The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 1 - 13 of 13
While the jury may still be out when it comes to our new governor, Sarah Palin, it sure seems like she is starting off on the right foot. Every administration must wrestle with the need to recruit high-quality leaders to head up the state's many agencies and departments. First, the best and the brightest must be persuaded to put down their present vocations, usually at a substantial pay cut, to pursue a new direction; next, they are confronted with the dilemma of whether to...
Ahhhh, the calm before the storm! Over the last month the industry slowed and took a collective breath to enjoy friends, family and the holidays in anticipation of another busy year in the Alaska mineral industry. The last month has already seen another new player enter the Alaska mining scene and behind closed doors drilling, helicopter and personnel contracts are being negotiated. The annual Cordilleran Roundup mining convention in Vancouver is right around the corner and promises to be the most exciting conference in over...
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...
Copper Ridge Explorations Inc., owner of various precious and base metals-rich properties in the Yukon Territory, British Columbia and Alaska, is venturing into uranium exploration in the Yukon. The Vancouver, B.C.-based junior mining company reached an agreement with Dawson City prospector Shawn Ryan to acquire 100 percent interest in the Borealis uranium property about 30 miles northeast of that city. Under terms of the option, Copper Ridge will pay $5,000 in cash, spend a minimum of $600,000 on exploration at Borealis,...
Research prepared for mining industry critic Earthworks claims that faulty water quality predictions, and mitigation and regulatory failures are responsible for hard rock mining-related water pollution, primarily in the West. The purpose of the studies, by consultant Jim Kuipers of Butte, Mont., and Boulder, Colo.-based geochemist Ann Maest, was to review the history and accuracy of water quality predictions in environmental impact statements for major U.S. hardrock mines, according to Earthworks. Kuipers and Maest found...
The State of Alaska has established clear ownership of two historic trails in northern Alaska under a settlement reached with federal and Native corporation officials of the state's claim to the trails under federal law RS 2477, a top Palin administration official announced Jan. 11. Members of Alaska's mining industry Jan. 18 applauded the settlement, which ends a lawsuit filed by state officials against the U.S. government nearly two years ago. The suit sought to establish Alaska's clear title to rights of way for the...
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...
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...
BCGold Corp., a Vancouver-based startup launched in February 2006, has grabbed nearly 4 million acres of mineral claims adjacent to and near the Minto and Carmacks (Williams Creek) copper-gold deposits in west-central Yukon. BCGold said Nov. 27 that it entered into a letter of agreement with Shawn Ryan, a Dawson City, Yukon-based prospector and project generator, to acquire 100 percent ownership in 557 mineral claims comprising more than 11,640 hectares, or 3.84 million acres. Ryan staked the properties based on their...
