The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the State of Alaska released a public notice and draft project authorizations June 1, relating to the NovaGold Resources Rock Creek mine project located eight miles outside Nome. A 30-day public review and comment period ends June 30. The Rock Creek project includes two locations, the Rock Creek mine and mill complex north of Nome in the Snake River watershed, and the Big Hurrah Mine east of Nome in the Solomon River watershed. According to its public notice, the Alaska Department of...
Mining exploration spending in the Yukon Territories during 2005 was estimated at C$53 million, up 141 percent over the previous year, according the Yukon Minerals Advisory Board annual report issued June 1. The report said that was a significant improvement over prior years, but it represents just four percent of the total exploration investment in Canada in 2005, which was $1.3 billion. The lion's share went to Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Nunavut. Must continue at 2005 levels The report said it is...
Alaska vendors reaped a share of $110 million spent last year to keep the open pit Fort Knox gold mine humming night and day, according to Lorna Shaw, community affairs director of mine owner Fairbanks Gold Mining, a subsidiary of Kinross Gold Corp. The money went primarily to buy labor, power, and fuel, Shaw said, adding that even the small items are essential - items like toilet paper, for instance. "We've got 400 people out there," Shaw said. "Consumable paper products - that's a lot of toilet paper; it can shut us down,...
Stephen Hodgson, vice president of engineering for Northern Dynasty Mines Inc., says he often hears people who don't live in Alaska talk about the isolation of his company's Pebble mine prospect, but he doesn't consider Pebble to be isolated at all. "Pebble is probably one of the least isolated major copper projects in the world," he said. "We're at low elevation, about 815 feet above sea level, and only 85 miles from tidewater." Northern Dynasty's Pebble gold-copper-molybdenum deposit, near Iliamna in southwestern Alaska,...
Usibelli Coal Mine Inc. has seen the future, and the future - its Jumbo Dome project - is bigger and better than anything the company has mined in the past, says Steve Denton, Usibelli vice president of business development. Jumbo Dome promises to be an improvement over Two Bull Ridge, the mine that currently produces 90 percent of Usibelli's coal production, Denton told an audience at the Pac Com meeting Feb. 22 in Anchorage. Based on initial samples, the company thinks the moisture content of the Jumbo Dome coal is higher,...
This summer, Vancouver, British Columbia-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. will spend $20 million on an expanded-scale continuation of its drilling program at the newest discovery in the east zone of its Pebble mine project near Iliamna on the Alaska Peninsula. The drilling budget is twice what the company spent on the project last year. The new find just to the east of the initial discovery made Pebble meaningfully bigger and richer, and the company expects this year's drilling program to tell just how much the east zone...
Vancouver, British Columbia-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. will defer permit applications for its Pebble project near Iliamna on the Alaska Peninsula for at least one year while it evaluates the ramifications of its adjacent new east zone discovery, according to Bruce Jenkins, chief operating officer of Northern Dynasty Mines Inc. (Alaska). The company will pursue a new feasibility study that includes the new porphyry copper-gold system discovery it announced in September, Jenkins told Mining News Dec. 8. "Why permit a...
South Africa-based AngloGold Ashanti is happy with its exploration results in Alaska so far, and it will be back for more in 2006, says Jeff Pontius, the company's exploration manager. "It's paid out pretty well for us, we have a lot of gold discoveries or occurrences that we've worked up and tested and are in various stages of what we call an evaluation," Pontius told the Alaska Miners Association annual convention at the Anchorage Sheraton Nov. 2. "There are a lot of new things going on (in Alaska), and AngloGold is trying...
Toronto-based Metallica Resources Inc. has identified targets for its 2006 exploratory drilling program on the Alaska Peninsula, according to Mark Petersen, Metallica geologist and exploration manager. Petersen said Metallica is moving forward under a joint venture agreement with Full Metal Minerals Ltd. regarding Aleutian Islands and Alaska Peninsula properties covering a 150 mile section of the Alaskan Peninsula, which are held by Full Metal under an exclusive option agreement with Bristol Bay Native Corp. and Aleut Corp....
Vancouver, British Columbia-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. is looking to speed up the rate of mining, and to improve gold recovery at its proposed Pebble porphyry copper-gold project near Illiamna in Southwest Alaska. Because of the enormous resource, the mine can run at a higher rate, using bigger equipment, said Stephen Hodgson, Northern Dynasty engineer. As Northern Dynasty revises its resource estimates upward, the estimated mine life increases even as the speed of mining increases, Hodgson said Nov. 4 in remarks...
Whether the Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. Pebble project in Southwest Alaska is economic to develop is a question for others, but Pebble field geologist Richard Moses is certain of one thing: The rocks at and around the Pebble prospect are the richest he has seen in his long career. Questions of economic viability rest on a host of educated assumptions regarding factors such as market values of copper, gold and molybdenum over the life of the mine; the cost of transportation and transportation infrastructure to the remote...
Vancouver, British Columbia-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. has discovered a significant new porphyry copper-gold system at its Pebble project in near Iliamna in Southwest Alaska, according to Ronald Thiessen, company president and CEO. The discovery has the potential to significantly enhance the size and overall grade of the Pebble deposit, Thiessen said in a Sept. 21 statement. Based on a March 2005 estimate, the Pebble deposit contains measured and indicated resources of 3 billion tonnes, including 31.3 million...
Agrium Inc. plans to proceed with a 310,000 tonne potash expansion at its Vanscoy, Saskatchewan, potash mine, the company said in an April 11 statement. The expansion will increase Agrium's total annual potash capacity to 2.1 million tonnes. Construction is scheduled to begin in July. The additional production will come on line in late 2006. Agrium is evaluating an additional similar-sized expansion to further increase mine capacity. "We expect global supply and demand for potash to remain tight for the foreseeable future...
Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski said conserving natural gas could help save Agrium's Kenai Peninsula fertilizer plant and suggested reopening the Healy clean coal plant, a $300 million experimental power generation facility that was shuttered in 2000 after failing to meet the expectations of its proposed operator, Golden Valley Electric Association of Fairbanks. (See related stories in Petroleum News this week.) The plant can deliver 50 megawatts of power, and would relieve the consumption of 10 million cubic feet of gas per day,...
Homer Electric Association and Northern Dynasty Mines Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., will conduct a joint initiative to review the feasibility of a phased power development plan for the Pebble gold-copper-molybdenum deposit near Iliamna in southwestern Alaska. The association and the company agreed to jointly assess the technical, economic and environmental feasibility of a phased development approach for delivery of electrical power to construct and operate an open pit mine at Pebble, Nort...
After a busy summer, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. is on schedule and optimistic it can meet its timeline for a 2009 commencement of mining operations at its Pebble deposit, a proposed open pit, gold-copper-molybdenum-silver mine near Iliamna in southwestern Alaska, according to Bruce Jenkins, Northern Dynasty director of corporate affairs. The company completed intensive infill drilling in 2004, sufficient to move the project to the bankable feasibility study level, Jenkins told an audience Nov. 4 at the Alaska Miners...
The future looks bright for the Pebble gold-copper-molybdenum project near Iliamna in southwestern Alaska. Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. President and CEO Ronald W. Thiessen said a preliminary assessment of the project indicates excellent potential for a long-life mine, having large-scale, low cost metal production. The company said it undertook the assessment to quantify the Pebble project's cost parameters and to provide guidance for on-going engineering work to define the optimal scale of production. Preliminary...
Robust metal prices are the most positive factor affecting Alaska's mining industry over the past year, according to Steve Borell, executive director of the Alaska Miners Association. "Metal prices are what drives the industry," Borell said. He said it is a significant fact that prices for base metals such as lead, zinc, copper, nickel and molybdenum are high at the same time as those for gold, silver and platinum. In world metal pricing it is not often the case that base metals and precious metals rise simultaneously....
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. has zeroed in on a port site on the southwest corner of Iniskin Bay on Cook Inlet, to serve its Pebble deposit, a proposed open pit, gold-copper-molybdenum-silver mine near Iliamna in Southwestern Alaska, according to Bruce Jenkins, director of corporate affairs. The port site is approximately 65 miles from the deposit. The company has also, in conjunction with the Alaska Department of Transportation, established a preferred road corridor leading from the port site to the Pebble deposit, with co...
Tucson-based Liberty Star Gold Corp. started a boring project Oct. 23 on its expansive Big Chunk project properties, which border the Northern Dynasty Mineral Ltd. Pebble project near Iliamna in Southwestern Alaska. Drilling was scheduled to last only until Oct. 30, due to the late start, according to James A. Briscoe, Liberty Star president. A Zonge Engineering geophysical crew conducting induced polarization electrical surveys from Aug. 15 through Sept. 15 found a significant induced polarization anomaly in the northern...
