The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Russia's invasion of Ukraine, America's tenuous relationship with China, and global competition for the enormous volume of mined materials needed to build the envisioned clean energy future has elevated the urgency for the United States to bolster domestic critical mineral supply chains. For many, these geopolitical and economic realities have elevated the development of Alaska's incredible critical mineral resources to a national imperative. The urgency of this matter is why...
The White House's bold clean energy ambitions, which are intricately linked to the availability of reliable supplies of the metals needed to build electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure, are being slowed by a tug-o-war between departments within the Biden administration. While the departments of Commerce, Defense, and Energy are forging ahead with programs and investments aimed at ensuring America has the minerals and metals needed to support the clean energy...
Chiefs from the Doyon region and village leaders from the NANA region came together for a meeting at Ambler Metals' Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects to gain a first-hand understanding of the mining proposed for the Ambler Mining District, as well as to discuss the economic benefits this resource development and a proposed road into the region could have on both the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) regions represented. "One of our core values is respect – for people, t...
Last week my good friend and colleague Curt Freeman wrote an article titled: "Is it time to press the reset button?". The article made me laugh and got me thinking – and rather than just falling in line with all the Dorothy's out there and just whine about it or blame COVID, Putin, Biden or the Billionaires club, I decided to proffer a few tangible suggestions that I believe are within reach and importantly - largely within our control, say within the next ten years; we j...
Trilogy Metals Inc. June 8 provided details of the planned US$26.2 million exploration program slated for this year at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in the Ambler Mining District of Northwest Alaska. Ambler Metals LLC, a joint venture company equally owned by Trilogy and South32 Ltd., has begun mobilizing equipment and crews for a summer field program that is expected to include at least 10,000 meters of diamond drilling, with additional meters contingent on drill...
Trilogy Metals Inc. April 20 reported that high-grade copper and zinc, reinforced with strong gold and silver, was cut in all the final nine holes from the 2021 drill program at the Arctic mine project in Northwest Alaska. Arctic is the most advanced deposit on the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects, a 448,217-acre mineral-rich land package being advanced by Ambler Metals LLC, a joint venture company equally owned by Trilogy Metals and South32 Ltd. Arctic is a volcanogenic massive...
United States District Court Judge Sharon Gleason confirmed the U.S. Department of Interior's request to remand the previously issued federal permits for construction of the proposed 211-mile Ambler Access Project but ruled the permits will not be terminated altogether. Earlier this year, DOI requested a voluntary remand of the previously issued joint record of decision that authorized a right-of-way across federal lands for building the industrial-use-only road that would...
At a time when the state is looking at being infused with billions of federal dollars to invest in upgrading roads, bridges, rails, ports and other infrastructure, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority board has authorized an independent study of the 800-mile trans-Alaska transportation corridor that extends from the Ambler Mining District to ports in and around Anchorage. Sitting roughly 200 miles west of Alaska's limited highway network, the Ambler District...
While hailing President Joe Biden's use of the Defense Production Act to bolster domestic production of critical lithium-ion battery minerals and metals as good news for the Far North State's mining sector, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy says this move contradicts actions taken by the administration to reevaluate a road to the Ambler Mining District. "I fully support the President making the development of these minerals a priority in our nation's interest. But the Biden...
On March 18, 2022, Alaska's mining community lost Bill Ellis, a close friend and geologist that was universally loved for his kind spirit and optimism, traits that will live on as a legacy as solid as the Alaska rocks he explored for the better part of half a century. All of us at North of 60 Mining News were blessed to get to know Bill and wish to send our love and condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues. In honor of Bill's memory, we would like to republish "Bill...
Trilogy Metals Inc. March 17 reported additional "outstanding but not unexpected" results from the 2021 infill drilling at the Arctic deposit on the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska. The company also provided a brief update on the U.S. Department of Interior's suspension of permits to build a road to the Ambler Mining District where UKMP is located. Being advanced by Ambler Metals LLC, a joint venture operating company equally owned by Trilogy and South32...
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is leveraging its control over federal land along the Dalton Highway corridor to throw up a roadblock on the proposed industrial access to Alaska's Ambler Mining District. On March 11, BLM notified the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority that it has suspended a previously issued 50-year right-of-way that covers 25 miles of the proposed 211-mile road connecting the Ambler District to Alaska's highway system. Despite the receipt...
In a move criticized by a wide swath of Alaska policymakers and trade organizations, the Biden administration has filed a motion to reverse the federal authorizations for a proposed 211-mile road to the mineral-rich Ambler Mining District in Northwest Alaska. "You would think President Biden would want to improve access to American sources of copper and other strategic minerals that are needed in our combined efforts to increase renewables. Instead, actions like this only...
The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority and Ambler Metals LLC have agreed to equally fund $30.8 million for a 2022 field program to advance the Ambler Access Project, a proposed 211-mile road that serves as an Alaskan epitome of connecting the aspirations of a low-carbon future with the large volumes of minerals and metals required to build the electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure that will make the green energy future a reality. The World Bank...
Trilogy Metals Inc. Jan. 25 reported that the latest batch of assays from the infill drilling at Arctic continues to confirm that high copper and zinc grades are the rule and not the exception at this volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska. A 2020 feasibility study details plans for a financially robust mining operation at this world-class deposit that would produce 1.9 billion pounds of copper, 2.3 billion lb of zinc, 388...
Trilogy Metals Inc. Jan. 20 published an updated mineral resource estimate for Bornite that shines a spotlight on the very high copper and cobalt grades in the underground South Reef area of this world-class deposit on the Upper Kobuk Minerals Projects in the Ambler Mining District of Northwest Alaska. Located about 15 miles southwest of Arctic, the most advanced of the UKMP projects, Bornite is a large and high-grade deposit that hosts 6.3 billion pounds of copper and 88...
6 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for unlocking the world-class potential of the Ambler Mining District in Northwest Alaska. Toward realizing this potential, Ambler Metals LLC, a joint venture equally owned by Trilogy Metals Inc. and a subsidiary of South32 Ltd., has budgeted US$28.5 million for 2022. This program is slated to include drilling, engineering studies, and the initiation of permitting for Arctic, the first mine to be developed on its Upper Kobuk Mineral...
When Australia-based South32 Ltd. decided to expand its portfolio into the Northern Hemisphere, Alaska was its first stop. Under a deal struck with Trilogy Metals Inc. in 2017, the major agreed to invest more than US$175 million to earn a 50% joint venture interest in the massive Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Alaska's world-class Ambler Mining District. After investing more than US$30 million to fully understand the mineral potential at UKMP, South32 agreed to pay US$145 mil...
Goldman Sachs' declaration that "copper is the new oil" may serve as a foreshadowing of Alaska's economic future, one that is not so heavily reliant on the revenues from petroleum flowing from the North Slope and leans more heavily on the state's rich endowment of precious, critical, and base metals. The investment bank's suggestion that copper is to become the strategically most important commodity on Earth is due to the vital role the conductive metal plays in global...
While copper may be the new oil of the green energy revolution, a wide variety of industrial minerals and metals found in abundance in Alaska will be needed to build the envisioned low-carbon future. In a 2021 report on the minerals and metals critical to low-carbon energy and transportation, the International Energy Agency estimates that a typical passenger electric vehicle requires six times the mineral inputs of a conventional internal combustion engine car and an onshore...
With the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects being advanced under a joint venture with South32 Ltd., Trilogy Metals Inc. has begun exploring for Arctic-type volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits on three properties it staked across the southern slopes of the Brooks Range in northern Alaska during 2021. "While Trilogy is focused on the oversight of our primary asset, the UKMP which is being managed by Ambler Metals LLC, the joint venture company equally owned by Trilogy Metals and Sou...
The Red Dog Mine has been a gamechanger for the more than 15,000 Iñupiat shareholders of NANA Corp., the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) regional corporation that owns the world-class Red Dog deposits in Northwest Alaska that are the source of nearly 5% of the world's new zinc supply each year. The revenues from shipping out more than 1 billion pounds of zinc annually, along with healthy portions of lead, silver, and minor amounts of germanium, have served as a...
Pioneer Alaskans swore that Alaska's economy would be destroyed if "the Natives" secured control of any lands in Alaska. However, they did not realize how practical and pragmatic Alaska Natives have had to be to survive and thrive in their Arctic homeland. Whatever tool was needed to survive, Alaska Natives created it with the minimal materials at hand-skin, wood, stone, jade, copper, seashells, mud, plants, flint, obsidian, snow, and ice. With the settlement of Alaska Native...
Valhalla Metals Inc., a privately held junior mining company focused on the exploration of the Sun and Smucker properties in Alaska's Ambler Mining District, may soon have easier access to funding through a merger with SolidusGold Inc., a company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. Under a tentative agreement announced on Nov. 29, Solidus would acquire Valhalla through an exchange of shares that would result in current Valhalla shareholders owning 80% of the resulting company...
The $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act brightens an otherwise gloomy outlook when it comes to federal policies that impact Alaska and its mining sector. "I believe this is truly historic for our state," Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said during a Nov. 17 address at the Alaska Resources Conference. While the massive infrastructure bill passage was chalked up as a political win for President Joe Biden, the billions of dollars to be invested into upgrading and...
