The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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More and more explorers are buying up and/or staking claims in an elongated area of central British Columbia that is emerging as a significant rare earth metals play, while juniors line up to mobilize exploration crews to begin searching the area for economic concentrations of rare earths. All of this attention is focused on a major continental geologic feature known as the Rocky Mountain trench, a southeast-northwest trending swath of mountainous ground that could host numerous potentially economic concentrations of rare met...
Primed for booming exploration for several years, the Yukon Territory appears to have hit big in 2010, both literally and figuratively. Emerging as one of the world's mining hot spots, the Northwest Canada jurisdiction is reporting industry investment exceeding C$120 million. Propelled by record gold prices and key gold discoveries, as well as surging demand in Asia for base metals and a mining friendly government, miners flocked to the territory in growing numbers, bringing generous exploration budgets and fresh theories...
UCU: TSX-V President and CEO: James Mackenzie Vice President, Project Development: Harmen Keyser Vice President and CFO: Peter Manuel At the behest of lawmakers at both the state and federal levels, and with the support of the U.S. Geological Survey, Ucore Rare Metals Inc. (formerly Ucore Uranium Inc.) is advancing the heavy rare earth element-enriched Bokan Mountain project located about 37 miles from Ketchikan in Southeast Alaska toward feasibility. The U.S. Bureau of Mines more than 20 years ago estimated the site...
In the last month, several of Alaska's major metal mines reported strong operating numbers; one company released a preliminary economic assessment and three new mineral exploration companies acquired exploration interests in Alaska. While the functions of explorers and producers are quite different, the symbiotic relationship between the two ends of the mining cycle is unequivocal: exploration would not exist without production and production would eventually cease without...
DAWSON, Yukon Territory - Hardrock mining explorers are capitalizing on unprecedented investor interest and going after paying gold, silver, copper-rich porphyry, lead-zinc and other metal deposits here with uncommon gusto this summer. A few years ago, a multimillion-dollar, single-season exploration program would have been a rare commodity in the Yukon. But this year, at least a half-dozen juniors have joined one major, Kinross Gold Corp., and the Yukon's only producer, Capstone Mining Corp., in forking over megabucks to...
Two seminal events related to the Alaska mining industry occurred in the past month. First, in late June, Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. reported the commencement of production at it Kensington gold mine near Juneau. The mine has now joined the ranks of large-scale producers here in Alaska but only after lots of years and lots of dollars, capped by a trip to the U.S. Supreme Court! Hat's off to Coeur for its commitment to Alaska and for its desire to do this job right. Secondly,...
China, which mines the majority of the global supply of rare earth elements within its borders, has, over recent years, increasingly restricted its exports of the unique minerals to non-China-based production facilities. This trend has continued with a July announcement that the Far East country intends to slash its exports of the high-technology metals by an additional 72 percent. Rare earth minerals are made up of 17 elements including terbium, thulium and yttrium. They are...
Chinese companies are doing their homework and investing in base metals projects in northern and western Canada to take advantage of rising prices and to secure a future supply of the minerals for their operations back home. First on the scene were private Chinese companies, Jinduicheng Molybdenum Group and Northwest Nonferrous International Investment Co. In the summer of 2008, they purchased a 100 percent interest in Yukon Zinc Corp., which owns the Wolverine Project and other mineral assets in the Finlayson District of...
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...
