The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 1 - 18 of 18
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys said the industry topped $1 billion in expenditures and earnings for the ninth straight year. The mining industry paid nearly $27 million to the State of Alaska and municipalities in 2004, an increase of $8 million from the previous year, the report said. Revenue from mining license taxes more than tripled from 2003, largely due to profitability of zinc extraction at Red Dog Mine near Kotzebue. The mining industry contributed more than...
Mining programs at the University of Alaska Fairbanks stand to benefit from the recent creation of an enlarged College of Engineering and Mines, the Alaska Minerals Commission heard at its meeting in Fairbanks Sept. 28. John Aspnes, dean of the college, and Gang Chen, a professor of mining engineering, explained to the commission how UAF is doing its bit to overcome the mining industry's workforce shortage. When UAF's various science, engineering and mathematics departments came together to form the College of Engineering and...
Red Dog mine in Northwest Alaska's Arctic is just over half-way to its target of 100 percent NANA Corp. shareholder hire, and operator Teck Cominco is making every effort to increase that proportion. The world's largest zinc mine is on NANA land and working with the local community is an essential part of the business, General Manager Rob Scott told the Alaska Miners Association convention in Anchorage Nov. 4. In total Teck Cominco has hired more than 1,000 NANA shareholders at Red Dog since production began in 1989, which do...
I'm certain that I shall go to my grave without ever having unraveled the mystery of why otherwise bright people are so lacking in the most rudimentary vestiges of common sense. An illustration that proves the point is an article which appeared in the New York Times recently, and which was picked up by the Anchorage Daily News, bemoaning the social costs of mining gold. While the Times may, perhaps, be forgiven for its commitment as the self-styled voice of its political...
The planned throughput for Vancouver-based NovaGold's Galore Creek project in Northwestern British Columbia has doubled to 65,000 tonnes per day, according to a pre-feasibility study published in October. The mine would still have a more than 20-year life. Annual production in the first six years would average over 300,000 ounces of gold, 2.31 million ounces of silver and 370 million pounds of copper. The study, which was prepared by independent engineering services company Hatch Ltd., estimates that after-tax annual cash...
The sound of drilling can be heard all over Alaska, on old properties as well as new ones. Nixon Fork, 35 miles northeast of McGrath in the Kuskokwim mineral belt, is one of the old ones. It is showing new potential, according to Bill Burnett and Paul Jones of Mystery Creek Resources, who hope to start mine development and production there in summer 2006. Mystery Creek Resources is a subsidiary of Ontario-based St. Andrew Goldfields. Much mining has been done at Nixon Fork over the years, since placer gold was first...
Hard rock mining's contribution to the Alaska economy is larger than it appears at first sight, when the "multiplier effect" is taken into account - the additional spending and services triggered by the mining activities. Anchorage-based consultancy Northern Economics has measured the wealth created by Alaska's three hard rock mines, Fort Knox, Greens Creek and Red Dog, and come up with some impressive figures. The consultancy compiled the data for 2004 using information provided by the companies, state agencies, and...
What do you get when you mix a known, high-grade copper deposit near the Yukon River plus millions of dollars of mining equipment on site with an aggressive junior mining company bent on making things happen? Excitement, that's what. "Minto will be the Yukon's next mine," said Stephen Quin, president and chief executive of Sherwood Copper Corp. "We've got all the permits or they are due to be extended, and we just need to update costs in the feasibility study." Yukon Premier Dennis Fentie signed a 10-year extension of a Type...
It isn't every day that a junior mining company takes a project all the way to development. In fact, it "rarely" happens, according to Dr. Harlan Meade, president and CEO of Yukon Zinc Corp., the successor company to Expatriate Resources Ltd. But the Yukon Zinc-Silver Project in southeastern Yukon Territory is well on its way to becoming such a rarity. Vancouver, B.C.-based Yukon Zinc filed its environmental assessment report for the Wolverine deposit Nov. 3, setting in motion a permitting and public review process expected...
For geologist T. Greg Hawkins, the question at Mount Skukum/Skukum Creek isn't where to find the gold and silver that nature sequestered in this steep-sided valley. Rather, it's how to attract investment capital to extract the soft yellow and bright gray metals from deposits he knows span the Wheaton River on the valley floor. "The secret of these types of operations is to get into production as soon as possible," said Hawkins, who is chairman of Tagish Lake Gold Corp., owner of 987 full or fractional quartz claims covering...
South Africa-based AngloGold Ashanti is happy with its exploration results in Alaska so far, and it will be back for more in 2006, says Jeff Pontius, the company's exploration manager. "It's paid out pretty well for us, we have a lot of gold discoveries or occurrences that we've worked up and tested and are in various stages of what we call an evaluation," Pontius told the Alaska Miners Association annual convention at the Anchorage Sheraton Nov. 2. "There are a lot of new things going on (in Alaska), and AngloGold is trying...
The stars may be in alignment at long last for a huge coal project that has been languishing for decades just 50 miles from Anchorage. Developer Bob Stiles has renewed confidence that a mine will be built to exploit the Beluga-Chuitna coal fields, as he said in a presentation to the Alaska Miners Association convention in Anchorage Nov. 4. (See related story on cover of Nov. 20 Petroleum News.) The deposit on the west side of Cook Inlet, 10 miles from the Native village of Tyonek, contains an estimated 1 billion tons of...
Over the course of the last several months, a series of new gold and base metal discoveries have been made. Several of these new discoveries were reported in the last month and highlights of these and other activities were presented at the annual Alaska Miners Association convention in Anchorage in early November. The convention was one of the most exciting and up-beat events in nearly a decade. The new discoveries are a trend that, while long in coming, are an inevitable...
Alaska's Department of Natural Resources may not have seen the last of Bob Loeffler. When he resigned as director of the Division of Mining, Land and Water in November, it was the third time he had quit the department that he first joined in 1978. He kept returning because he likes the work, Loeffler told Mining News. This loyalty is much like his loyalty to Alaska: He came to the state in 1977 with the U.S. Geological Survey for one year and never left. The position of director has now been filled by the former deputy direct...
Alaska environmental regulators have cited the Kensington Mine for alleged water-quality violations caused by erosion and runoff at its construction site. Mine developer Coeur Alaska has until Nov. 25 to come into compliance with the law, according to the citation issued Nov. 10. Failing to comply could lead to civil penalties, or if the mine is found to be criminally negligent, as much as $200,000 in fines, state officials said Nov. 10. The violation notice stems from a Nov. 3 inspection that was prompted by complaints from...
The story of Illinois Creek gold mine has a moral (or two) and a happy ending. So for Bob Loeffler it was the perfect note on which to end his employment at Alaska's Department of Natural Resources, where he was director of the Division of Mining, Land and Water from 1999 until early November this year. Loeffler resigned with DNR Commissioner Tom Irwin and other officials because of a disagreement over Gov. Frank Murkowski's gas pipeline plans. Earlier this fall Loeffler visited Illinois Creek mine, on state land 50 miles...
Toronto-based Metallica Resources Inc. has identified targets for its 2006 exploratory drilling program on the Alaska Peninsula, according to Mark Petersen, Metallica geologist and exploration manager. Petersen said Metallica is moving forward under a joint venture agreement with Full Metal Minerals Ltd. regarding Aleutian Islands and Alaska Peninsula properties covering a 150 mile section of the Alaskan Peninsula, which are held by Full Metal under an exclusive option agreement with Bristol Bay Native Corp. and Aleut Corp....
Vancouver, British Columbia-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. is looking to speed up the rate of mining, and to improve gold recovery at its proposed Pebble porphyry copper-gold project near Illiamna in Southwest Alaska. Because of the enormous resource, the mine can run at a higher rate, using bigger equipment, said Stephen Hodgson, Northern Dynasty engineer. As Northern Dynasty revises its resource estimates upward, the estimated mine life increases even as the speed of mining increases, Hodgson said Nov. 4 in remarks...
