The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 1 - 12 of 12
The State of Alaska moved one step closer Dec. 15 to reopening the Skagway Ore Terminal in mid-2007 when the agency handling the reactivation project opened three bids for major construction work needed at the facility. The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority bought the terminal in 1990 to bring stability to the business of shipping ore through the 6.7-acre waterfront facility, then a year-round industry. The terminal ceased operating in 1998 when soft metals prices forced the Yukon Territory's zinc mines to...
Alaska's Board of Fisheries has declined a proposal to recommend to the Legislature that a fish refuge be created near the Pebble project site. Instead, the Board will establish a three-person committee to review the current protections for fish and habitat in the Bristol Bay region, to assess whether additional protections are necessary. Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty, the owner of the Pebble project, praised the Board's decision. "Proposal 121 and other efforts to establish a fish refuge in Bristol Bay are a clear and...
As 2006 comes rapidly to a close, a glance backward in time seems appropriate. The Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys recently released its annual summary of mining in Alaska for 2005 (yes, 2005). This report reveals that the gross value of Alaska's mineral industry in 2005 was $1.8 billion. This was the 10th straight year the value exceeded $1 billion and was the highest value ever recorded for the industry. Zinc accounted for 61.5 percent of the total mineral production, followed by gold (13.6 percent),...
During the first full week in December approximately 1,800 miners and members of support industries met in Reno for the Northwest Mining Association's annual convention. The convention was characterized by a large number of smiles as the industry emerges from a decades-long period of depressed metals prices. The convention featured presentations concerning the status of projects as well as developments in the industry ranging from mine cleanup to safety and health issues. Amon...
A plan to expand the remote Kemess copper-gold mining operation in northern British Columbia has met with significant opposition from members of First Nations communities in the area. The protests surfaced during a series of public hearings held by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency between Oct. 30 and Dec. 7. The hearings are part of the provincial and federal environmental assessment process. Northgate Minerals Corp., operator of the Kemess South Mine, wants to extend the life of its mining operation by developing...
Mining companies spent an all-time record $103.9 million on exploration in Alaska in 2005, a big jump from the $70.8 million that was spent the previous year, and a long way from the relatively modest $27.6 million in 2003. At least 16 projects had exploration expenditures of $1 million or more. The companies employed 303 people in exploration projects in 2005, up from 184 in 2004 and 88 in 2003, according to the state's Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys. These impressive figures in Alaska reflected the story...
A newly expanded company is making Alaska its exploration target, and it's backed by a mining heavyweight. Vancouver-based International Tower Hill Mines was barely a glimmer on anyone's radar screens until last summer, when South African major AngloGold Ashanti purchased 19.99 percent of ITH's shares and gave the junior its North American exploration manager, Jeff Pontius, as president and CEO. Pontius led the team that acquired a group of Alaska properties for AngloGold, which now belong to ITH. "AngloGold was highly...
A Panel of three judges from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco heard arguments Dec. 4 for and against tailings disposal plans for Kensington gold mine near Juneau. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Forest Service and mining company Coeur Alaska are fighting a lawsuit brought in 2005 by the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, the Sierra Club and Lynn Canal Conservation that opposes the Corps' 404 permit approving the use of Lower Slate Lake as a tailings impoundment. In August, U.S. District Judge...
NovaGold Resources took on Barrick, the world's largest gold producer, and won, but equally tenacious opposition from some residents of Nome has cast a shadow over the Vancouver-based junior's first mine construction project. Just after Barrick withdrew from its hostile takeover bid with just 14.8 percent of NovaGold's shares tendered, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that it was suspending its 404 permit for Rock Creek mine in the wake of a lawsuit. The permit authorized the placement of approximately 13.7 million...
A geologist at the Red Dog lead-zinc mine in northwest Alaska died in an accident Dec. 15. Jeffrey Huber, 51, was killed when a boulder fell from the side of an open pit, causing massive head and chest injuries. Huber was conducting routine grade control work at the time, approaching the rock that the mining equipment was extracting and directing where it should go - to the waste rock pile or to the mill, according to Red Dog's general manager, John Knapp. Huber, from Anchorage, had been working at Red Dog since early 2004, b...
Sometimes less can be more. That's what Sherwood Copper Corp. is finding with metallurgical tests it is conducting on ore samples from the Minto project north of Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory. Minto is an advanced-stage copper-gold project with reserves exceeding 356 million pounds of high-grade copper and geology that indicates significant exploration potential. Development of an open pit mining operation with conventional crushing, grinding and flotation to produce copper concentrates with significant gold and silver cr...
Q. Where is Usibelli Coal Mine located? A. It is located in Healy, Alaska, at mile 249 of the Parks Highway in the Alaska Mountain Range. The headquarters and maintenance shop complex is a three-story building on mine property situated east of the Nenana River at the mouth of Hoseanna Creek. Poker Flats Mine is to the south and Two Bull Ridge is to the north at Hoseanna Creek. The entrance to Denali National Park is about 10 miles south of Healy on the Parks Highway. The company also maintains an office in Fairbanks. Q. What...
