The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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The gold resource at International Tower Hill's Livengood project has grown by more than 350 percent over the past year. A Jan. 28 resource estimate of 6.8 million ounces of gold makes the project one of the largest new gold discoveries made anywhere in the world in the last decade. International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. President and CEO Jeff Pontius told Mining News the original target of a 7 million-ounce gold resource by mid-year 2009 has been bumped to 8 million ounces...
The Alaska mining industry was relatively quiet over the last month with most of the news coming from programs completed in 2008. In addition, some programs have already started in 2009 but details are not ready for prime time gossip. A couple items that did catch my eye from the bigger world markets underscore the fact that opportunities still exist in this depressed economic climate and serve to magnify the pitfalls of government intervention in the private sector. The...
The hardships that the economic crisis is imposing on Americans across the country at all economic levels and in all regions cannot be overstated. The mining industry is not immune and may have been a bellwether for many as risk capital began to dry up over a year ago anticipating the spreading disaster. The entire horizon is not entirely black, however. Gold as an intuitive store of wealth has continued to hold its ground well, and prognosticators are fairly consistent with their anticipation that gold will pass through the...
The plummet in base metal prices in 2008 will be felt across Alaska and Northwest Canada's mining sectors. Miners of the far north reaches of North America enjoyed a bounty when base metal prices reached record values in 2007, carrying into 2008. The escalation of base metal prices was driven by expanding markets in China and India, as well as a building, retail and technology boom in the West. Mines producing the industrial metals enjoyed unprecedented returns from the ore sh...
Man has used base metals for at least 9,000 years and his ability to make use of these essential metals has gone hand-in-hand with the development of modern civilization. Today, virtually every element of human endeavor involves the use of industrial metals in one form or another. "I generally like to point out to people that when you look around, probably 90 percent of what is above the ground used to be below the ground and got here principally through mining," Hunter...
Producing mines Thompson Creek Metals Co. operates the Endako Mine, a molybdenum producer for more than 40 years. Located near Fraser Lake in northern British Columbia, Endako includes three open pits, a mill and a roasting facility, and is operated as a joint venture, with Thompson Creek holding a 75 percent interest and Japan-based Sojitz Corp. having the remaining 25 percent. The miner produced 25 million to 26 million pounds of moly in 2008. Due to a sharp drop in molybdenum prices last year, Thompson Creek decided...
Producing mines Early in 2008, Tahera Diamond Corp., owner and operator of Jericho Diamond Mine - Canada's third, and Nunavut's first diamond mine - filed bankruptcy and sought creditor protection. Tahera opened the Jericho in 2006 and recovered and processed 155,000 metric tons (average grade of 0.79 carats per metric ton) during the fourth quarter of 2007, resulting in production of 122,500 carats valued at US$11.6 million, compared with US$8.4 million in the third quarter of 2007. However, financial losses were reported...
The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada is set to recognize Richard Garnett and NovaGold Resources Inc. for their role in the discovery and exploration of the multimillion-ounce Donlin Creek gold deposit in Southwest Alaska. The Thayer Lindsley Award for an international mineral discovery will be presented to the explorers March 2 at the organization's 2009 International Convention, Trade Show and Investors Exchange. This annual award, which honors the memory of...
The discovery story of the multimillion-ounce gold deposit at Donlin Creek began in 1909 when prospectors rushed through the region following news that gold had been discovered on the George River about 50 miles to the southwest. For the next 25 years, hand and hydraulic placer mining continued on Donlin Creek in Southwest Alaska. In 1941 Robert Lyman started the modern era of placer mining on Donlin Creek. Signing away his entire winter salary, the hardworking miner put a...
In an effort to discover projects outside Australia's highly competitive mining sector, Perth-based Black Range Minerals Ltd. began investigating the United States for new regions to explore. In 2008, the miner from Down Under narrowed its search to Alaska, discovering a near-production coal project in the Southcentral region of the state. During his recent visit to Alaska, Black Range Minerals Managing Director Mike Haynes told Mining News, "Alaska fell into a group of five...
The Red Dog Mine, the largest zinc producer in North America, posted a loss of US$71 million (after depreciation and pricing adjustment) for the fourth quarter, down dramatically from the US$174 million profit (after depreciation and pricing adjustments) that it reported for the final period of 2007. But mine operator Teck Cominco Ltd. appears to be making the best of a bad situation by planning to ramp up production at the Northwest Alaska lead-zinc mine in 2009 even as it...
Burdens of plummeting base metal prices, a restrictive credit market and the need to repay a multi-billion-dollar bridge loan have prompted Teck Cominco Ltd. to move ahead with sales of its gold assets, including its share of the Pogo underground gold mine in Interior Alaska. During a presentation given at the Macquarie Global Base Metals Outlook Conference 2008 in December, Teck President and CEO Don Lindsay said: "Sale of non-core assets provides another good source of raisi...
