The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 1 - 14 of 14
Alaska's newest mine, Nixon Fork, produced its first gold doré in January. The doré is being shipped via Fairbanks to Xstrata's Horne smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. Mechanical delays which were encountered during the commissioning process have been overcome and the gold mill is now operating at a capacity of 150 tons per day, Ontario-based St. Andrew Resources said in a release Jan. 25. The next phase of the upgrade of the metallurgical circuit is under way, with the commencement of the installation of a cyanide leach c...
BcMetals Corp.'s plans to develop its potentially lucrative Red Chris copper-gold project in northern British Columbia may be moot now that Imperials Metals Corp. is the apparent winner of a recent bidding war for the Vancouver, B.C.-based mining company. But the ambitious junior's plans got a big boost in January when British Columbia Transmission Corp., the crown corporation responsible for the province's power transmission lines, said it will move ahead with construction of a proposed extension of its Northwest...
Okay, the lull is over. It lasted about 25, maybe 30 minutes, after I wrote those prophetic but ill-considered words in late January! Shortly after that point I was in Vancouver for the annual Cordilleran Roundup mining conference, an annual barometer of mining activity in western North America if not the world. What I saw at the 2007 conference was a crowd well in excess of 5,000, populated by two types of people: those who were smiling from ear to ear and those whose terrified eyes reminded me of a whitetail deer in the...
According to a recent World Trade Center Alaska report, for the 11-month period ending Nov. 30, 2006, mining exports represented more than 25 percent of the state's foreign exports, and foreign exports constituted 10 percent of Alaska's Gross Domestic Product. At $2 billion, mining was second only to seafood and twice the value of petroleum products. With the gas pipeline trailing off over the distant horizon, the role of mining in Alaska's economy during the next decade is destined to increase. Naysayers and NIMBYs should...
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...
Ever since prospectors rushed to the Yukon seeking gold more than a century ago, miners have been guilty of extracting the mineral riches in the North and doing a vanishing act when the veins petered out or prices fell. These miners often left behind environmental messes that occasionally became regulatory nightmares. Now that modern-day prospectors are again venturing to the far North, many of them are seeking out old mining claims. But before new exploration can occur, the old mine sites often must be cleaned up. That's...
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...
From the opening volley last fall in what became a heated bidding war between two Canadian junior mining companies seeking to acquire BcMetals Corp. of Vancouver, B.C., observers couldn't predict what would happen next. But Imperial Metals Corp., also of Vancouver, upped its buyout offer one last time Feb. 2 to C$1.70 a share, valuing BcMetals at just under C$70 million. It proved to be an offer too good to refuse. BcMetals urged shareholders Feb. 14 to tender their securities to the Imperial offer and indicated that...
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...
