The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 1 - 16 of 16
Three environmental groups - Sierra Club Alaska Chapter, Alaska Center for the Environment and Alaska Community Action on Toxics - have threatened to file a lawsuit against Alaska Railroad Corp. and Usibelli Coal Mines affiliate, Aurora Energy Services LLC, over unpermitted discharges of coal at the Seward coal loading facility. "A lack of adequate pollution controls at the facility has resulted in ongoing dumping of coal debris into Resurrection Bay and uncontrolled blowing...
Sierra Club Alaska has joined several other environmental and anti-coal groups to hold a Nov. 12 rally in opposition to developing a coal mine at the Chuitna Project in Southcentral Alaska. Richard "Dick" Bass, who owns the Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah, is also co-owner of PacRim Coal LLC, the company which has applied for permits to develop the Chuitna Coal Project. The Chuitna Coal Project is a surface coal mining and export development proposal for an ultra-low-sulfur,...
Metals markets continue to climb out of the basement as the world demand for metals resumes its upward trend. Fueled by this growing demand, numerous Alaska precious, base and rare metal projects reported results of their 2009 exploration, development and production programs. The recent Alaska Miners Association Convention in Anchorage felt this surge of interest with the highest attendance in more than a decade. The atmosphere at the conference was charged with optimism, a co...
Although there are innumerable differences between any point in the past and the present, modern political activists of all political stripes routinely draw on one half-recalled and poorly understood event or another from the past to "prove" a point. Strict constructionists of the U. S. Constitution gladly leap over 230 years of history to bemoan the way that the President, or Congress or the Judiciary are misconstruing the framers' "intent," while the progressive opposition hastily condemns them as being Nazis. One group cel...
The first thing that makes mining a complex business is the science of finding a mine. We have over 12,000 mineral occurrences in BC and less than 20 major mines. It takes years just to locate, evaluate, permit and construct a mine. To succeed requires not only a certain temperament, but also use of the very best in technology and scientific analysis and the curiosity, intelligence and training of geologists to look and look again. All of this activity is highly regulated, which requires an in-depth understanding of...
Hecla Mining Co. has repaid the US$380 million it borrowed to buy out Rio Tinto plc's 70.3 percent interest in the Greens Creek Mine. The purchase, which gave the Idaho-based miner 100 percent interest in the Southeast Alaska silver mine, nearly proved to be the company's undoing. "It was frankly a near-death experience for the company," Hecla Vice President of Corporate Development Don Poirier told an audience at the Alaska Miners Association 2009 annual convention Nov. 5....
The race to become the next operating mine in Yukon Territory is heating up as two projects, Alexco Resource Corp.'s Bellekeno silver project and Yukon Zinc Corp.'s Wolverine volcanic massive sulphide project, appear to be running neck and neck as they enter the home stretch. Currently, Yukon Territory has only one operating mine, the high-grade Minto copper-gold mine, which began commercial production in October 2007. Owned by Minto Explorations Ltd., a subsidiary of Capstone Mining Corp, the open pit mining operation is...
RAU PROJECT, Yukon Territory - While the "White Gold Rush" captured the headlines in 2009, Atac Resources Ltd. quietly conducted a one-company claim-staking rush covering known geochemical and geological targets around its Rau gold property here in east-central Yukon Territory's Tombstone Mountains, 55 kilometers, or 35 miles, northeast of Keno City. Adding to the claims already held by Atac, the junior expanded the Rau gold property to more than 600 square kilometers, or 232...
Kaminak Gold Corp. is one of the frontrunners in the exploration rush sparked by Underworld Resources Inc.'s recent gold discovery in the White District of Yukon Territory. In less than six months, the junior mining company has acquired and explored claims that offer as much promise initially as Underworld's White Gold Project did in its first season of exploration. Kaminak is primarily a prospect generator with a successful business model that targets discovery-stage projects with strong exploration potential for strategic c...
Work got under way in October on stage 2 of Yukon Energy's Carmacks-Stewart transmission line, a long-needed infrastructure project aimed at dramatically improving access to and affordability of electricity in Yukon Territory. Canadian and territorial government officials unveiled the enhancement of existing hydropower infrastructure at the Mayo hydrofacility along with stage 2 of the Carmacks-Stewart transmission line in the spring, noting that it would be the first project to be funded under Canada's new C$1 billion Green...
Alaska Governor Sean Parnell reflected on Alaska's rich mining history and vowed to defend the state's mining regulatory process and to oppose unjust attacks on the industry during an address to miners at the Alaska Miners Association 2009 Annual Convention. While falling short of pointing directly to those who are fighting to prevent development and further exploration at the Pebble project in Southwest Alaska, the Alaska Governor's words addressed the issues state regulators and the Pebble Mine owners are facing. "We are...
About 400 ounces, or 11.4 kilograms, of molten gold poured into bars at Kinross Gold Corp.'s Fort Knox Mine on Nov. 11 marked the first of the precious metal produced from the Walter Creek Valley Heap Leach Facility at the Interior Alaska gold mine. Startup of the heap-leach facility is expected to increase Fort Knox annual production to average 370,000 gold ounces, or about 10,489 kilograms. Fairbanks Gold Mining Inc., the Kinross affiliate that operates Fort Knox, has been...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency formally approved Alaska's application Oct. 31 to administer the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Program. The approved state program is called the Alaska Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (APDES) Program, and the transfer of full program responsibilities is a four-phase process that will be completed Oct. 31, 2011. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation Division of Water submitted a final application to the EPA in 2008 for authority to permit wastewate...
Fortune Minerals Ltd. has identified a site in Saskatchewan for a processing facility for its Nico Project located 160 kilometers, or 99 miles, northwest of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. The junior said Nov. 3 that it entered into an agreement to purchase land near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where it aims to build its southern hydrometallurgical facility for the Nico gold-cobalt-bismuth-copper project in Northwest Territories. Fortune wants to start a vertically integrated mining operation at Nico by 2012, assuming it...
Romios Gold Resources Inc. Nov. 11 reported the discovery of significant copper, gold and silver mineralization on its Dirk Property located about 37 kilometers, or 24 miles, southeast of NovaGold Resources Inc.-Teck Resources Ltd.'s giant Galore Creek deposit and 7 kilometers, or 4 miles, northwest of Romios' Newmont Lake Property in northwestern British Columbia. Only two zones, Dirk and Telena, of a number of mineralized zones indentified on the newly discovered Dirk property have been sampled to date. A total of 15...
With its sights set on becoming one of North America's newest junior gold producers, Harmony Gold Corp. has entered into a joint venture agreement with Full Metal Minerals Ltd. on that company's high-grade Lucky Shot gold property, about 145 kilometers, or 90 miles, north of Anchorage. Vancouver B.C.-based Harmony Gold has the opportunity to earn a 60 percent stake in the high-grade gold project as it works toward putting the historic mine back into production. During a Nov....
