The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 1 - 11 of 11
The decision was taken months ago, but now the reasons for it have been explained. Nothing the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has said in its May 22 ruling on Kensington mine is likely to bring encouragement to the project's developers or employees whose livelihoods have been put at risk, but at least now Idaho-based Coeur d'Alene Mines can start to analyze the judges' objections. Juneau Native corporation Goldbelt also suffers from the ruling, which vacated its permit to construct a marine terminal for the transportation of...
Alaska's summer exploration season is in full swing with strong budgets on a number of projects around the state. Alaska's mines also weighed in with strong quarterly results as metal prices remain strong. The hot spots in the state this month include Southeast Alaska, Interior Alaska and the Alaska Range but don't think that silence means there is nothing going on! We are entering the period where everyone has his nose to the ground and has little time for news releases or...
Two Vancouver-based companies have announced a partnership to develop British Columbia's largest mining project, Galore Creek, just across the border from Alaska. NovaGold Resources, which has been developing the copper-gold project for the past four years, will go 50-50 with Teck Cominco, the operator of Red Dog and Pogo mines in Alaska, and Highland Valley and Elk Valley mines in British Columbia. To earn its 50 percent interest, Teck Cominco will fund approximately US$478 million in construction costs at Galore Creek,...
Current nickel prices may be the icing on the cake for rapidly growing Toronto-based Pure Nickel Inc. As Nevada Star Resources Corp. joined the company in a reverse takeover this spring and became Pure Nickel, prices for the shiny metal hurtled skyward. More than tripling in the past 14 months, nickel prices will remain under upward pressure this year, according to industry analysts. Booming demand, especially from China, will spur consumption to exceed production for a second consecutive year, causing nickel cash prices to...
Usually when agencies try to assess the environmental risks of an abandoned mine, they're looking for a particular result: they want to hear that the risks aren't serious enough to merit an expensive cleanup program. In the case of the Salt Chuck mine on southeast Alaska's Prince of Wales Island, the jury is still out. The U.S. Forest Service will soon be considering a report by San Francisco-based URS Corp., geologist Nancy Darigo said in a presentation at the Northern Latitudes Mining Reclamation Workshop in Juneau May 15....
After removing a strongly worded criticism of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, Alaska's House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution encouraging Coeur d'Alene Mines to pursue all legal avenues that would enable it to proceed with developing Kensington gold mine near Juneau. Construction of the mine's tailings facility has been halted by a pending ruling from the 9th Circuit Court in favor of a coalition of environmental groups. The Senate also passed the resolution with a vote of 17-2. The author of House Joint...
The mining industry in British Columbia surpassed itself in 2006, with revenues at an all-time high, according to the annual survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Net income for companies active in the province totaled C$2.3 billion, by far the highest amount since the survey was first published in 1968, and an increase of C$507 million on the previous year's figure. The average number of people employed in British Columbia's mining sector increased from 7,071 in 2005 to 7,345 in 2006. The latest survey covered 17 operating...
Though environmentalists appear to be fighting to curtail logging in the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska, the stakes are much bigger, according to concerned Alaskans. The battle currently being waged in and out of the courts is actually aimed at stopping all resource development within the 16 million-acre forest, they say. "The opposition to the Tongass is focused on cutting the trees," said Steve Borell, executive director of the Alaska Miners Association. "But as soon as logging is dead, they will refocus on...
Alaska's newest mine has a new general manager, just a few months after shipping its first gold doré. Cliff Nelson, 51, replaces William Burnett at Nixon Fork, a historic underground mine near McGrath. Burnett first worked at Nixon Fork as a mine geologist from 1995 until it shut down in 1999. He returned a couple of years ago as general manager with Mystery Creek Resources, a subsidiary of Ontario-based St. Andrew Goldfields, hoping to see the refurbished mine through to commercial production. Neither Burnett nor Nelson...
Buoyed by the purchase of Bema Gold, Toronto-based Kinross is also happy with the performance of the Fort Knox mine near Fairbanks. Even a seep from the tailings dam that could potentially have damaged that mine's near-pristine environmental record can be viewed as a successful example of protective measures being put into action. In the first quarter of 2007, Kinross reported net earnings of $68.5 million, compared to net earnings of $8.9 million in the same period last year. Gold production was up 7 percent compared with th...
Taking recommendations from shareholder Teck Cominco, Toronto-based Tahera Diamond Corp. is making rapid changes to its operations at the newly opened Jericho mine in Nunavut. For now, the cost of producing diamonds far exceeds their value, according to Tahera's first quarter report. The value of production in that period was US$6.4 million, compared with a cash operating cost of $17.1 million. Jericho processed 171,000 metric tons of ore in the first quarter of 2007, at an average grade of 0.44 carats per ton, resulting in p...
