The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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A dearth of infrastructure in Canada's northern territories is proving to be a severe hindrance to mine development in mineral provinces ranked by many among the most attractive and stable in the world. The lack of roads, ports, power, telecommunications and land access north of the 60th parallel in Canada dominated discussions at an annual gathering of the country energy and mining ministers, held in Iqaluit, Nunavut Aug. 12-14. "Our opportunities are hindered by...
Northwest Territories may fall behind Canada's two other territories in mining activity in the near-future, but projects underway in the northern jurisdiction hold substantial promise for mid- to long-term gains, especially if many current roadblocks come down. "Optimism is warranted for the territory's mining sector and the broader economy it drives," said Wally Schumann, minister of industry, tourism and investment for the Government of Northwest Territories. But...
Steven C. Levi's new mystery, "Dead Men Do Come Back," not only provides a rollicking glimpse of the new Old West, it takes a discerning leap into the world of Alaska mining during the little-discussed early years of the last century. Narrated in the first person by the likable but fictitious U.S. Marshal Gordon Whitford, the story is a slick and entertaining "who dun-it." Yet it is also a detailed portrait of life in and out of the fabled gold mines that operated near Juneau in Southeast Alaska in the early 1900s. In this...
While many analysts are betting that most metals prices will at least hold their own, those who follow zinc say 2015 could be a breakout year for the gray metal. China is expected to see lower growth of zinc output due to tightening ore supply worldwide and acceleration of inefficient capacity elimination in China, according to industry watchers. Zinc demand in China, reflected by high output of galvanized plate/sheet, is strong. Production of galvanized plate/sheet hit a new record high of 4.82 million metric tons in...
Greens Creek Mine is preparing for the next stage of its long-running tenure as a low-cost primary silver producing mine in Southeast Alaska. The underground mine, located on Admiralty Island about 18 miles southwest of Juneau, extracts ore from a volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit with an unusually high silver content. The mine produces silver, along with zinc, lead and gold as by-products. Idaho-based Hecla Mining Co. owns the mine, which has operated for most of the quarter-century since its operations began in 1989....
Thanks to higher grades and improved recoveries, Greens Creek and Kensington, the two producing mines located in the Alaska Panhandle, reported strong output in 2014 and outstanding results for the fourth quarter. Record output at Greens Creek At Greens Creek which is owned and operated by Idaho-based Hecla Mining Co., about 360 full-time workers carved some 7.83 million ounces of silver and 58,753 oz gold, as well as lead and zinc concentrates from the volcanogenic massive sulphide mine in 2014, milling ore at an average rat...
It's official! The Alaska Geologic Materials Center (GMC) is set to make the long-awaited move to its new, larger Anchorage quarters on April 6, weather permitting. The center, a unit of the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys within the state Department of Natural Resources, is the repository for geologic materials collected from across Alaska, and then catalogued, stored and studied. Visitors to the center, primarily representative of companies, state and federal agencies, and academia, examine hardrock...
On the face of it, President Barack Obama's decision to place a ban on offshore oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Bristol Bay Region appears to have handed opponents of the Pebble Project another weapon in their ongoing fight to block development of the enormous copper-gold-molybdenum deposit. But Pebble supporters say a moratorium on petroleum exploration in Bristol Bay has little or no relationship to the merits of the mine project. Oil and gas drilling in Bristol Bay has long been a contentious issue, dating back to the...
Sabina Gold & Silver Corp. made considerable progress in 2014 in advancing its Back River Gold Project located in southwestern Nunavut toward production. If the project continues development on its current track, the junior could pour first gold as soon as 2018 and quickly rival Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd.'s Meadowbank Gold Mine in size, producing 300,000 to 400,000 ounces of gold annually for 10-15 years. The Back River project comprises seven properties covering 48,563 hectares (120,000 acres), located 520 kilometers (322.4...
Thanks to recent progress in development of several major projects in 2014, the outlook for diamond mining in Northwest Territories is suddenly a lot brighter. This is especially good news for the territory's mining industry, which is largely dependent on the production of diamonds now and in the foreseeable future. This point was driven home most forcefully in "Measuring Success 2014: NWT Diamond Mines Continue to Create Benefits," a report recently released by the NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines. An update of a January 2013...
The Supreme Court of Yukon Dec. 2 struck down a land use plan crafted by the Government of Yukon for the territory's vast Peel River Watershed region that could have ripple effects throughout Yukon and beyond. The Peel Watershed, roughly the size of Ireland, sprawls across 77,000 square kilometers (30,000 square miles) of mountainous terrain situated at the northern end of the Rocky and Mackenzie mountains. Though about 10 percent of the watershed lies across the border in Northwest Territories, some 68,000 square kilometers...
Harlan Meade, Ph.D. is a member of a very exclusive club - professional miners who have shepherded multiple Yukon Territory mines and mining projects through the rough patches of development to production or near-production. First, with Yukon-Zinc Corp.'s currently producing 1,700-metric-ton-per-day Wolverine volcanogenic massive sulfide mine in Southeast Yukon and a few years later, with the giant Selwyn lead-zinc project located in Howard's Pass near Yukon's eastern border with Northwest Territories, Meade harnessed his ext...
Areva Resources Canada has submitted the final environmental impact statement for its Kiggavik Project to the Nunavut Impact Review Board, outlining an ambitious uranium mine project, potentially the first of its kind in Nunavut. Located 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Baker Lake, Nunavut, Kiggavik is a proposed uranium mining and milling operation owned by Areva (64.8 percent), JCU (Canada) Exploration Co. Ltd. (33.5 percent) and Daewoo Corp. (1.7 percent), and is operated by Paris-based Areva, one of the world's leading...
In the race to deliver heavy rare earth metals to western markets, Ucore Rare Metals Inc.'s Bokan Dotson-Ridge property in Southeast Alaska may sprint to the front of the pack with the help of an award-winning industrial process. Ucore recently completed a successful test in which it produced a heavy rare earth concentrate from material found in the deposit, using Molecular Recognition Technology, a proprietary process developed by IBC. The concentrate, which is 99 percent rare earth elements, was extracted from a...
After ushering in devolution in concert with implementing the first phase of a well-reasoned mineral development strategy, the Northwest Territories is eager to attract new mineral resource investment in 2014 in hopes of building on an uptick in exploration activity in recent years. "The Canadian North is the next frontier in mining and mineral development and nowhere is this more evident than in the NWT," said NWT Industry, Tourism, and Investment Minister David Ramsay. Home to the third-richest diamond resources in the...
Mineral exploration activity is holding its own in Nunavut this year, despite a tough funding environment and stiff competition from other attractive mining jurisdictions around the world. Although the Far North territory has only one operating mine, Meadowbank, at least eight mineral projects are currently hurtling through development and the permitting process on their way to production. Of these, two projects - one gold and one iron - have project certificates, and six projects are progressing through the environmental...
Yukon Territory, lauded in recent years for its mine-friendly business climate, boast three operating mines coming online in the past seven years as well as strong prospects for more than doubling that number by 2020. Yet all three mines have hit rough patches in their operations in 2014 for distinctly different reasons. "It's been a little bit challenging for each of the producing mines this year," observed Robert Holmes, director of the Mineral Resources Branch of Energy, Mines and Resources in the Government of Yukon in...
Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. commenced mining operations in September at its Mary River iron ore mine located on northern Baffin Island, Nunavut. Mary River is one of the world's richest and largest iron ore deposits in development and contains roughly 365 million metric tons of high-grade ore. The current mine is extracting ore from the first of nine known high-grade iron deposits on the property. The first load of ore was transported Sept. 8 to the company's port site, which is under construction at Milne Inlet. There it...
Government policymakers in Canada and the Northwest Territories are joining mining companies in preparing for an employment boom that economists predict will swamp the North in the next three to five years. The anticipated surge in jobs is part of a nationwide wave of employment growth expected in the next decade. Canada will need 145,000 new workers in the mining sector along with 300,000 new workers in construction and 150,000 new workers in petroleum. The mining-driven Northwest Territories economy generates nearly 50...
The Government of Northwest Territories has implemented a new Mining Incentive Program that was oversubscribed by midyear, with strong interest shown by companies and prospectors in the Northwest Territories and across Canada. "The Mining Incentive Program helps our government support those with the energy, expertise and perseverance that this industry relies on to conduct mineral exploration in an environmentally sustainable way," said GNWT Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister David Ramsay. "I especially look forward...
As mineral exploration activity around the globe continues to reel from the body blows delivered by a multi-year capital drought, a trio of innovators in Yukon Territory is giving new meaning to the adage, "One man's meat is another man's poison." Groundtruth Exploration Ltd., led by Shawn Ryan's protégé, Isaac Fage, is making significant strides in marketing to mining companies a low-cost exploration system that is dependent on several proprietary technologies. During the 2014 field season, Dawson, YT-based Groundtruth o...
The Dene First Nations of Northwest Territories has created what is likely Canada's first 100 percent aboriginal-owned exploration and mining company. Named DemCo Limited Partnership, the startup will celebrate one year in business in October, and is already making its mark in the industry. DemCo's mission is to enable the Dene to become owners of hardrock mines operating on their own lands. The new company is owned by Denendeh Investments Limited Partnership, which has a membership comprised of First Nations from the five...
Diamonds exploration heated up in the Northwest Territories in 2014 as more and more companies mounted campaigns aimed at identifying the next big discovery in a region that has already produced three operating diamond mines and one well-advanced mine project. "It's been an exciting season for us because on April 1, we took over management of mineral and oil and gas resources in the territory. Overall, we're seeing a consistent trend for exploration as well as a bit of a resurgence of interest in diamonds," Pam Strand,...
WHITEHORSE, Yukon Territory - Quieter streets, emptier skies, shorter business hours and closed shops here are sure signs of tough times in the mining industry. Hours away by helicopter, one can find bare-bones exploration camps and skeleton staffs sprinkled like the occasional grain of visible gold across remote mountain vistas, which also reflect the return to the frugal times of the past. In the wake of more than two years of scarce capital, mineral exploration activity is a shadow of the booming times the territory...
HOWARD'S PASS, Yukon Territory - Here at the Selwyn Project, Vancouver-based Selwyn Chihong Mining Ltd. is moving forward with year-round exploration and development that began in June 2013. The company is building a 35,000-metric-ton-per-day zinc-lead mine (roughly 3.5 times the size of the Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska) with completion anticipated in 2020. A colossal undertaking, the proposed mine is singlehandedly expected to double Yukon Territory's gross domestic product. It will have a capex of C$2.12 billion, 500...
