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
Stornoway Diamond Corp. and Teck Cominco Ltd. have uncovered promising kimberlites in separate exploration programs in Nunavut Territory this summer. Stornoway, one of Canada's leading diamond hunters, announced discovery Aug. 23 of a new kimberlite pipe at the Aviat Project, the company's northernmost venture in eastern Nunavut. Teck Cominco discovered four new kimberlites during its first drilling campaign on the Darby Project, bringing to nine the total number of kimberlites uncovered so far on the 685,000-acre property,...
State environmental regulators say the Alaska Railroad is proposing insufficient measures to prevent black dust from spreading from its coal loading facility in Seward. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation cited the state-owned railroad for two emissions violations in April after scores of residents complained of heavy emissions during a prolonged spell of dry, windy weather last winter. The agency has given the railroad a Sept. 19 deadline to submit more details of dust controls at the facility. Railroad...
Even though the concept of global warming is a welcome idea to many companies working in Alaska, its effects are not being felt fast enough to allow companies to complete all of the work they had hoped to finish in 2007. Drills are still turning all over the state, but the first signs of "termination dust" are showing on the higher peaks and the smell of fermenting berries fills the air, giving us all a not-so gentle prod to get ready for winter. Western Alaska Teck Cominco...
Village corporation leaders in the Bristol Bay region reacted angrily the week of Sept. 16 to remarks made by Rep. Jay Ramras, a Fairbanks Republican, suggesting that Northern Dynasty Mines paid area Native leaders, business owners and elected officials to support the Pebble Mine project. Ramras recently visited the Pebble project as a guest of Northern Dynasty. He said he arranged a trip to some of the local villages in an effort "to see the other side of the story." What he...
The University of Alaska Mining and Petroleum Training Services is launching a new program at the University of Alaska Southeast this fall aimed at training a new generation of miners. The MAPTS Training Center is a direct result of growing demand for trained mining personnel in Southeast. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Aug. 28 and classes are scheduled to begin Oct. 15. The center is offering a five-week, entry-level mine training course. Three courses formerly taught...
Kivalina residents chased away by flood warnings began trickling back home early Sept. 14 after the season's first storm died down, ending its assault on a frail seawall guarding the northwest coastal village. Wave action from the storm began eroding the shoreline, threatening to wash away parts of the village, which is located about 80 miles north of Kotzebue near the Red Dog Mine and creating the potential for an oil spill from the Alaska Village Electrical Cooperative fuel tank farm. About 85 percent of Kivalina's 330 resi...
Coeur D'Alene Mines Corp., owner and operator of the Kensington Gold Project near Juneau, has agreed to work with Southeast Alaska environmental groups on a new plan to dispose of the proposed mine's tailings. Coeur D'Alene CEO Dennis Wheeler told the Juneau Chamber of Commerce Aug. 30 that the company will accept an invitation from the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, Sierra Club Alaska Chapter, and Lynn Canal Conservation to work together to allow Kensington to begin production by developing temporary and permanent...
A quest by Teck Cominco Alaska Inc. to expand operations at the Red Dog Mine in northwestern Alaska is moving forward as regulators prepare to conduct a series of public scoping meetings Oct. 2-5 in affected communities. Red Dog, the world's largest producer of zinc concentrate, began production in 1989. It is located 82 miles north of Kotzebue on land owned by NANA Regional Corp., the Alaska Native regional corporation for northwest Alaska. Current mining of Red Dog's main deposit is scheduled to wind down between 2010 and...
With project financing under way and initial construction of a 15-mile access road completed, Yukon Zinc Corp. is loping toward a production decision in October that could see the silver-rich Wolverine project in southeastern Yukon Territory become the region's next significant zinc-silver mine. Since outlining its development plans in a feasibility study in January, the Vancouver, B.C.-based junior has made dramatic progress toward constructing a 1,400-tonne-per-day underground mine and mill plant to develop the...
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals indicated in late August that it may be willing to resurrect the waste disposal plan for the Kensington Gold Mine Project that a three-judge panel rejected in May. The appeals court asked SEACC, Sierra Club and Lynn Canal Conservation, who are plaintiffs in the case, to respond by October to an appeal of the earlier ruling against mine developer Coeur D'Alene Mines Corp., which had proposed a plan for disposing of treated tailings plan that involved Lower Slate Lake. The request seemed...
Niblack Mining Corp. Sept. 20 announced the start of portal construction and tunneling at its copper-zinc-gold-silver Niblack Project in southeast Alaska. Niblack Mining, a Vancouver, B.C.-based junior exploration company, is pursuing an advanced underground exploration project at Niblack, which is located off Moira Sound on southeastern Prince of Wales Island about 30 miles southwest of Ketchikan The underground program, which will cover 6,000 feet of tunnel development, is designed to provide drill access to areas beneath...
Sherwood Copper Corp. has completed phase 1 construction of the Minto copper-gold mine ahead of schedule and essentially on budget, while production continues to ramp up at the central Yukon Territory mine. Sherwood, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based junior mining company, expects to recover 300 million pounds of copper, 122,000 ounces of gold and 1.8 million ounces of silver from Minto over the life of the original mine plan. The operation's mill is currently undergoing commissioning and is expected to ramp up to full...
A joint panel created by the governments of British Columbia and Canada has ruled against the Kemess North copper-gold mine project as currently proposed by Northgate Minerals Corp., saying the project would not be in the public's interest, B.C. officials announced Sept. 17. "In the panel's view, the economic and social benefits provided by the project, on balance, are outweighed by the risks of significant adverse environmental, social and cultural effects, some of which may not emerge until many years after mining...
Vancouver-based Freegold Ventures is exploring claims in three Alaska locations this season - Golden Summit near Fairbanks, Rob in the Goodpaster Mining District, and Vinasale near McGrath, the company's latest venture in the state. At Golden Summit, Freegold has finished setting up a gravity-based processing plant, which will process 28,000 tons or more of material before winter sets in, Freegold President and CEO Steve Manz told Mining News in a recent interview. At Rob,...
