The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 63
Yukon Territory continues to be in the limelight with the previous years' gold exploration successes leading to definition of gold deposits in 2011. Gold is the leading commodity in terms of exploration, but silver, base metals and tungsten are the leading commodities in terms of mine development. A number of regions are continuing to attract high-profile attention with two of Yukon's operating mines expanding their reserves and new discoveries continuing throughout the territory. The year has been very exciting so far. A...
About 100 scientists, engineers, and regulators attended the 2009 Northern Latitudes Mining Reclamation Workshop held in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Sept. 8-11. Presenters delivered 22 professional papers during the two-day workshop, and participants also took field trips to the Snap Lake diamond mine and the now-dormant Giant and Con gold mines, which once were the heartbeat of Yellowknife. The capital of Northwest Territories was a fitting location for the workshop, since the two large gold mines that once...
The Province of British Columbia recognized two of Teck Resources Ltd.'s coal operations for excellence in mine safety at the 54th Annual Provincial Mine Rescue, First Aid and Safety Awards ceremony held June 6 at Britannia Beach. Teck Coal's Greenhills Operations won the John Ash Award for achieving the lowest injury frequency rate for mines operating more than 1 million worker-hours in 2008 and the Line Creek Operation received the Edward Prior Award for mines operating between 200,000 and 1 million worker hours, with the...
Tahera Diamond Corp. Dec. 15 said it got court approval to cease operations at the Jericho Mine in Nunavut on Dec. 13. The Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, meanwhile, intervened under territorial law and intends to retain Tahera's former employees to conduct ongoing care and maintenance of the defunct diamond mine. Toronto-based Tahera said the shutdown and government takeover of care and maintenance was needed because the company lacked funds to continue care and maintenance of Jericho and because it had...
Geoinformatics Exploration Inc. Dec. 11 said it has satisfied the acquisition conditions required to earn a 100 percent interest in the Whistler Project from Kennecott Exploration Co. by completing the 2008 field season. The agreement allows Kennecott to retain a back-in right to acquire either a 51 percent or 60 percent interest in the project. Whistler is one of the largest groups of contiguous mineral claim blocks held by a single company in Alaska, outside of existing mines and mine development projects. The project...
Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. Nov. 17 reported results of an independent valuation of the diamonds recovered from the Gahcho Kue Project during the exploration phase. The valuation was conducted by WWW International Diamond Consultants Ltd. and took place at the London offices of the Diamond Trading Co. Sept. 22-23. Subsequent to the valuation, WWW has revised its Price Book and all diamond values presented below are based on the WWW Price Book as of Oct. 13. Located on Kennady Lake 300 kilometers, or 186 miles, northeast o...
Cash Minerals Ltd. Nov. 17 reported results of a recently completed NI 43-101 pre-feasibility study on the Division Mountain coal property, located in central Yukon Territory. The property contains an estimated measured mineral resource of 52.5 million metric tons of high-volatile bituminous "B" coal, including 26.4 million metric tons of proven mineral reserves. The study was commissioned in July to re-evaluate previous economic studies of Division Mountain given improvements in export coal markets. Norwest Corp., an energy...
Sherwood Copper Corp. and Capstone Mining Corp. Sept. 8 said they signed a letter of agreement to combine their operations to create a copper mining company with two producing mines in mining-friendly jurisdictions in North America. The two companies agreed to combine on an "at-market" basis with Sherwood shareholders receiving 1.566 shares of Capstone for each share of Sherwood stock. The boards of directors of Sherwood and Capstone unanimously approved the transaction. Called a true merger by Sherwood President and CEO...
Laura Skaer, executive director of the Northwest Mining Association, recently told miners in Nevada that the November general election will have major significance for U.S. miners with the election of a new U.S. president and a new Congress. In a presentation to the Nevada Mining Association convention at Lake Tahoe, Skaer said the bad news for mining is that key western senators, supportive of the domestic mining industry are retiring including powerful New Mexico senator Pete Domenici, Colorado Republican U.S. Senator Wayne...
Uravan Minerals Inc. and Cameco Corp. Aug. 27 said they recently completed a multi-faceted surface sampling program on the Boomerang North Uranium Project, in Southwest Thelon Basin, 300 miles east of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Project operator Uravan granted Cameco an option to earn 60 percent interest in the Boomerang uranium property in exchange for C$10 million in aggregate funding. The exploration program consisted of sampling about 600 square kilometers of surface soil and vegetation covering the Boomerang...
The Canadian government Aug. 26 said it will invest $100 million over the next five years in its new Geo-mapping for Energy and Minerals program. The funding is an extension of the $34 million Canada committed to the geo-mapping program earlier this year. "As I've said before, 'use it or lose it' is the first principle of sovereignty in the Arctic," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in announcing the additional funding. "To develop the North we must know the North. To protect the North, we must control the North. And to...
MAX Resource Corp. Aug. 18 said it has completed a 10-hole diamond drill program totaling 7,664 feet, or more than 2,358 meters, at its Gold Hill molybdenum project located about 212 miles, or 342 kilometers, north northeast of Anchorage. The first drill hole of the 2008 program tested the zone to the east of hole 07-05 to examine the continuation of high-grade mineralization encountered in hole 07-01 and under hole 07-03. Hole 07-03 did not cut the entire interval and mineralization was visibly increasing at the bottom of...
Denison Environmental Services, a division of Denison Mines Inc., has won a three-year, $21.6 million contract for care and maintenance at the Faro Mine Complex in the Yukon. A subsidiary of Canadian uranium producer Denison Mines Corp., the company was chosen after a six-month competitive bidding process overseen by the Yukon government of Yukon. Ontario-based Denison Environmental will provide care and maintenance services at the Faro Mine Complex, including: the ongoing collection and treatment of contaminated water, the...
De Beers officially opened its first two mines outside of Africa in northern Canada in late July. The Snap Lake Mine in Northwest Territories and the Victor Mine in northern Ontario, together, are expected to produce 2 million carats a year. They are Canada's fourth and fifth diamond mines. Snap Lake is expected to employ 560 people and produce an average of 1.4 million carats a year for about 20 years. The Victor mine, which is close to the Attawapiskat First Nation, expects to employ 400 people and produce 600,000...
International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. June 10 said it has entered into an agreement to acquire all of the interest of AngloGold Ashanti (U.S.A.) Exploration Inc. in the Terra and LMS projects in Alaska, plus certain other AngloGold rights, in exchange for 450,000 shares of the Vancouver, B.C.-based junior's stock. Based on current share prices, the deal was valued at about $6 per ounce of International Tower Hill's inferred gold resource and valued at about C$751,500, or C$1.67 a share. The purchase agreement covers all...
Full Metal Minerals Corp. May 15 said it signed an exploration agreement with an option to purchase 100 percent interest in the Granite Creek Gold Property in southwestern Alaska. The Vancouver, B.C.-based junior said it can earn 100 percent interest in the Granite Creek property from a third-party Alaska resident by paying $375,000 in cash ($50,000 first year), and incurring $3.25 million in exploration expenditures ($200,000 first year). After exercising the option, Full Metal said it will make annual $150,000 advance royal...
Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. May 8 said the U.S. Forest Service said an Environmental Assessment is the preferred level of review for permitting the proposed alternative tailings facility for its Kensington Gold Mine near Juneau, which could allow for a conclusion of the permitting later this year. Construction of the mine and mill is essentially completed except for the tailings facility. Coeur said the Forest Service evaluated public and agency comments submitted in a draft supplemental information report for the Kensington...
Goldmark Minerals Ltd. of Calgary, Alberta has opted not to pursue an acquisition agreement with Geocom Resources Inc. to acquire all of Geocom's interest in the Iliamna property in Alaska, and 49 percent of Geocom's complete ownership of the Santa Rosa and Marcelita properties in Central Chile. The transaction was subject to a review of the properties, and earlier this year after completing that review, Goldmark elected not to complete the transaction. The junior said its business plan has been to capitalize on cyclically...
Zazu Metals Corp. May 13 said it has received a Title 9 Permit from the Northwest Arctic Borough for an exploration and development program this year on the 26.7-million-metric-ton Lik zinc-lead-silver deposit, 22 kilometers, or about13.5 miles, from the Red Dog zinc-lead mine in northwestern Alaska. Zazu is pursuing the project with 50:50 joint venture partner and Red Dog owner Teck Cominco Ltd. The companies have applied for a miscellaneous land use permit from the State of Alaska, which Zazu said is expected...
International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. May 13 said the results from a recent high resolution airborne magnetic and EM survey completed over 30 square kilometers of mineralized areas of the company's BMP project in central Alaska show huge anomalies that warrant aggressive follow-up exploration. A day earlier the Vancouver, B.C.-based junior announced the start of resource expansion drilling at the Livengood Gold Project 100 kilometers, or 60 miles, north of Fairbanks. The company plans to drill about 42,000 meters, 136,500...
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources is seeking public comment on recent revisions to the state's surface coal mining regulations. DNR made substantial revisions to its proposed changes to the Alaska Surface Coal Mining Program based on public comments received in response to a public notice the department issued in March 2007. The proposed changes involve amending existing sections and adopting new sections in Title 11, Chapter 90 in at least 23 areas of the coal mining regulations. The revisions are designed to make...
Liberty Star Uranium and Metals Corp. April 10 said it has received interest from "more than one large global mining company" in becoming a joint venture partner to explore the 113,000-acre Big Chunk property that borders the northern and western edges of the Pebble Property in Southwest Alaska. The Tucson, Arizona-based junior said expressions of interest came within two days of a March 26 announcement that Liberty Star is seeking a partner to explore the property. "It is early in the process and the company has no way of ju...
Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. Feb. 19 released the results of a definitive feasibility study on its Mary River Project iron ore deposits located on Baffin Island, Nunavut. The study outlined a 20-year mine project based on proven and probable reserves of 160 million metric tons and 205 million metric tons, respectively, and annual shipment of 18 million metric tons of high-grade iron ore (64.7 percent iron) primarily to the European market. A moisture content of two percent and a 75:25 lump-to-fines ratio are assumed and...
Thanks to higher production and higher prices, Kinross Gold Corp. Feb. 21 posted 2007 earnings of $334 million, or 60 cents per share, up substantially from $165.8 million, or $0.47 per share, in 2006. The Toronto-based owner of the Fort Knox gold mine also reported fourth-quarter 2007 earnings of $173.1 million, 29 cents per share, up more than 322 percent from $41 million, or 11 cents per share, for the same period in 2006. The fourth-quarter earnings included a gain relating to an asset swap transaction with Goldcorp....
Almaden Minerals Ltd. has launched a sonic, overburden drill program on its ATW diamond project in Northwest Territories, the company said March 18. Almaden and Williams Creek Explorations Ltd. each own about 41.5 percent interest in the project. The remaining 17 percent is held by other parties, which collectively would be diluted to about 12 percent working interest should they elect not to contribute to the present work program. The ATW property covers the likely source area of a significant indicator mineral train that...
