The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 251 - 275 of 313
Kutcho Creek is another copper-zinc project in the mineral-dense region of northern British Columbia that is rapidly headed toward development. Among the numerous mines and mining development projects in the area are NovaGold's Galore Creek and bcMetals' Red Chris. The 100 percent-owned Kutcho Project is the sole major asset of Western Keltic Mines Inc. which has spent about C$25 million in the past three years at the property. Well into a C$4.8 million field and construction program this season, the Vancouver-based junior...
Provinces, territories and at least one mining leader are appealing to the Canadian federal government to offer up substantial assistance to the beleaguered industry in its new annual budget due out Jan. 27. The proposals range from various provisions for tax relief to implementing major infrastructure projects aimed at spurring resource development as well as altering monetary policies to ease credit and free up capital for miners nationwide. The reason: Canada, unlike most Western nations, relies heavily on its natural... Full story
Zazu Metals Corp. is exploring what it believes is one of the largest undeveloped zinc-lead deposits in the world. Lik, the zinc-lead-silver-rich property that the Vancouver B.C.-based junior is lauding, is located about 22 kilometers, or 14 miles, northeast of Red Dog, the world's largest zinc mine. Zazu said the high-grade deposit at Lik is an ideal fit in the company's business model of identifying high-quality, low-risk properties in an advanced exploration, or...
ANDREW PROJECT, Yukon Territory - If Australia-based Overland Resources gets its way, this remote valley in eastern Yukon may become home to the next lead-zinc mine in the Far North. And if development plans currently being discussed by the aggressive junior come to fruition, the Port of Skagway could provide facilities for loading the mine's metal concentrates onto oceangoing barges bound for Asia. Overland has set its sights on defining and developing a growing base metal resource that began with discovery of the Andrew...
10 is 90 percent over. As we approach the calendar change and the other mid-winter holidays, it is reasonable to reflect and prognosticate. Eight short years ago, we were on the dawn of a new era. Republicans controlled the White House, both houses of Congress, Alaska's governor's mansion and both houses of our state Legislature. The stars were perfectly aligned. It was a time for celebration because the dark decade was past and resource development in Alaska, most... Full story
Teck Cominco Ltd. reported that the second-quarter was highlighted by the strong performance of the Vancouver, B.C.-based major's copper division. Elk Valley Coal was also a large contributor, benefiting from the phase in of the 2008 coal year prices of $275 per ton, up from $93 per ton 2007 coal year prices. The strong copper and coal performance was offset somewhat by weak zinc prices and a stronger Canadian dollar. In Alaska, Teck Cominco reported a significant decrease in...
Denison Environmental Services, a division of Denison Mines Inc., has won a three-year, $21.6 million contract for care and maintenance at the Faro Mine Complex in the Yukon. A subsidiary of Canadian uranium producer Denison Mines Corp., the company was chosen after a six-month competitive bidding process overseen by the Yukon government of Yukon. Ontario-based Denison Environmental will provide care and maintenance services at the Faro Mine Complex, including: the ongoing collection and treatment of contaminated water, the...
KENO HILL - Here amid hills dusty with glacial silt in the eastern Yukon, miners have tapped rich veins of silver and gold for nearly a century, right up until silver prices tanked in the late 1980s. In its heyday, the historic Keno Hill silver mining district boasted more than 40 producing mines and at least two bustling villages, Mayo and Keno City. Miners not only grubbed for pay dirt, they made homes in the valleys beneath the mines and raised families while extracting the gray precious metal. In all, the district has... Full story
CARMACKS - Western Copper Corporation said its Casino copper-gold-molybdenum deposit in central Yukon Territory has the potential to be developed economically as a sizable open-pit mine. The porphyry deposit at Casino is the latest in a long line of precious- and base-metal zones of mineralization in the area to be considered for extraction. It is considered unique among Canadian porphyry deposits, with a substantially preserved oxide gold leach cap, a well-developed supergene or near-surface, copper-enriched zone, and a...
Mining exploration appears to be hotter than ever this season in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, but the Canadian Arctic region's few producers are getting hammered by the strong Canadian dollar. The discrepancy was particularly evident in the territories' mining production. The total value of metal and diamond shipments from the Northwest Territories and Nunavut Territory decreased to C$1.53 billion during the calendar year 2007 for the second consecutive year, down from C$1.63 billion in 2006 and C$1.79 billion in...
Teck Cominco Ltd. reported a 4.3 percent dip in profits in the first quarter of 2008 due mainly to a higher Canadian dollar and lower coal and zinc prices. Earnings fell to C$345 million, or C78 cents a share, compared with C$360 million, or C83 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2007. Teck Cominco President and CEO Don Lindsay said significant income from three copper mines that the Vancouver, B.C.-based major acquired from Aur Resources in 2007 along with a 32 percent increase in the copper price helped the outcome.... Full story
Redcorp Ventures Ltd., parent of Redfern Resources Ltd. which operates the Tulsequah Chief Mine Project near Southeast Alaska, has abandoned plans for developing an unusual tow vehicle in favor of more conventional vessels for moving shipments of zinc, copper, silver, gold and lead concentrates from the mine down the Taku River to Juneau. Redcorp President and CEO Terence Chandler May 15 said the company is completing an amendment to its existing environmental assessment certificate to permit the air cushion barge...
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...
Chinese investors are gradually building inroads into ownership of mining companies operating in Yukon Territory as part of a worldwide push to acquire reliable sources of precious and base minerals. According to a report released by PricewaterhouseCoopers in March, mining merger and acquisition activity in 2008 is set to top 2007's record $158.9 billion total as the number and size of deals escalate. The report also noted the emergence of Chinese and Russian companies as major players in the acquisition hunt. Companies from...
In a move aimed at maximizing the value of its Canadian assets, Firestone Ventures Inc. March 3 said it will spin out the Sonora Gulch gold project in Yukon Territory into a new public company, Northern Tiger Resources Inc. The aggressive junior also signed a memorandum of understanding with Sherwood Copper Corp. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Minto Explorations Ltd., to help guide the fledgling enterprise in exploring Yukon's Dawson Range. The moves will allow Vancouver, B.C.-based Firestone to focus its resources and effo...
Hammered by several significant reverses in the fourth quarter of 2007, Teck Cominco Ltd. managed to still turn a substantial profit and deliver $1.6 billion in full-year earnings. Earnings plummeted to C$280 million, or 64 cents (Canadian) per share, in the fourth quarter, down nearly four-fold from C$866 million, or C$2.01 per share, during the final quarter of 2006.Year-over-year earnings also fell, dipping about one-third to C$1.62 billion from C$2.43 billion a year earlier. Fourth-quarter revenues fell 26 percent to...
The U.S. Supreme Court Jan. 7 declined to accept Teck Cominco Metals Ltd.'s petition for review and reversal of a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Pakootas, et al. v. Teck Cominco Metals Ltd. The Government of Canada, the Province of British Columbia, and the Chambers of Commerce of both Canada and the United States had all joined Teck Cominco in arguing that diplomatic processes, and not the courts of the United States, are the forum in which to resolve cross-border issues of this nature. Several U.S. organizations,...
Sherwood Copper Corp., owner of the Yukon's Minto copper-gold mine, has offered to purchase Western Keltic Mines Inc. in a friendly stock-swap transaction valued at about $37.52 million. Acting with the blessing of Western Keltic's board of directors, Vancouver, B.C.-based Sherwood mailed its buyout bid to Western Keltic shareholders Dec. 24. Under the terms of the offer, Sherwood would acquire all of Western Keltic's nearly 80 million shares by issuing eight-hundredths (0.08) of a share of Sherwood stock for each share of...
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... Full story
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... Full story
Vancouver-based Andover Ventures Inc. launched an aggressive acquisition and exploration campaign when it entered Alaska in the spring of 2006, starting with a $42 million deal with Full Metal Minerals on the Kamishak property in southwest Alaska. Today, the ambitious junior holds interests in eight Alaska mining properties, less than two years after incorporation. Six of the properties are located in Southwest Alaska, one in the Nome mining district and, arguably, the most...
A quest by Teck Cominco Alaska Inc. to expand operations at the Red Dog Mine in northwestern Alaska is moving forward as regulators prepare to conduct a series of public scoping meetings Oct. 2-5 in affected communities. Red Dog, the world's largest producer of zinc concentrate, began production in 1989. It is located 82 miles north of Kotzebue on land owned by NANA Regional Corp., the Alaska Native regional corporation for northwest Alaska. Current mining of Red Dog's main deposit is scheduled to wind down between 2010 and...
Mining assets in the Yukon that formerly belonged to bankrupt company BYG Natural Resources have been sold to a privately held company, Saskatchewan Ltd., for $3.1 million. Ontario-based BYG's interim receiver, PricewaterhouseCoopers, announced the sale Aug. 9. The 199 claims and leases at the Mount Nansen property near Carmacks had been under the joint care of the governments of Yukon and Canada. Saskatchewan Ltd says it intends to begin developing an exploration program for the Mount Nansen site. The Vancouver-based...
Greg Beischer is a familiar face in Alaska's mining industry, but he's wearing a new hat now. For the past few years he's played a peripheral role, working for Bristol Environmental and Engineering Services, advising parent company Bristol Bay Native Corp. on mineral, oil and gas developments in the Bristol Bay region, including the Pebble project. He's also the outgoing chairman of the Alaska Miners Association's Anchorage branch. This summer Beischer has gone back to breaking rocks in an entirely new job. Beischer is now... Full story
Redfern Resources Ltd., developer of the Tulsequah Chief Project in northwestern British Columbia, is advancing an ingenious and economical way to access the remote mine site. But the idea to build a year-round transportation system that would use Alaska waterways instead of a contentious 96-mile access road to the mine site from Atlin, B.C., is also encountering opposition. Redfern, a subsidiary of Vancouver, B.C.-based Redcorp Ventures Ltd., has been working since the 1990s to re-open Tulsequah Chief, an underground...
