The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 1351 - 1375 of 1467
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...
The exploration season has started but not before a bevy of new corporate competitors have entered the Alaska mineral scene and not before a number of past producing mines have been dragged into the 21st century. During the last month, three new companies have acquired properties in Alaska and two old Alaska producers have been brought out of mothballs to have new exploration done on them. This month's commodities of interest include gold, copper, lead, zinc, silver, uranium,...
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...
More junior mining companies than ever appear to be seeking their fortunes in precious metals and gems in the wilds of northwestern Canada these days and more seem to be joining the throng every day. Still, few of these modern-day explorers are drawn to the Far North by the allure of high-rank coal and metallurgical minerals such as cobalt and bismuth. But Fortune Minerals of London, Ontario, is one such firm. Founded in 1988, Fortune Minerals went public a year later. In the 18 years since, the company has gotten lucky more...
Vancouver-based New Gold plans to develop its New Afton copper-gold project into an underground block cave mine, based on a feasibility study the company released April 2. New Afton is located six miles west of Kamloops in south-central British Columbia, at the site of the former Afton open pit mine. That mine operated from 1978 to 1987, producing approximately 500 million pounds of copper, 500,000 ounces of gold and 3 million ounces of silver. New Afton's reserves contain almost 1 billion pounds of copper, more than 1...
The trials and tribulations of Alaska's mining industry continued in the last month with one challenged mine given the green light to proceed, the other halted in midstride by the same legal system. In the background, exploration programs quietly began at several locations across the state as the busy 2007 mining season started in earnest. Alaska's global rank dropped from 13th to 24th position in the most recent Fraser Institute survey of mining jurisdictions worldwide. At...
A bill in the Alaska Legislature that would place severe restrictions on water use in the Bristol Bay area is undergoing revision by its sponsor, Rep. Bryce Edgmon, D-Dillingham. House Bill 134, was motivated by concerns about the possible development of Northern Dynasty's Pebble mine, but many of those who testified to the House Special Committee on Fisheries said it could block all other forms of development and even subsistence activities. New additions to a committee substitute version of the bill exempt unincorporated...
BcMetals Corp.'s plans to develop its potentially lucrative Red Chris copper-gold project in northern British Columbia may be moot now that Imperials Metals Corp. is the apparent winner of a recent bidding war for the Vancouver, B.C.-based mining company. But the ambitious junior's plans got a big boost in January when British Columbia Transmission Corp., the crown corporation responsible for the province's power transmission lines, said it will move ahead with construction of a proposed extension of its Northwest...
Okay, the lull is over. It lasted about 25, maybe 30 minutes, after I wrote those prophetic but ill-considered words in late January! Shortly after that point I was in Vancouver for the annual Cordilleran Roundup mining conference, an annual barometer of mining activity in western North America if not the world. What I saw at the 2007 conference was a crowd well in excess of 5,000, populated by two types of people: those who were smiling from ear to ear and those whose terrified eyes reminded me of a whitetail deer in the...
Exploration spending in British Columbia hit a record high of C$265 million in 2006, a figure that the province's mining minister, Bill Bennett was proud to announce at the recent Mineral Exploration Roundup in Vancouver. Unfortunately for Bennett, he probably won't be invited to boast about the industry's successes next year, since he was forced to resign in early February after sending an obscenity-laced email to a gun club member. "British Columbians want good jobs, and they also, frankly, want the tax revenues that come...
Miners in the far north can no longer trample on the rights of indigenous residents as some did in the past. Any company operating on or near aboriginal land must work closely with local communities, whether ownership issues have been decided, as in Alaska, or are still to be resolved, as in much of Canada. Political leaders and miners discussed the question of how to win community support for projects at the Mineral Exploration Roundup in Vancouver Jan. 29. "How do we address the historical gaps that have separated...
Ahhhh, the calm before the storm! Over the last month the industry slowed and took a collective breath to enjoy friends, family and the holidays in anticipation of another busy year in the Alaska mineral industry. The last month has already seen another new player enter the Alaska mining scene and behind closed doors drilling, helicopter and personnel contracts are being negotiated. The annual Cordilleran Roundup mining convention in Vancouver is right around the corner and promises to be the most exciting conference in over...
Copper Ridge Explorations Inc., owner of various precious and base metals-rich properties in the Yukon Territory, British Columbia and Alaska, is venturing into uranium exploration in the Yukon. The Vancouver, B.C.-based junior mining company reached an agreement with Dawson City prospector Shawn Ryan to acquire 100 percent interest in the Borealis uranium property about 30 miles northeast of that city. Under terms of the option, Copper Ridge will pay $5,000 in cash, spend a minimum of $600,000 on exploration at Borealis,...
Research prepared for mining industry critic Earthworks claims that faulty water quality predictions, and mitigation and regulatory failures are responsible for hard rock mining-related water pollution, primarily in the West. The purpose of the studies, by consultant Jim Kuipers of Butte, Mont., and Boulder, Colo.-based geochemist Ann Maest, was to review the history and accuracy of water quality predictions in environmental impact statements for major U.S. hardrock mines, according to Earthworks. Kuipers and Maest found...
A plan to expand the remote Kemess copper-gold mining operation in northern British Columbia has met with significant opposition from members of First Nations communities in the area. The protests surfaced during a series of public hearings held by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency between Oct. 30 and Dec. 7. The hearings are part of the provincial and federal environmental assessment process. Northgate Minerals Corp., operator of the Kemess South Mine, wants to extend the life of its mining operation by developing...
Mining companies spent an all-time record $103.9 million on exploration in Alaska in 2005, a big jump from the $70.8 million that was spent the previous year, and a long way from the relatively modest $27.6 million in 2003. At least 16 projects had exploration expenditures of $1 million or more. The companies employed 303 people in exploration projects in 2005, up from 184 in 2004 and 88 in 2003, according to the state's Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys. These impressive figures in Alaska reflected the story...
A newly expanded company is making Alaska its exploration target, and it's backed by a mining heavyweight. Vancouver-based International Tower Hill Mines was barely a glimmer on anyone's radar screens until last summer, when South African major AngloGold Ashanti purchased 19.99 percent of ITH's shares and gave the junior its North American exploration manager, Jeff Pontius, as president and CEO. Pontius led the team that acquired a group of Alaska properties for AngloGold, which now belong to ITH. "AngloGold was highly...
Sometimes less can be more. That's what Sherwood Copper Corp. is finding with metallurgical tests it is conducting on ore samples from the Minto project north of Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory. Minto is an advanced-stage copper-gold project with reserves exceeding 356 million pounds of high-grade copper and geology that indicates significant exploration potential. Development of an open pit mining operation with conventional crushing, grinding and flotation to produce copper concentrates with significant gold and silver cr...
Alaska's governor-elect, Republican Sarah Palin, made the annual miners' convention in Anchorage the venue for her first official engagement after the election, promising to listen to the industry as she selects her advisors. Palin's predecessor, Frank Murkowski, gave strong support to the mining industry, including initiating the Roads to Resources program, but lost valuable employees at the Department of Natural Resources when they resigned in protest at his handling of gas pipeline negotiations. "It's my pleasure to...
An investor attending the Alaska Miners Association convention in Anchorage mentioned that he was listening intently to all the exploration talks because he was looking for the next Full Metal Minerals. In other words, a junior company that breaks out from the bottom of the stockpile, as it were, and builds a reputation for acquiring promising properties and working diligently on them. For Alaskans the rise of Vancouver-based Full Metal is doubly exciting, since all most all of the company's projects are located in the state....
Two Canadian mining companies traded accusations in November as they hurtled toward the latest deadline in Barrick's hostile takeover bid for NovaGold. The world's largest gold producer upped its offer from $14.50 per share to $16 per share and announced it would take up all shares tendered by Nov. 21, regardless of whether it obtained the minimum 50.1 percent of NovaGold that it originally hoped for. NovaGold would have liked to see a "white knight" ride in and rescue it from Barrick's advances with a shinier offer. That...
Out of an average 157,800 tons of rock, with the assistance of 30 tons of explosives, 6.7 tons of lime and 20,506 gallons of diesel fuel, Fort Knox mine produces 900 ounces of gold per day. Trucks with giant tires that cost $10,000 each carry 150 tons of ore to the crusher every three minutes. The ore comes out of a pit that is 1,100 feet deep and will be a mile long and half a mile wide by the time mining comes to an end in 2010. The mine operates 24/7, 365 days a year and its electricity bill is $1.9 million per month....
Two Vancouver-based mining companies are forging ahead with gold projects in Nunavut, and if all goes according to plan they could both be in production by 2008. Cumberland Resources and Miramar Mining have seen their stock prices leap from under $2 a year ago to around $5 today thanks to endorsement from the Nunavut Impact Review Board. The mainly indigenous residents of Canada's far northern territory have expressed enthusiasm for new mining projects, as long as stringent environmental conditions are adhered to. After...
If a company has explored a property for three years and not found any economic mineralization, it will often cut its losses and find a new place to go. The RDN property in northwest British Columbia is in its third consecutive year of exploration. Assay results from this season's drilling could determine whether or not two Vancouver-based companies, Rimfire Minerals and Northgate Minerals, invest any more of their time and money here. Rimfire is a junior mining company with exploration properties in Alaska, the Yukon,...
As public and private interests in British Columbia move forward with cleaning up and reclaiming the old Britannia Mine site, Canada's Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn has weighed in with additional support. Lunn attended the opening Sept. 29 of the mine's renovated concentrator mill, now part of the BC Museum of Mining. Earlier, he told members of the Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia at a breakfast meeting in Vancouver that he would instruct Natural Resources Canada to contribute another C$5 million...
