The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 1 - 16 of 16
The U.S. Forest Service, lead regulatory agency overseeing the environmental assessment for the Kensington gold project near Juneau, Alaska, has extended the public comment period by 30 days. The move to close public comment submissions sought by the draft supplemental environmental impact statement on April 7, rather than March 8, came on requests from the Environmental Protection Agency and also from a Juneau-based environmental group.EPA requested additional time to evaluate recently received information about the...
Estimates of $1.05 billion for Alaska's mineral industry value in 2003 were released by state officials on March 9, making it the eighth straight year the industry's value exceeded $1 billion. Rising prices for almost all metals, including gold, silver, zinc, and lead, increased the 2003 value of metal production in Alaska by 2 percent from 2002 levels, according to the annual report released by the state Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys. Contributing heavily to Alaska's mineral industry are the state's three...
Canada's junior mining companies are cash rich for the first time in seven years, having led the way in raising C$3 billion in 2003 to signal the revival of exploration plays along with development and acquisitions both overseas and on the domestic front. The industry has not seen such an influx of cash since the 1997 scandal accompanying the collapse of Bre-X Minerals, followed by a prolonged period of low gold and base metal prices that ended in mid-2003. As a result the stage is set for the liveliest exploration program...
Tom Irwin, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, will be one of the luncheon speakers at the 19th Biennial Conference on Alaska Mining in Fairbanks, beginning March 14 and concluding with a number of mine tours on March 20. Irwin, formerly general manager and a key member of the development team at the Fort Knox gold mine near Fairbanks, will present a speech at the March 15 luncheon, titled "Progress Toward Resource Development." Technical sessions will be held March 15 through 17 at the Westmark...
Contractors hired by developers of the Pogo gold deposit northeast of Delta Junction completed construction of a 50-mile temporary ice road in early February and transportation of fuel and equipment into the remote site should be complete by the later part of March. "Things are moving along well," Karl Hanneman, Teck-Pogo's manager of public and environmental affairs and special projects, told Mining News on March 8. "We have about half of the necessary fuel and equipment mobilized over the road." The freight hauling work,...
John Robertson, president of Vancouver, British Columbia-based Teryl Resources, is focused on raising funds for his company's Fairbanks-area exploration properties. The company offered a private placement of 2 million units at 55 cents per unit in a Feb. 25 release, with a treasury share and a half-warrant attached for every one unit purchased. One warrant is exercisable at 70 cents for one year for additional treasury shares. There is a four-month hold on the treasury shares. The goal is to raise a little more than $1 millio...
Geologists working for NovaGold Resources are going to be busy across the border in northwestern Canada this summer. The company's Canadian subsidiary, SpectrumGold, plans to spend $5 million for its Galore Creek advanced stage exploration project in remote northwestern British Columbia, and up to $1 million on other grassroots properties in the Yukon Territory. Galore Creek is the "new sexy project for NovaGold," said Doug Nicholson, vice president and general manager of NovaGold's Rock Creek gold project near Nome. "We're...
Simmering frustration among British Columbia's miners over the government's failure to settle aboriginal land claims and reduce red tap boiled over March 3 as the industry unloaded on British Columbia Minister of State for Mining Pat Bell. A series of speakers said the industry was paying a heavy price for government cutbacks in gathering geo-science data and other related functions. A recent survey by the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute found 159 mining executives gave the government a poor grade for its policy climate afte...
Anchorage-based Alaska Earth Sciences has transformed the firm's first-ever land acquisition into a lease deal with an exploration upstart, Full Metal Minerals. Alaska Earth, a geological consulting firm with years of experience throughout southwest Alaska, staked a large land position last December adjacent to the Pebble gold-copper-molybdenum deposit. The company negotiated a land lease deal for the 261 state mining claims with Full Metal Minerals, announced in early March. No financial terms were released on the company's...
Alaska's exploration season is well under way with drilling in progress at several locations and planning for the summer season proceeding at a frenetic pace not seen in more than five years. Anyone who has tried to line up a drill rig, a helicopter or a project manager will tell you the same thing: all are in short supply, even at this early point in the year. Projects under way and planned for the coming year include numerous gold projects, several base metal projects, a...
In a 16-page report released in January, the Alaska Minerals Commission made 12 recommendations to the state Legislature and Governor on ways to mitigate constraints on mineral development in Alaska. In addition, the commission identified seven federal issues of concern and made suggestions that the state and/or the governor should pursue to rectify those issues. Recommendations include suggestions involving government regulatory reform, access and infrastructure development, state's rights issues, data acquisition, regional...
State regulatory reform 1. The governor carefully consider the state's report, The State of Alaska Assumption of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. If the program presented is beneficial to the state, pursue and fund state primacy. 2. The administration vigorously defend the new Public Interest Litigant statute against legal challenges. 3. The administration continue to develop more efficient and timely permitting processes, maintaining high quality internal staff, using third party contractors, requiring a...
Diamond core drill rigs started turning in early March on the Golden Summit gold exploration property some 25 miles northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska. Partners in the project, Freegold Ventures Ltd. and Meridian Gold Inc. plan to complete six holes, taking a total of 1,500 meters or almost 5,000 feet of core samples in this first stage of drilling. The holes will be in the vicinity of the historic Cleary Hill Mine, according to Kristina Walcott, mining lands manager for Freegold Ventures, a Vancouver, B.C.-based mineral...
Anglo Swiss Resources, a Vancouver-based junior miner, is moving ahead with plans to reactive the Kenville mine in southeastern British Columbia as it starts gold and gemstone exploration of the property. The company plans a detailed geological evaluation to determine current and prospective ore reserves at Kenville, which produced 2 million grams of gold from 1890 to 1954, making it the 26th largest producer in British Columbia history. Anglo Swiss also owns 16,800 acres in the Slocan Valley that hosts sapphire, iolite and...
Tahera Corp. is within sight of operating the first diamond mine in Canada's Nunavut Territory. The Nunavut Impact Review Board has recommended approval by Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Andy Mitchell of the Jericho project, about 210 miles southwest of Cambridge Bay, near the Northwest Territories border. Toronto-based Tahera has indicated construction of the C$50 million mine will begin in 2005 and the first diamonds will be produced later that year. Based on proven reserves, the mine and processing plant will have an...
Developers of the Rock Creek gold deposit near Nome plan to spend $5 million in 2004 to develop the hard rock deposit, with the ultimate goal of gold production starting in 2006. Vancouver, British Columbia-based NovaGold Resources anticipates releasing a new resource number and geological model later in March, based on last year's 30,000-foot drill program exploration work. The permit process should begin in the second half of 2004, following completion of a feasibility study, according to a company update released March 1....
