The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 1 - 18 of 18
The first miners arriving in Alaska 100 years ago focused on enduring the challenging environment, building some basic infrastructure and finding enough gold to survive. Long term environmental consequences were not a high priority. Mining techniques have since changed with awareness, technology and with guidance from evolving regulations designed to ensure adequate protection of the nation's lands while allowing development of natural resources. Since August 2000, developers of the Pogo gold project have been working with...
China's hunger for nickel could force producers to develop a rationing system, an analyst told the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada. Raymond Goldie, with Salman Partners, said supplies are about 6 percent behind demand, pushing the spot price for nickel above US$6 a pound on the London Metal Exchange - the highest level in many years. He said the next 10 years "should be exciting ones" for the nickel explorers and producers, but the "next two or three years could be scary as we are forced to deal with...
Northwest Territories Native leaders have thrown a roadblock in the path of plans for Canada's third diamond mine - the Snap Lake project by De Beers Canada that was expected to open in 2008. Akaitcho and Deh Cho chiefs in the lower Northwest Territories have ruled out another diamond mine until the settlement of their self-government claims is in sight. Chief Peter Liske said the communities are more focused on treaty deals than mine development. Although the First Nations have supported the existing Ekati and Diavik mines,...
Despite lower production from some partially clogged pipes in its mill, Red Dog posted a $38 million profit for the first quarter, a dramatic turnaround from the $8 million loss reported for the same period in 2003. Zinc production rates for Red Dog, the world's largest producer of zinc and Alaska's largest mine, dropped about 10 percent in the first three months of 2004, General Manager Rob Scott said in a telephone interview on April 29. Lead production, more of a secondary mineral, declined about 6 percent, during the...
A large portion of the 269-square mile MAN nickel, copper and PGE property on the south flank of the Alaska Range near Paxson, Alaska, will soon be assessed by proprietary geophysical technology used by Anglo American Exploration (Canada), a subsidiary of global mining giant Anglo American. Anglo signed a joint venture agreement in mid-March with the property's claim staker, Nevada Star Resource Corp., a Vancouver, British Columbia-based junior that has put together a substantial land position in the south Interior Alaska...
The attempt to pin blame in the massive Bre-X Minerals gold fraud drags on, with no hint of compensation for investors who lost an estimated C$3 billion. A long-delayed trial of former Bre-X geologist John Felderhof is now scheduled to resume sometime between late October and early January, but the hearings are not expected to be completed until May 2005. But Felderhof has reportedly been living in Indonesia, the Cayman Islands and Central America. He faces a maximum of two years in jail and C$150 million in fines, but is unl...
The land has been staked - now the major players have taken to the ground to complete geological and geophysical work surrounding the Pebble gold-copper-molybdenum resource near Iliamna, Alaska. Leading the way in terms of spending is Northern Dynasty, which is earning a 100 percent interest in the Pebble resource lands claim block - a 1,440 acre parcel that contains the estimated 26 million ounce gold resource and the 16.5 billion pound copper resource. Northern Dynasty, which conducted extensive drilling at Pebble in 2002...
Gold and copper production at the shuttered underground Nixon Fork mine, about 30 miles northeast of McGrath in central Alaska, may restart at the end of 2004. Mystery Creek Resources Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of publicly traded St. Andrew Goldfields Ltd., submitted a new five-year plan of operations for Nixon Fork to regulators in March. The mine has been closed for five years. Mystery Creek plans to refurbish the existing mill, change the extraction process to allow for gold and silver dory production on-site, drive...
Executives of Ivanhoe Mines have cashed in on stock options to fatten their modest salaries. When shares of the Vancouver-based company took flight last summer, several of the top managers seized the chance to exercise their options. Deputy Chairman Gordon Toll, who made C$261,000 in salary and benefits, unloaded more than 1.2 million stock options for a gain of C$11.35 million. Daniel Kunz, who resigned as president a year ago, collected C$38,000 in salary and benefits before he quit, but cashed in 362,400 options for total...
The Delta Mine Training Center, a non-profit organization based in Delta Junction, Alaska, has finalized a lease with the state for its training property. The 40-acre site about 30 miles east of Delta Junction near the Alaska Highway has been used by the training center under a land use permit, according to Executive Director Whit Hicks. The former rock quarry, first used by the Alaska Department of Transportation for an industrial minerals site, was closed by the state when an archeological site was discovered nearby. Mine...
SpectrumGold signed four property agreements this spring and staked claims surrounding the company's Galore Creek gold-silver-copper deposit in northwestern British Columbia. A 56 percent owned subsidiary of NovaGold Resources, SpectrumGold's tally for new land acquisitions surrounding Galore Creek is 52,450 acres of land. Total acreage in the district now controlled by SpectrumGold is 74,000 acres, according to a company press release issued on April 8. In that release, SpectrumGold announced its agreement to purchase a 100...
Metals prices remain strong and funding for projects large and small is already in place or nearly so as Alaska prepares for the annual summer exploration dance. Exploration drilling on several winter drilling targets has been completed and summer drilling projects are beginning on several others. Mine permitting issues at Pogo have cast a shadow over the otherwise bright picture of Alaska's mining industry but resolution of this problem is expected sooner rather than later...
Kinross Gold and its partner in the Gil project, Teryl Resources, plan exploration this year at the prospect some seven miles east of the Fort Knox gold mine and mill complex. But exploration budget plans have not yet been finalized, according to Teryl's president, John Robertson. He's waiting to hear from planners in Kinross' corporate office to find out what his company's share of exploration spending at Gil will be this year. Kinross holds an 80 percent interest in Gil, and serves as the project's operator. Teryl holds...
All of the first six drill holes punched this spring on Teryl Resources' West Ridge property near Fairbanks, Alaska, encountered anomalous gold mineralization, according to a company press release issued April 28. Drilling work completed between March 16 and April 1 included 2,650 feet of reverse circulation drilling at the Old Glory prospect at West Ridge. Teryl's 100 percent owned West Ridge property is just south of the True North Mine, a Fort Knox satellite mine operated by Kinross Gold from 2001 through early this year....
Operators of the Greens Creek polymetallic mine started surface core drilling in late April, the beginning of a summer long program designed to complete 40,000 feet of drilling at several targets surrounding the underground mine near Juneau, Alaska. The $1.9 million budgeted for surface drilling work this year is the largest surface exploration program at the mine since production began in 1989 at Greens Creek, said Bill Oelklaus, environmental manager. "There are eight different areas around the mine" that will be explored...
A draft feasibility study completed this spring by Nuvista Light & Power Co. recommends construction of a coal-fired electric generation plant at Bethel, Alaska, plus construction of a 191-mile transmission line to the Donlin Creek gold project as the lowest wholesale power cost for the remote southwest Alaska region. Nuvista, a non-profit formed by Calista Corp., the Native corporation in southwest Alaska, is seeking comments through May 7 on the study, which recommends that initial design and permitting work begin on the co...
Looking for a placer gold mine opportunity? Not afraid to travel abroad? Ross Novak of Fairbanks, Alaska, has the perfect opportunity to take over his working placer gold mine with hard rock mineralization outcrops also on site, in West Africa. Four years ago, Novak took the plunge and started up a placer gold mine in the northern part of Benin, a small but politically stable country in West Africa nestled between Nigeria and Togo. Just as gold prices hit their two-decade lows, he made his move to Africa from mining in...
A Fairbanks-based environmental group that appealed a federal water discharge permit issued to developers of the Pogo gold project in mid-March has agreed to withdraw its permit challenge, following meetings with regulators on May 4 and 5. The announcement of the appeal withdrawal came May 5 during a press conference at the governor's office in Fairbanks. Initial meetings between the Northern Alaska Environmental Center and the Environmental Protection Agency May 4 spurred a late night meeting with others involved in the...
