The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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The unseasonably, interminably, unspeakably cold spring that is delaying mineral exploration and development work in Alaska this year is being mimicked by a financial chill that is affecting Alaska exploration efforts just like it is the rest of the world. Not to put too fine a point on it, but from a mineral exploration standpoint, Alaska is shaping up to be as dead as a doornail this summer (ever wonder where that saying came from ... but I digress.). How dead? Try this statistic on for size: Of the 49 exploration projects...
The story of the Meadowbank Mine in central Nunavut continues to be a tale of challenges met and obstacles conquered. From the hour that its development was conceptualized in the middle of the past decade, the gold at Meadowbank has delivered a succession of hurdles for its developers - first Cumberland Resources and then Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. - to clear. Agnico-Eagle acquired Cumberland in April 2007 in an all-share acquisition valued at C$710 million. In 2010, the gold producer brought Meadowbank into commercial...
Following a rising chorus of junior companies touting impressive exploration programs on mineral prospects across Alaska that reached its crescendo in 2011, a deafening silence is resonating across the Far North expanse in 2013. And in the junior mining sector, no news is bad news. Mineral exploration expenditures in Alaska, which were a meager US$23.8 million in 2001, climbed to US$347 million by 2008. The "Great Recession of 2008" tightened the equity markets, resulting in...
There's nothing like getting an early start, especially when it comes to mining exploration in Canada's Far North. Literally, there's nothing like the 2013 program that Prosperity Goldfields Corp. kicked off in late February at its Kiyuk Lake Project to the east in southern Nunavut nor the 2013 field campaign launched about the same time by Kaminak Gold Corp. at the Coffee Gold Project in Yukon Territory. In a year when many mining companies are having to scrape together enough exploration funds to even mount a field program...
While others may have encountered insurmountable challenges, the new producers of precious and base metals in Canada's Far North achieved solid and, in some cases outstanding, performance results in 2012. The Meadowbank Mine in Nunavut and the three operating mines in Yukon Territory - Minto, Bellekeno and Wolverine, that began commercial production in recent years, posted results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2012 as well as guidelines for positive outcomes in 2013. Nunavut gold The Meadowbank Mine is the largest o...
In today's difficult financing climate, Homestake Resources Corp. is living the dream of most junior mining companies. Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd., an aggressive intermediate gold producer, has signed on to pay the bills at the Homestake Ridge project located in northwestern British Columbia in a deal where the gold producer could spending up to C$25.3 million and earn up to a 70 percent interest in the exploration and development venture. Formerly Bravo Gold Corp., the junior changes its name to Homestake Resources in April....
Aem: TSX Chairman: James D. Nasso President and CEO: Sean Boyd, C.A. Senior Vice President, Exploration: Alain Blackburn, P. Eng. Mid-tier gold producer Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. is focused on its advanced-stage Meliadine Project and its Meadowbank Gold Mine in central Nunavut. The company picked up the Meliadine project by acquiring Comaplex Minerals in July 2010. The project had proven and probable gold reserves of 2.9 million ounces (12.5 million metric tons grading 7.2 grams per metric ton gold) at Dec. 31, 2011....
An underlying motto for Nunavut this year is "Creating a Resourceful Future," a theme that can be interpreted as creating and building a future full of resources. Nunavut and its expansive geology are rich in many natural mineral resources such as gold, iron ore, base metals of lead and zinc, uranium and nickel to name a few. We have one operating mine, several properties that are potential mines under consideration, and several advanced exploration projects that are proceeding with development or feasibility work. These...
Companies chasing mineral riches in Nunavut in 2012 are expected to meet and surpass the brisk pace of exploration set a year earlier. But the race to discover major deposits of precious and base metals, along with uranium, diamonds and other commodities, in one of Canada's most underexplored and prospective jurisdictions is only just beginning. At one-fifth the size of Canada, Nunavut covers 1,994,000 square kilometers (770,000 square miles or nearly three times the size of Texas). The Far North territory is Canada's younges...
HSR: TSX President: Joseph A. Kizis, Jr., M.S., B.S., P.Geo. Chairman: Lawrence Page, Q.C., B.A., LL.B. Vice President, Exploration: Robert Macdonald, MSc., P.Geo Homestake Resource Corp., formerly Bravo Gold Corp., focused in 2012 on its Homestake Ridge and Kinskuch properties in northwestern British Columbia. This work included drill delineation of the South Reef deposit at Homestake Ridge and follow up drilling of a potential mineral deposit at Kinskuch. The program also included additional exploration drilling, ground...
Over the past six months, the single-most common question I have gotten asked about Alaska's mineral industry is, "Have there been any significant new discoveries?" While there may be an as-yet unannounced new discovery in Alaska, it seems the above question is being asked more frequently in other parts of the world as well and the most common answer is a simple "no." While information on new discoveries in other sectors of the mining industry is out there, it's not as...
Taking as its theme, "Building a Resourceful Future," the 15th annual Nunavut Mining Symposium held April 16-19, 2012 in Iqaluit, Nunavut, featured several presentations that examined the challenges facing mining and the importance of regulatory reform to the industry's future in Canada's northern territories. Pierre Gratton, president and CEO of the Mining Association of Canada, led the discussion by citing mining's significant contributions to the North, which include 30,000+ person years of stable, high-wage employment,...
The Fraser Institute's "Survey of Mining Companies, 2011/2012" was recently released to the public. This annual survey of exploration and mining companies gauges the pros and cons of working in various countries around the world. This year's results came from over 800 mineral industry companies working in 93 jurisdictions and representing cumulative 2011 exploration expenditures of over US$6.3 billion. The perception of Alaska from the companies that work here was about the...
There are some new statistics just out from the Alaska Miners Association that I thought you might like to see. For 2011, the Alaska mining industry accounted for 4,500 direct jobs and 9,000 indirect jobs. The industry paid US$620 million in payroll with the average salary totaling US$100,000 per year, which is double the statewide average for all sectors. The industry paid US$148 million in rents, royalties, taxes and other fees to the State of Alaska (up 170 percent over...
Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd.'s hunt for gold in Nunavut is rapidly becoming a tale of two deposits. Though the aggressive mid-tier gold producer is about to celebrate a second anniversary of gold production at its Meadowbank Mine near Baker Lake, it is increasingly looking to the Meliadine gold project located 290 kilometers (180 miles) to the southeast to make future investment in the northern territory worthwhile. An advanced-stage gold project, Meliadine is Toronto-based Agnico-Eagle's second major project in Canada's Low...
AEM: TSX Vice-chairman and CEO: Sean Boyd, C.A. President and COO: Eberhard Scherkus, P. Eng. Senior Vice President, Exploration: Alain Blackburn, P. Eng. Eighteen months after achieving commercial production at its Meadowbank Mine in Nunavut, international gold producer Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. is ironing out kinks in the operation. Meadowbank, one of the international gold producer's largest mines, has almost 3.5 million ounces of gold in reserves (34 million metric ton at 3.2 grams per metric ton), with tremendous potential...
A recent article in the Newsletter of the Society of Economic Geologists discussed ways of addressing an arresting trend in the mining industry that affects Alaska's mining future. Authors N. Stephen Enders of the Colorado School of Mines and Cliff Saunders of Too Serious Unlimited, showed that the discovery rate for gold has been dropping steadily since 1999, while the gold mined by operating mines worldwide has remained essentially unchanged at about 80 million ounces per year. The low for ounces discovered coincided with...
Five months after the devastating blow dealt to uranium markets by the earthquake and tsunami that damaged Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Dai-Ichi power station in March, global markets are showing signs of life as miners in Nunavut report encouraging drill results and exploration activity. Uranium spot prices remain depressed by Japan's ongoing nuclear crisis - down 24 percent since the week before the March 11 event - and leading uranium producers are predicting significant declines in world consumption of the...
As the Meadowbank Mine, Nunavut's sole operating gold mine, approaches its one-year anniversary of commercial production, Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd., the mine's owner and operator, acknowledges that it is still a work in progress. But the 600-employee, open-pit operation, which achieved commercial production March 1, 2010, has cleared some major hurdles in the nearly 12 months since its startup. Despite significant setbacks in ore processing and safety, the mine is delivering substantial value not only to Agnico-Eagle, but also...
Mining exploration activity in northern British Columbia approached record levels in 2010 with explorers setting a new drilling record and spending about C$168 million in pursuit of a wide range of minerals, including gold, copper, silver, molybdenum, and rare earth elements, according to a top provincial geologist. Paul Wojdak, regional geologist for the Northwest Region of British Columbia's Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, said the major good news mining story in 2010 for central and northern British...
Some 180 kilometers, or 112 miles, northeast of Nunavut's only producing gold mine is a huge swath of land that could become a potentially significant new gold district. That is, if North Country Gold Corp., the junior tasked with unlocking the secrets of this gold-rich region, succeeds in its current exploration campaign. North Country Gold owns 100 percent of the mineral rights to explore the 225,569 hectares, or 557,323 acres, in the 216 active mineral claims and 14 mineral leases that comprise the land package. Spun out...
When I wrote a first editorial for Mining Explorers last year, it was on the occasion of Nunavut celebrating its first 10 years as a separate territory, and so it was fitting to review some of the accomplishments of the decade. Now, as we enter into a second decade, many of the fruits of those labors are coming to bear. That first decade, 1999-2009, wasn't, of course, without its share of both accomplishments and setbacks. Early in Nunavut's short life around 2002, three long-producing mines closed: the Polaris and Nanisivik...
AEM: TSX Vice-chairman and CEO: Sean Boyd, C.A. President and COO: Eberhard Scherkus, P. Eng. Senior Vice President, Exploration: Alain Blackburn, P. Eng. Agnico-Eagle is an international growth company focused on gold exploration and development activities in four countries. Agnico-Eagle's LaRonde Mine in Quebec is Canada's largest operating gold mine in terms of reserves. In March, the 37-year-old company achieved commercial production at its Meadowbank Gold Mine located in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut about 70...
Government and industry officials agree that mining exploration and development in recent years have brought substantial positive change to Nunavut, Canada's newest and least explored territory. Ongoing and new exploration, however, are rapidly advancing understanding of this vast Arctic land's mineral potential. "In this industry, it seems that all of the best and worst of times were compressed into less than two years (between 2008 and 2010)," said Peter Taptuna, minister of Economic Development & Transportation for the Gov...
Though most of the gold fever sweeping northern Canada these days is focused on Yukon Territory's White Gold district to the west and near Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd.'s new Meadowbank Mine to the east in Nunavut, a growing number of explorers are trekking to the territory in between. Mining companies are returning to the Northwest Territories as gold prices set records, including a recent high of US$1,260 per ounce. But most of these explorers are targeting known deposits or previously identified mineralization rather than...
