Laurion Mineral Exploration said it would resume drilling and complete the balance of its planned 10,000m drilling programme after receiving notice restrictions were lifted for the area east and north of Lake Nipigon.

It had paused drilling at its Ishkoday project a month ago after an industry-wide emergency order was issued by the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) due to fire risk.

Generation Mining similarly said last week it would resume its circa half-finished 8,000m drilling programme at its Marathon palladium copper project now restrictions were lifted.

However Rockland Resources said last week exploration at its Cole gold mines property continued to be delayed due to forest fires west of Red Lake, with Fire 77 coming within 5km of the project.

Rockland said it had negotiated an agreement with its drilling contractors to maintain a drill on standby in Red Lake so it could quickly resume drilling and other exploration work as soon as the order was lifted.

Great Bear Resources paused its drilling programme at its Dixie project in Ontario's Red Lake district last month in line with the MNRF order and said at the time it did not expect the delay to significantly impact the timing of its initial resource.

Ontario is experiencing unusually dry and hot weather and has recorded 1,096 forest fires so far this season, compared with 563 last year.

Miners across the country have been impacted by Canada's difficult summer, with Cameco's Cigar Lake uranium mine in Saskatchewan suspended last month and Teck Resources' Highland Valley Copper operations in British Columbia suspended on the weekend due to wildfires.