The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 351 - 375 of 588
Hampered by a recession-driven drought in capital markets, mineral explorers in the Northwest Territories met the challenges of 2009 with a variety of survival strategies. With significant diamond, precious and base metal projects and prospects at stake, some companies entered a holding pattern in hopes of waiting out the economic storm, while other forged ahead, adjusting to the new cash-strapped environment as the year progressed. Thanks to record commodity prices, the economy of the Northwest Territories has outpaced the...
Underworld Resources Inc. hit the ground running in 2009, reporting impressive assay results in the first three holes of its drilling program at its White Gold Project in late May. For two field seasons, the Vancouver, B.C.-based company has explored sediment and vein-hosted gold targets on 845 claims covering 169 square kilometers, or 65.3 square miles, on the White Gold and Black Fox gold Properties in west-central Yukon Territory, 95 kilometers, or about 60 miles, south of Dawson City. So far, the junior has identified...
Canada's new economic development agency for the Far North has awarded a new round of mining research and business development grants, providing significant funding to key projects in Nunavut, Northwest Territories and Yukon Territory. Known as the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency or CanNor, the agency is the outgrowth of the Canadian government's new Economic Action Plan and is designed to encourage future investments in resource exploration in the country's three northwestern territories. CanNor is responsible...
Decade Resources Inc.'s decision to option up to 80 percent of the Red Cliff property in the Stewart Mining Region last November is shaping up to be one of the best exploration plays in 2009 in northwestern British Columbia. The Vancouver, B.C.-based miner reported discovering a 28.4-meter interval of gold mineralization grading 7.3 grams per metric ton gold in September and followed up with more favorable drill results in October. The news has sparked a mini-staking rush with at least a half-dozen juniors scrambling in...
Thanks to one junior's report of encountering substantial gold mineralization this season near the old Red Cliff Mine in Northwest British Columbia's Stewart Mining District, a gaggle of excited juniors are grabbing up mineral claims and leases in the area. The small but growing stampede to Stewart surfaced in September after Decade Resources Inc. released assay results from the first few holes drilled in its 2009 exploration program. Vancouver, B.C.-based Decade reported intersecting 28.4 meters grading 7.3 grams per metric...
After seven years of looking for gold to produce economically in the Yellowknife Gold Camp in Northwest Territories, Tyhee Development Corp. is closing in on a potentially lucrative payday. The Vancouver, B.C.-based junior has grown into the largest property holder in the historic gold camp with four properties encompassing 6,625 hectares, or 15,481 acres, in its Yellowknife Gold Project located 90 kilometers, or 56 miles, north of Yellowknife, NWT. In all, Tyhee controls more than 16,300 hectares, or 39,283 acres, in the...
For the past two years, mines in Alaska and Northwest Canada have encountered problems with unusually large volumes of stormwater runoff or snowmelt during spring breakup, but it's too soon to determine if it is a trend. This year, the Minto Mine just east of the Yukon River in west-central Yukon Territory, ran into troubles when excess water, over and above what could be contained in the mine's water storage pond, had to be diverted into its open pit during breakup in order to prevent a non-compliant discharge. Capstone...
Mantra Mining Inc. reported several major developments recently, including plans to spin off properties with significant zinc mineralization, changing its name and completion of planned 2009 work programs on its exploration properties in Alaska. The Vancouver, B.C.-based junior said it would hold a special meeting Sept. 25 to seek approval from shareholders to pass a special resolution that will spin out the properties in a company called AsiaBaseMetals Inc. The transaction would involve each existing Mantra shareholder...
The hunt for gold launched by Underworld Resources Inc. more than a year ago in Yukon Territory's Dawson Mining District is yielding more encouraging results for the junior at its White Gold Project. Meanwhile, other mining companies, including Anglo Canadian Uranium Corp., Aldrin Resource Corp., Radius Gold Inc. and Habanero Resources Inc., are rushing to get in on the action, staking more than 6,000 new placer and quartz claims in the Dawson area since April 1. Underworld reported discovery of more than 100 meters of...
The Canadian government has approved C$130 million in funding for construction of the Northwest Transmission Line in northern British Columbia, a power conduit that could eventually connect with Alaska. The 335-kilometer transmission line will carry hydroelectricity to communities in the northwest region of the province, and provide a clean and reliable source of power, while enabling development of an estimated 2,000 megawatts of renewable electricity generation from small hydro, geothermal and wind sources. "Our government...
First Coal Corp. Sept. 2 said British Columbia's Chief Inspector of Mines has approved an application to amend the Vancouver-based junior's exploration permit and extract a bulk sample of up to 50,000 metric tons of coal from its Central South property near Chetwynd in northeastern British Columbia. First Coal has more than 90,000 hectares, or 357 square miles, under tenure license or under application for license in the Peace River Coalfield near Chetwynd, which has a historic resource estimate of 1.6 billion metric tons of...
Peregrine Diamonds Ltd. has discovered seven additional kimberlites on its 9,800-square-kilometer, or 3,784-square-mile, Chidliak Project in Nunavut, and recent tests yielded discovery of large diamonds and a coarse diamond size distribution in representative drill core samples collected from the CH-6 kimberlite. "We believe these microdiamond counts from CH-6 are some of the best results in the history of Canadian diamond exploration and a testament to the outstanding potential of Chidliak," Peregrine CEO Eric Friedland...
Fortune Minerals Ltd. is taking the lemons it has encountered in developing the Nico Project in Northwest Territories and making lemonade. The London, Ont.-based junior recently reported substantial progress in overcoming major obstacles to building a vertically integrated mining operation at Nico, which is located 160 kilometers, or 99 miles, northwest of Yellowknife. Fortune Minerals discovered Nico, the largest known IOCG (Olympic Dam-type) deposit in Canada, in 1996. The deposit contains proven and probable mineral...
Seabridge Gold Inc. is inching closer to production of one of the world's five-largest undeveloped gold deposits, the KSM Project located in the Iskut-Stikine region about 65 kilometers, or 40 miles, northwest of Stewart, B.C. The aggressive junior envisions building a huge open-pit copper-gold mine in this highly prolific mountainous terrain, known as the "Golden Triangle" of northern British Columbia. Toronto-based Seabridge has pursued development of the project, which also boasts significant silver and molybdenum resource...
The recession is taking its toll among mining companies with properties in Alaska and northwestern Canada as mergers and acquisitions surged in this sector during the second quarter, in step with a global industry trend. Companies across the exploration and development spectrum from mining giants to the smallest juniors closed on deals with firms that are struggling to survive the recent cash crunch as independent entities. The Wall Street Journal reported in early August that according to data provider Dealogic, value of...
While many business organizations promote infrastructure development in the communities they serve, few of them craft as detailed a visualization of their wish lists as a map created recently by the NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines. Chamber members drew a full-color representation of where they would like to see roads, ports, power plants and railroads built that would maximize economic development in Canada's Far North, including Yukon Territory. "It's a discussion document," Chamber General Manager Mike Vaydik told Mining...
The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority said it served notice to Homer Electric Association that it is terminating a 2006 agreement with the utility to place the Healy Clean Coal Project in operation. AIDEA said it is taking the action as part of its continuing efforts to get the mothballed experimental clean coal plant up and running. The termination will be effective on August 20, 2009. Construction and testing of the clean coal project was completed in the 1990s with nearly US$300 million in federal and...
Yukon-Nevada Gold Corp. is working to bring on line its new mercury-emission control equipment in compliance with state-mandated mercury emission limits and resume gold production at the Jerritt Canyon Mine near Elko, Nev. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is quietly drafting a new federal regulation that could throw another monkey wrench into the miner's two-year effort to return the gold mine to production. Yukon-Nevada reported a delay June 2 in the fabrication of the fiberglass ductwork that it planned to...
Victoria Gold Corp. is making good on its promise to put the Eagle Gold Project in east-central Yukon Territory on a fast track once its merger with StrataGold Corp. was completed. The Toronto-based junior June 29 reported the commissioning of a pre-feasibility study and a comprehensive project proposal that satisfies Yukon regulatory requirements and associated permits necessary for development of Eagle Gold, a sizeable, advanced, lower-risk project through its merger with Vancouver, B.C.-based StrataGold Corp., which...
The Canadian government recently approved a massive expansion of the Nahanni National Park Reserve of Canada, a move being hailed as a win for both conservation and economic development. "Nahanni is one of the Crown jewels of our incredible system of national parks and it is with pride that I take part in the greatest conservation achievement in a generation," said the Honorable Jim Prentice, Canada's Environment Minister and minister responsible for Parks Canada. "Enshrining this magnificent area in legislation, under the...
North American Tungsten Corp. Ltd.'s decision to shut down the Cantung Mine, Canada's only producing tungsten mine, Oct. 15 comes at a time when tungsten prices are depressed and stockpiles of ore are climbing. But company Chairman and CEO Stephen M. Leahy, told reporters in Brazil recently that he doesn't expect the temporary shutdown to last more than six months. "Logistically it's much simpler to come back in the spring after April," Leahy said. "We will have to make our decision based on how we gauge the market in the...
Though Alaska has more than 7,300 abandoned hardrock mine sites, most of which are located on federal lands, the state's problems are relatively small potatoes compared with the estimated 260,000 abandoned mines to be found scattered across the West, according to a 2008 study conducted by the U.S. General Accounting Office. GAO Natural Resources and Environment Director Robin M. Nazzaro, in testimony before a U.S. Senate panel July 14, said the GAO researched state mining royalties and abandoned mine sites - two issues that a...
Teck Resources Ltd. and affiliates of Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. Ltd. and Sumitomo Corp. said they completed the sale of Teck's 40 percent interest in the Pogo Gold Mine in Interior Alaska July 7 after several months of negotiations. The transaction, first announced April 30, required the Japanese conglomerate to pay Teck US$245 million, plus an undisclosed amount of working capital. As a result, Sumitomo Metal and Sumitomo now own 100 percent of Pogo, with the former increasing its share to 85 percent from 51 percent, and...
Zazu Metals Corp. May 28 reported completion of a current NI 43-101 resource estimate for the Lik zinc-lead-silver project in Northwest Alaska that confirms it as being one of the largest undeveloped zinc deposits in the Western Hemisphere. The deposit is located 22 kilometers, or about 14 miles, from the Red Dog mine, the world's largest zinc producer. Teck Resources Ltd. owns and operates Red Dog and is a 50 percent joint venture partner in the Lik Project. Zazu owns the remaining 50 percent and has the exclusive right to...
Now that Prize Mining Corp. and Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. have completed modifications on a 350-metric-ton-per-day mill at the Yellowjacket Gold Project near Atlin in northwestern British Columbia, the processing of stockpiled mineralized bulk sample material is under way. The joint venture partners June 4 reported completion of the small mill and milling will proceed under an existing bulk sampling exploration permit, while they await approval of a new permit under British Columbia's Small Mines Act. Jamie Mathers, a...
