The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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It would put a halt to activity around mining in Alaska." That's what Cynthia Carroll, president and CEO of global mining giant Anglo American plc, had to say about the Clean Water Initiative when asked about the proposal currently working its way to the ballot in Alaska. Carroll made the comment at the Sheraton Anchorage Hotel Oct. 24, after speaking to members of the Resource Development Council about the proposed 8.2 billion-ton Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum mine. Anglo...
The early indications are that this year's Alaska Miners Association convention will be the best attended in recent memory. The present economic climate of consistent high demand for commodities and the associated rise in the price of product has permitted the industry, which was in the doldrums for many years, to find firm footing in Alaska. Among many other positive factors is that we have a lot of land that is not owned by the federal government, so the machinations of...
North of 60 Mining News has appointed a new management team led by contractor Rose Ragsdale and Shane Lasley. The changes follow the departure of former Editor-in-Chief Sarah Hurst. Veteran journalist Rose Ragsdale has been appointed contract editor-in-chief of Mining News after serving for three years as a freelance contributor to the newspaper. Ragsdale, a longtime Alaska reporter and editor, also serves as a regular freelance contributor and contract writer for Petroleum News, a sister publication. Shane Lasley, former...
U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, spoke out at a congressional hearing Oct. 18 on issues facing the state under the Clean Water Act. The hearing before the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, which Young chairs, examined the successes and challenges of the law in the 35 years since it was enacted, touching on court battles over two Alaska mines and a park in Fairbanks. Alaska contains 63 percent of the total wetland acreage in the United States (excluding Hawaii), according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Se...
Steve Borell, longtime executive director of the Alaska Miners Association, sat down to discuss the state of the industry recently. Borell expressed optimism and excitement about the industry's future in Alaska. But he raised several red flags that Alaska officials and others should consider in future policy making discussions. The following is excerpted from his remarks during an Oct. 3 interview. Mining News: What do you see as the future of the mining industry in Alaska in the short term and the long term? Steve Borell:...
The Canadian government has undertaken a $150 million initiative to streamline Canada's regulatory system tha will protect the environment and improve the competitiveness of Canada's resource industries. By creating a new Major Projects Management Office, announced Oct. 1, Canada aims to improve coordination within Canada's regulatory system by providing industry with a single, efficient point of entry into the federal process. "Our government is taking action and reducing red tape to give Canada's natural resources industry...
If Newmont Mining Corp., the world's second largest gold producer, succeeds in its $1.52 billion takeover of Vancouver, B.C.-based Miramar Mining Corp., the major will gain control of one of the largest undeveloped gold projects in North America. Miramar owns the Hope Bay Project in Nunavut Territory, which has a 10.7 million-ounce gold resource about 99 miles north of the Arctic Circle and about 434 miles northeast of Yellowknife, NWT. Miramar planned to start construction this year and achieve annual output up to 600,000...
Vancouver-based Andover Ventures Inc. launched an aggressive acquisition and exploration campaign when it entered Alaska in the spring of 2006, starting with a $42 million deal with Full Metal Minerals on the Kamishak property in southwest Alaska. Today, the ambitious junior holds interests in eight Alaska mining properties, less than two years after incorporation. Six of the properties are located in Southwest Alaska, one in the Nome mining district and, arguably, the most...
Tom Henderson has been promoted to general manager for Coeur Alaska as the operator of the Kensington Gold Mine moves toward production, parent company Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. said Oct. 18. Henderson, who has served as mine manager for Kensington since late 2006, will replace Tim Arnold effective Nov. 1. After overseeing construction of the Kensington Mine Project, Arnold is leaving his post as Coeur Alaska vice president and general manager to pursue other opportunities, the company said. Henderson previously worked as a...
Two of Canada's westernmost governments are moving forward with power transmission projects aimed at bringing lower cost energy and jobs to rural residents while spurring mine development in remote areas. British Columbia and Yukon Territory announced progress in October on separate public-private partnerships pursuing the power projects. B.C. government said Oct. 1 it would pursue the Northwest Transmission Line project, a C$400-million extension of B.C.'s electrical grid into the remote northwest region of the province...
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation Division of Water said it submitted a revised application to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Oct. 15 for authority to permit wastewater discharges in Alaska in lieu of EPA's Seattle-based permitting program. The Alaska Legislature approved a measure in 2005 that authorized DEC to seek primacy in issuing the permits in the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Program under provisions of the Clean Water Act. DEC submitted an initial application in June 2006...
Average base salaries paid to mining site workers in Canada climbed 3.8 percent since 2006, according to findings of an independent annual survey. In addition, 80 percent of the staffers were eligible for short-term cash incentives this year, compared with 73 percent in 2006, reported Coopers Consulting Ltd. and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in the "2007 Mining Industry Salary Surveys." The average bonus paid in 2007 climbed to 16 percent of base salaries, compared with 13 percent a year earlier. Chief executive officers of...
Vancouver, B.C.-based NovaGold Resources is progressing rapidly with its Rock Creek and Galore Creek projects - and it looks like the company might get some support from an unexpected quarter. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals held a hearing Sept. 26 in a lawsuit brought by a Nome citizens' group against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and a permit it issued for Rock Creek, and at least one of the three judges was adamantly in favor of the mine. Judge Andrew Kleinfeld repeatedly interrupted attorney Brian Litmans, who with...
Sherwood Copper, a Vancouver-based junior mining company, has found success with a little-used geophysical method known as Gradient Array Induced Polarization survey at its Minto Mine in central Yukon Territory. GAIP is less expensive and provides quicker results than other IP surveys, but has the drawback of not being able to provide information on the depth of the mineralization found. This is not a problem in an area like Minto where the geology is well known, according to...
St. Andrew Goldfield Ltd. announced Oct. 10 that it is temporarily suspending production at the Nixon Fork Gold Mine northeast of McGrath. The news came on the heels of Jacques Perron, 46, joining the Ontario-based mining company as president and CEO. Perron, a 25-year Canadian mining veteran who has held key management positions at IAMGOLD Corp., Cambior Inc., Noranda Inc. and Placer Dome Inc., visited Nixon Fork shortly after taking the job at St. Andrew. Steve Borell,...
Gold Crest Mines Inc., a Spokane, Wash.-based junior gold exploration company, reported promising results Oct. 8 from its 2007 exploration drilling campaign at the Kisa Project in the Kuskokwim Mineral Belt of southwest Alaska. Organized a little over a year ago by a group of mining industry veterans, Gold Crest has a wholly owned Alaska subsidiary, Kisa Gold Mining Inc. It is KGMI that began exploring about 93,500 acres in three different and distinct areas of Alaska in late 2006. KGMI has established 14 claim groups in two...
The Ester Gold Camp, a historic landmark as well as an excellent place to spend a night out if you are in the Fairbanks area during the summer, announced that it will not open for the 2008 summer season due to planned renovations. "The camp is old and needs a lot of restoration. There is not enough good weather during the off season in Fairbanks to do everything that needs to be done," owner Rick Winther said. Ester Gold Camp's owners also say they will rethink their business...
A rich piece of Alaska's gold mining history is sitting in a dump in Tok after being demolished because the Bureau of Land Management deemed it dangerous. The Jack Wade Dredge at Mile 86 of the Taylor Highway was dismantled last month. The abandoned dredge sat on the bank of Jack Wade Creek for 72 years and was a popular tourist attraction on the 160-mile road from Tok to Eagle. "People loved to camp at it and to pan for gold there," said Robin Hammond, the postmaster in the small mining town of Chicken a few miles south of...
The results from Alaska's summer field campaigns continue to pour in from all over the state, while field crews wind down their summer work and kick off their winter programs. If the results released this month are any indication of what is yet to come, 2008 is fixing to be one heck of a year! Western Alaska NovaGold Resources announced that initial testing of their crushing circuit had commenced at their commissioning Rock Creek gold mine near Nome. The operation is...
Redcorp Ventures Ltd. and subsidiary Redfern Resources Ltd., said they received approval from the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office for proposed design and infrastructure changes to the original mine plan of Tulsequah Chief Mine Development Project The Vancouver-based junior is working to reopen Tulsequah Chief, an underground zinc-copper-lead-gold-silver mine near the B.C.-Alaska border that closed in 1957. Redfern is developing a project with 5.4 million metric tons in probable reserves to be produced in 8 ye...
A Canadian federal court slapped Imperial Metals Corp. in September with a significant regulatory setback in its bid to develop the copper-and gold-rich Red Chris project in northwest British Columbia. But the results of its 2007 drilling program and some progress toward bringing power to the property gave the mid-tier mining company some good news. Located 280 miles north of Smithers, B.C., and 11 miles southeast of the village of Iskut, the Red Chris porphyry copper-gold deposit is considered one of the most...
Federal regulators withdrew approval in late September for a permit that would allow the release of treated wastewater from Alaska's largest mine into waterways near the village of Kivalina, a Northwest Alaska village located 66 miles downstream from the mine. The Environmental Protection Agency says the five-year wastewater discharge permit it issued in March was partly flawed because it used old data on water use and dust emissions at the Red Dog zinc-lead mine in northwest Alaska. An EPA internal review board in...
