The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 239
A new resource estimate for Northern Dynasty's Pebble project in southwest Alaska makes it one of the world's most important copper-gold-molybdenum deposits, the company said Feb. 20. Inferred resources in the Pebble East deposit have increased nearly 90 percent, to 3.4 billion metric tons. Pebble East is contiguous to and deeper than the 4.1 billion-ton near-surface Pebble West deposit, and is higher grade. Pebble West was the first area explored and is the potential location for an open pit mine. Geotechnical assessment has...
Alaska's Department of Natural Resources has refuted a legal challenge to Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty Minerals' exploration plans for the Pebble project this year. The company has already drilled over 600 holes, but formal opposition to the continued work was submitted in January by Anchorage attorney Geoffrey Parker on behalf of the Renewable Resources Coalition, Trout Unlimited, the Nondalton Tribal Council, Nunamta Aulukestai (Caretakers of Our Lands) and Robert B. Gillam. "Although a DNR response is not required, I ....
Seven Alaska legislators are endorsing two new bills on the protection of salmon and wildlife that would effectively block the development of the proposed Pebble mine. Rep. Bryce Edgmon, D-Dillingham, who ousted incumbent Carl Moses on a coin flip last year, has introduced House Bill 134, and Senate Majority Leader Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, has introduced Senate Bill 67. The co-sponsors of Edgmon's bill are Jay Ramras, Nancy Dahlstrom, Les Gara and Beth Kerttula; the co-sponsor of Stevens' bill is Johnny Ellis. The Senate bill...
Exploration spending in British Columbia hit a record high of C$265 million in 2006, a figure that the province's mining minister, Bill Bennett was proud to announce at the recent Mineral Exploration Roundup in Vancouver. Unfortunately for Bennett, he probably won't be invited to boast about the industry's successes next year, since he was forced to resign in early February after sending an obscenity-laced email to a gun club member. "British Columbians want good jobs, and they also, frankly, want the tax revenues that come...
Miners in the far north can no longer trample on the rights of indigenous residents as some did in the past. Any company operating on or near aboriginal land must work closely with local communities, whether ownership issues have been decided, as in Alaska, or are still to be resolved, as in much of Canada. Political leaders and miners discussed the question of how to win community support for projects at the Mineral Exploration Roundup in Vancouver Jan. 29. "How do we address the historical gaps that have separated...
Vancouver-based Sherwood Copper is rapidly developing the Minto copper-gold project, the first new hard rock mine in the Yukon. Minto is on land belonging to the Selkirk First Nation, which numbers about 600 people, many of whom live in the nearby community of Pelly Crossing. Sherwood has worked hard to establish good relations with the Selkirk, the company's president and CEO, Stephen Quin, said at Roundup. "You really have to be dealing with Selkirk right from the beginning on everything you do," Quin said. The Selkirk...
Following a positive preliminary assessment report for its Selwyn zinc-lead project in eastern Yukon, Vancouver-based Pacifica Resources announced that it planned to split into two new companies. If shareholders approve the reorganization, Pacifica's other exploration properties will be transferred to a company called Savant Exploration, while Pacifica will focus on Selwyn and rename itself Selwyn Resources. This reorganization is similar to the one in December 2004 which created Pacifica and Yukon Zinc out of Expatriate...
A proposed mine just across the border from Juneau could use barges for the transport of equipment, supplies and mineral concentrate, eliminating the need for a new 100-mile road to Atlin. Vancouver-based Redfern Resources' surprising plans for Tulsequah Chief were published at the end of January in a feasibility study by Wardrop Engineering. In May 2005 Redfern had put the project on hold because of economic concerns, and in August 2006 environmental groups filed a lawsuit in Canada opposing the road. The Tulsequah Chief...
Campaigners against the Pebble copper-gold project in southwest Alaska look set to spend more money than ever in 2007, but for mining junior Northern Dynasty it will be business as usual, with work at the site scheduled to restart in early February. The Vancouver-based company hopes to bring in bigger drill rigs to delineate the Pebble East zone, which has the potential to become an underground mine adjacent to the proposed open pit. Northern Dynasty will continue holding meetings with local communities and recently hired...
A broad spectrum of Alaskans who support the proposed Pebble mine have formed a non-profit organization to inform the public about Northern Dynasty's copper-gold project in the Bristol Bay region. Truth About Pebble was officially launched at a meeting of the Resource Development Council in Anchorage Jan. 18 with speeches by three of the new organization's board members. Truth About Pebble's chairman, Dick Cattanach, who is executive director of the Associated General Contractors of Alaska, told the RDC that the opposition...
The Alaska Minerals Commission has made a long list of recommendations in its report for 2007, from funding for the Department of Natural Resources and education programs to ensuring that the Pebble project receives an objective legislative and regulatory process. As mining activity in the state has increased at a record pace, the campaigns against some large projects - including Pebble, Kensington and Rock Creek - have also gained momentum in the courts and among the public. "Controversy regarding the Pebble project...
Ontario-based Wolfden Resources rounded off 2006 by making progress in Nunavut - it received a land use permit and water use license for the Izok project, and submitted a Comprehensive Proposal for the High Lake project to federal and territorial regulators, including the Nunavut Impact Review Board or NIRB. Izok and High Lake are both copper-zinc projects. The permits for Izok will allow Wolfden to complete the construction of a new camp and to begin exploration work. "Filing of the project proposal with NIRB is the next...
Alaska's Donlin Creek gold project is still several years from becoming an operating mine, but it has already made a huge impact on the lives of people in the surrounding rural communities. Since making a commitment in 1996 to employ as many Native corporation shareholders as possible, operator Barrick Gold achieved a shareholder hire rate of 92 percent in 2005, with a turnover rate of just 10 percent, down from 318 percent at the start of the project. Donlin Creek is a joint venture between NovaGold Resources and Barrick, wi...
Taseko Mines' Prosperity gold-copper project in south-central British Columbia could have a mine life of 19 years at a milling rate of 70,000 metric tons per day, according to a pre-feasibility level study that was completed in January. Vancouver-based Taseko is a subsidiary of Hunter Dickinson, the group that includes Northern Dynasty, which is developing the Pebble project in Alaska. Taseko operates the Gibraltar copper mine, also in south-central British Columbia. The Prosperity project is about 78 miles southwest of the...
Alaska's Board of Fisheries has declined a proposal to recommend to the Legislature that a fish refuge be created near the Pebble project site. Instead, the Board will establish a three-person committee to review the current protections for fish and habitat in the Bristol Bay region, to assess whether additional protections are necessary. Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty, the owner of the Pebble project, praised the Board's decision. "Proposal 121 and other efforts to establish a fish refuge in Bristol Bay are a clear and...
Mining companies spent an all-time record $103.9 million on exploration in Alaska in 2005, a big jump from the $70.8 million that was spent the previous year, and a long way from the relatively modest $27.6 million in 2003. At least 16 projects had exploration expenditures of $1 million or more. The companies employed 303 people in exploration projects in 2005, up from 184 in 2004 and 88 in 2003, according to the state's Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys. These impressive figures in Alaska reflected the story...
A newly expanded company is making Alaska its exploration target, and it's backed by a mining heavyweight. Vancouver-based International Tower Hill Mines was barely a glimmer on anyone's radar screens until last summer, when South African major AngloGold Ashanti purchased 19.99 percent of ITH's shares and gave the junior its North American exploration manager, Jeff Pontius, as president and CEO. Pontius led the team that acquired a group of Alaska properties for AngloGold, which now belong to ITH. "AngloGold was highly...
A Panel of three judges from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco heard arguments Dec. 4 for and against tailings disposal plans for Kensington gold mine near Juneau. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Forest Service and mining company Coeur Alaska are fighting a lawsuit brought in 2005 by the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, the Sierra Club and Lynn Canal Conservation that opposes the Corps' 404 permit approving the use of Lower Slate Lake as a tailings impoundment. In August, U.S. District Judge...
NovaGold Resources took on Barrick, the world's largest gold producer, and won, but equally tenacious opposition from some residents of Nome has cast a shadow over the Vancouver-based junior's first mine construction project. Just after Barrick withdrew from its hostile takeover bid with just 14.8 percent of NovaGold's shares tendered, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that it was suspending its 404 permit for Rock Creek mine in the wake of a lawsuit. The permit authorized the placement of approximately 13.7 million...
A geologist at the Red Dog lead-zinc mine in northwest Alaska died in an accident Dec. 15. Jeffrey Huber, 51, was killed when a boulder fell from the side of an open pit, causing massive head and chest injuries. Huber was conducting routine grade control work at the time, approaching the rock that the mining equipment was extracting and directing where it should go - to the waste rock pile or to the mill, according to Red Dog's general manager, John Knapp. Huber, from Anchorage, had been working at Red Dog since early 2004, b...
Alaska's governor-elect, Republican Sarah Palin, made the annual miners' convention in Anchorage the venue for her first official engagement after the election, promising to listen to the industry as she selects her advisors. Palin's predecessor, Frank Murkowski, gave strong support to the mining industry, including initiating the Roads to Resources program, but lost valuable employees at the Department of Natural Resources when they resigned in protest at his handling of gas pipeline negotiations. "It's my pleasure to...
An investor attending the Alaska Miners Association convention in Anchorage mentioned that he was listening intently to all the exploration talks because he was looking for the next Full Metal Minerals. In other words, a junior company that breaks out from the bottom of the stockpile, as it were, and builds a reputation for acquiring promising properties and working diligently on them. For Alaskans the rise of Vancouver-based Full Metal is doubly exciting, since all most all of the company's projects are located in the state....
Everyone likes to announce something big at the Alaska Miners Association annual convention, and Mystery Creek Resources was able to do just that Nov. 10 with the news that the mill at Nixon Fork gold mine is being commissioned. The company, a subsidiary of Ontario-based St. Andrew Goldfields, has been working at Nixon Fork since 2003, delineating the resource and constructing facilities to put the historic underground mine back into operation. "It's kind of exciting to finally see all our efforts come to fruition," William B...
Two Canadian mining companies traded accusations in November as they hurtled toward the latest deadline in Barrick's hostile takeover bid for NovaGold. The world's largest gold producer upped its offer from $14.50 per share to $16 per share and announced it would take up all shares tendered by Nov. 21, regardless of whether it obtained the minimum 50.1 percent of NovaGold that it originally hoped for. NovaGold would have liked to see a "white knight" ride in and rescue it from Barrick's advances with a shinier offer. That...
In a week when lead and zinc hit record-breaking high prices, it was particularly appropriate for Vancouver-based Teck Cominco's president and CEO, Don Lindsay, to be visiting Alaska for the seventh time. The state is home to the world's largest lead-zinc mine, Red Dog, and the company has further demonstrated its commitment to Alaska with the recent opening of Pogo gold mine, a partnership with Japan's Sumitomo Metal Mining. The Alaska Miners Association presented Teck Cominco with its new mine award this year. Walter Sampso...
