The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 326 - 350 of 391
Alaska's mining industry captured the attention, not only of Alaskans but also the country during the past year when a controversy over the proposed Pebble Project in Southwest Alaska bubbled to the surface. Supporters and opponents of a ballot initiative aimed at blocking the mining venture squared off in a vocal and often strident campaign that made headlines nationwide. Alaska Miners Association director Steve Borell cited the contest over development the world-class...
NovaGold Resources Inc. reports that the startup of its first mining operation at Rock Creek near Nome is going smoothly. Production levels at Rock Creek have been higher than the company anticipated, averaging about 50 percent of design capacity during the first month of operation, NovaGold said in its third-quarter financial report. The gold mine's gravity circuits ran at about 80 percent availability and the carbon-in-leach system is in the process of being charged and...
Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp.'s Kensington gold mine project, located about 45 miles northwest of Juneau, is expecting a Supreme Court ruling on its tailings permits in early 2009. If the court upholds the permits, Coeur hopes to complete its tailings facilities and begin gold production by the end of next year. Once in production the mine will employ about 200 people, and produce about 140,000 ounces of gold per year. Proven and probable reserves measure about 1.4 million ounces of gold, and an additional 623,000 ounces...
Australian Mineral Fields Ltd. has signed an agreement with Alaska-based Tushtena Resources Inc. that grants the Perth-based junior the right to acquire up to an 85 percent stake in the Tushtena gold project 20 miles west-southwest of Tok. The Australian junior can earn 80 percent interest in the Tushtena project by spending $3 million within five years. The company also can increase its stake to 85 percent by completing a bankable feasibility study. Australian Mineral has...
NovaGold Resources Inc. experienced more than a 30 percent drop in stock value when the Vancouver B.C.-based junior reported it is selling more than 485,000 acres of its non-core mining assets in Alaska, and that sale of the entire company is one of the options managers are considering as a "strategic alternative to maximize shareholder value." "We just wanted to signal to the market that we think we are really undervalued here. These assets are high-quality assets in a low...
DAWSON CITY, Yukon - Atop a wooded peak in this land of mountains and deep valleys near the confluence of the White and Yukon rivers, a New Zealand-based miner is hard at work exploring for gold. Underworld Resources Inc., a junior organized in 2007, has come to the Far North in hopes of making a commercial discovery at the White Gold and Black Fox Gold properties in west central Yukon Territory, about 95-123 kilometers, or 59-76 miles, by air south of Dawson City. Organized with an initial public offering in March 2007, Unde...
NovaGold Resources Inc. July 11 posted its second-quarter financial results and admitted that the company has encountered significant problems getting Rock Creek, its most advanced gold mining project, up and running. NovaGold also outlined plans to sell some of its noncore assets, including its Ambler lead-zinc property near the Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska. NovaGold said it initially budgeted about $42 million in fiscal 2008 to complete construction at the Rock Creek mine near Nome. However, significant adverse weather...
After six years of hard work, NovaGold Resources Inc. is moving closer to its goal of developing a world-class gold mine in the hills above the Yukon-Kuskokwim River Basin of southwestern Alaska. The Vancouver, B.C.-based junior is set to produce its first gold at the Rock Creek project near Nome this year, but its ongoing development of the Donlin Creek deposit hundreds of miles southeast of Nome is more likely to propel the company onto the world stage as a mega-producer of the yellow precious metal. NovaGold and its 50...
Everyone who is planning to work on Alaska mineral projects in 2008 is busy doing just that as the longest day of summer quickly approaches. Programs ranging from grass-roots prospecting to multimillion-dollar feasibility studies are spread over the entire state with the most active areas being Western and Interior Alaska. With the new resources for Donlin Creek now out, my unofficial records show Alaska's total gold resources at more than 169 million ounces, with gold discovery rates during the past 10 years averaging more...
Full Metal Minerals Corp. May 15 said it signed an exploration agreement with an option to purchase 100 percent interest in the Granite Creek Gold Property in southwestern Alaska. The Vancouver, B.C.-based junior said it can earn 100 percent interest in the Granite Creek property from a third-party Alaska resident by paying $375,000 in cash ($50,000 first year), and incurring $3.25 million in exploration expenditures ($200,000 first year). After exercising the option, Full Metal said it will make annual $150,000 advance royal...
Last month's perfect storm of news from around the state has blown itself out so that this month we are getting only a drizzle or two. Why? Seems straightforward to me. If you have a budget, you already have started working on it, and you are too busy working to have anything much to report. If you don't have a budget yet, it is unlikely that you will be getting one at this late date so you have even less to say. Time to put boots on the outcrops! Western Alaska NovaGold...
If Alaska is the "Last Frontier," then Nautilus Minerals Ltd. surely must be exploring what can only be described as the ultimate frontier on earth - the bottom of the ocean. The Vancouver, B.C.-based junior exploration company earlier this year reported the first resource estimate for an undersea mineral deposit, ushering in what many call a new era in hardrock mining. The junior said it plans to develop substantial high-grade polymetallic (copper, gold, zinc and silver) massive sulphide deposits in 1,600 meters of water in...
Vancouver-based NovaGold Resources Inc. April 14 assured investors that it has a "clearly defined strategy" to rebuild shareholder value from the setbacks suffered in the market last fall when the company and partner Teck Cominco Ltd. elected to delay development of the Galore Creek Project in northern British Columbia. NovaGold's new strategy is a focus on Rock Creek and Donlin Creek, the junior's gold projects in Alaska. NovaGold also reported earnings of $28 million, or 27...
Let me extend my apologies to all those looking for a quick summary of the Alaska mining industry this month. There is nothing "quick" about the tome you are about to read, but don't blame the messenger. I just report what I read, and this month it's a sack full! No need for more words, just read on! Western Alaska NovaGold Resources announced results of a newly released report on the Rock Creek project, nearing commercial production outside of Nome. The revised feasibility...
THe Chuitna Citizens NO-COALition filed an appeal Mar. 19 in Alaska Superior Court challenging a decision by Alaska Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin to reject its petition to designate all land within the Chuitna River watershed as unsuitable for coal mining. Irwin rejected the petition last summer on the grounds that the evidence submitted to support the petition's claims did not make a compelling argument and the petition itself was overly broad, arbitrary and did not give the petitioner credibility...
NovaGold Resources Inc. March 20 said it has priced a public offering of $95 million in convertible bonds due May 1, 2015 and net proceeds before deducting estimated offering expenses are expected to total $92.15 million. NovaGold said a day earlier that cash raised in the offering will be used to repay short-term debt, fund exploration and development projects and pay bills. J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., the underwriter, also received the option to issue another $14 million in notes to cover over-allotments, if any. If the...
NovaGold Resources Inc. and Barrick Gold Corp. have incorporated more drilling results into their estimate of recoverable gold at the Donlin Creek deposit and boosted that number by 77 percent to 29.4 million ounces. Donlin Creek is situated on Calista Corp. lands in the northern part of the Yukon-Kuskokwim region in western Alaska. The estimate of measured and indicated resources was prepared by Barrick geologists, and compares favorably with an October 2006 projection of...
In days gone by the Alaska mining industry thought of December as a time of decreased activity and a chance to catch your breath before the New Year started. Well, in case you have not noticed, those days are long gone! This month's activities stretch from one side of Alaska to the other with metals of interest spanning the periodic table of elements. Results from a number of programs are still outstanding and likely will not be seen until the New Year, blurring transitions...
NovaGold Resources reported results Dec. 18 from 152,000 meters of drilling completed in 2006 and 2007 at the Donlin Creek gold deposit in western Alaska. The exploration averaged 67 meters of mineralization per hole, grading 3.61 grams, or 1.273 ounces, of gold per metric ton. The Vancouver, B.C.-based junior mining company said it expects much of the inferred resources at the project to be converted to measured and indicated resources and included in a new resource estimate...
A bold gambit to revive what was once Canada's largest and most profitable zinc-lead mine is still on track thanks to the tenacity and innovation of Tamerlane Ventures Inc., a Blaine, Wash.-based junior mining company led by some of the industry's savviest mining veterans. Located just across Great Slave Lake from Yellowknife about 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of the village of Hay River in the Northwest Territories, the historic Pine Point Mine produced some 4.5 million metric tons of zinc and 2 million metric tons of lead...
A year ago, Vancouver-based NovaGold Resources Inc. triumphantly fought off a hostile takeover bid by Toronto giant Barrick Gold. In 2007, the ambitious junior brought its Rock Creek project near Nome to the brink of production, began construction at Galore Creek in British Columbia and just a few weeks ago sealed a deal with Barrick to end their dispute over the Donlin Creek project in southwest Alaska. On Nov. 7, NovaGold's share price hit a 52-week high of $21.91. Then disaster struck: NovaGold and its new partner at...
The price of gold surged through $800 per ounce recently, headed north; and all gold miners (as well as the producers of many other commodities in the United States) are bound to have a happy Thanksgiving because of it. At the recent Alaska Miners Association Convention the faces of the more than 600 attendees confirmed the good news. Happy days are here again - or are they? The cautionary note, of course, is that currency traders are also hooting and hollering. If the price of gold was going up, and the price of the...
Sultan Minerals Inc. is another Canadian junior with ambitious plans to cash in on higher prices by taking up where others left off in British Columbia. Sultan, a publicly held company in the Lang Mining Group, is hoping to revive tungsten and lead-zinc mining at the historic Jersey-Emerald property in southeastern B.C. The Vancouver, B.C.-based junior mining company is also eager to exploit a potentially larger molybdenum mineralization encountered beneath the other metals deposits. Incorporated in 1989, Sultan has focused...
Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp., the world's largest gold producer, and Vancouver-based junior NovaGold Resources Inc. have agreed to a 50-50 partnership on the world-class Donlin Creek project in western Alaska. Barrick and NovaGold have agreed to form Donlin Creek LLC. The new company will operate the project and is owned equally by both partners. Donlin Creek LLC will have four board members, with two members selected by each company. NovaGold nominated Doug Nicholson,...
For those of you who could not attend the Alaska Miners Association convention in Anchorage in early November, you missed what I understand was a record attendance and presentations on some of the most exciting mining developments in the last decade. In addition, I noticed a lot more business being conducted around the conference hotel than is normally the case. Geologists and engineers from companies large and small could be seen hunkered down over reports and maps with...
