The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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The Government of Yukon has issued an immediate one-year interim withdrawal from mineral staking for all Crown Land, Category B settlement lands and fee simple lands in the Peel Watershed Region of Yukon Territory in hopes of providing certainty during an ongoing regional land use planning process. The Peel Watershed Region is one of eight regions for which mineral-rich Yukon Territory is developing land use plans. The Peel watershed is located north of Mayo in northeast Yukon Territory. A major subbasin of the Mackenzie...
As we plunge headlong into a new year and a new decade, the broad economic indicators for the mining industry suggest continued strong prices for most commodities in 2010 followed by slightly lower average prices in 2011 and beyond as supplies catch up to demand. Not surprisingly, the source of much of the commodities demand will be Asia with China and India being the two leading economic engines driving commodity prices. Where Alaska's mining industry fits into this global...
Among juniors actively working to attract majors to invest in mineral exploration projects scattered across Canada's Far North, one Vancouver, B.C.-based company leaped to the front of the pack recently in Nunavut Territory. Commander Resources Inc. is exploring the Baffin Island Gold Project, a district-scale project with multimillion-ounce potential covering an entire greenstone belt about 175 kilometers, or 105 miles, in length east to west. Baffin is one of at least four giant gold deposits currently being explored in...
During their first exploration season as joint venture partners at the Man nickel-copper-platinum group element project in Interior Alaska, Pure Nickel Inc. and Itochu Corp. said they discovered compelling new targets to investigate in 2010. Tokyo-based Itochu and Toronto-based Pure Nickel originally set a US$ 4.4 million budget to support a 2009 exploration program at Man. The partners later added US$500,000 to the budget in order to complete a 2,722-line-kilometer Z-Axis...
NovaGold Resources Inc. has cut a deal with Rio Tinto subsidiary Kennecott Exploration Co. to purchase 100 percent interest in the precious-metal-rich Ambler copper-zinc property in Northwest Alaska. The outright purchase overrides a 2004 joint venture agreement in which NovaGold would have earned a 51 percent stake in the property by spending US$20 million and delivering a positive prefeasibility study on the project by 2016. The junior agreed to pay US$29 million to...
Although commodities prices have improved for the mining industry over the past year, 2009 has been the kind of year most of us hope not to repeat. The best analogy I can come up with is the one that says "All boats rise and fall with the tide." Under this scenario, company fortunes fell as the general market declined. Unfortunately, not all boats (companies) rise when the tide goes back up. Some get holed on the rocks of economic misfortune and remain on the bottom....
Kiska Metals Corp. cut long intercepts of gold-rich mineralization in two of the five holes that it drilled during the newly formed company's fall 2009 exploration program. These intercepts indicate that the 173-square-mile, or 448-square-kilometer, Whistler property encompasses multiple metal-rich zones. Kiska Metals, formed in August as a result of a merger between Rimfire Minerals Corp. and Geoinformatics Exploration Inc., began drilling the property in September....
A review panel has recommended that most of the Peel River watershed region in northeast Yukon Territory be withdrawn from industrial use, including mineral resource development. In long-awaited recommendations, the Peel Watershed Planning Commission is seeking to ban mining activity in 80 percent of the 68,000 square kilometers, or 26,255 square miles, that comprises the Peel watershed region. The Peel area is one of eight regions for which mineral-rich Yukon Territory is developing land use plans. It is located north of May...
Metals markets continue to climb out of the basement as the world demand for metals resumes its upward trend. Fueled by this growing demand, numerous Alaska precious, base and rare metal projects reported results of their 2009 exploration, development and production programs. The recent Alaska Miners Association Convention in Anchorage felt this surge of interest with the highest attendance in more than a decade. The atmosphere at the conference was charged with optimism, a co...
The race to become the next operating mine in Yukon Territory is heating up as two projects, Alexco Resource Corp.'s Bellekeno silver project and Yukon Zinc Corp.'s Wolverine volcanic massive sulphide project, appear to be running neck and neck as they enter the home stretch. Currently, Yukon Territory has only one operating mine, the high-grade Minto copper-gold mine, which began commercial production in October 2007. Owned by Minto Explorations Ltd., a subsidiary of Capstone Mining Corp, the open pit mining operation is...
Alaska Governor Sean Parnell reflected on Alaska's rich mining history and vowed to defend the state's mining regulatory process and to oppose unjust attacks on the industry during an address to miners at the Alaska Miners Association 2009 Annual Convention. While falling short of pointing directly to those who are fighting to prevent development and further exploration at the Pebble project in Southwest Alaska, the Alaska Governor's words addressed the issues state regulators and the Pebble Mine owners are facing. "We are...
Fortune Minerals Ltd. has identified a site in Saskatchewan for a processing facility for its Nico Project located 160 kilometers, or 99 miles, northwest of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. The junior said Nov. 3 that it entered into an agreement to purchase land near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where it aims to build its southern hydrometallurgical facility for the Nico gold-cobalt-bismuth-copper project in Northwest Territories. Fortune wants to start a vertically integrated mining operation at Nico by 2012, assuming it...
The financial meltdown of late 2008 and early 2009 was nearly the undoing of some junior exploration companies as well as some major companies. Many of the major mining companies had to drop prospects, lay off employees, institute serious cost-cutting measures, and sell assets to keep their companies viable. A key factor was company size and continued cash flow from operations. Junior exploration companies typically do not have operating cash flows and these companies are just now seeing investments return as metal prices inc...
The plunge of base metal prices and turmoil in the financial markets caused explorers and producers alike to scale back exploration budgets for 2009. North of 60 Mining News estimates this year's exploration spending in Alaska to be around US$125 million, down more than 60 percent from the US$328.6 million spent in 2008. Though the global financial meltdown played its role, it was not the largest factor in the dramatically scaled back exploration in Alaska. Alaska's two...
Consolidating its name to CBR Gold Corp. and its shares on a 5-to-1 basis, 2009 was a transitional year for the Vancouver B.C.-based junior formerly known as Committee Bay Resources Ltd. With the transition complete in February, CBR Gold management began brainstorming for the best approach to move forward at its two advanced exploration projects in North America; the Niblack gold-copper rich volcanogenic massive sulfide prospect on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska,...
Recession, what recession? That could have been the cry of some gold exploration companies in Yukon Territory in 2009. Thanks to several very impressive gold discoveries in 2008 at a time of unprecedented highs in gold prices, momentum lost in other sectors of Canadian mineral exploration seemed to hardly touch the gold-rich hills of this mining-friendly jurisdiction. Some 63 companies started 2009 with planned exploration programs in Yukon, but before all was said and done, a horde of additional gold seekers poured into the...
In a few short months in 2009, Fire River Gold Corp. , the newest member of the International Metals Group, transitioned from a new junior with one grassroots gold property to a near-term producer of high-grade gold in Alaska. Raising about C$500,000 during its initial public offering that closed in May, Fire River began an early phase exploration program at its Draken gold property, located in the Fortymile District of eastern Alaska. By September the newly formed junior had...
Full Metal Mineral Ltd., like many juniors, battened down the hatches in 2009 to ride out the financial storm that sank many explorers and caused others to climb aboard ships better suited to the turbulent weather. The explorer emerged in January to raise money and test the financial winds with assay results from its 2008 drilling at the Nadaleen silver-lead-zinc project in the Yukon Territory, and again in March with results of from the OG project, another silver-lead-zinc...
BCG: TSX-V President and CEO: Brian P. Fowler Chief Financial Officer: Larry M. Okada BCGold Corp., organized in 2006 in British Columbia, is a Vancouver-based resource company focused on copper and gold exploration in underexplored mining and exploration districts in British Columbia and Yukon Territory. BCGold Corp. acquires and develops conceptual, early and mid-stage, exploration opportunities and advances them toward resource development by using internal expertise, engaging preferred joint venture partners, and...
Kiska Metals Corp. emerged on the Alaska exploration scene as the result of a merger between Geoinformatics Exploration Inc. and Rimfire Minerals Corp. The amalgamated company has a portfolio of ten precious metal properties including its flagship Whistler gold-copper project located 150 kilometers, or 92 miles, northwest of Anchorage, Alaska. Kiska will be led by the current Rimfire management team, including President and CEO Jason Weber and Mark Baknes, vice president,...
Mineral-rich Nunavut Territory celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2009 and mining explorers seeking diamonds and precious and base metals brought their drills to the party. The territory, home to only 31,000 people living in 25 small, scattered communities, covers 1.9 million square kilometers, or one fifth the land mass of Canada and dwarfs Alaska by nearly 200,000 square miles. Of the young territory's economic prospects, mineral resource development offers perhaps the most long-term potential. "When I started work in...
CS: TSX Vice Chairman, CEO: Darren Pylot President, COO: Stephen Quin Vice President, Exploration - Canada: Brad Mercer Capstone Mining Corp., founded in 1987 in British Columbia, is primarily focused on operating, expanding and exploring the company's two producing copper mines, including the Minto copper-gold-silver mine in central Yukon Territory. Capstone also aims to grow both organically and through mergers and acquisitions: organic growth through continued mineral resource and reserve expansions at its operating mines...
Most of the mining companies looking for minerals in northern British Columbia ushered in 2009 with high hopes and little else. "It's a perfect storm. The credit crunch in the world financial system has led to a worldwide recession and a collapse in commodity prices. In equities, there is nowhere to hide. Financing has become expensive and difficult to get. I have never seen more difficult conditions for junior resource companies in my entire career," said Hard Creek Nickel Corp. President and CEO Mark Jarvis in describing...
Since Mantra Mining Inc. emerged as the vehicle in which NovaGold Resources Inc. would spin off its noncore assets, the Vancouver B.C.-based junior has positioned itself to become a major player on the Alaska mining scene. In 2009 Mantra acquired whole or part interest in more than 417,000 acres of mining properties in western Alaska, assembled an impressive management team and board of directors (including two Thayer Lindsley award winners) and raised C$5 million to...
When Greg Beischer and Phil St. George teamed up to form Millrock Resources Inc. early in 2007, they set out to make big discoveries that would attract the interest of the world's mining giants. The Millrock team has the background to know what global mining companies are looking for and the geological expertise to find it. Beischer, the Vancouver B.C.-based junior's president and CEO, spent two decades working for Inco Ltd., now a subsidiary of global mining giant Companhia...
