The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 126 - 150 of 178
Contango Ore Inc. Aug. 25 reported second-quarter financial results along with assays from seven additional holes drilled at its Tetlin gold project in eastern Alaska. The company reported a net loss of US$1.2 million, or US31 cents per share, for the year ended June 30, compared with a loss of US$3.6 million, or US94 cents per share, for the same period last year. This substantial reduction in net loss is due to all exploration expenses this year being incurred by Peak Gold LLC, a joint venture under which Royal Alaska,...
As tangible buoyancy returns to the mining industry, I began to wonder if any of the multitude of forecasters had actually predicted the recent return of stronger metals prices. Since most "forecasters" are actually "hindsighters," I was drawn to a November 2013 summary of gold mines by Roy Sebag of Natural Resource Holdings. The summary, entitled "Global Gold Mines & Deposits 2013 Ranking," indicated that we were nearing peak gold production because the total in-situ ounces...
The owners of Alaska’s five large metal mines – Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo, Hecla Mining Company, Kinross Gold Corp, Teck Resources Ltd. and Coeur Mining Inc. – accounted for nearly half the US$92 million of exploration spending in the state during 2014 and similar investments by these companies is providing solid footing for the Far North state’s mineral exploration sector this year. Avalon Development President Curt Freeman said he is seeing more mining majors shopping for d...
Over the past month, three of Alaska's large mines reported strong quarterly results; two projects in advanced permitting and pre-feasibility reported recent progress; and three exploration properties changed hands. The latter is a trend putting 2015 on course to be one of the most active years for new acquisitions in the past decade. Placer gold production has all but ceased for the year; however, output from Alaska's placer mines is not likely to be known with any certainty...
With metal prices stabilizing, physical stockpiles dwindling and demand again on the rise, things are beginning to look up for the beleagered mining industry. Gold's performance over the past several months is a case in point. The World Gold Council reported that during the first quarter, buying of exchange-traded gold funds rose to its highest level since early 2009, wiping out the deep sell-offs of 2014 and 2015 for this instrument. Uncertainties in the fiscal stability of...
Contango Ore Inc. Aug. 16 provided another round of drill results from the second phase of 2016 drilling at the Tetlin project near the crossroads town of Tok in eastern Alaska. The results, from 13 holes drilled in the North Peak and Connector zones, include the best intercept ever encountered at Tetlin when you consider the very high gold grade encountered over long lengths. TET16210, the last hole of the 2016 phase-1 program, carried out during the winter months, tested an...
From a Texas oilman discovering rich mineral prospects at Tetlin while investigating the natural gas potential of these Native owned lands to a royalty company setting aside its business model to get in on the ground floor of what is shaping up to be a multimillion-ounce deposit of high-grade gold lying alongside the Alaska Highway, Contango Ore Inc. is adding some intriguing new entries to the annals of Alaska geology. The latest chapter of the Tetlin story includes a US$11...
Contango ORE Inc. May 5 posted results from the first-ever winter drill program carried out on the Tetlin properties near Tok, Alaska. Peak Gold, a limited liability joint venture managed by a subsidiary of Royal Gold Inc., invested roughly US$1.9 million in this initial 2016 program focused on exploring at and around the Peak Zone gold deposit at Tetlin. A 2014 resource for the Peak Zone outlines 6 million metric tons averaging 3.46 grams-per-metric-ton gold, 11 g/t silver...
Although there is plenty of Alaska mining industry news this month, the big dog in the pen is the dramatic and unexpected run-up in the price of gold, which moved from a low of $1,078 per ounce to a high of $1,246/oz., most of which occurred after Feb. 1. Although profit-taking and other factors have caused the price to back off a bit, the move was both dramatic and unexpected. As you might guess, the ether is full of talking heads telling us why it went up, why it either won'...
While many mining companies continue to scale back programs on their promising mineral exploration projects, Royal Gold and Contango Ore are expanding the extent of their work at Tetlin. This year, the partners have launched the first-ever winter drill program at this high-grade gold-copper project located near Tok, an eastern Alaska community at a junction of highways that lead to Fairbanks and Anchorage. Neither of these companies are your prototypical mineral explorer -...
As the curtain rings down on 2015, the sound of clapping and cheering can already be heard from the mining industry as it anticipates the end of a largely depressing year which started out looking like the long-awaited industry recovery was going to happen but in the end, did not. The uncertainty brought on by this year's unsettling events was front and center in a recent round-table discussion hosted by Northern Miner, sponsored by PearTree Securities and entitled "New...
Earlier this month, the Alaska Miners Association held its annual convention in Anchorage amid plummeting metals prices and an over-all atmosphere of economic uncertainty now stretching into its fourth year. Individuals from around North America and beyond were present and conversations outside of the technical sessions seemed to gravitate toward how best to climb out of the doldrums that seem to grip the mining industry on a global scale. One individual was heard to say that...
Contango ORE Inc. Nov. 16 posted results from 19 of 32 holes drilled during the second phase of 2015 exploration at the Tetlin project near Tok, Alaska. This exploration was carried out by Peak Gold, a limited liability joint venture company formed to further the exploration and development of the Tetlin project. Royal Gold Inc. has the option to earn up to a 40 percent interest economic interest in Peak Gold by investing up to US$30 million prior to October 2018. "We are...
CTGO:OTC MARKETS President and CEO: Brad Juneau Chief Financial Officer: Leah Gaines Contango ORE Inc. has forged an alliance with Royal Gold Inc., a company that promises to invest as much as US$30 million in furthering the exploration and potential development of the Tetlin gold properties situated along the Alaska Highway near the crossroads community of Tok in eastern Alaska. Since acquiring the property in 2008, Texas-based Contango ORE has identified a number of precious and base metal targets across the 750,000-acre...
Millrock Resources Inc. Ot. 13 said it entered into an option to purchase the Liberty Bell gold-copper project near the town of Healy, Alaska. The 15,200-acre property hosts the historical Liberty Bell Mine, which was operated in the 1930s by Eva Creek Mining. According to a U.S. Geological Survey bulletin, production records indicate that 8,400 ounces of gold were produced from 17,500 short tons of ore at Liberty Bell during 1932 and 1933. In 1987, NERCO reported a resource...
Initial results from the 2015 drill program at the Tetlin project in eastern Alaska near Tok is providing some insight into why Royal Gold Inc. was eager to invest US$4 million to fund a second phase of drilling before winter sets in at the Interior Alaska project. Peak Gold - the limited liability joint venture company that Royal Gold joined earlier this year to follow up on the exploration success that Contango ORE Inc. had at Tetlin - completed 7,162 meters of core...
By the time this summary reaches your eyes, termination dust (aka "snow") will have started to cover mineral projects across Alaska. At a recent project site visit, one of the project owner's representatives was listening to local Alaskans talk about not being ready for winter, how many things planned for the summer remained un-done, etc. After some cogitation on this, he asked me "Does everyone in Alaska get surprised by winter every year?" My response was simple: When you...
If another US$4 million investment by Royal Gold Inc. is any indication, drilling so far this season at the Tetlin gold property in Interior Alaska is a success. In January, Royal Gold and Contango Ore Inc. finalized an agreement that affords the Denver-based royalty company an opportunity to earn as much as a 40 percent joint venture interest in Contango's Tetlin project by investing up to US$30 million on the unique and promising gold properties near the crossroads town of...
Mining is a notoriously cyclical business that generally ebbs and flows with the overall state of the global economy, and these cycles are amplified for junior mining companies charged with scouring the globe for the next generation of mines. Following a bull market that reached a crescendo at the end of 2010, the current bear market has been especially deep and painful for even seasoned mining sector veterans. "This has been a particularly treacherous bear market," longtime...
Royal Gold Inc. July 23 provided an operational update for its streaming and royalty interests at Mount Milligan, Phoenix and Voisey's Bay, as well as an update on exploration at the Peak Gold Joint Venture. Royal Gold estimates spending for Peak Gold, a joint venture with Contango Ore Inc. to explore the Tetlin gold-copper project in Alaska, to be around US$2 million for the quarter ending June 30. A total of US$5 million is planned for an initial phase of 2015 exploration at...
I recently returned from the Geological Society of Nevada's once-every-five-years Symposium in Reno and was surprised to learn a number of things regarding Alaska, despite the symposium's tight focus on the Great Basin of the western United States. First off, mineral exploration guru Brent Cook presented information suggesting we have reached and are "bumping along" the bottom of the current metals market slump. Reminded me of an overloaded fixed-wing aircraft bumping down the...
Contango ORE Inc. May 15 reported that US$5 million has been budgeted for an initial phase of exploration at the Tetlin gold project in eastern Interior Alaska. This will mark the first exploration at Tetlin under Peak Gold LLC, a joint venture between Contango ORE and Royal Gold Inc. The first phase of the 2015 program at Tetlin will test outlying exploration targets at Tars, Saddle, North Saddle and Saddle Skarn targets. The drilling also will test expansion targets at the...
Slipping metals prices and investors' ongoing reluctance to risk venture capital in the junior mining sector is hitting Alaska's mineral exploration sector hard; and the Far North state is not the only mining jurisdiction reeling from this one-two punch. "After another year of strong headwinds in 2014, and with lower demand and overproduction continuing to depress metals prices, the mining industry's outlook for 2015 is unpromising at best," SNL Metals & Mining wrote recently...
Several events have dramatically affected Alaska's mining industry in recent weeks, underscoring critical links between Alaska and the global economy. First came bad news for newly-elected Gov. Bill Walker: The plunge in world oil prices pushed Alaska's coming-year budget projections about $3.5 billion into the red. The ripple effect of this was a slashing of everything not required and one of the cuts, temporarily at least, was state funding of the Ambler District Road....
Royal Gold and Contango Ore have forged an alliance that promises to invest as much as US$30 million in furthering the exploration and potential development of the Tetlin gold properties situated along the Alaska Highway near the crossroads community of Tok in eastern Alaska. Contango Ore shareholders ratified a joint venture agreement Jan. 8 that the Denver-based gold royalty firm and Houston-domiciled mineral exploration company struck tentatively on the project in...
