The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 101 - 125 of 239
Environment Canada, a department of the federal government, has laid charges against Vancouver-based Miramar Mining and four related companies for alleged offences related to a fuel spill at a mining exploration camp at Windy Lake, Nunavut. The charges resulted from an inspection and subsequent investigation by Environment Canada enforcement officers, following a report of a 19,000 liter fuel spill on June 16, 2004. Miramar is charged with violating the federal Fisheries Act, the Migratory Birds Convention Act and the Nunavut...
Vancouver-based NovaGold Resources has upped the ante in its battle against a lawsuit from another Vancouver junior mining company, Pioneer Metals. NovaGold announced a takeover bid for Pioneer in mid-June, offering to purchase 100 percent of Pioneer's shares for C$0.57 per share in cash. The dispute centers around NovaGold's Galore Creek project in northwestern British Columbia, where the company is considering locating a tailings facility on Pioneer's Grace property. Pioneer filed a lawsuit against NovaGold last October,...
Alaska's Resource Development Council members were treated to three different perspectives on the Pebble project at their annual meeting in Anchorage June 13. Several hundred people had a rare chance to hear in person from the chairman of Vancouver-based Hunter Dickinson, the group that owns Northern Dynasty and several other mining companies. Bob Dickinson usually relies on Northern Dynasty COO Bruce Jenkins and Environmental Project Manager Ella Ede to get the message across within the state. After Dickinson's...
Kennecott Greens Creek Mining Co. and Connors Drilling LLC have agreed to pay a $12,900 penalty to resolve two alleged federal Clean Water Act violations at the Greens Creek mine near Juneau, Alaska. Connors was conducting exploratory drilling operations near Zinc Creek in June 2004, when there was a discharge of drilling mud and diesel fuel into the creek, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. "The mining industry is an important part of Alaska's economy, but it must operate responsibly and manage its waste...
South Africa's AngloGold Ashanti has signed a letter of intent with Vancouver-based International Tower Hill Mines for the sale and option of all of AngloGold's Alaska mineral exploration properties and associated databases to the Canadian company. Under the terms of the agreement, AngloGold will sell ITH a 100 percent interest in six Alaska properties (Livengood, West Pogo, Coffee Dome, Gilles, Caribou and Blackshell) covering a total of 246 square kilometers. In consideration for the sale, ITH will issue to AngloGold 19.99...
Construction is under way at Alaska's Nixon Fork gold mine near McGrath, and the underground mine should be in production later this summer. Ontario-based St. Andrew Goldfields recently received the state and federal permits necessary to recommence mining at Nixon Fork, which has been closed for several years. St. Andrew is the latest in a series of companies that have operated in the area since 1919. In June St. Andrew announced that it had appointed William Burnett mine manager for Nixon Fork. Burnett has been exploration...
A wide range of initiatives across Canada is bringing more members of aboriginal communities into the mining industry, especially in the far north. Different provinces and territories take different approaches, but there have been some positive results, according to the recently published 13th annual government report on the issue. Nevertheless, aboriginal participation in the industry remains low, even though aboriginal peoples are commonly the closest population to an exploration or mine development project, the report...
Teck Cominco's experience operating northern mines like Red Dog and Pogo in Alaska could serve it well if the Vancouver-based company's C$17.8 billion attempt to take over Inco is successful. Toronto-based Inco is the world's second-largest nickel producer and its properties include Voisey's Bay mine in Labrador. Inco is currently trying to acquire another Toronto-based mining company, Falconbridge, and the Teck Cominco offer for Inco is contingent on the bid for Falconbridge failing. Touting its offer as "A Better Deal,"...
AS the price of gold hit a 26-year high of over $725 an ounce in mid-May, it wasn't only hard rock miners who were celebrating. Placer miners in Alaska are raring to go this season, and so are all kinds of people who have never attempted mining before in their lives. Recreational mining is rapidly expanding, and long-time placer miners are seeing the opportunity to open up their claims to tourists. The Department of Natural Resources is still in the process of drawing up regulations to deal with the new permitting issues...
Mining industry results for British Columbia in 2005 are "nothing short of spectacular," according to an annual survey by accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Strong global demand helped push net income for the mining industry to $1.84 billion from $871 million in 2004 - the highest levels reported in the 38-year history of the survey. The biggest driver of the results was metallurgical coal, while copper was also a strong performer. Metallurgical coal generated US$1.95 billion in sales for British Columbia miners in...
Vancouver-based Yukon Zinc engaged in a struggle to reassure shareholders in May after a feasibility report on its Wolverine property indicated that annual production would be lower than expected. The company's share price fell from $1 to around 50 cents on the Canadian Venture Exchange when the report was released. A conference call with President and CEO Harlan Meade was beset with technical difficulties, causing more frustration among investors as the company failed to mute background noise on the line. "The trading...
The already successful mining engineering program at the University of British Columbia has received a further boost in the form of a $7.5 million gift from Vancouver-based Teck Cominco. The donation will create the Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering, in honor of the company's former president and CEO. One of the components of the $7.5 million is $650,000 from the family of the late Robert Hallbauer, a UBC mining engineering graduate, who helped make Teck Cominco the company it is today. That portion of the...
Expanding its Alaska properties dramatically, Vancouver-based junior Full Metal Minerals announced in late May that it had acquired 811,000 acres in an option agreement with Alaska Native regional corporation Doyon. Full Metal Minerals may earn a 100 percent interest in the mineral rights of Doyon's conveyed and selected lands in eastern Alaska. The 40-Mile property covers numerous precious and base metal prospects, the most advanced of which is the Lead Creek high-grade silver target, located 12 kilometers west of the Taylor...
Vancouver-based NovaGold Resources has been waiting a while now for Coast Mountain Power to develop the Forest Kerr hydroelectric project. Nothing has happened, and NovaGold needs the power for its planned Galore Creek gold-copper-silver mine in northwestern British Columbia. So the mining company decided to make an offer for Coast Mountain Power and build the hydroelectric power plant itself. The value of the transaction is approximately C$40 million, representing a 42 percent premium to the one-month weighted average...
The Nome area in northwest Alaska is famous for its gold, but less well-known is the fact that it is also home to the largest uranium deposit so far discovered in the state. Abandoned by an oil company when the price of uranium plummeted along with other natural resources in the early 1980s, Boulder Creek (formerly known as Death Valley) is now being explored again by two Vancouver-based juniors in a joint venture, Full Metal Minerals and Triex Minerals. Full Metal Minerals is one of the most active exploration companies in...
Red Dog mine remains at the top of the Environmental Protection Agency's national Toxic Release Inventory for the third straight year, but owner Teck Cominco wants the public to know that the movement of waste rock is not the same as pollution. The lead-zinc mine near Kotzebue in Alaska's Arctic released 458.2 million pounds of toxic chemicals in 2004, according to the latest EPA report. This is slightly less than last year's figure, but still four times as much as the second entity on the list, Kennecott Utah copper mine....
The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority is moving ahead with plans to retrofit Skagway Ore Terminal for use by mining companies. AIDEA's board of directors voted 5-0 March 29 for a resolution approving a cost reimbursement agreement to analyze proposed improvements to the terminal. The agreement is with Vancouver-based Sherwood Copper, which is developing the Minto copper-gold project in Canada's Yukon. AIDEA passed a resolution last year to support a similar study by Toronto-based Cash Minerals, owner of the...
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has reinstated two permits for the Kensington gold project that the agency suspended last November following the filing of a lawsuit by the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council and other environmental groups. The permits authorize the discharge of fill material and the construction of a dock by Goldbelt in waters 25 miles north of Juneau. Specifically, mine tailings will be disposed of in Lower Slate Lake, which is the main point of contention in the lawsuit. "The decision to reinstate the...
Alaska, Yukon and British Columbia have improved their standings in the annual survey of mining companies published by Canada's Fraser Institute, but Russia remained low in the ranking of 64 jurisdictions around the world. This year representatives of 322 exploration, development and mining consulting companies responded to the survey, up from 259 last year. (See related news on the Fraser survey in Curt Freeman 's column on page 13.) Survey participants answered questions about the regions where they work, assessing their...
A woman who appears on a "Legends of the West" postal stamp and a man who killed two people in gunfights were inducted into the Alaska Mining Hall of Fame in March. Nellie Cashman and Jack Dalton followed very different paths in life, although both ended up in Alaska. Some of Dalton's descendants were present at the evening of historical reminiscences in Fairbanks, but Cashman never had children of her own. Her distant relative, Kay Cashman, is the publisher of Mining News and its sister publication Petroleum News. Nellie...
Following the example of a brewery, a cookie company and the Alaska Mint, Anchorage Sand & Gravel has won the annual Made in Alaska Manufacturer of the Year award. Savvy tourists look for the Made in Alaska polar bear logo in local stores to avoid the fake Alaska souvenirs that are manufactured by the ton in China, but fewer members of the public are likely to purchase bags of cement or lengths of reinforced steel. Not everyone appreciates that AS&G's products have been holding Alaska together since 1938. AS&G got its start...
The world will need the equivalent of 28 more discoveries the size of Alaska's Pebble deposit by the year 2016 if demand for copper continues at the current rate. That's the powerful message from Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty, Pebble's developer, part of the company's effort to rebut the wave of attacks on the project spearheaded by environmentalists, lodge-owners and U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens. Alaska's senior senator has said he might be more sympathetic to Pebble if it were going to produce an "essential commodity."...
Ontario-based Wolfden Resources is making its mark in Canada's far north, and the company's acquisition of Lupin gold mine from Kinross could significantly lower the costs of its other projects in Nunavut. Almost simultaneously with the announcement in mid-February of the deal with Kinross, Wolfden also signed a letter of intent with Inmet Mining to acquire the nearby Izok, Hood and Gondor base metal deposits in Nunavut. Lupin has produced more than 3 million ounces of gold since 1982, and there may be potential for further...
Nunavut has a reputation for being one of the most remote parts of the world, but for Toronto-based Baffinland Iron Mines, the Canadian Arctic territory's proximity to Europe is one of its biggest selling points. Western Europe currently imports around 50 percent of its iron ore from Brazil, and Baffinland believes that Nunavut could be much more convenient. Of course, it also helps that the Mary River property hosts five high-grade deposits that could yield 10 million metric tons of iron ore per year for 25 years or more....
The people, the technology and the regulations have changed dramatically in the past 100 years or so since the Klondike Gold Rush, but placer mining in Canada's Yukon is still thriving. Mike McDougall, president of the Klondike Placer Miners Association, and Bill Lebarge from Yukon Geological Survey provided some insights into the state of the industry during a joint presentation to the Arctic International Mining Symposium in Fairbanks March 14. A total of 70,322 crude ounces of gold (2.2 million grams) was produced by...
