The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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The glimmer of gold and robust Coffee provided North of 60 mining explorers with a much needed pick-me-up in 2016. At the dawn of the year, Alaska and northern Canada’s mining sectors were being dragged down by a long and grueling bear market from five years of sinking metals prices that weighed heavily on the market value and sentiment of explorers. Unfortunately, these bearish conditions cut across both precious and base metals. Gold entered 2016 at US$1,082 per ounce, m...
As the summer’s midnight sun gives way to aurora-filled winter night skies, seasons are once again changing in Canada’s Northwest Territories. And, much like the seasons, our resource industries are also in a time of transition. The NWT celebrates 25 years of diamonds this year with the opening of De Beers and Mountain Province’s Gahcho Kué, the world’s largest new diamond mine, which is expected to pour more than C$6 billion into our economy over its lifetime. Projects...
Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. took healthy strides in 2016 towards developing Amaruq as a satellite to its Meadowbank gold mine in Nunavut. The company acquired Amaruq, a previously undrilled gold property about 50 kilometers (31 miles) northwest of Meadowbank, in 2013 and by the end of 2015 had already outlined 16.9 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 6.05 grams of gold per metric ton (3.3 million ounces) gold. About 89 percent of this resource is found in a deposit...
TMAC Resources Inc. is closing in on the final destination on the “path to production” at its Hope Bay gold project in northwestern Nunavut. "We remain on track and on budget with our progress to advance the Hope Bay Project towards commercial production in early 2017,” TMAC CEO Catharine Farrow informed shareholders in August. TMAC acquired Hope Bay, a 1,100-square-kilometer (425 square miles) property that blankets most of the 80-kilometer- (50 miles) long Hope Bay green...
Nunavut seems to be ahead of the curve when it comes to recovering from the global downturn in mineral exploration spending. An estimated C$202.5 million was invested in unlocking this Canadian territory's mineral potential in 2015. This 28 percent increase over the C$158 million invested in 2014 came at a time when most jurisdictions around the world were continuing a four-year trend of sharp drops in mineral exploration. While early estimates have Nunavut giving up some...
Endowed with some of the largest undeveloped mineral belts in the world, investment in public geoscience has shown the potential of Nunavut. The 2 million square kilometers (772,000 square miles) of the territory is geologically diverse and offers the potential for many commodities, including gold, diamonds, uranium, iron, base metals, nickel and platinum, making it an attractive destination for exploration. Although many new discoveries are yet to be made, existing mineral...
Stakeholder Gold Corp. has nabbed the expertise of renowned Yukon prospector Shawn Ryan to explore the potential of the Ballarat gold project in the Yukon Territory. Ryan, who discovered Kinross Gold's White Gold project and Goldcorp's Coffee project, typically works only on his own properties. However, he made an exception for Ballarat, which lies across the Yukon River from Coffee and just southeast of White Gold. Planned and executed by GroundTruth Exploration Inc., an innovative exploration company founded by Ryan, an...
Atac Resources Ltd.'s 2016 program included work at both the Rau and Nadaleen trends on its Rackla gold project, an extensive land package that stretches roughly 185 kilometers (114 miles) east-west across central Yukon Territory. At Rau, a 20-kilometer-long (12.5 miles) trend towards the western end of the Rackla project, Atac is focused on potential development of the Tiger oxide deposit and exploring similar targets in the area. In May, the company reported an updated...
Independence Gold Corp. is exploring a growing portfolio of gold projects in Yukon Territory and British Columbia. Boulevard, a gold property that lies immediately south and west of Goldcorp Inc.'s recently acquired Coffee gold mine project, has been a primary exploration focus in recent years. Goldcorp, which acquired Coffee through a C$500-million buy-out of Kaminak Gold Corp., also acquired a 19.99 percent interest in Independence Gold buy purchasing 10.88 million shares of that company through a private placement in...
When Kaminak Gold Corp. cut a deal with Shawn Ryan, an enterprising prospector in Yukon Territory, to option the Coffee gold project in 2009, the exploration company had a hunch it nabbed the best property in the emerging White Gold district. After six years of diligent and well-executed exploration, the junior’s intuition may have been confirmed by Goldcorp Inc.’s willingness to cut a half-billion-dollar all-shares deal to get its hands on the exciting Yukon Territory gol...
Mineral exploration in Yukon began 2016 much like it finished 2015... Challenging equity market conditions and cautious investors meant junior exploration companies started the season conservatively. The industry got a boost early in the season with the mid-May announcement of Goldcorp’s (www.goldcorp.com) interest in Kaminak Gold’s (http://kaminak.com) Coffee property. By the time Kaminak shareholders approved the C$520 million deal in July, companies were raising money, expanding field programs and making deals across the...
Like a gong proclaiming the end of the long and arduous bear market for North of 60 mining explorers, the May 12 news that Goldcorp Inc. would buy Kaminak Gold Corp. for roughly C$500 million reverberated from Yukon Territory throughout the North. While the rich lure of developing a mine at Kaminak's robust Coffee gold project lured Goldcorp to the Yukon, it was the exploration potential and the ability to permit and build a mine that convinced the producer to expand into the...
Under the direction of legendary mining explorer Ron Netolitzky, Skeena Resources Ltd. is investigating the gold and copper potential of three highly prospective properties in the Golden Triangle region of British Columbia - Spectrum, Snip and GJ. In April, Skeena published a maiden resource for Spectrum, a gold-copper project about 37 kilometers (23 miles) west of Imperial Metals' Red Chris Mine. The Central zone at Spectrum hosts 8.95 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 1.04 grams per metric ton (290,000 oun...
Zinc and copper are among the top commodities sought by Teck Resources Ltd. In Alaska, this work is dedicated to extending the life of the Red Dog Mine by upgrading high-grade zinc resources near the current mine area and seeking out new deposits across land surrounding the Northwest Alaska operation. Going into 2015, Red Dog had 56.6 million metric tons of ore in reserves, averaging 14.6 zinc, 4.1 percent lead and 73.8 grams per metric ton silver. This year, Teck began development of Qanaiyaq, a near-surface deposit that...
Seabridge Gold Inc. has a straightforward strategy for exploring its projects in British Columbia and Northwest Territories – transform paper currency into gold. "At Seabridge, we like to think of ourselves as modern alchemists – turning cash into gold," Seabridge Chairman and CEO Rudi Fronk explained during an August interview with The Gold Report. "Over the (p)ast 17 years, we have used cash from our shareholders to fund acquisitions and exploration of gold projects in Canad...
British Columbia is internationally recognized as a center of expertise in mineral exploration and mining, and is home to the world's largest concentration of professional geoscientists – hosting more than 700 mineral exploration and mine development companies. But it's no secret that the past few years have been tough for the mineral exploration and mining industry, not only in B.C. or Canada, but across the world. The recent global downturn has put operations at a number o...
When judging the health of global mineral exploration, British Columbia seems to be the perfect model. In 2015, roughly C$272 million was invested in discovering and delineating mineral deposits in B.C., down some C$66 million from 2014. This 19.5 percent drop is in lockstep with the decline in global mineral exploration budgets for the same period, according SNL Metals & Mining's World Exploration Trends report. Likewise, B.C. exploration decreased about 60 percent from the...
After raising C$7.3 million in May, Freegold Ventures Ltd. returned to work at its Shorty Creek and Golden Summit projects in Interior Alaska. The company kicked off drilling at Shorty Creek, a 26,000-acre porphyry copper-gold project located near Livengood, in July. Since securing a long-term lease with Fairbanks-based Gold Range Ltd. in 2014, Freegold has carried out systematic geophysics and soil sampling over two target areas - Hill 1835 and Hill 1710. Drilling in 2015 further demonstrated the copper-gold potential at...
Over the past four years, Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. has been able to carry out roughly US$20 million of exploration at its Palmer copper- and zinc-rich volcanogenic massive sulfide project in Southeast Alaska. This steady exploration through the recent downturn in mining markets was made possible by a timely partnership with Dowa Metals & Mining Co. Ltd. At the onset of 2013, Dowa and Constantine inked a deal that provides the Tokyo-based smelting and mining company with the opportunity to earn a 49 percent stake in...
As a project generator, Millrock Resources Inc. is leveraging the notoriously cyclical mining markets to its advantage by acquiring promising mineral properties at rock bottom prices when the bears reign and ready them for robust exploration when the bulls run. "This is the exact time Millrock has been waiting for all along," Millrock President and CEO Gregory Beischer told Mining News. "We have stuck rigorously to our model, and here we are now taking advantage of the tremendous opportunities that are in front of us." Among...
The State of Alaska’s mining industry continues to be a bright spot for Alaska’s economy during difficult fiscal times. Thanks to our world-class natural resource endowment, investors continue to be interested in new exploration and development opportunities in Alaska, and our large mines are still running strong. Recently, our new Natural Resources Commissioner, Andy Mack, had the opportunity to visit the Fort Knox mine. This visit was a great opportunity for Commissioner Mack to become familiar with the operations of a lar...
Mineral exploration spending in Alaska hit an apex of US$365 million in 2011, but as venture capital for mining explorers dried these expenditures plummeted 78 percent to US$80 million in 2015. However, rising gold prices and a loosening of venture capital in 2016 seems to have marked an end to a painfully long bear market for mining explorers in Alaska. “After taking head shots for the past four years, the industry suddenly came to life over the past month, with new budgets,...
TSX/NYSE-MKT: TMQ Chairman: Gerald McConnell President and CEO: Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse Exploration Business Manager: Frank Gish While its name has changed, Trilogy Metals Inc.'s goal remains the same - unlock the potential of the world-class base and precious metals deposits at its Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska. The company's former name, NovaCopper, spoke to the some 8.5 billion pounds of copper identified so far at UKMP, but it did not describe the natural diversity provided by the zinc, silver, gold, lead...
While many of Alaska's mining explorers were riding the brakes on their promising projects going into 2016, Royal Gold and Contango Ore put their figurative foot to the accelerator at the high-grade Tetlin gold project near Tok, an eastern Alaska community at a junction of highways that lead from Canada to Fairbanks and Anchorage. Neither of these companies are your prototypical mineral explorer. Texas-based Contango Ore came to Alaska seeking natural gas and discovered...
ASX:CYY Chairman: Mark Bojanjac President and CEO: Michael Haynes Chief Financial Officer: Ian Cunningham Coventry Resources Inc. is an Australia-based explorer focused on expanding zones of high-grade copper at Caribou Dome, a road-accessible property located about 155 miles north of Anchorage, Alaska. Upon cutting a deal to acquire an 80 percent stake in Caribou Dome early in 2015, Coventry began poring over historical exploration data collected at the project, including results from 95 surface and underground drill holes...
