The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Is it time for BC, Yukon, Alaska to forge an alliance to unlock critical mineral wealth, usher in new era of prosperity in the 21st century? The extremely mineral-rich geology that sweeps in a roughly 1,500-mile (2,600 kilometers) arc from the southern tip of British Columbia's Golden Triangle, through the Yukon, and onward to Alaska's west coast does not recognize the borders it spans. Likewise, the opportunities and challenges related to unlocking the precious, industrial, a...
As 2023 raced toward its final weeks, mining explorers working in Canada's northernmost territory wrapped up ambitious campaigns to identify new deposits of various lucrative minerals, ranging from cobalt to copper and gold to uranium. Both mineral production and exploration spending in Nunavut decreased in 2022 compared with the previous year's totals, and another drop is expected for 2023. Natural Resources Canada earlier projected a 28% decrease in planned spending for...
After establishing its position as a leading zinc-lead-silver explorer in northern Canada, Fireweed Metals Corp. set out in late 2022 to broaden its focus in both geography and commodities. Partly defying the age-old adage to stick to what you know, the longtime explorer of the district-scale Macmillan Pass zinc-lead-silver project ventured across the border into Northwest Territories to acquire two projects. While the Gayna River zinc-lead-silver-gallium-germanium project is...
American West Metals Ltd. Nov. 27 reported that surface samples with as much as 38.2% copper and 30.8% zinc have been collected from Tempest, a prospect about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the high-grade Storm Copper targets drilled this year on a 219,257-hectare (541,796 acres) property being explored by the company on Nunavut's Somerset Island. This district-scale property covers the Storm Copper project, a roughly 100-kilometer (60 miles) trend prospective for copper,...
From Pentagon's $37.5M grant to Graphite One to emerging nickel deposits, critical minerals are a hot AK mining topic. With Washington investing billions of dollars into ensuring safe and secure critical mineral supply chains, many mining companies are focusing more sharply on unlocking Alaska's potential to be a domestic source of the 50 minerals and metals critical to America's economic well-being and national security. The growing list of critical minerals being sought...
American West Metals Ltd. Nov. 6 announced that its 2023 drilling has tapped more impressive near-surface mineralization in expansion targets at the 4100N Zone on its Storm Copper project in Nunavut. Located within the far northern Canadian Arctic Archipelago, the Storm Copper project covers more than 4,000 square kilometers (1,544 square miles) of the Polaris mineral district. This year, the company aimed for up to 10,000 meters of reverse circulation drilling to establish...
Lightning Ridge discovery hole is further evidence of the camp-scale potential at the high-grade Storm copper project. American West Metals Ltd. Oct. 11 said that new high-grade copper intercepts encountered with drilling at the Lightning Ridge discovery and 2200N Zone underscore the camp-scale discovery and mining potential across the 850-square-mile (2,200 square kilometers) Storm Copper project on Somerset Island in northern Nunavut. To further understand this...
Like many other northern regions, Canada's North was settled because of its mineral resources. When the Canadian Dominion Government first purchased its arctic regions from the British Crown in the late 1800s, the Northwest Territories was seen as a vast stretch of cold, inhospitable land and was thus largely ignored at the time. However, due to the Klondike Gold Rush, the future of these northern lands would change forever. These days, a new rush has arisen, a white gold...
As the White House continues to dole out hundreds of billions of dollars to position America as the global leader in clean energy and digital technologies, Beijing initiates a strategy to put America in check with the global economy equivalent of pawns. These pawns in the technology chess match between the U.S. and China are gallium and germanium, a pair of semiconductor metals used to make the computer chips essential to every facet of modern life. Before all the major news o...
American West Metals Ltd. Sept. 26 reported that assays from three deep holes drilled at Storm confirm a new zone of near-surface, high-grade copper at the Thunder discovery, along with a large zone of deeper sediment-hosted copper mineralization associated with large gravity anomalies on this northern Nunavut project. The company's 2023 program involves reverse circulation drilling focused on defining a maiden Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (JORC) compliant resource around...
Data Mine North launched the first edition of Critical Minerals Alliances in 2021 with the hopes that this annual magazine would play some small role in helping to build alliances "that are not crippled by irreconcilable differences between organizations and individuals that do not always see eye-to-eye but strengthened by a spectrum of ideologies with a common goal – a healthy, prosperous, and exciting future for humankind." Today, the alliances envisioned by the Data Mine N...
From rare earths in Northern Maine to lithium in Southern California and graphite in Alaska, the U.S. Geological Survey is on a mission to discover minerals critical to the nation's economy and clean energy goals on American soil. Or, more accurately, under American soil. This nationwide endeavor is officially called the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative, but is better known as Earth MRI, a clever moniker that reflects the earth penetrating scans that are providing...
Separating your plastics, paper, metals, and food waste has generally been a personal choice throughout most of modern recycling history. However, current demand for resources predicts we won't have enough to support net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Hence, now is the best time for consumers to become educated and self-determined with their buying power, manufacturers to begin considering recycling as part of the initial design, and a new circular economy that resurrects a tr...
Aluminum has been classified as critical by the United States, European Union, Canada, and even China. At first glance, one may wonder how such a ubiquitous metal could possibly be critical. The answer is simply that aluminum is so widely used that supply, if endangered, could devastate an economy. In 2020, the World Bank identified aluminum as a "high-impact" and "cross-cutting" metal in all existing and potential green technologies. In spite of this, due to high energy...
As the cracks in the wall continue to chill the bones of an ill-prepared American clean-energy economy, attention has been paid to nearly every facet imaginable to obtain the minerals critical to fuel a zero-carbon future; however, all has seemingly been quiet on the unconventional front. Repeated time and time again during the ongoing transition, U.S. policymakers are becoming increasingly concerned about the overreliance on China for the minerals and metals essential to...
Still overshadowed by lithium but no less significant, cobalt falls within a unique category as a critical mineral not only for its properties but also for its controversial supply. As a fundamental component necessary for nickel-cobalt-manganese (NMC) lithium-ion batteries, cobalt warranted its place as a critical mineral vital to the zero-carbon transition due to the necessity of those batteries to power a clean, emission-free future. Its critical uses, however, go far...
Drill cuts 46m of 2.2% copper that includes 0.3m of 42.8% copper at 4100N; another discovery made. American West Metals Ltd. Sept. 4 reported that its near-surface drill program has tapped high-grade copper in two separate zones at Storm and discovered yet another promising zone of shallow mineralization at this intriguing project on Somerset Island in northern Nunavut. The company's 2023 program involves reverse circulation drilling focused on defining a maiden Joint Ore...
For those in the know, Alaska's resources aren't just some surprise windfall for renewable energy technologies. While precious metals like gold and silver have been the primary focus of more than a century of mining up north, the 49th State is home to 49 of the 50 materials on the United States' critical minerals list and has a history of stepping up to the plate to provide America with critical minerals when they are needed the most. Looking ahead over the next two to three...
Third deep 2023 drill hole makes two discoveries – 76m near-surface high-grade zone; deep zone south of previous holes. American West Metals Ltd. Aug. 7 reported that the third hole of its 2023 deep drill program at Storm has made two significant discoveries on this high-grade copper project in Nunavut – a thick zone of near surface copper in an underexplored area of the project and deep copper horizon below it. "The diamond drilling at Storm continues to deliver, pro...
American West Metals Ltd. Aug. 2 announced that the first two holes of its deep diamond drill program at Storm have cut thick zones of copper sulfide mineralization associated with an enormous gravity geophysical anomaly, providing strong evidence that the impressive copper zones being outlined at surface are the tip of the proverbial copper iceberg on this property in the northern reaches of Canada's Nunavut territory. "We are very excited to announce that the diamond...
Australia-based Mine Discovery Fund launches Wiseman Metals to explore Doyon-owned copper & critical minerals properties; more deals to come. Since emerging on the Alaska mineral exploration scene in 2021, Felix Gold Ltd. has amassed more than 150 square miles of gold-enriched properties in the Fairbanks Mining District and is working toward establishing an inaugural resource at one of the most prospective gold targets discovered so far on this enormous land package. As Felix...
American West Metals Ltd. July 5 announced that its drilling is continuing to expand the near-surface, high-grade copper footprint of 4100N Zone at Storm, and the company is ready to begin testing a much larger but deeper copper target on this northern Nunavut property. American West launched a 10,000-meter reverse circulation drill program in April that is focused on defining a maiden Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) compliant resource for three zones at Storm – 4100N, 2...
High-grade copper drilled at 4100N and nearby zones may be tip of the iceberg at Storm. American West Metals Ltd. June 22 reported assays from four additional holes drilled in 4100N Zone at Storm that cut 10- to 30-meter lenses of near-surface mineralization topping 1% copper, including a 1.5-meter subsection that averaged an amazing 8.2% copper. And the geological and geophysical evidence suggests that the high-grade copper lenses currently being drilled may be the tip of...
Fireweed announces MRE for tungsten that could supply North America for decades. Acquiring the Mactung tungsten project from the Northwest Territories government for C$15 million last year, Fireweed quickly consolidated previous data and new assessments to release a mineral resource estimate that ranks this property as the largest high-grade tungsten resource in the world. "In one year, we have gone from signing an initial letter of intent to a definitive asset purchase...
First six holes cut greater than 1% copper grades in shallow zone on Nunavut project. American West Metals Ltd. June 6 reported that high-grade copper has been encountered in the first six holes drilled this year in the 4100N zone of the Storm project on Somerset Island in Nunavut, Canada. In May, the Australia-based mineral explorer reported that the first hole of its 2023 Storm Copper program, SR23-01, cut three zones of high-grade mineralization: • 15.2 meters averaging 1...
