The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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It's been deceptively quiet - with a few notable exceptions - within Alaska's minerals sector this year. Thanks to low metals prices and risk-averse investors, we haven't seen much new mineral exploration in Alaska in 2013. That's after a series of gangbuster years - 2011 set a record for investment in mineral exploration in Alaska. But at the Department of Natural Resources, we remain very bullish on the magnitude of Alaska's exploration potential and the future of Alaska's minerals sector. And we are working hard to make...
The ongoing scarcity of venture capital available to junior companies coupled with a retreat in metals prices has landed a one-two blow that sent mineral exploration spending in Alaska plunging for the second straight year. A handful of big-budget projects scattered across Alaska, though, is softening the hit to exploration spending across the Far North State during 2013. Mineral exploration expenditures in Alaska, which were a meager US$23.8 million in 2001, topped US$365...
Coeur Mining Inc., the new brand for Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp., is emblematic of the transformations the silver-gold mining company has made since Mitchell Krebs' ascent from chief financial officer to president and CEO in 2011. "We have really taken a major overhaul of the business; this work is ongoing and will continue. The status quo, in our view, is just not acceptable and so we have worked at retooling our business over the past couple of years," Krebs explained during...
AEM: TSX / NYSE President and CEO: Sean Boyd Senior Vice President, Operations: Yvon Sylvestre Senior Vice President, Exploration: Alain Blackburn Mid-tier gold producer Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. is focused on its advanced-stage Meliadine project and its Meadowbank Gold Mine located in central Nunavut. The Meliadine project, acquired by Agnico-Eagle in 2010, covers more than 80 kilometers (50 miles) of a greenstone belt, and is one of the company's primary exploration focuses. As of Dec. 31, 2012, Meliadine had reserves of 3 mi...
Led by a petroleum engineer with a 25-year history in the oil and gas industry, Contango ORE Inc., known as Core, may be the most unconventional mineral exploration company working in Alaska. Yet, while most of the company's more orthodox colleagues were unable to raise the venture capital needed to mount significant exploration campaigns during 2013, the Houston, Texas-based junior topped its coffers with a US$14.2 million private placement that closed in March. Core...
AXR:TSX / AXU:NYSE-A President and CEO: Clynton Nauman Executive Vice President and COO: Brad Thrall Vice President, Exploration: Alan McOnie Alexco Resource Corp. is focused on unlocking value in the historic silver-rich Keno Hill district, which covers about 23,350 hectares, or 56,274 acres, in central Yukon Territory and a growing environmental consulting and reclamation and mine closure business. Alexco's primary exploration objective in 2013 was the Flame & Moth and Bermingham properties, as well as targets on the...
The mining industry is worth $8.3 billion to B.C.'s economy and supports thousands of well-paying, secure jobs for families in communities throughout our province. Mining builds communities. All across British Columbia, you will find communities sustained by mining projects. Today, the average salary in the mining industry is more than C$100,000, which provides stability and opportunity to thousands of families. Mining also employs more First Nations people than any other industry in Canada. Training partnerships are...
Market-defying mineral exploration grabbed the spotlight in British Columbia throughout 2013, despite the doldrums that appeared to set in north of the 60th parallel. "British Columbia is blessed with an abundant supply of the resources the world needs and the most innovative mining and exploration sectors," British Columbia Premier Christy Clark touted the phenomenon at the 2013 Mineral Exploration Roundup in January. Still, Clark told the crowd that she doubted B.C. exploration could top the record C$462 million spent in...
Winter has settled upon the mining explorers seeking mineral riches in the vast and underexplored lands of Alaska and northern Canada. Not only the annual return of the short cold days for which these mineral exploration companies are accustomed, but a deeper and longer lasting financial winter that is chilling investments these explorers depend on for equity financings to fund the search for metals that the world needs and wants. The Far North reaches of North America is not...
ARA: TSX-V Interim Chairman, President and CEO: Jason Brewster Chief Financial Officer: Harvey McKenzie Lead Director: Denis Clement Anconia Resources Corp. followed up earlier exploration in 2013 on its Atlas Group of claims located about 170 kilometers (105.4 miles), south of Baker Lake in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut. The Atlas properties, formerly known as the Zac and Marce properties, cover about 35.4 square kilometers (13.7 square miles) and host the Atlas-1 discovery made in 2012 as well as the Zac occurrence and...
The 6.4 million ounces of low-cost silver recovered from the Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska during 2012 is funding growth aspirations at Hecla Mining Co., including a foray into Canada's mining sector. This growth begins with the first silver production from the Lucky Friday Mine since the Idaho operation was put out of commission for safety and operational upgrades at the end of 2011. With the Idaho operation scaling back up to full capacity in 2013, Hecla is looking...
President: Ming An Fu Geologist: Wanjin Yang Anthill Resources Ltd., a privately held mining investment company, is focused on the Einarson Project located in east-central Yukon Territory adjacent to the Rackla Project being explored by Atac Resources Ltd. Multiple Carlin pathfinder anomalies are found here in a Carlin-favorable geological setting. Anthill optioned Einarson, a package of 11,597 claims covering more than 2,400 square kilometers (926 square miles) from Yukon prospector Ron Berdahl who staked it on the premise...
Northwest Territories is a land filled with vast mineral potential, rich in both resources and opportunity. Industry interest in this potential continues to rise and the Government of the Northwest Territories is actively working to ensure resource development is environmentally sustainable and benefits the residents, communities and businesses of the NWT. Currently, four mines are operating in the NWT: Dominion Diamond Corp.'s Ekati Diamond Mine, Rio Tinto's Diavik Diamond Mine, DeBeers' Snap Lake Diamond Mine and North...
Northwest Territories continued to benefit in 2013 from a recent surge of exploration interest. A vast expanse of mountains, forests and tundra that is roughly two-thirds the size of Alaska, the territory covers 1.17 million square kilometers (431,162 square miles). "We have, in the North, what the world wants - what emerging markets need," Northwest Territories Premier Robert "Bob" McLeod told an audience at a Prospects North gathering in Yellowknife Sept. 11. "We are the third-largest diamond producer in the world. In...
As NovaCopper Inc. continues to adds to the more than 5.5 billion pounds of copper it has identified at the highly prospective Ambler mining district, the explorer is beginning to formulate a plan to develop the first of three ultra-high-grade deposits in this highly prospective but remote region of Northwest Alaska. The Vancouver B.C.-based junior launched into 2013 with the February release of a maiden NI 43-101-compliant mineral resource estimate for South Reef, one of two...
ATC: TSX-V President: Robert Carne Chief Executive Officer: Graham Downs Chief Operating Officer: Ian Talbot Atac Resources Ltd., a member of the Strategic Exploration Group, followed up in 2013 several past seasons of exploration success on the Rackla Gold project located in the Mayo Mining District of east-central Yukon Territory. The project encompasses more than 8,000 mineral claims and covers 1,700 square kilometers (about 656 square miles) in an east-west extending land package more than 185 kilometers (114 miles) long...
Nunavut's exploration and mining opportunities consistently have attracted the attention of the major global producers. Natural Resources Canada determined that C$422 million was spent on exploring for minerals in Nunavut in 2012, and estimates that C$313 million will be spent in 2013. Exploration is underway for many minerals in Nunavut and much of the territory remains largely under-explored. These realities suggest that Nunavut's mineral production will increase substantially in the next decade. Nunavut has one operating...
There is a reason why Nunavut has one of the fastest-growing economies in Canada: mining. With one operating gold mine at Meadowbank, two huge projects on the verge of startup at Hope Bay and Mary River, five projects advancing through the environmental assessment process at Meliadine, Back River, Hackett River, and the Izok corridor as well as exploration activities continuing across all three regions of the territory in 2013, there's little wonder that Nunavut's "time has come." "Mining has the best potential to create...
With roughly C$216.6 million in the bank at the end of the third quarter, Novagold Resources Inc. is well-positioned to complete permitting at its Donlin Gold project in Alaska and continue exploration at its Galore Creek copper-gold project in British Columbia. "These are turbulent times in the business, but we have got the cash to see us through the permitting," Novagold President Greg Lang told attendees at the Denver Gold Forum. Ahead of the financial tempest that is battering most of the titanic gold producers and...
AVL: TSX President and CEO: Donald Bubar Senior Vice President, Metallurgy: Dave Marsh Vice-President, Exploration: William Mercer Avalon Rare Metals explored six of its seven properties in 2013, but focused most of its attention on the advanced Nechalacho rare earth elements project located at Thor Lake, Northwest Territories some 100 kilometers (62 miles) southeast of Yellowknife. The property is comprised of five contiguous mining leases totaling 10,449 acres (4,249 hectares) and three claims totaling 4,597 acres (1,869...
In 2013, the mineral industry globally has been buffeted by financial challenges. Development infrastructure has seen major cost increases. Multinational corporations have had major write-downs of assets associated with falling mineral prices. Junior exploration companies have not been able to raise venture capital for funding projects as investors appear to be shying away from what is seen as a risk investment. Yukon was not exempt from these challenges. Most exploration programs were downscaled with emphasis on lower-cost...
BOZ: TSX-V President and CEO: Benjamin Mossman Chief Geologist: Dirk Meckert Chief Financial Officer: Sharon Muzzin Banks Island Gold Ltd. was organized in 2010 by partners Ben Mossman and Jason Nickel on the premise that the resurgence of precious metals as money is a permanent and long-term trend that offers significant mining opportunities. The company is exploring the Yellow Giant mineral property (formerly Banks Island mineral property), located on the west coast of Banks Island about 110 kilometers (68 miles) south of...
Asubstantial amount of exploration activity continued apace in Yukon Territory this season despite the truncated budgets that forced most mining companies to juggle their projects and priorities. Some exploration companies found creative ways to raise capital, turning out their pockets to return to Yukon in 2013 to explore for Carlin-style gold mineralization in the east-central region of the territory, for more gold-bearing structures in the White Gold and Klondike districts to the west and for other styles and types of...
After spending more than half a billion dollars to take the Pebble Project to the cusp of permitting, Anglo American plc has pulled out of The Pebble Limited Partnership, an alliance it forged six years ago with junior Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. to gain a 50 percent stake in one of the largest copper-gold-molybdenum deposits on the planet. According to the most recent published resource estimate, Pebble contains 80.6 billion pounds of copper, 107.4 million ounces of gold...
BBB: TSX Chairman and CEO: Gary Thompson Director: George Salamis, Geologist Senior Vice President Geology: Sorin Posescu Brixton Metals Corp. returned in 2013 to its flagship 27,000-hectare (66,717 acres) Thorn silver-gold-copper-zinc-lead property located in the Sutlahine River area of northwestern British Columbia some 130 kilometers (81 miles) southwest of Atlin. Hecla Mining Co. made a C$2.6 million strategic investment in Brixton in February, purchasing about 19.8 percent of the junior's issued and outstanding common...
