The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 1 - 19 of 19
State environmental regulators say the Alaska Railroad is proposing insufficient measures to prevent black dust from spreading from its coal loading facility in Seward. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation cited the state-owned railroad for two emissions violations in April after scores of residents complained of heavy emissions during a prolonged spell of dry, windy weather last winter. The agency has given the railroad a Sept. 19 deadline to submit more details of dust controls at the facility. Railroad...
Production and sales at the Fort Knox Gold Mine dipped slightly in the first two quarters of 2007. The mine northeast of Fairbanks produced 176,644 ounces of gold over the first six months of the year for a decline of about 1.5 percent from the same period last year, according to preliminary figures released Aug. 2 by the Toronto-based Kinross Gold Corp., the parent company of Fairbanks Gold Mining Inc., which operates Fort Knox. The mine earned $63.7 million in revenue in the second quarter of 2007, down 8 percent from the...
Owners of the Kensington mine announced in mid-August that it has finished building nearly all the facilities that it needs to begin operations. But plans for a disposal facility for a slurry containing millions of tons of mine waste into a small lake are still on hold, the Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. said. The federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in May that the Idaho-based company's plan to pour the waste into Lower Slate Lake violates the Clean Water Act. The 23-acre lake is in the Tongass National Forest and drains...
The developer of the Kensington gold mine near Juneau has agreed to pay more than $100,000 to settle violations of the federal Clean Water Act, federal officials announced Jan. 18. Coeur Alaska Inc. will pay an $18,334 penalty to the Environmental Protection Agency for allowing construction sediment and debris to run into nearby creeks during heavy rainfall in 2005. The company also has agreed to spend $90,000 for wetlands property near Juneau that will be protected from development. EPA officials said turbidity from storm...
More studies are needed before a copper and gold mine is reopened upstream from Juneau, Alaska, environmental groups have asserted in a lawsuit against the Canadian government. Opponents of the Tulsequah Chief project in the Taku River watershed, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have said punching the 100-mile road through one of the largest roadless areas on the continent and reopening the mine could damage or wipe out the protected East Atlin caribou herd. The case filed Aug. 23 by the Sierra Legal Defense Fund on behalf...
A Canadian mining exploration company with projects scattered throughout Alaska said it plans to seek coal in the sleepy community of Chickaloon. Full Metal Minerals (USA) Inc. was the sole bidder for about 35 square miles of coal leases put up for sale by the Alaska Mental Health Trust. The total number of leases offered for sale by the trust covered nearly 47 square miles off the section of the Glenn Highway about 40 miles north of Palmer. Some residents in the lightly populated area fear their backyard wilderness will be s...
Bristol Bay tribal leaders are tracking a dispute over where to dump waste from a gold mine in Southeast Alaska, fearing the outcome will set a precedent that could harm the rivers they fish. Seven Alaska Native village corporations have signed a resolution supporting the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, one of three environmental groups who sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over permits issued to the Kensington gold mine, which is slated to begin operations in late 2007. The environmental groups claim the corps'...
A worldwide shortage of industrial tires is pushing up costs for Alaska's mining industry, just as soaring metal prices are fueling the sector's resurgence. The fast-growing economies of China and India combined with demand from the U.S. military and mining companies has led to a shortage of big tires, which costs tens of thousands of dollars. The shortage will likely continue for several years, vendors and mining executives said. Fort Knox, the state's largest gold mine, is wrapping chains around the giant tires its...
The Alaska House Special Committee on Fisheries took up consideration Jan. 20 of House Bill 328, a bill that would prohibit mixing zones in freshwater spawning streams. (See related story on page 3 of this issue.) Mixing zones are used throughout the state, mainly by municipal wastewater treatment plants, seafood processors and some placer mines. State officials are confident newly revised, but controversial, Department of Environmental Conservation mixing zones regulations will protect Alaska's fish, including freshwater...
Aerial surveys released by the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys could help identify areas worth exploring for minerals. Four surveys released Jan. 23 fall short of offering a bull's eye for exploration companies, but help pinpoint promising sites, according to state geologist Melanie Werdon. Werdon said a "pretty hot mineral target area" borders a previously studied section that includes the Pogo gold mine northeast of Delta Junction. The Black Mountain area contains rock formations and gold-related...
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys said the industry topped $1 billion in expenditures and earnings for the ninth straight year. The mining industry paid nearly $27 million to the State of Alaska and municipalities in 2004, an increase of $8 million from the previous year, the report said. Revenue from mining license taxes more than tripled from 2003, largely due to profitability of zinc extraction at Red Dog Mine near Kotzebue. The mining industry contributed more than...
Alaska environmental regulators have cited the Kensington Mine for alleged water-quality violations caused by erosion and runoff at its construction site. Mine developer Coeur Alaska has until Nov. 25 to come into compliance with the law, according to the citation issued Nov. 10. Failing to comply could lead to civil penalties, or if the mine is found to be criminally negligent, as much as $200,000 in fines, state officials said Nov. 10. The violation notice stems from a Nov. 3 inspection that was prompted by complaints from...
A Homer electric cooperative is eyeing the closed Healy Clean Coal Plant as a future source of power. The $300 million state-owned plant, located 78 miles southwest of Fairbanks, was built in the mid 1990s to tap the Usibelli Coal Mine and demonstrate environmentally conscious coal-burning technology. The state shut down the plant after the Golden Valley Electric Association, which tested the facility, refused to operate or buy it, saying the plant was "fatally flawed." Now Homer Electric Association Inc. is hoping the...
A reclusive prospector panning for gold in the Quesnel River in British Columbia found something far more rare, the fossilized cannon bone of a deer, and kept it a secret for years, experts say. The artifact found by Ben Miller, a fossilized support bone from the shank, is jet black and hard as a hammer, said Norm Canuel, a local archaeologist who has been on digs from Peru to Alaska. "It is rare to find anything like that," Canuel said. "Once I found the fossil of a shrimp in the Nechako (a valley in far northern British...
Barrick Gold Corp. has acquired an 11 percent stake in Northwest Territories diamond explorer Diamondex Resources Ltd., Canada's biggest gold producer said May. 18. Barrick said it acquired 7.55 million units of Diamondex for 90 cents cash each in a private placement, a deal worth an estimated $6.8 million. Each unit was made up of a common share and a purchase warrant that gives the company the right to buy another Diamondex share for $1.25 for the next two years. Barrick said it has the right to nominate one director to...
Prosecutors have opened a criminal case into alleged misappropriation of property at the Russian state diamond monopoly Alrosa, officials said May 14. The case, opened May 13, concerns the misappropriation of property worth more than 153 million rubles (US$5.8 million), said Sergei Marchenko, a spokesman for the Moscow prosecutor's office. He said the investigation would include a full probe into the finances and business activities of Alrosa. The Interfax news agency quoted a source close to the inquiry as saying that a numb...
Are there diamonds buried in Minnesota? The head of the University of Minnesota's geological survey says the science of diamond exploration has improved dramatically in recent years - and Minnesota is favorable ground. University geologists and an Australian mining company last fall quietly crisscrossed Minnesota, searching the soil for clues that might lead them to stores of precious minerals - including diamonds. But whether the precious stones are anywhere to be found won't be known for awhile. The university signed a...
The proposed Kensington gold mine near Juneau would disrupt Steller sea lion populations but wouldn't jeopardize the species, federal regulators said in a late March finding. The decision by the National Marine Fisheries Service bodes well for Coeur Alaska's proposed Kensington gold mining operation, which wants to use Berners Bay as a transportation corridor for its workers and materials. The finding allows other agencies to complete their permits for the mine. The finding that the mine won't threaten the existence of...
Mary Pat Wyatt was dismayed when she began assessing the assortment of objects that would become the first collection of the Juneau-Douglas City Museum. With a background in art history and sculpture, and stints at the Smithsonian Institution and the Anchorage Historical and Fine Arts Museum, Wyatt was used to baskets, ivory and finely sewn moccasins. What she found in Juneau was wrenches, lots of them. Old, greasy, mass-manufactured wrenches left over from the town's mining boom. "One of the first things I did was create...
