to say that.”

The geologist said prospectors and miners don’t pick where the gold is. They have to find it, and he found it.

Colleagues in the business whom he’s spoken with are wondering if there is any hope of developing anything in the area.

The assessment board’s Teslin office is scheduled to release its recommendation on another mining proposal later today or tomorrow.

A company has applied to do advance exploration work on Jubilee Mountain, west of the Atlin Road.

Many of the same concerns over caribou raised in Geoppel’s application have been raised in the Jubilee Mountain application.