On Sunday a group of 15 students, geologists and prospectors headed out to the forests around Ranney Hill to learn the ins and outs of a trade that has inspired countless gold-fevered Canadians to pack up and move to Yellowknife.

Sarah Campbell, a prospector since 2013, splits her time between the forests of the NWT and the city of Toronto. She said prospecting is about a lot more than gold fever. Prospectors often have a knack for spotting quartz veins, rusty rock and other indicators of a mineral rich area.

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In the NWT, prospecting work is seasonal. Prospectors are out in the summer and fall before a shut down period from November to January when it is too cold to prospect and not cold enough to drill.

Geologist Eric Hebert said a mistake on a college course application landed him in a geology course instead of his plans for neurosurgery. He said it's a perfect career, combining the physical work of being out on the land with the intellectual work of knowing what is beneath his feet.

The two-day prospector training session is offered by the NWT Mine Training Society once a year in Yellowknife. The same course will be held Sept. 23 and 24 in Hay River.