The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Fortune Minerals Ltd. is advancing two mineral projects involving three different jurisdictions of Canada and doing much of it with the same timeframe. On the heels of development of its Nico gold-cobalt-bismuth-copper project in Northwest Territories, Fortune is also targeting commercial production at the Arctos Anthracite Project, formerly Mount Klappan Anthracite Coal Project, in Northwest British Columbia within the next four years. Management is shooting for the last half of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016 for...
While others may have encountered insurmountable challenges, the new producers of precious and base metals in Canada's Far North achieved solid and, in some cases outstanding, performance results in 2012. The Meadowbank Mine in Nunavut and the three operating mines in Yukon Territory - Minto, Bellekeno and Wolverine, that began commercial production in recent years, posted results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2012 as well as guidelines for positive outcomes in 2013. Nunavut gold The Meadowbank Mine is the largest o...
VANCOUVER, B.C. - British Columbia, Alaska and Yukon Territory - the headliners of the Association for Mining Exploration British Columbia's 2013 Mineral Exploration Roundup - tallied more than C$1 billion of mineral exploration spending in 2012. This marks the second year running that these neighboring jurisdictions at the northwestern extent of the North American Cordillera topped the C$1 billion mark. But unlike the 2012 Roundup, a year in which explosive exploration...
In today's difficult financing climate, Homestake Resources Corp. is living the dream of most junior mining companies. Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd., an aggressive intermediate gold producer, has signed on to pay the bills at the Homestake Ridge project located in northwestern British Columbia in a deal where the gold producer could spending up to C$25.3 million and earn up to a 70 percent interest in the exploration and development venture. Formerly Bravo Gold Corp., the junior changes its name to Homestake Resources in April....
Alaska miners are on the cusp of topping 1 million ounces of gold produced, an annual milestone that has not been achieved since Gold Rush pioneers recovered copious amounts of alluvial aurum at the turn of the 20th Century. "When you think about what a million ounces of production means, it is all the more amazing that it was first accomplished by placer miners and a few lode miners, a few shovelfuls at a time, more than a century ago!" Curt Freeman, a well-known Alaska...
Victoria Gold Corp. appears to be well on its way to building a mine at the Eagle Gold Project in central Yukon Territory by 2015, with construction startup tentatively scheduled for April. Eagle Gold is the most advanced new project in the region and is on track to become the largest gold mine in Yukon history. With estimated employment of 350-400 people, the mine also is expected to make a significant contribution to the territory's economy. Victoria aims to produce 207,000 ounces of gold during the first full year of...
I finally found something I have been thinking about for a long time but had not seen discussed in detail. We have all seen summaries of the declining rate of discoveries for new mineral deposits and have heard about the steadily increasing cost of production, now at a record US$727 per ounce, according to GFMS' Gold Survey 2012. What I really wanted to know was the replacement cost of an ounce or a pound of metal. Let's take gold for example: If I am a producing mine and I just produced an ounce of gold, what is the cost of...
FAIRBANKS - In contrast to the geology, geochemistry and geophysics that dominates discussions at most mining conventions, geopolitics grabbed the limelight at the 2012 Alaska Strategic and Critical Minerals Summit held in Fairbanks Nov. 30. "Countries that control a given element have a way to leverage businesses to come to those countries. They have a way of demanding there are technology transfers," American Elements President Michael Silver informed the more than 200...
A challenging economic climate in 2012 failed to impede growth in mining activity in Northwest Territories. As miners struggled to fund their work programs, numerous companies managed to plow ahead in the wake of regulatory improvements, advancing projects that could bring even more robust times to the territory's mineral resources sector. The Northwest Territories, one of Canada's three northern territories, is sandwiched between Yukon Territory to the west and Nunavut to the east. With a land mass of nearly 1,347,150...
A recent letter distributed to the minerals industry by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys and the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development's Division of Economic Development is seeking faster and more efficient ways to gather, collate and publish Alaska's Annual Minerals Industry Report. The agencies are looking for feedback regarding what items the industry thinks is important to retain in the report, what items are not in the report that should be...
Ethos Gold Corp. recently wrapped up a second phase of 2012 exploration aimed at identifying a multimillion-ounce gold deposit on its Betty Property located in the White Gold district of Yukon Territory. The junior Sept. 19 reported completing 7,500 meters of reverse circulation drilling in 61 holes, and collecting 8,700 grid soil samples and 166 prospecting samples in 2012 that targeted the 17-square-kilometer (6.56 square miles) Mascot Creek gold-in-soil anomaly at Betty that Ethos outlined in 2011 and where the junior...
A reporter recently asked Greg Johnson, the newly appointed president and CEO of Prophecy Platinum Corp., if he was committed enough to his new role as head honcho of the company's emerging Wellgreen Project in southwestern Yukon Territory to stick around for five years. Johnson, one of the original architects of NovaGold Resources Inc. which built the world-class Donlin gold deposit in Alaska from a few million ounces into a 30-million-ounce-plus resource, chuckled before he responded. "With the caliber of asset that we have...
Pebble and politics are two matters that loomed large in the minds of the mining community that gathered in Anchorage for the 2012 Alaska Miners Association Convention in early November. The weight of these provocative and inexorably related matters was reflected in conversations and presentations at the annual gathering. With the trade show and technical session portion of the AMA convention typically starting on the day after the U.S. elections, the juxtaposition of...
The state of Alaska is a strong supporter of continued investment, responsible development and growth in our minerals industry. We recognize the key role the state plays in its minerals sector. We have an enormous endowment of minerals such as gold, zinc, copper, lead, silver and coal on state lands and can support job creation and economic growth in entire regions of the state by responsibly developing our natural resources. We are working hard to make Alaska a place where miners want to explore, invest and do business....
Ending a streak of robust growth, mineral exploration spending in Alaska during 2012 took a downward turn from the record US$300 million spent a year earlier. "More advanced-stage projects that added ounces or pounds to their resource base had a better go of it than early-stage exploration projects which have taken a hard right cross to the jaw!" Curt Freeman, a well-known Alaska geologist and president of Fairbanks-based Avalon Development, observed in September. This blow de...
With its sights set on gold, Contango Ore Inc. raised US$8.8 million in March to fund a US$6.75 million exploration program on its Alaska projects during the 2012 field season - the bulk of which was spent on a second-year drill program at the Tetlin gold-copper project about 12 miles (19 kilometers) southeast of the crossroads town of Tok. The Houston, Texas-based explorer, known as CORE, is an Alaska-focused mineral spinout from Contango Oil & Gas Co., an exploration and...
B.C.'s mineral exploration and mining industry is booming, thanks in part to strong demand in Asia. Meeting demand is just one part of fostering a globally competitive sector. Equally important are our policies at home, where strong fiscal management, competitive tax rates, streamlined regulations and good local partnerships are helping to generate billions of dollars' worth of revenues each year. Worldwide demand for coal, metals and industrial minerals has increased dramatically and are expected to rise even more. B.C....
British Columbia in 2012 continued to exhibit its strength as the mining and exploration powerhouse of the North American Cordillera. The Canadian province's wealth of mineral potential is the result of geological phenomena that also created the mountain chains "that we have in our province and to the north," according to Bruce Madu, director of the Mineral Development Office of the B.C. Ministry of Energy and Mines. Madu told participants in the 2012 Mineral Exploration Roundup in January that expansion is the theme at most...
The Northwest Territories has been closely linked with the mining industry ever since B.A. Blakeney, a prospector on his way to the Klondike, staked the first gold mining claim here in 1898. And although the focus has shifted from gold to diamonds, the industry remains at the forefront of any discussion regarding the NWT's economic well-being: the territory produced over C$2 billion in total mineral shipments in 2011, a staggering total for a jurisdiction which has a population that barely exceeds 40,000 residents. Although...
Northwest Territories, a vast expanse of mountains, forests and tundra, has been slower to experience the surge in mineral exploration and development activities that has swept across Yukon Territory and Nunavut in recent years. But the mining industry is turning its attention to the 1.17 million square kilometers (431,162 square miles) Arctic land - roughly two-thirds the size of Alaska - that lies in between. Permits have been issued for new areas of exploration and claims are being staked in places where such activity has...
Companies chasing mineral riches in Nunavut in 2012 are expected to meet and surpass the brisk pace of exploration set a year earlier. But the race to discover major deposits of precious and base metals, along with uranium, diamonds and other commodities, in one of Canada's most underexplored and prospective jurisdictions is only just beginning. At one-fifth the size of Canada, Nunavut covers 1,994,000 square kilometers (770,000 square miles or nearly three times the size of Texas). The Far North territory is Canada's younges...
NovaCopper Inc. - formed as a 2012 spinout of NovaGold Resources Inc.'s Ambler project in Northwest Alaska - already boasts some 3.6 billion pounds of high-grade copper resources plus appreciable quantities of gold, silver, lead and zinc. "This is an excellent start to NovaCopper's life as a public company," said NovaCopper President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse. In addition to some 90,624 acres of state, federal and patented mining claims blanketing the Ambler Mining Distric...
Mining continues to be a cornerstone of Yukon's economy, with extraordinary mineral deposits, including both precious and non-precious metals. The Government of Yukon is committed to providing an internationally competitive investment climate. To this end, we continue to provide regulatory certainty around environmental assessment, permitting and licensing of projects. Yukon's exploration and mining industries are settling in for the long term. After a record-breaking year for claim staking and exploration spending in 2011,...
While the frenzy of activity that engulfed the Yukon Territory in 2011 did not re-emerge this season, scores of players, from upstart juniors to global mining firms mounted impressive mineral exploration campaigns throughout the territory. Gold was the primary metal sought in the Yukon in 2012, but some explorers chased silver, copper, zinc-lead, iron and other minerals. Based on the spending plans of mining companies in March, Natural Resources Canada projected C$285 million planned spending across the Yukon, a decrease of...
From investigating grassroots gold prospects in the Yukon Territory to ensuring the Red Dog Mine has sufficient stores of high-grade ore to remain a top global zinc producer for decades to come, Teck Resources Ltd. 2012 is continuing a century of discovery in Alaska and Canada's Northwest. This broad spectrum of exploration across Alaska, British Columbia and Yukon Territory exemplifies the Vancouver, B.C.-based major's objective of accessing "high-quality, sustainable growth...
