The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Curt's rock hammer, pen, wit, and charm have all contributed to Alaska mining sector success ! It is no surprise that longtime Alaska geologist Curt Freeman would at some point be presented the Charles C. (Chuck) Hawley Lifetime Achievement Award, an Alaska Miners Association honor reserved for those who devoted their professional life to ensuring a successful mining industry in Alaska. After all, Alaska's mining and mineral exploration landscape would only be a shadow of...
The first high-grade gold ore from the Manh Choh Mine in Alaska fed into the Kinross Alaska mill at the Fort Knox Mine near Fairbanks is elevating Contango Ore Inc. from a unique Alaska focused mineral exploration company to the newest gold producer in the state. "We are indeed excited to report that mining operations have commenced at Manh Choh and that the construction phase has been achieved on budget and on schedule," Contango ORE President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse...
Kinross Alaska celebrates two milestones; one an echo of past success and the other a beacon to a bright future. Kinross Gold Corp. Nov. 8 reported that its Fort Knox Mine in Alaska produced 71,611 ounces of gold during the third quarter of 2023, which included the nine millionth ounce recovered from this iconic mine about 25 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska. "As we celebrate this remarkable milestone of pouring nine million ounces of gold from the Fort Knox refinery, we also...
Manh Choh is more than an economic opportunity and the promise of jobs. It is a legacy project for my people and the surrounding region. This vision goes back to 2008 when the late Chief Danny Adams and the village council members made it their priority to develop an economic future for their people. Chief Danny was a well-respected Tanana Chiefs Conference Executive Board member and a visionary leader in the Upper Tanana region. With the development of this mine, we will be...
TOK, ALASKA – An Aug. 29 groundbreaking ceremony at Manh Choh marked the official opening of Alaska's newest gold mine. But even before tribal, corporate, and state leaders tossed the symbolic golden shovels of dirt celebrating the start of Manh Choh, the Alaskan crossroads town of Tok about 15 miles to the northwest was already bustling from the added business this mine brings. As the first real sign of civilization in nearly 300 miles for northbound Alaska Highway travelers,...
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...
Less than three years after bringing its ambition to mine rare earth elements to Canada, Vital Metals Ltd. is rapidly establishing its presence on the world stage as one of few miners of rare earth minerals outside of China. In July 2021, the Australia-based company became the first to extract rare earth-rich material for commercial processing from the ground in Canada – a country known to host vast undeveloped quantities of the coveted resources. Vital Metals is also only t...
PhotonAssay tech offers a modern, faster alternative to fire assaying for gold analysis. Assays are the very crux of mineral exploration – timely results returned from the lab help guide the search for orebodies and let investors know that the dollars being poured into drilling and sampling is money well spent. With assay lab turnaround times in a post-COVID world being measured in months instead of weeks, mineral exploration geologists are without an important tool for v...
From flashlights to supercomputers, tin is the glue for an electronic age Lost in the clamor for lithium, nickel and other metals needed for the batteries powering electric vehicles and modern electronics, or the rare earth elements that turn stored energy into motion, is the enormous need for a much more modest metal that is so fundamental to the advancement of technology that it almost goes unseen – tin. While other technology metals are critical to certain products and s...
Noted Alaskan prospector Rudy Vetter once told me, "At my age, I don't even buy green bananas anymore." I heard this sage remark during a mineral property lease negotiation after I offered Mr. Vetter a production royalty, rather than the cold, hard cash he wanted. Mr. Vetter was in his 80s at the time and clearly knew his own investment risk timeline. He also clearly knew that Alaskan mines require a number of years to move from discovery to production. So not surprisingly,...
With the recently completed feasibility study showing an economically robust project, Kinross Gold Corp. has officially decided to move forward with developing a mine at the Manh Choh gold-silver project near the Village of Tetlin, Alaska. "At Manh Choh in Alaska, we completed a feasibility study ahead of schedule, and are proceeding with a project that we expect will add approximately 640,000 lower-cost gold ounces to our production profile over its life of mine in one of...
I know, I know, I promised to shut up and go away a long time ago. But I lied, so sue me! Just be glad I didn't title this ramble "Is it time for Format-C?" after all, most of the young-uns would have to Google that term to see what in tarnation it meant! And even then, many would ask "what is a hard drive?" But I digress, which by the way, has a Latin derivation that means "step away," which I supposedly did some time ago (see above). Ironic, eh? But I am digressing about...
With an earlier than expected feasibility study on its way for Manh Choh, drilling started at Lucky Shot, and the addition of geologist Curt Freeman to its board of directors, Contango ORE Inc. has a lot to look forward to as 2022 progresses. Freeman's addition to the Contango ORE board coincides with the departure of Joseph Greenberg, an oil and gas executive that has been a director of CORE since it was spun out of Texas-based Contango Oil and into a public company in 2010....
Contango ORE Inc. April 9 announced that it has entered into a binding agreement to raise US$20 million through the issuance of debenture, an unsecured loan that can be converted into shares, to fund its commitments at the Manh Choh gold project in eastern Alaska and for exploration and development on its Lucky Shot gold mine properties in the Southcentral region of the state. "With strong fundamentals in the gold market, management is excited to advance our portfolio of...
When Vital Metals Ltd. purchased the rights to mine the mineral resources in the upper zones of the Nechalacho rare earth project from Avalon Rare Metals Inc. in 2019, the Australian junior hit the ground running. And the rest is history. Literally. In July, Vital Metals became the first company to produce rare earth minerals in Canada – a country known to host vast undeveloped quantities of this suite of coveted elements. Vital is also only the second company to mine rare e...
Kinross Gold Corp.'s strategy to leverage the underutilized 14-million-metric-ton-per-year mill and enormous tailings storage capacity at its Fort Knox gold mine to process higher-grade ore from projects within a roughly 300-mile radius of the Interior Alaska operation is a gamechanger for smaller high-grade gold projects and how the global mining company approaches exploration in the state. Prior to the Kinross Alaska strategy, Fort Knox mill production was winding down....
President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse has positioned Contango ORE Inc. to be the next gold producing company in Alaska and has added projects that deepen the pipeline for this unique exploration and development company. CORE's primary asset is Manh Choh, a 675,000-acre land package leased from the Tetlin Alaska Native Tribe that hosts two adjacent, high-grade gold-silver deposits the company advanced from discovery to a project slated to be Alaska's next large gold mine....
New Age Metals Inc. Sept. 20 reported that Aurora Geosciences Ltd. is carrying out mapping and sampling at the Bernard Mountain and Sheep Hill areas of New Age's Genesis platinum group metal-nickel-copper project in Southcentral Alaska. Lying alongside the Richardson Highway about 75 highway miles north of the deep-water port city of Valdez, Genesis is an under-explored palladium-platinum-nickel-copper property with great infrastructure. Previous sampling at Sheep Hill, one...
On track to begin the initial phase of rare earth production at the Nechalacho project in Northwest Territories later this year, Vital Metals Ltd. has launched a drill program to prepare for the second stage of REE mining at the project along the shores of Thor Lake. "2021 will be a groundbreaking year for Vital Metals," said Vital Metals Managing Director Geoff Atkins. "In addition to the commencement of development and construction activities for our Stage 1 operations at...
Peak Gold LLC, a joint venture between Kinross Gold Corp. (70%) and Contango ORE Inc. (30%), have agreed to invest US$18 million during 2021 to carry out the work needed to complete a feasibility level study for establishing a mine at Peak Gold project in eastern Alaska. Toward a new strategy of acquiring high-grade gold from projects across Alaska to provide feedstock for the mill at its Fort Knox Mine about 25 miles north of Fairbanks, Kinross acquired a 70% JV interest in...
In the few months since taking the helm at Contango ORE Inc., Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse has steered this unconventional mineral exploration company toward being the 30% owner of Alaska's next million-ounce gold producing mine. This coming mine at Contango ORE's Peak Gold deposit quickly surpassed Donlin Gold, Livengood, and other top contenders for Alaska's next large gold operation when Kinross Gold Corp. acquired a 70% interest in the high-grade gold project and unveiled a...
A look at Kinross Gold Corp.'s newly optimized strategy for Fort Knox indicates that the iconic mine about 20 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska will be producing upwards of 400,000 ounces of gold per year for most of the coming decade. The global gold producer introduced its new plans for Fort Knox during an Oct. 20 presentation that provided a more in-depth look into its plan to increase companywide gold output by 500,000 oz/year by 2023. This production growth strategy,...
Tectonic Metals Inc. June 25 announced that it has added a new gold property in the Goodpaster Mining District and acquired a dataset that will assist the company's exploration across this gold-rich region of Alaska's Interior. The new property, known as Maple Leaf, is roughly nine miles (15 kilometers) northeast of Tectonic's Tibbs project and about 31 miles (50 kilometers) east of Northern Star Resources Ltd.'s Pogo gold mine. The Tectonic team staked this 11,840-acre...
Contango ORE Inc. May 6 announced that management of the Peak Gold joint venture – Contango ORE (60%) and Royal Gold Inc. (40%) – has decided to postpone exploration on the Tetlin gold project in eastern Alaska in order to protect the health of workers and stakeholder during the COVID-19 outbreak. "These are certainly difficult times for everyone, and our primary concern is to ensure that our employees, contractors and community members remain safe and healthy," said Con...
Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. Feb. 6 reported that headway is being made at its Will Scarlett rare earth elements recovery project in Illinois and Nechalacho REE Mine project in Northwest Territories. Avalon said the December agreement by Canada and the United States to co-operate on critical minerals supply chain development, particularly rare earths, has resulted in new government initiatives in both countries to support the creation of these supply chains. The critical...
