The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 1 - 21 of 21
Looking for a placer gold mine opportunity? Not afraid to travel abroad? Ross Novak of Fairbanks, Alaska, has the perfect opportunity to take over his working placer gold mine with hard rock mineralization outcrops also on site, in West Africa. Four years ago, Novak took the plunge and started up a placer gold mine in the northern part of Benin, a small but politically stable country in West Africa nestled between Nigeria and Togo. Just as gold prices hit their two-decade lows, he made his move to Africa from mining in...
Estimates of $1.05 billion for Alaska's mineral industry value in 2003 were released by state officials on March 9, making it the eighth straight year the industry's value exceeded $1 billion. Rising prices for almost all metals, including gold, silver, zinc, and lead, increased the 2003 value of metal production in Alaska by 2 percent from 2002 levels, according to the annual report released by the state Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys. Contributing heavily to Alaska's mineral industry are the state's three...
Tom Irwin, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, will be one of the luncheon speakers at the 19th Biennial Conference on Alaska Mining in Fairbanks, beginning March 14 and concluding with a number of mine tours on March 20. Irwin, formerly general manager and a key member of the development team at the Fort Knox gold mine near Fairbanks, will present a speech at the March 15 luncheon, titled "Progress Toward Resource Development." Technical sessions will be held March 15 through 17 at the Westmark...
Contractors hired by developers of the Pogo gold deposit northeast of Delta Junction completed construction of a 50-mile temporary ice road in early February and transportation of fuel and equipment into the remote site should be complete by the later part of March. "Things are moving along well," Karl Hanneman, Teck-Pogo's manager of public and environmental affairs and special projects, told Mining News on March 8. "We have about half of the necessary fuel and equipment mobilized over the road." The freight hauling work,...
John Robertson, president of Vancouver, British Columbia-based Teryl Resources, is focused on raising funds for his company's Fairbanks-area exploration properties. The company offered a private placement of 2 million units at 55 cents per unit in a Feb. 25 release, with a treasury share and a half-warrant attached for every one unit purchased. One warrant is exercisable at 70 cents for one year for additional treasury shares. There is a four-month hold on the treasury shares. The goal is to raise a little more than $1 millio...
Geologists working for NovaGold Resources are going to be busy across the border in northwestern Canada this summer. The company's Canadian subsidiary, SpectrumGold, plans to spend $5 million for its Galore Creek advanced stage exploration project in remote northwestern British Columbia, and up to $1 million on other grassroots properties in the Yukon Territory. Galore Creek is the "new sexy project for NovaGold," said Doug Nicholson, vice president and general manager of NovaGold's Rock Creek gold project near Nome. "We're...
Anchorage-based Alaska Earth Sciences has transformed the firm's first-ever land acquisition into a lease deal with an exploration upstart, Full Metal Minerals. Alaska Earth, a geological consulting firm with years of experience throughout southwest Alaska, staked a large land position last December adjacent to the Pebble gold-copper-molybdenum deposit. The company negotiated a land lease deal for the 261 state mining claims with Full Metal Minerals, announced in early March. No financial terms were released on the company's...
In a 16-page report released in January, the Alaska Minerals Commission made 12 recommendations to the state Legislature and Governor on ways to mitigate constraints on mineral development in Alaska. In addition, the commission identified seven federal issues of concern and made suggestions that the state and/or the governor should pursue to rectify those issues. Recommendations include suggestions involving government regulatory reform, access and infrastructure development, state's rights issues, data acquisition, regional...
Diamond core drill rigs started turning in early March on the Golden Summit gold exploration property some 25 miles northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska. Partners in the project, Freegold Ventures Ltd. and Meridian Gold Inc. plan to complete six holes, taking a total of 1,500 meters or almost 5,000 feet of core samples in this first stage of drilling. The holes will be in the vicinity of the historic Cleary Hill Mine, according to Kristina Walcott, mining lands manager for Freegold Ventures, a Vancouver, B.C.-based mineral...
Developers of the Rock Creek gold deposit near Nome plan to spend $5 million in 2004 to develop the hard rock deposit, with the ultimate goal of gold production starting in 2006. Vancouver, British Columbia-based NovaGold Resources anticipates releasing a new resource number and geological model later in March, based on last year's 30,000-foot drill program exploration work. The permit process should begin in the second half of 2004, following completion of a feasibility study, according to a company update released March 1....
Power, road access and availability of limestone are all key issues that Placer Dome is working through in its effort to produce a feasibility study for the 28-million ounce gold deposit called Donlin Creek, in remote southwest Alaska. The major mining company is "on schedule" to produce a feasibility study in the second quarter, project manager Gregg Bush told Mining News on Feb. 5. "There's no white smoke yet, but so far, there's no black smoke," he said. "We're encouraged." Placer Dome is working through the...
If it can't be grown, it's got to be mined" is a popular bumper sticker slogan in Fairbanks, an Interior Alaska town founded more than 100 years ago by miners who struggled for gold found in creeks draining the surrounding rugged hills. The connection to mining is still strong in this community, something I have appreciated throughout my 12 years of living in the Fairbanks area. My first landlord in Fairbanks was a former placer miner, and through that connection, I came to know others in the industry. That personal...
Drills will start turning on the Golden Summit property within a month's time of its owner signing a new joint venture agreement with a mid-tier mining company. Freegold Ventures Ltd., a Vancouver, B.C.-based junior exploration firm, optioned its Fairbanks-area exploration property to Meridian Gold Inc., a low-cost gold producer in North and South America. The exploration deal, announced Jan. 23, was followed by a Feb. 11 announcement that drilling on the property will start by Feb. 27. It will be among the first exploration...
The U.S. Forest Service has dismissed an environmental group's appeal of an agency decision to allow operators of the Greens Creek mine to expand its tailings pile for the mining operation on Admiralty Island, some 18 miles southwest of Juneau, Alaska. Greens Creek, an underground hardrock mine that produces gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc, received final regulatory approval for a tailings expansion project on Feb. 4, more than three years after submitting its initial construction proposal to state and federal...
Three exploration companies independently and secretively launched major land staking efforts in December, laying claim to more than 300 square miles of state land surrounding the Pebble gold-copper-molybdenum deposit in southwest Alaska. Characteristics of such large, multiple-porphyry deposits and past exploration success at Pebble sparked the substantial interest by prospectors who hope to find similar mineralization. "It's the largest porphyry alteration in the world and a variety of the characteristics of such...
Kinross Gold, owner and operator of the Fort Knox gold mine, said during a company-wide exploration presentation that Fairbanks area work will focus on in-pit expansion, the Gil and Ryan Lode prospects and six early stage properties. Company executives described 2003 results from Kinross properties in North and South America, and in Russia. The company will spend $20 million in 2004, spread throughout those properties, officials said in a Jan. 29 conference call. The company did not provide specific spending plans for...
State and federal regulatory agencies released a draft version of a supplemental environmental impact statement Jan. 23 for the Kensington underground hard rock gold mine. Project developer Coeur Alaska Inc., a subsidiary of Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp., one of the world's largest silver producers, wants to build mine and mill facilities that would produce approximately 2,000 tons of gold-rich ore per day, requiring a year-round work force of about 225 people. It's the third time agencies have reviewed the Kensington project und...
An increase in sales coupled with significantly higher zinc and lead prices helped the Red Dog Mine in northwest Alaska post a $50 million profit in 2003, turning round from a $28 million loss posted the prior year. Red Dog's operator, Teck Cominco Ltd., released its fourth quarter and year-end reports for 2003 on Feb. 4, announcing net earnings of $149 million for the mining company. Higher earnings are due mainly to rising zinc, copper and gold prices, which rose significantly during the fourth quarter, the company said....
Vancouver, B.C.-based Teryl Resources plans to drill up to 15 reverse circulation holes on its West Ridge gold exploration property, located just south of the True North mine, about 10 miles west of the Fort Knox in Interior Alaska. In a Feb. 9 press release, the junior exploration company said it submitted an amendment to its existing exploration permit with the Alaska Division of Mining, Land and Water Management requesting permission to drill targets on West Ridge. Teryl expects to receive approval before the end of...
Alaska state regulators have signed off on completed reclamation work at the shuttered Ryan Lode mine some 10 miles northwest of Fairbanks in the midst of a hilltop residential area. But gold prospecting work will continue this year at the old heap leach mine site by its owners, Fairbanks Gold Mining Inc., which owns and operates the Fort Knox gold mine about 30 miles away. Fairbanks Gold, a subsidiary of global mining giant Kinross Gold, spent nearly $800,000 on reclamation and closure work at Ryan Lode since acquiring it...
Alaska's mineral industry contributed an estimated $1.073 billion to Alaska's economy in 2002, a slight increase compared to the prior year, according to the Alaska Mineral Industry report released Nov. 6. A 10 percent increase in both exploration spending and in the total value of minerals mined and sold in 2002 helped offset a $47 million decline in development spending by the mining industry. Of the $26.5 million spent for exploration in Alaska, more than $17 million went to prospecting for gold and associated precious met...
