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 largest mine and the world's largest producer of zinc counters its national top ranking by the Environmental Protection Agency for toxic releases, saying that the agency's decision to count naturally occurring metals contained in unmilled rock is misleading. According to the latest Toxic Release Inventory report issued by EPA, Red Dog received the dubious honor of topping the nationwide list, due to the amount of metals considered toxic which naturally occur in rock at the remote mine site. For the 2002 report to...
Golden Summit gave up some of its glory in high-grade gold samples taken during a 4,900-foot drill program completed this spring at the gold property about 25 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska. Partners in the hard-rock property, Freegold Ventures and Meridian Gold, released assay results July 7 from six core holes. The best results included a 10.5-foot interval that assayed 0.449 ounces of gold per ton, and a two-foot interval that measured 0.968 ounces. Gold mineralization was "in the form of fine grained and visible free...
Two Fairbanks-based exploration geologists trapped in a remote camp threatened by a huge wild-lands fire burning out of control in Alaska's Interior were rescued by a helicopter pilot dispatched from the Pogo construction camp. Shortly after their air extraction, the fire burned through the ridge-top camp, destroying eight camp structures and some equipment, Sam Dashevsky, head of Northern Associates Inc., told Mining News on July 8. His Fairbanks-based geological consulting firm was working out of the camp, first set up and...
The evidence continues to indicate that British Columbia's mining industry is on the road to recovery. Exploration spending edged up last year to C$55 million, from C$40 million in 2002 and a rock-bottom C$25 million in 1999, although the B.C. Mining Association has set a C$100 million target for the province to replace mines that will shut down over the next few years. But the feared demise of the industry just four years ago has been postponed. At that time, the province was in dire straits after losing an estimated C$750...
A proposal to create Canada's fourth largest gold miner has unraveled, with shareholders of Iamgold rejecting a controversial C$2.3 billion merger with Wheaton River Minerals. Iamgold shareholders voted 58 percent against the plan July 6, reviving what had already been a tangled ownership battle involving two U.S.-based companies. Denver-based Golden Star had previously launched a C$1.1 billion hostile bid for Iamgold and Idaho-based Coeur d'Alene Mining, the largest U.S. silver producer, had offered C$3 billion in cash and...
In the final hot and dry days of June, the Boundary wild lands fire was burning its way across rolling hills in Alaska's Interior three to five miles from the Fort Knox gold mine, although workers couldn't see its proximity due to smoke shrouding the area. Weather conditions changed on July 4, with shifting winds and cooling temperatures causing the fire to shift directions. That gave Fort Knox's general manager John Wild a view of how close the fire came to the mine and mill site, about 25 miles northeast of Fairbanks. "It...
As anyone can tell you who has tried recently to locate geologists, drill rigs and helicopters, Alaska is not the place to search for any of these commodities. Mineral exploration and development in Alaska is clipping along at a pace not seen in more than five years and in the process, these activities have sucked up just about all of the people, rigs and aircraft in the state. Exploration and development projects are spread from Nome to Ketchikan, the Brooks Range to...
Canada's diamond industry has had its wings clipped, just as it was taking flight. The Yellowknife operations of Sirius Diamonds and Arslanian Cutting Works NWT, holding a combined C$17.2 million in government loan guarantees, were forced into interim receivership in mid-June, triggering an emergency response from the Northwest Territories government. The plants employed about 90 people. The territorial government said June 23 it would continue to backstop Arslanian, by introducing new partners and ensuring that the firm's...
Alaska state and federal regulators overseeing the proposed Kensington Gold Mine project 45 miles northwest of Juneau have released draft permits, public notices and state decisions for public review and comment. Released on June 21 were draft permits for water discharges and wetlands disturbances, released by the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Alaska regulators also released draft decisions for two tideland leases for marine terminal facilities, a temporary road closure, road...
The skies north of Lake Iliamna in southwest Alaska are buzzing with helicopters that are supporting numerous drill crews working on exploration projects at and surrounding the Pebble gold-copper-molybdenum-silver deposit. Leading this summer's activity is Northern Dynasty, a Hunter Dickinson managed mine-development company, which holds options to acquire a 100 percent interest in 36 mineral claims that host the Pebble deposit. Northern Dynasty bumped up this year's spending plan for Pebble to a total of $25 million in U.S....
Already a giant-sized deposit containing lots of gold, silver and copper, Galore Creek's allure is in its undefined expansion potential, according to the property's developer. NovaGold Resources and its Canadian subsidiary, SpectrumGold, have started drilling work this summer to find out how much more of those precious metals remain to be discovered. Three drill rigs are currently turning at the remote Galore Creek, a gold-silver-copper porphyry deposit optioned by the Vancouver, British Columbia, junior last year. Last...
Despite a permitting delay to restart mining in the underground, shuttered Nixon Fork gold-copper mine in central Alaska, developers hope to begin producing gold from existing mine tailings this fall. Mystery Creek Resources Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of publicly traded, Toronto-based St. Andrew Goldfields Ltd., submitted to regulators this spring a new five-year plan of operations for Nixon Fork, 35 miles northeast of McGrath, Alaska. The mine has been mothballed for the last five years, and will require substantial...
In addition to its Pebble South property, Full Metal Minerals is actively working on two other exploration properties in Alaska this summer. The Vancouver, British Columbia, junior began drilling in mid June on its Gunsite gold copper porphyry property north of Anchorage in the Talkeetna Mountains. The company also plans two phases of drilling at its Ganes Creek property in the west-central portion of Interior Alaska. Full Metal holds an 85 percent interest in the 65-kilometer Ganes Creek property. The company plans a first p...
The partnership between Vancouver, British Columbia, junior Rimfire Minerals and global mining giant AngloGold (U.S.A.) Exploration continues to grow, as the two companies announced in late June their third property option agreement for a prospect near the Pogo area. Now optioned by AngloGold, the Beverly claim group is on the eastern boundary of the Pogo project in the upper Goodpaster River Valley in Interior Alaska, a high-grade gold deposit being developed by Teck Cominco and Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. "From a geological...
