The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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IQALUIT, Nunavut - Canadian mining companies can expect to see continued upward movement in prices generally for precious and base metals and coal, along with increasing volatility during the next 18 months to 2 years, a top economist told a gathering here April 13. Patricia Mohr, vice president, economics and commodity market specialist for The Scotiabank Bank Group offered delegates attending the 13th annual Nunavut Mining Symposium her expert view of current global economic conditions and how they will likely impact...
Rare earth elements have become a hot topic among United States policymakers. The growing demand for the unique properties of these metals in "green energy" technology and military applications, coupled with China's monopoly on the rare earth market has lawmakers and the Pentagon investigating the need to stimulate domestic production, manufacture and stockpiling of these elements. A bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., in March has moved the rare earth conversa...
No discussion of opening Canada's Far North to mineral resource development could get far without the focus turning to Nunavut, the nation's newest and least-explored territory. At one-fifth the size of Canada, Nunavut contains 1,994,000 million square kilometers, or 770,000 square miles, (nearly three times the size of Texas). Much of the territory is underlain by Archean-aged rocks similar to those found in the most productive geology in Ontario, Quebec, South Africa, Australia, and Brazil. But much of this geology is...
For many undercapitalized junior mining companies, the past 12 months have been a sort of annus horribilis. As capital remains tight in the current economic climate, financing for speculative exploration projects continues to be hard to come by. While the mining industry overall is coping with the global shortage of capital, recent surges in gold prices are causing renewed activity (including mergers and acquisitions), helping that sector to buck the trend. Many mining companies were caught off guard by the economic events...
Advances in high technology, especially the recent drive to produce increasingly efficient hybrid automobiles, is spurring demand for rare earth elements and energizing a little-known mining sector with at least one known Alaska mineral deposit. Thanks to analysts touting the virtues of investing in rare earth mining, two companies, Commerce Resources Corp. and Rare Element Resources Ltd. listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange have seen gains in their stock price of 32 percent and 37 percent, respectively, this spring,...
Yukon Territory has one producing mine, the Minto copper-gold-silver operation near the Yukon River north of Whitehorse. During 2008, more than 150 active hardrock exploration projects in the territory, 73 of which recording spending greater than C$100,000, and 22 posted outlays greater $1 million. Here's a look at some of the mining companies active in Yukon Territory. Producing mines Sherwood Copper Corp., now a part of Capstone Mining Corp., took the Minto Mine, Yukon Territory's only producing hard rock mine, to new...
The plummet in base metal prices in 2008 will be felt across Alaska and Northwest Canada's mining sectors. Miners of the far north reaches of North America enjoyed a bounty when base metal prices reached record values in 2007, carrying into 2008. The escalation of base metal prices was driven by expanding markets in China and India, as well as a building, retail and technology boom in the West. Mines producing the industrial metals enjoyed unprecedented returns from the ore sh...
Producing mines Thompson Creek Metals Co. operates the Endako Mine, a molybdenum producer for more than 40 years. Located near Fraser Lake in northern British Columbia, Endako includes three open pits, a mill and a roasting facility, and is operated as a joint venture, with Thompson Creek holding a 75 percent interest and Japan-based Sojitz Corp. having the remaining 25 percent. The miner produced 25 million to 26 million pounds of moly in 2008. Due to a sharp drop in molybdenum prices last year, Thompson Creek decided...
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...
Though plummeting metals prices and fading investor confidence have hammered the mining sector this year, the Northwest Mining Association's 114th annual meeting in Reno, Nevada, Dec. 1 - 5 drew more than 2,000 attendees, a crowd the yearly gathering has not seen in more than a decade. Miners and others attending the NWMA meeting said the economy and its impact on the mining industry is their primary concern. The meeting's two luncheon speakers echoed that concern in discussin...
I've been thinking a lot about numbers lately, maybe because it is the end of the year, and therefore a time for reflection. But when I read about hundreds of billions of dollars committed to re-energizing the economy or billions of people occupying the planet or billions of pounds of copper from a possible mine at Pebble, I just get confused. That may be because I cannot count past 10 without taking my shoes and socks off. What do big numbers mean to Alaska's mining...
North Arrow Minerals Inc. has discovered a large, lithium-rich pegmatite in the Aylmer Lake area of the Northwest Territories, about 70 kilometers, or about 43 miles, east of existing winter road infrastructure that services the Ekati and Diavik diamond mines. The Vancouver, B.C-based junior is focused on exploration of a diverse group of gold-silver-base metal-and-diamond-prospective properties in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut Territory. North Arrow Sept. 18 said the northwest trending "Big Bird" pegmatite dike is...
Full Metal Minerals reported assay results July 16 showing indium among metals present in the LWM deposit at its Fortymile property in East-Interior Alaska. The Vancouver, B.C.-based junior mining company also released results from another nine holes drilled at the high-grade zinc-silver-lead-copper deposit. Among highlights of the assay results: LWM08-28: 1.6 meters true width averaging 26.2 percent Zinc, 14.3 percent Lead and 246.0 g/t Silver LWM08-32: 19.9 meters true width averaging12.5 percent Zinc, 8.1 percent Lead and...
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...
Alaska's miners have powered their way to No. 2 among the state's top exporting sectors in the past two years. Overall, the value of Alaska's exports fell 3.8 percent in 2007 to $3.9 billion from $4.1 billion in 2006. Last year's results reflect record-setting totals for mining exports and the second best year ever, overall. "This is great news for Alaska, and I commend all of the Alaskans whose hard work benefits our state and its trade and foreign investment," said Gov. Sarah Palin in announcing U.S. Census totals for...
Taking into consideration that the planet's second largest porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum resource is located on a plot of land equal to 0.00076 percent of Alaska's total land mass, is being developed under one of the world's most stringent permitting systems, and could help meet the growing demand for copper worldwide; is it irresponsible and unfair to Alaska and its citizens not to develop the Pebble Project? The real question begging for an answer is, "Why not Pebble?"...
Attendees of the Alaska Miners Association Fairbanks Biennial Mining Conference had the honor of hearing the views of three heavyweights on many issues facing Alaska's mining industry. Tom Albanese, CEO of Rio Tinto plc, says he is worried about the current political environment in Alaska. Albanese, a featured speaker at the Mining Conference March 19, cited a recent mining industry survey by Canada's Fraser Institute lowered Alaska's rank to 34 in 2007 from 13 in 2005 among...
Geology isn't always a fast-moving business, especially when you consider that minerals lie around for billions of years before they're discovered and eventually mined. So the fact that Toronto-based Starfield Resources has recently sprung into action after almost a decade of relative quiescence shouldn't mean too much in the grand scheme of things. What matters is that the company is now taking serious steps towards development of its sole project, the Ferguson Lake polymetallic deposit in Nunavut. Starfield appointed a new...
Current nickel prices may be the icing on the cake for rapidly growing Toronto-based Pure Nickel Inc. As Nevada Star Resources Corp. joined the company in a reverse takeover this spring and became Pure Nickel, prices for the shiny metal hurtled skyward. More than tripling in the past 14 months, nickel prices will remain under upward pressure this year, according to industry analysts. Booming demand, especially from China, will spur consumption to exceed production for a second consecutive year, causing nickel cash prices to...
Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty, whose sole asset is the Pebble project in southwest Alaska, is the only junior mining company to remain in the top five on the TSX Venture Exchange or TSX-V by market capitalization for two years straight. The company's market capitalization was C$326.5 million in 2005, making it the fourth-largest in its sector, and C$657.4 million in 2006, making it the third-largest. These and other achievements by Canadian companies are highlighted in a report called Junior Mine by Pri...
When Polaris Minerals developed its plan for the Orca quarry on Vancouver Island, the company expected that the initial market for the sand and gravel would be California, where demand for concrete is apparently insatiable. But by the time the quarry began production in March of this year, Polaris had received a pleasant surprise: a five-year contract with a ready-mix concrete manufacturer in the Vancouver area, a customer that has asked Polaris to keep its identity confidential. Polaris will ship 400,000 tons of sand and...
Alaska's Resource Development Council members were treated to three different perspectives on the Pebble project at their annual meeting in Anchorage June 13. Several hundred people had a rare chance to hear in person from the chairman of Vancouver-based Hunter Dickinson, the group that owns Northern Dynasty and several other mining companies. Bob Dickinson usually relies on Northern Dynasty COO Bruce Jenkins and Environmental Project Manager Ella Ede to get the message across within the state. After Dickinson's...
Mining exploration spending in the Yukon Territories during 2005 was estimated at C$53 million, up 141 percent over the previous year, according the Yukon Minerals Advisory Board annual report issued June 1. The report said that was a significant improvement over prior years, but it represents just four percent of the total exploration investment in Canada in 2005, which was $1.3 billion. The lion's share went to Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Nunavut. Must continue at 2005 levels The report said it is...
In the last month the Alaska mining industry has seen start-up of its first major gold mine in five years (Pogo) and approval of permits for the Nixon Fork copper-gold mine. We also saw announcement of substantial increases in copper, gold and molybdenum resources at two advanced exploration/development projects (Donlin Creek and Pebble). New development plans were offered for heap leaching at the Fort Knox gold mine and initial funding was approved for evaluation of a coal to liquids facility at the Beluga coal deposits....
Permitting, legislation, taxation and education are some of the key issues discussed by the Alaska Minerals Commission in its 2006 report, published in January. The report praises the state's continuing efforts to improve the climate for the mining industry, but also gives a number of recommendations on what else could be done in this period of unusually high activity. The commission has advised Alaska's leaders since its creation in 1986. "A cloud of uncertainty has been cast over the industry by the U.S. Army Corps of...
