The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 239
Fortunately for Alaska, there are relatively few abandoned mine sites in the state that pose a hazard to the public. Historically, placer mining was widespread in Alaska, which means there aren't too many deep adits where necks can be broken. But there is still reclamation work to be done, and when there is no new owner to take responsibility on federal lands, the Bureau of Land Management steps in. Over the past few years staff from BLM's Fairbanks office have been working at two sites on Harrison Creek and Nome Creek in Int...
If Edwin Warren's diary is anything to go by, most miners in Alaska in the early 20th century were more interested in spending their paychecks on booze and debauchery than writing eloquent accounts of their daily lives and natural surroundings. But Warren was different. An avid ornithologist and devout Christian, he agonized over whether to work on a Sunday and wished that the local Indians could be kept away from the worst influences of white people. Warren's grandson, Barry Kibler, has published his diary of the years...
The open pit Minto mine in the Yukon produced its first copper-gold concentrates in late May as part of the equipment commissioning process. Production is forecast to ramp up to full capacity during the third quarter of 2007, Vancouver-based Sherwood Copper announced May 31. "This is an exciting day for Sherwood and everyone involved in the rapid transformation of the company to producer status," said Sherwood's president and CEO, Stephen Quin. "In less than two years we acquired the partially constructed but dormant Minto...
The decision was taken months ago, but now the reasons for it have been explained. Nothing the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has said in its May 22 ruling on Kensington mine is likely to bring encouragement to the project's developers or employees whose livelihoods have been put at risk, but at least now Idaho-based Coeur d'Alene Mines can start to analyze the judges' objections. Juneau Native corporation Goldbelt also suffers from the ruling, which vacated its permit to construct a marine terminal for the transportation of...
Two Vancouver-based companies have announced a partnership to develop British Columbia's largest mining project, Galore Creek, just across the border from Alaska. NovaGold Resources, which has been developing the copper-gold project for the past four years, will go 50-50 with Teck Cominco, the operator of Red Dog and Pogo mines in Alaska, and Highland Valley and Elk Valley mines in British Columbia. To earn its 50 percent interest, Teck Cominco will fund approximately US$478 million in construction costs at Galore Creek,...
Usually when agencies try to assess the environmental risks of an abandoned mine, they're looking for a particular result: they want to hear that the risks aren't serious enough to merit an expensive cleanup program. In the case of the Salt Chuck mine on southeast Alaska's Prince of Wales Island, the jury is still out. The U.S. Forest Service will soon be considering a report by San Francisco-based URS Corp., geologist Nancy Darigo said in a presentation at the Northern Latitudes Mining Reclamation Workshop in Juneau May 15....
After removing a strongly worded criticism of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, Alaska's House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution encouraging Coeur d'Alene Mines to pursue all legal avenues that would enable it to proceed with developing Kensington gold mine near Juneau. Construction of the mine's tailings facility has been halted by a pending ruling from the 9th Circuit Court in favor of a coalition of environmental groups. The Senate also passed the resolution with a vote of 17-2. The author of House Joint...
The mining industry in British Columbia surpassed itself in 2006, with revenues at an all-time high, according to the annual survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Net income for companies active in the province totaled C$2.3 billion, by far the highest amount since the survey was first published in 1968, and an increase of C$507 million on the previous year's figure. The average number of people employed in British Columbia's mining sector increased from 7,071 in 2005 to 7,345 in 2006. The latest survey covered 17 operating...
Alaska's newest mine has a new general manager, just a few months after shipping its first gold doré. Cliff Nelson, 51, replaces William Burnett at Nixon Fork, a historic underground mine near McGrath. Burnett first worked at Nixon Fork as a mine geologist from 1995 until it shut down in 1999. He returned a couple of years ago as general manager with Mystery Creek Resources, a subsidiary of Ontario-based St. Andrew Goldfields, hoping to see the refurbished mine through to commercial production. Neither Burnett nor Nelson...
Buoyed by the purchase of Bema Gold, Toronto-based Kinross is also happy with the performance of the Fort Knox mine near Fairbanks. Even a seep from the tailings dam that could potentially have damaged that mine's near-pristine environmental record can be viewed as a successful example of protective measures being put into action. In the first quarter of 2007, Kinross reported net earnings of $68.5 million, compared to net earnings of $8.9 million in the same period last year. Gold production was up 7 percent compared with th...
Taking recommendations from shareholder Teck Cominco, Toronto-based Tahera Diamond Corp. is making rapid changes to its operations at the newly opened Jericho mine in Nunavut. For now, the cost of producing diamonds far exceeds their value, according to Tahera's first quarter report. The value of production in that period was US$6.4 million, compared with a cash operating cost of $17.1 million. Jericho processed 171,000 metric tons of ore in the first quarter of 2007, at an average grade of 0.44 carats per ton, resulting in p...
Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty, whose sole asset is the Pebble project in southwest Alaska, is the only junior mining company to remain in the top five on the TSX Venture Exchange or TSX-V by market capitalization for two years straight. The company's market capitalization was C$326.5 million in 2005, making it the fourth-largest in its sector, and C$657.4 million in 2006, making it the third-largest. These and other achievements by Canadian companies are highlighted in a report called Junior Mine by Pri...
Vancouver-based New Gold plans to develop its New Afton copper-gold project into an underground block cave mine, based on a feasibility study the company released April 2. New Afton is located six miles west of Kamloops in south-central British Columbia, at the site of the former Afton open pit mine. That mine operated from 1978 to 1987, producing approximately 500 million pounds of copper, 500,000 ounces of gold and 3 million ounces of silver. New Afton's reserves contain almost 1 billion pounds of copper, more than 1...
As production steadily increases, investment in mill upgrades is making a big difference in the quality of lead and zinc concentrates at Teck Cominco's Red Dog mine in northwest Alaska. Bringing in new equipment and enhancing systems is always a challenge because the facility is already a labyrinth of massive SAG mills, ball mills and flotation columns, mill engineer Curtiss Ehrsam said at a meeting of the Alaska Miners Association and Society of Mining Engineers in Anchorage April 11. Recent improvements have included the in...
AFter years of exploration, permitting and construction, the day when a junior company brings its first mine into production should be a cause for celebration. Many juniors never even see such a day. But it is also the moment of truth, when all the wealth that has been promised must start to show itself. Some investors are already starting to wonder when Toronto-based Tahera Diamond Corp.'s Jericho mine in Nunavut will bring them a return. Jericho commenced operations in August 2006 and immediately experienced start-up...
The problem of bringing power to NovaGold's remote Donlin Creek project in southwest Alaska is one of the main bones of contention in the Vancouver-based junior's never-ending battle with its joint venture partner, Barrick Gold. Toronto-based Barrick, the operator at Donlin Creek, envisions a combination of diesel and wind power for the proposed gold mine. NovaGold's management believes the logistics of transporting huge quantities of diesel fuel upriver are too challenging and expensive, and wants to put in a power line...
Stornoway Diamond Corp. is aiming to become one of the few successful middle-tier diamond exploration and development companies, following its amalgamation with Ashton Mining and Contact Diamond Corp., which concluded in mid-January. The Vancouver-based company now has three advanced exploration projects in the eastern Arctic, one on the border of Quebec and Ontario, and another in northern Alberta, as well as a 50 percent interest in the Renard property in Quebec. Middle-tier companies are much more common in the gold sector...
When Polaris Minerals developed its plan for the Orca quarry on Vancouver Island, the company expected that the initial market for the sand and gravel would be California, where demand for concrete is apparently insatiable. But by the time the quarry began production in March of this year, Polaris had received a pleasant surprise: a five-year contract with a ready-mix concrete manufacturer in the Vancouver area, a customer that has asked Polaris to keep its identity confidential. Polaris will ship 400,000 tons of sand and...
Canadian junior mining companies are increasingly the targets of friendly (and occasionally not-so-friendly) takeover bids, but it's more unusual for the purchaser to be located on the other side of the planet. That is the case for Ontario-based Wolfden Resources, which has agreed to a buy-out by Australia's Zinifex. Wolfden is developing projects in Nunavut, while Zinifex operates two mines and three smelters in Australia, as well as a smelter in the Netherlands and another in Tennessee. Zinifex offered Feb. 19 to acquire...
Should the mining industry's tax rate in Alaska be compared with that of the much larger oil and gas industry, because they both deal with non-renewable resources, or is it fairer to align mining with industries like fishing and tourism, which generate comparable amounts of revenue? That's one of the questions raised by Rep. Paul Seaton's bill in the Legislature, House Bill 156, which would reform mining taxes for the first time in decades. Significantly, the bill changes the calculation of the royalty for mineral mining on...
For a change, Alaska's large mines received praise from an environmentalist during public testimony in the legislature about House Bill 156, the mining tax bill, March 21. Kate Troll, executive director of the Alaska Conservation Alliance, which is a coalition of 40 groups, said that both Greens Creek and Fort Knox are in compliance with all the environmental regulations. Her comments were made in an effort to demonstrate that it is possible to support a tax increase without wishing to kill the mining industry. "Greens Creek...
Vancouver-based NovaGold Resources got some encouraging news on all three of its major projects recently. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reissued its permit for Rock Creek; Galore Creek received its British Columbia Environmental Assessment Certificate; and Donlin Creek expanded its resources by an impressive amount. But progress has come at a cost: the company had a net loss of $30.5 million in 2006, compared with a net loss of $5.8 million in 2005. Most of the additional expenditures - $21 million - went to fighting off...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit is preparing to rule against construction of the tailings facility at Kensington gold mine near Juneau. The court made the announcement March 16 in a separate ruling that denied the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permission to construct an interceptor ditch for Kensington. Idaho-based Coeur d'Alene Mines must now decide what to do about its half-finished project. "We are surprised and disappointed in the court's announcement and what it might mean for the over 400 Kensington...
A bill in the Alaska Legislature that would place severe restrictions on water use in the Bristol Bay area is undergoing revision by its sponsor, Rep. Bryce Edgmon, D-Dillingham. House Bill 134, was motivated by concerns about the possible development of Northern Dynasty's Pebble mine, but many of those who testified to the House Special Committee on Fisheries said it could block all other forms of development and even subsistence activities. New additions to a committee substitute version of the bill exempt unincorporated...
Alaska's newest mine, Nixon Fork, produced its first gold doré in January. The doré is being shipped via Fairbanks to Xstrata's Horne smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. Mechanical delays which were encountered during the commissioning process have been overcome and the gold mill is now operating at a capacity of 150 tons per day, Ontario-based St. Andrew Resources said in a release Jan. 25. The next phase of the upgrade of the metallurgical circuit is under way, with the commencement of the installation of a cyanide leach c...
