The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 1 - 13 of 13
Kutcho Creek is another copper-zinc project in the mineral-dense region of northern British Columbia that is rapidly headed toward development. Among the numerous mines and mining development projects in the area are NovaGold's Galore Creek and bcMetals' Red Chris. The 100 percent-owned Kutcho Project is the sole major asset of Western Keltic Mines Inc. which has spent about C$25 million in the past three years at the property. Well into a C$4.8 million field and construction program this season, the Vancouver-based junior...
Alaska's Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell has denied an application for a statewide ballot initiative submitted by three Bristol Bay residents who are concerned about the possible development of the Pebble project. Parnell followed the advice of the Department of Law in a June 21 memorandum to deny a vote on the Alaska Clean Water Initiative. The proposed law would have placed sweeping restrictions on the state's mining industry. The initiative aimed to prevent Alaska's waters from being "adversely impacted" by new large-scale metallic...
Alaska's Department of Natural Resources issued permits July 3 for Fort Knox gold mine's heap leach project, which will have a total capacity for leaching 161 million tons of ore. The heap leach facility will be in the Walter Creek drainage on about 310 acres of land, and the haul road to the pad will cover another 40 acres. DNR and the Department of Environmental Conservation responded to numerous public comments about the project that offered suggestions and expressed concerns. "The project is based on sound engineering...
The mining industry is concerned about its future in Canada's Northwest Territories in the wake of the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board's decision in May to recommend against a uranium exploration project that was proposed by Manotick, Ontario-based Ur-Energy. The company hopes to explore near Screech Lake in the Upper Thelon River basin. Canada's Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Jim Prentice will now decide whether or not to accept MVEIRB's recommendation. Uranium exploration is quite similar to the dia...
A U.S. District Court judge in Anchorage has dismissed NovaGold's lawsuit against Barrick Gold over the Donlin Creek project where the two companies are joint venture partners. Vancouver-based NovaGold had asserted that Toronto-based Barrick, the world's largest gold producer, breached the terms of the companies' Mining Venture Agreement. Judge Timothy Burgess ruled that Barrick has until Nov. 12, 2007 - the date stipulated in the MVA - to fulfill its obligations on the project, and the company's success or failure cannot be...
Two iron workers died during construction of NovaGold's Rock Creek mine near Nome July 19. Craig Bagley, 27, from Anchorage and Tyler Kahle, 19, from Wisconsin, both worked for Anchorage-based contractor Alaska Mechanical. They were attaching siding to the mill building and fell about 50 feet when the lift basket they were working in tipped over, according to troopers. An investigation of the incident is under way. NovaGold will spend an additional $40 million to complete construction and commissioning of Rock Creek, the...
Coeur Alaska has spent more than $206 million on the development and construction of Kensington gold mine near Juneau, but the economic benefits of the project could soon disappear if the mine doesn't commence operations, a report by the McDowell Group says. The mining company commissioned the report to determine how much Kensington is contributing to the economy of Southeast Alaska. Construction work has been completed on the main 12,000-foot access tunnel at Kensington, with all remaining, non-tailings-related surface facil...
Redfern Resources Ltd., developer of the Tulsequah Chief Project in northwestern British Columbia, is advancing an ingenious and economical way to access the remote mine site. But the idea to build a year-round transportation system that would use Alaska waterways instead of a contentious 96-mile access road to the mine site from Atlin, B.C., is also encountering opposition. Redfern, a subsidiary of Vancouver, B.C.-based Redcorp Ventures Ltd., has been working since the 1990s to re-open Tulsequah Chief, an underground...
Proponents of an Alaska-Canada rail link are thinking big. In a phase 1 feasibility study commissioned by the State of Alaska and the Yukon government and published in June, they estimate that the project would generate 3,000 direct jobs in Alaska's mining sector and 2,300 additional new jobs in other industries. At least 8.8 billion tons of mineral concentrates could be developed in the rail corridor in Alaska over a 30-year period, with a gross metal value of $16.9 billion, according to the study. To illustrate the scale...
The newly rehabilitated Skagway Ore Terminal took delivery July 17 of its first ore concentrate shipments since early 1997. Sherwood Copper Corp. produced the concentrate at the Minto copper-gold mine in the Yukon Territory and hauled it to the terminal by truck. Sherwood is renting about 25 percent of the terminal to store and load its concentrate onto oceangoing bulk carriers bound for a smelter in Asia. Testing of the terminal's rebuilt load-out conveyor went well and the remainder of rehab work on the terminal is...
At the site of Alaska's most controversial mining project, Pebble, near-tranquility reigns. Out on the mossy tundra, surrounded by deep blue lakes and streams, mountains and sky, the drone from the drill rigs and the buzzing of helicopters are the only disturbances. Away from the deposit itself, field crews conduct environmental studies in spots that would be ideal for picnicking, if they weren't so remote. Back in the village of Iliamna, where Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty has its project headquarters, core shack and empl...
It is high summer in Alaska and the wheeling and dealing are nearly as frenetic as the exploration, development and production going on all around the state. New deals continue to be cut on old and new projects while more established projects are being subjected to the "truth machine," otherwise known as the drill. This time-tested application has proven many a cock-sure geologist or engineer dead wrong but that doesn't stop anyone in the industry from picking himself up,...
Alaska's commissioner for the Department of Natural Resources, Tom Irwin, has rejected a petition to designate the Chuitna River watershed as unsuitable for coal mining. The petition was filed by non-profit law firm Trustees for Alaska on behalf of a group of people including the Chuitna Citizens NO-COALition, the Alaska Center for the Environment and Alaskans for Responsible Mining, who had hoped to block the planned Chuitna coal project that is being developed in the area. The petition includes lands exempt from the...
