The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 176 - 200 of 588
There is a reason why Nunavut has one of the fastest-growing economies in Canada: mining. With one operating gold mine at Meadowbank, two projects on the verge of startup at Hope Bay and Mary River , five projects advancing through the environmental assessment process at Meliadine, Back River, Hackett River, and the Izok corridor, and exploration activities continuing across all three regions in 2013, there's little wonder that Nunavut's "time has come." That's the word from Matthew Spence, director general of the Northern...
The story of the Meadowbank Mine in central Nunavut continues to be a tale of challenges met and obstacles conquered. From the hour that its development was conceptualized in the middle of the past decade, the gold at Meadowbank has delivered a succession of hurdles for its developers - first Cumberland Resources and then Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. - to clear. Agnico-Eagle acquired Cumberland in April 2007 in an all-share acquisition valued at C$710 million. In 2010, the gold producer brought Meadowbank into commercial...
The Government of British Columbia's push in recent years for mine exploration and development in the northern region of the province is slowly bearing fruit. An early plum is Thompson Creek Metals Co. Inc.'s Mount Milligan copper-gold mine in north-central B.C., which is rolling toward startup in August and commercial production in the fourth quarter. Terrane Metals Corp., a subsidiary of Thompson Creek, reports that construction of the 60,000-metric-tons-per-day open pit mine, which is located 155 kilometers (about 96...
Copper Fox Metals Corp. recently completed a positive feasibility study of its Schaft Creek porphyry copper, gold, molybdenum and silver project in northwestern British Columbia that could mark an important turning point for the project. The Calgary, Alberta-based company holds title and a 100 percent working interest in Schaft Creek, which is located due east-northeast of Petersburg, Alaska, about 61 kilometers (38 miles) south of the village of Telegraph Creek. The feasibility study prepared by Tetra Tech in late December...
The Government of Yukon received comments from around the globe during recent public consultation in the prolonged land-use debate over the Peel Watershed, a 77,000 square kilometer mountainous and wild expanse in the northern part of the territory that also extends across the border into central Northwest Territories. The Yukon portion of the watershed, 68,000 square kilometers (26,255 square miles), an area roughly the size of West Virginia and Delaware combined, is undergoing land-use planning in a process laid out in...
The mining industry in northern Canada is expected to continue to flourish in 2013 despite current challenges, including slow economic growth, lower commodity prices and dismal financial markets, according to economists at The Conference Board of Canada. "The territories are not immune to the vulnerability of the global economy," said Marie-Christine Bernard, associate director, forecasting and analysis at The Conference Board. "New mine development and production will provide a solid economic foundation for Canada's territor...
There's nothing like getting an early start, especially when it comes to mining exploration in Canada's Far North. Literally, there's nothing like the 2013 program that Prosperity Goldfields Corp. kicked off in late February at its Kiyuk Lake Project to the east in southern Nunavut nor the 2013 field campaign launched about the same time by Kaminak Gold Corp. at the Coffee Gold Project in Yukon Territory. In a year when many mining companies are having to scrape together enough exploration funds to even mount a field program...
The huge Selwyn lead-zinc project in eastern Yukon Territory is one of the latest on a growing list of resource developments attracting mega-investments from Chinese companies to Canada. Selwyn, perhaps the largest undeveloped zinc-lead deposit in the world, is located in the heart of the Yukon's mineral-rich Selwyn Basin. After an aggressive multi-year exploration program, junior miner Selwyn Resources Ltd. attracted a C$100 million investment in June 2010 from Yunnan Chihong Zinc & Germanium Co. Ltd., a fully integrated min...
URU Metals Ltd., a base metals and uranium explorer with interests in Africa and South America, is making a bold foray into Canada in 2013 to investigate the potential of the Nueltin Lake gold-uranium project held by Cameco Corp., one of the world's largest uranium producers. URU has signed an option with Cameco to earn a majority interest in the project, which is located in the Kivalliq region of southern Nunavut about 10 kilometers (six miles) north of the Manitoba border. The Nueltin Lake granite terrane straddles the...
Fortune Minerals Ltd. is advancing two mineral projects involving three different jurisdictions of Canada and doing much of it with the same timeframe. On the heels of development of its Nico gold-cobalt-bismuth-copper project in Northwest Territories, Fortune is also targeting commercial production at the Arctos Anthracite Project, formerly Mount Klappan Anthracite Coal Project, in Northwest British Columbia within the next four years. Management is shooting for the last half of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016 for...
While others may have encountered insurmountable challenges, the new producers of precious and base metals in Canada's Far North achieved solid and, in some cases outstanding, performance results in 2012. The Meadowbank Mine in Nunavut and the three operating mines in Yukon Territory - Minto, Bellekeno and Wolverine, that began commercial production in recent years, posted results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2012 as well as guidelines for positive outcomes in 2013. Nunavut gold The Meadowbank Mine is the largest o...
Claim-staking and other mineral tenure activity in Canada's Far North appears to be following the downward trend seen in recent exploration spending. Officials report that the number of mineral claims and leases and prospecting permits issued in 2012, generally, have plummeted from comparable activity a year earlier, reflecting not only the dearth of financing available for new mining ventures but also new worries about future access to mineral prospects across Yukon Territory, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Several...
A recent ruling by the Court of Appeal for Yukon could give an Aboriginal group in southeastern Yukon Territory a big say in who gets to explore for and mine minerals discovered on its traditional lands. Unless overturned on appeal, the unanimous decision Dec. 27 by a three-judge panel comprised of British Columbia Court of Appeal judges, also could affect interaction between governments and First Nations throughout Canada, according to some observers. In "Ross River Dena Council v. Government of Yukon," the Yukon appellate...
In today's difficult financing climate, Homestake Resources Corp. is living the dream of most junior mining companies. Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd., an aggressive intermediate gold producer, has signed on to pay the bills at the Homestake Ridge project located in northwestern British Columbia in a deal where the gold producer could spending up to C$25.3 million and earn up to a 70 percent interest in the exploration and development venture. Formerly Bravo Gold Corp., the junior changes its name to Homestake Resources in April....
Victoria Gold Corp. appears to be well on its way to building a mine at the Eagle Gold Project in central Yukon Territory by 2015, with construction startup tentatively scheduled for April. Eagle Gold is the most advanced new project in the region and is on track to become the largest gold mine in Yukon history. With estimated employment of 350-400 people, the mine also is expected to make a significant contribution to the territory's economy. Victoria aims to produce 207,000 ounces of gold during the first full year of...
Kaminak Gold Corp. Dec. 13 reported a maiden NI 43-101-compliant inferred mineral resource estimate for its Coffee Gold Project in west-central Yukon Territory of 3.236 million ounces of gold contained in 64 million metric tons, grading 1.56 grams per metric ton gold. The long-awaited calculation follows several seasons of intensive exploration at the 60,704-hectare (150,000 acres) property ignited in 2010 by a modern gold rush to an area now known as the White Gold district of the Yukon. Kaminak was the second company to...
Kivalliq Energy Corp. recently completed a successful uranium exploration season at its Angilak Property located 225 kilometers (140 miles) southwest of Baker Lake, Nunavut and reported plans to resume work on the project in 2013. "We had one of the largest uranium exploration programs on the globe in our peer group," said Kivalliq CEO James Paterson in a September update. "And our 2012 program came in on time and under our budget of C$20 million." Describing 2011 as a "bumpy ride" in the uranium sector, Paterson said...
A challenging economic climate in 2012 failed to impede growth in mining activity in Northwest Territories. As miners struggled to fund their work programs, numerous companies managed to plow ahead in the wake of regulatory improvements, advancing projects that could bring even more robust times to the territory's mineral resources sector. The Northwest Territories, one of Canada's three northern territories, is sandwiched between Yukon Territory to the west and Nunavut to the east. With a land mass of nearly 1,347,150...
5 brought unprecedented engagement of First Nations in mining industry activities in Yukon Territory. While tight financial markets appeared to slow the pace of mining exploration, efforts of mining companies, local and territorial governments and others to advance and/or initiate various cooperative agreements with the 11 self-governing aboriginal groups with traditional territories in the Yukon seemed to intensify. Adding to a significant roster of existing agreements, mining companies forged new pacts with a number of...
Ethos Gold Corp. recently wrapped up a second phase of 2012 exploration aimed at identifying a multimillion-ounce gold deposit on its Betty Property located in the White Gold district of Yukon Territory. The junior Sept. 19 reported completing 7,500 meters of reverse circulation drilling in 61 holes, and collecting 8,700 grid soil samples and 166 prospecting samples in 2012 that targeted the 17-square-kilometer (6.56 square miles) Mascot Creek gold-in-soil anomaly at Betty that Ethos outlined in 2011 and where the junior...
A reporter recently asked Greg Johnson, the newly appointed president and CEO of Prophecy Platinum Corp., if he was committed enough to his new role as head honcho of the company's emerging Wellgreen Project in southwestern Yukon Territory to stick around for five years. Johnson, one of the original architects of NovaGold Resources Inc. which built the world-class Donlin gold deposit in Alaska from a few million ounces into a 30-million-ounce-plus resource, chuckled before he responded. "With the caliber of asset that we have...
British Columbia in 2012 continued to exhibit its strength as the mining and exploration powerhouse of the North American Cordillera. The Canadian province's wealth of mineral potential is the result of geological phenomena that also created the mountain chains "that we have in our province and to the north," according to Bruce Madu, director of the Mineral Development Office of the B.C. Ministry of Energy and Mines. Madu told participants in the 2012 Mineral Exploration Roundup in January that expansion is the theme at most...
Northwest Territories, a vast expanse of mountains, forests and tundra, has been slower to experience the surge in mineral exploration and development activities that has swept across Yukon Territory and Nunavut in recent years. But the mining industry is turning its attention to the 1.17 million square kilometers (431,162 square miles) Arctic land - roughly two-thirds the size of Alaska - that lies in between. Permits have been issued for new areas of exploration and claims are being staked in places where such activity has...
Companies chasing mineral riches in Nunavut in 2012 are expected to meet and surpass the brisk pace of exploration set a year earlier. But the race to discover major deposits of precious and base metals, along with uranium, diamonds and other commodities, in one of Canada's most underexplored and prospective jurisdictions is only just beginning. At one-fifth the size of Canada, Nunavut covers 1,994,000 square kilometers (770,000 square miles or nearly three times the size of Texas). The Far North territory is Canada's younges...
While the frenzy of activity that engulfed the Yukon Territory in 2011 did not re-emerge this season, scores of players, from upstart juniors to global mining firms mounted impressive mineral exploration campaigns throughout the territory. Gold was the primary metal sought in the Yukon in 2012, but some explorers chased silver, copper, zinc-lead, iron and other minerals. Based on the spending plans of mining companies in March, Natural Resources Canada projected C$285 million planned spending across the Yukon, a decrease of...
