The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 76 - 98 of 98
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,...
The trials and tribulations of Alaska's mining industry continued in the last month with one challenged mine given the green light to proceed, the other halted in midstride by the same legal system. In the background, exploration programs quietly began at several locations across the state as the busy 2007 mining season started in earnest. Alaska's global rank dropped from 13th to 24th position in the most recent Fraser Institute survey of mining jurisdictions worldwide. At...
Okay, the lull is over. It lasted about 25, maybe 30 minutes, after I wrote those prophetic but ill-considered words in late January! Shortly after that point I was in Vancouver for the annual Cordilleran Roundup mining conference, an annual barometer of mining activity in western North America if not the world. What I saw at the 2007 conference was a crowd well in excess of 5,000, populated by two types of people: those who were smiling from ear to ear and those whose terrified eyes reminded me of a whitetail deer in the...
A broad spectrum of Alaskans who support the proposed Pebble mine have formed a non-profit organization to inform the public about Northern Dynasty's copper-gold project in the Bristol Bay region. Truth About Pebble was officially launched at a meeting of the Resource Development Council in Anchorage Jan. 18 with speeches by three of the new organization's board members. Truth About Pebble's chairman, Dick Cattanach, who is executive director of the Associated General Contractors of Alaska, told the RDC that the opposition...
Alaska's Donlin Creek gold project is still several years from becoming an operating mine, but it has already made a huge impact on the lives of people in the surrounding rural communities. Since making a commitment in 1996 to employ as many Native corporation shareholders as possible, operator Barrick Gold achieved a shareholder hire rate of 92 percent in 2005, with a turnover rate of just 10 percent, down from 318 percent at the start of the project. Donlin Creek is a joint venture between NovaGold Resources and Barrick, wi...
Alaska's governor-elect, Republican Sarah Palin, made the annual miners' convention in Anchorage the venue for her first official engagement after the election, promising to listen to the industry as she selects her advisors. Palin's predecessor, Frank Murkowski, gave strong support to the mining industry, including initiating the Roads to Resources program, but lost valuable employees at the Department of Natural Resources when they resigned in protest at his handling of gas pipeline negotiations. "It's my pleasure to...
The annual running of the bulls in Pamplona can't hold a candle to the statewide frenzy that is going on right now across the length and breadth of Alaska. Measure it any way you like - meters drilled, helicopter hours used, geologists or engineers on the payroll, gallons of fuel burned or gallons of peanut butter consumed - it all comes out the same. The Alaska mineral industry is running at or over capacity and there is no sign that that will change any time soon. The last month saw the start of multiple drilling programs...
The last month has seen the 2006 summer season's first offering of new discoveries, new drilling results and new companies in Alaska. While a number of programs were delayed due to an unseasonably cold spring (bring on the global warming!), most programs have moved to Plan B, C or D and are now fully engaged under the midnight sun. Western Alaska Triex Minerals and Full Metal Minerals reported their planned diamond drilling program has begun on the Boulder Creek uranium project on the Seward Peninsula. The $1.1 million progra...
After staking 25,600 additional acres in the Nyac Gold District earlier this year, Tonogold Resources Inc. has embarked on Alaska exploration it hopes will yield a big payoff. The California-based junior mining company began drilling June 7 at Bonanza Ridge, one of six gold prospects it aims to explore with a drill this summer. "We are very excited to begin drilling operations at Nyac. Our exploration activities of 2005 delineated extensive drilling targets with great mineralization and our 2006 exploration program calls for...
Hanson Industries Inc., the Spokane, Wash.-based development company, has asked the State of Alaska for permission to explore areas of the historic Goodnews Bay Platinum Mine, which it has owned since 1980. The move comes in the wake of rapidly soaring prices for the rare metal, and coincides with an exploration program being undertaken in the same mining district by Pacific North West Capital Corp. Pacific North West, a Vancouver, B.C. junior mining company, announced in April that it had acquired an option from Calista Corp...
The game is afoot! The last month has seen the start of a number of field programs in Alaska, marking the beginning of the traditional "field season" in the Great Land. With demand for metals remaining extraordinarily high, Alaska's mining industry is operating at capacity but well below demand. An acute shortage of drills and drillers, geologists and engineers and helicopters to move them all around is affecting exploration, development and production plans around the state. For the first time in my career, money is not in...
The sound of boots, hammers, drills and helicopters is starting to drown out the sounds of "we are planning," "we hope to" and "later this year" that we've been hearing for the last few months. Despite a late spring through most of Alaska, a number of projects kicked off recently and more are gathering steam as the short, hectic Alaska summer season approaches. Companies counting on an early spring due to Global Warming have been disappointed and Plan B options are being formulated however, the end result will be the same:...
As Barrick Gold Corp. announced completion of its multibillion-dollar acquisition of Placer Dome in mid-March, managers of the Donlin Creek project charged forward with work on several fronts at the southwestern Alaska gold deposit. Toronto-based Barrick launched a hostile takeover of Placer Dome on Halloween, but later won approval from Placer Dome's board for a $10.4 billion deal that created the world's biggest gold miner. The combined company owns 26 active mines and is the world's largest gold producer. It expects to...
Monogold Resources Inc. posted results Sept. 15 of sampling results from its 2005 summer exploration program at the Nyac Gold Project in southwestern Alaska that reinforce its geologists' theory that the prospect contains a gold deposit similar to the Fort Knox gold mine near Fairbanks. (See story in June 19 issue of Mining News.) Tonogold said the latest results represent fill-in sampling done in previously identified prospect areas within a 57,600-acre parcel in the Nyac Mining District in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. High...
In case you have not heard, Alaska's mineral industry is cooking! Over the last month two new companies have acquired mineral properties in Alaska and most of the existing projects kicked off their summer programs in earnest. One of Alaska's major mining projects received its final permits to allow mine construction to begin and several others are conducting preliminary and final feasibility studies. Drilling rigs are scarce as hen's teeth and the helicopters to lift them and the people who run them are booked from now until...
Tonogold Resources Inc., a California junior mining company, is mounting a gold exploration campaign in Alaska's Kuskokwim River Delta this summer not far from the city of Bethel. The move marks Tonogold's first exploration venture in Alaska and the second gold project in the Kuskokwim delta in recent years. La Jolla-based Tonogold came to Alaska looking for an affordable "company-making property" and wound up signing a 10-year mining lease last month with Calista Corp. to explore the 57,600-acre Nyac gold district about 60 m...
Power, lime and logistics are the three major challenges Placer Dome needs to address this year as it moves ahead with the Donlin Creek gold project in southwest Alaska, project geologist James Fueg told a meeting of the Alaska Miners' Association and Society of Mining Engineers in Anchorage April 13. Placer Dome is the operator of the project, which is a joint venture with NovaGold Resources. Both companies are based in Vancouver. In terms of the power supply, there is no regional grid or generating capacity. The project is...
Long the symbol of a "dirty" economy and seemingly destined for oblivion in the age of global warming, coal is making a resurgence in the United States and Canada, propelled by the big blackout last summer and the volatility of natural gas prices. It is a small advance, but 4,900 megawatts of coal-fired generation is under construction or in advanced development in the United States and another 11,000 megawatts is in early development, according to a Standard & Poor's report in March. Beyond that, 90 new coal-fired power...
A draft feasibility study completed this spring by Nuvista Light & Power Co. recommends construction of a coal-fired electric generation plant at Bethel, Alaska, plus construction of a 191-mile transmission line to the Donlin Creek gold project as the lowest wholesale power cost for the remote southwest Alaska region. Nuvista, a non-profit formed by Calista Corp., the Native corporation in southwest Alaska, is seeking comments through May 7 on the study, which recommends that initial design and permitting work begin on the co...
Power, road access and availability of limestone are all key issues that Placer Dome is working through in its effort to produce a feasibility study for the 28-million ounce gold deposit called Donlin Creek, in remote southwest Alaska. The major mining company is "on schedule" to produce a feasibility study in the second quarter, project manager Gregg Bush told Mining News on Feb. 5. "There's no white smoke yet, but so far, there's no black smoke," he said. "We're encouraged." Placer Dome is working through the...
As the first snows of winter begin to fall around the state, more assay results are coming in and plans for next year are being formed. Metals prices continue to rise or hold steady and budgets for next year appear to be growing as a result. Several exploration projects remain in progress and are not likely to be completed before the end of October. By then we will have a good idea of how 2002 stacks up against previous year's exploration, development and production...
As is always the case this time of year, many of the season's exploration and development programs are completed or nearing completion and the results of those programs are trickling in. In addition, second quarter 2001 operating results are in for Alaska's major mines, all of which are doing well despite depressed prices for all of the metals they produce. The state's most active areas include the Seward Peninsula, Interior Alaska and southeast Alaska. Here is what's going on. Western Alaska Cominco American's Red Dog mine...
While the noisy debate continues over ANWR, the gas pipeline possibilities and the ever-increasing cost of gasoline, the Alaska mining industry has quietly made the seasonal transition from winter to summer. The sound of drills and rock picks on outcrops is beginning to echo across the state. By all accounts the number of feet drilled, the number of geologists and engineers employed and the number of dollars spent around the state this year will be down significantly compared to the last several years. That said, several area...
