The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 1 - 11 of 11
Alaska's governor-elect, Republican Sarah Palin, made the annual miners' convention in Anchorage the venue for her first official engagement after the election, promising to listen to the industry as she selects her advisors. Palin's predecessor, Frank Murkowski, gave strong support to the mining industry, including initiating the Roads to Resources program, but lost valuable employees at the Department of Natural Resources when they resigned in protest at his handling of gas pipeline negotiations. "It's my pleasure to...
I don't know whether Alaskans will ever see a gas pipeline or not. Of course, I hope we will, but if we don't, how will we pay the cost of operating the state? We know these things. The all-Alaska pipeline has been kicking around for decades but hasn't come to pass. The prices of oil and gas have peaked and now turned down. Gov. Murkowski dedicated four years in a full court press to bring the major producers to an agreement but has yet to close the deal and, allegedly, had...
An investor attending the Alaska Miners Association convention in Anchorage mentioned that he was listening intently to all the exploration talks because he was looking for the next Full Metal Minerals. In other words, a junior company that breaks out from the bottom of the stockpile, as it were, and builds a reputation for acquiring promising properties and working diligently on them. For Alaskans the rise of Vancouver-based Full Metal is doubly exciting, since all most all of the company's projects are located in the state....
Everyone likes to announce something big at the Alaska Miners Association annual convention, and Mystery Creek Resources was able to do just that Nov. 10 with the news that the mill at Nixon Fork gold mine is being commissioned. The company, a subsidiary of Ontario-based St. Andrew Goldfields, has been working at Nixon Fork since 2003, delineating the resource and constructing facilities to put the historic underground mine back into operation. "It's kind of exciting to finally see all our efforts come to fruition," William B...
Two Canadian mining companies traded accusations in November as they hurtled toward the latest deadline in Barrick's hostile takeover bid for NovaGold. The world's largest gold producer upped its offer from $14.50 per share to $16 per share and announced it would take up all shares tendered by Nov. 21, regardless of whether it obtained the minimum 50.1 percent of NovaGold that it originally hoped for. NovaGold would have liked to see a "white knight" ride in and rescue it from Barrick's advances with a shinier offer. That...
In a week when lead and zinc hit record-breaking high prices, it was particularly appropriate for Vancouver-based Teck Cominco's president and CEO, Don Lindsay, to be visiting Alaska for the seventh time. The state is home to the world's largest lead-zinc mine, Red Dog, and the company has further demonstrated its commitment to Alaska with the recent opening of Pogo gold mine, a partnership with Japan's Sumitomo Metal Mining. The Alaska Miners Association presented Teck Cominco with its new mine award this year. Walter Sampso...
Kinross Gold, the owner of Alaska's Fort Knox mine, will expand its operations in Russia and elsewhere in the world if a friendly acquisition of Bema Gold goes ahead. The boards of directors of the two Canadian companies unanimously approved the U.S. $3.1 billion transaction in early November, and they are now awaiting a vote by Bema shareholders, scheduled for January. Two-thirds of the smaller company's shareholders must give their approval of the deal for it to go ahead. After the acquisition, the remodeled Kinross would...
Over the last month the Alaska mineral industry continued to report results from 2006 exploration programs including new acquisitions of projects that have been on the back shelf for over 25 years. The industry watched as the American political scene was drastically changed at both the federal and state levels. And despite the fact that the end of the year is nearing, there is no end in sight yet for a number of exploration and development projects while at the same time contracts for work in 2007 already are being inked. If...
Taseko Mines Ltd. said Nov. 10 it will reconsider plans to offer C$35.7 million ($31.6 million) to acquire bcMetals Corp. in the wake of that junior's maneuvers to avoid a hostile takeover. Taseko, a subsidiary of Hunter Dickinson Ltd., had said Nov. 2 it was about to bid C$1.05 for each bcMetals share, an 11 percent premium over an earlier hostile offer by Imperial Metals Corp. of 95 Canadian cents per share. "We believe this offer represents a solid premium over the Imperial Metals bid and fairly values bcMetals shares,"...
Vancouver-based junior Cash Minerals received good and bad news from the completion of a feasibility study on its Division Mountain coal project in the Yukon, 56 miles northwest of Whitehorse. The good news: a mine is technically and economically feasible. The bad: exporting the coal would be uneconomic, so the product would have to be sold to a 50-megawatt mine-mouth power station - also still on the drawing board. An open pit mine could produce 240,000 metric tons of unwashed coal per year for 20 years, according to the...
The circumstances that led to four deaths in a water sampling shed at the Sullivan mine in southeastern British Columbia May 15-17, resulted from an unprecedented incident caused by an oxygen-deficient atmosphere, according to the province's chief inspector of mines. After producing lead, silver and zinc in vast quantities for nearly 70 years, the Sullivan Mine near the resort community of Kimberley had been decommissioned. Reclamation by mine operator Teck Cominco Ltd. was nearly complete when the fatalities occurred last sp...
