The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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U.S. GoldMining and Nova Minerals work side-by-side to advance gold, copper, and antimony projects at end of West Susitna Road. WEST SUSTINA MINERAL DISTRICT – The 4,000-foot Whiskey Bravo airstrip about 100 miles northwest of Anchorage as the Cessna 206 flies is serving as the operational headquarters of an emerging Alaska mining district with the potential to be a domestic source of minerals and metals critical to America's economic wellbeing, national security, and clean e...
Gov. Dunleavy urges BLM to consider recent Alaska Native support as it finalizes its reassessment of the Ambler Access Project. "I strongly believe that the road will greatly benefit my community and I'm not alone. Many of my neighbors also support the road, as do other villages in the region," Native Village of Ambler President Miles Cleveland said of the proposed Ambler Access Project that would extend to within 30 miles of his community. This support is reflected in...
A growing and increasingly vocal group of Alaska Native leaders are joining the 49th State's delegation in Washington DC on pressing the Biden administration to carry out a timely review of the proposed 211-mile road to the Ambler Mining District in Northwest Alaska. "We are asking lawmakers in Washington to listen to the voices of the people who have lived on these lands and stewarded Alaska since time immemorial," said Naasri Fred Sun, president of the Shungnak Tribe in the...
Extending Alaska's limited road network 100 miles northwest from the Port MacKenzie area near Anchorage into the West Susitna area would open up a new area for Alaskans to visit the great outdoors, provide highway access to this mineral-rich region, and create a new revenue stream for the state, according to an independent economic study carried out by McKinley Research Group. "The West Susitna Road is important for local residents and gaining fair access to hunting, fishing,...
North of 60 Mining News recently spoke with Ramzi Fawaz, president and CEO of Ambler Metals LLC, a 50-50 joint venture between South32 Ltd. and Trilogy Metals Inc. to develop the rich mineral resources at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Alaska. In a candid conversation, Fawaz talks about what attracted him to Ambler Metals; the company's Alaska-based team and partnerships; the strategy for developing Arctic Mine and the other rich metals deposits at the Upper Kobuk Mineral...
Due to their vital importance to American manufacturing and the fact that 100% of U.S. supply comes from overseas, primarily China, rare earth elements top the list of minerals and metals deemed critical to the United States. When the U.S. Geological Survey plugged in 52 critical mineral commodities into a recently developed supply risk tool, six rare earth elements – dysprosium (No. 1), yttrium (No. 2), neodymium (No. 3), lanthanum (No. 5), cerium (No. 6) and praseodymium (...
As a private company, Western Alaska Copper & Gold Company has done a great job steadily advancing the multiple precious and base metals deposits and targets across its 34,000-acre Illinois Creek Mining District property in western Alaska. Given the success of this work, especially a 2020 program that indicates the viability of resuming operations at the historic Illinois Creek gold-silver mine, management is taking the exploration company public on Canada's TSX Venture Exchan...
Nova Minerals Ltd. April 20 announced that the Alaska Industrial Development Export Authority (AIDEA) has approved a resolution authorizing an agreement to advance studies of the West Susitna Access Road, which would provide surface access to the resource-rich area of Alaska where Nova's Estelle gold project is located. "First and foremost, being Alaskan born and bred, I am extremely excited about this initiative for my people and state," said Nova Minerals CEO Chris...
In the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak and following the cancellation of the Alaska Miners Association 2020 Spring Convention in Fairbanks, AMA Executive Director Deantha Crockett takes the time to answer 20 questions on how the pandemic is affecting Alaska's mining sector and the association; Alaska's economy; state and federal mining policy; and due process for the Pebble Mine project. Q. Alaska Miners Association recently made the difficult decision to cancel its spring...
Ucore Rare Metals Inc. Feb. 10 announced that the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) has reaffirmed its interest in funding the Alaska Strategic Metals Complex, a rare earth element separation facility that Ucore Rare Metals is planning to develop near Ketchikan, Alaska, and an eventual mine at the nearby Bokan Mountain REE project. Created by the Alaska Legislature in 1967, AIDEA is the development finance arm of the state of Alaska. This authority...
Development of the rich mineral resource in Alaska's Ambler Mining District took another major leap forward with the Dec. 19 announcement that Australia-based South32 Ltd. is investing US$145 million to become a 50 percent joint venture partner in Trilogy Metals Inc.'s Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (UKMP). This Northwest Alaska project covers a more than 70-mile (115 kilometers) stretch of Earth's crust that is uncommonly rich in a variety of precious, base and critical...
As the rest of the country suffers through the Dog Days of summer, Alaska is approaching the end of a topsy-turvy summer season that saw unseasonably hot, dry weather in some parts of the state during some parts of the summer, while other parts of the state have seen record rainfall and unseasonably early snowfall. Gold prices have skyrocketed over the $1,500 per ounce mark and silver prices have moved strongly up, now trading at a one-year high. However, copper and zinc are a...
When it comes to attracting mining investment, Alaska, British Columbia and all three Canadian territories rank among the top 20 jurisdictions in the world on the Fraser Institute Survey of Mining Companies 2018. This report asks industry professionals from around the globe to score mining jurisdictions based on their mineral endowment and various policy topics important to mining. "The mining survey-now in its 21st year-is the most comprehensive report card on government...
Trilogy Metals Inc. May 28 said it is gearing up for another busy field season at its Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in the Ambler Mining District of Northwest Alaska. The US$16.7 million of work programs budgeted for UKMP in 2018 will focus on gathering the data to advance the Arctic project towards feasibility and permitting, as well as drilling to expand and upgrade the large copper resource at Bornite. As crews continue to advance these large and high-grade metals deposits,...
Born from an idea to create a vehicle that could provide Alaska businesses lower interest rates offered by tax-exempt financing, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, or AIDEA, has been doing its part to create jobs and bolster Alaska's economy for five decades. "Fifty years ago, the Alaska State Legislature created the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, to develop, encourage, and improve the economic potential and welfare of the people of...
Ucore Rare Metals Inc. March 5 said it plans to be producing rare earth elements at its Ketchikan, Alaska Strategic Metals Complex, or Alaska SMC, in 2020. The exploration turned innovation company said it is now entering the second phase of due diligence for the Alaska SMC, a facility that will utilize molecular recognition technology to separate rare earths and produce individual REE oxides used in many high-tech applications. As part of its due diligence, Ucore is now...
When it comes to mineral exploration incentives, currency exchange and infrastructure, Alaska is at a disadvantage in the realm of attracting exploration investments from Canada and Australia, countries that are home to the majority of mining companies. The Far North State's vast and underexplored mineral potential, however, trumps these handicaps in the minds of a growing number of miners and mineral explorers. Mining executives from around the globe perennially rank Alaska...
Ucore Rare Metals Inc. has field programs underway at both the Bokan-Dotson Ridge rare earth elements project in Southeast Alaska and its Ray Mountain REE-tin project in the Interior region of the state. Work at Bokan Mountain is focused on collecting the last bits of information needed to complete a plan of operation that can be submitted for permitting and finalize a feasibility study scheduled for delivery in 2015. As a potential domestic source of a suite of heavy rare...
Alaska’s current fiscal crisis has highlighted the need to diversify the state’s economy and being one of the richest minerals jurisdictions on the planet, mining is an industry that could play a major role in future wealth creation in the Last Frontier. Alaska Gov. Bill Walker touched on mining’s role in the state’s future during a Nov. 15 address at the Alaska Resource Conference. “We have six large scale mines in Alaska, we would like to have 12,” he told the business le...
As is normally the case in high summer in Alaska, news has started to trickle out of the hills on projects where new work is being conducted, and several properties have changed hands or are in the process of changing hands as mining deals are negotiated and announced across the state. Alaska mines are enjoying slight upticks in metals prices, but recent price volatility has left producers cautious about making long-term capital investments in new or existing projects. Regardl...
Despite owning a Pacific Rim deposit of gold, copper, zinc and silver worth some US$1.44 billion, Heatherdale Resources Ltd. has not completely escaped the financial paralysis gripping the junior mining sector. While the value of Heatherdale's stake of the Niblack project has nearly doubled over the past year, its share price has plunged some 75 percent. Notwithstanding, the Hunter Dickinson-affiliated junior has successfully pulled together the funds it needs to continue to...
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...
Usibelli Coal Mine Inc. has seen the future, and the future - its Jumbo Dome project - is bigger and better than anything the company has mined in the past, says Steve Denton, Usibelli vice president of business development. Jumbo Dome promises to be an improvement over Two Bull Ridge, the mine that currently produces 90 percent of Usibelli's coal production, Denton told an audience at the Pac Com meeting Feb. 22 in Anchorage. Based on initial samples, the company thinks the moisture content of the Jumbo Dome coal is higher,...
Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski said conserving natural gas could help save Agrium's Kenai Peninsula fertilizer plant and suggested reopening the Healy clean coal plant, a $300 million experimental power generation facility that was shuttered in 2000 after failing to meet the expectations of its proposed operator, Golden Valley Electric Association of Fairbanks. (See related stories in Petroleum News this week.) The plant can deliver 50 megawatts of power, and would relieve the consumption of 10 million cubic feet of gas per day,...
