The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 1426 - 1450 of 1467
Mining giant Placer Dome Inc. announced a 24 percent growth in earnings in 2004 to $284 million, partly due to "a number of tax items resulting in a net tax recovery of $130 million," the company said in a press release in mid-February. Sales revenue increased 7 percent to $1.89 billion on gold production of 3.65 million ounces and copper production of 413 million pounds. Gold cash and total costs were $240 and $298 per ounce, respectively, while copper cash and total costs were 55 cents and 70 cents per pound, respectively....
Mining, of course, is the oldest profession in Alaska. In the late 19th century the "fancy ladies" followed the miners up to outposts like Juneau and Nome, and then came the lawyers. A motley crew of Alaska mining history buffs told entertaining stories at a panel discussion in Anchorage on Nov. 4, but they also had a serious message about the way disputes over mineral rights necessitated the writing of laws for this unruly territory. The first attempts at mining in Alaska took place under Russian rule, after Tsar Nicholas I...
An initial investment of $10 in a gold-silver property by Vancouver-based Rimfire Minerals might pay off handsomely in the long term. Rimfire purchased the Tide property in British Columbia from Newmont Exploration in 2001 for that nominal fee, and last year partnered with another Vancouver company, Serengeti Resources, to push forward a drilling and fieldwork program. Serengeti is earning a 51 percent interest in Tide by spending C$1.4 million on exploration. The results so far have been very promising. High-grade gold and...
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. has discovered a new higher-grade zone on the east side of the Pebble gold-copper-molybdenum deposit in southwestern Alaska near Iliamna, Ronald W. Thiessen, the company's president and CEO said Nov. 29. Pebble, which has a 2.74 billion-ton inferred resource, is believed to contain the largest gold deposit in North America and the second-largest copper deposit. Separately, Thiessen and Galahad Gold of London announced that Vancouver, British Columbia-based Northern Dynasty exercised an option...
A new copper discovery in Mongolia's South Gobi region could rival Alaska's Pebble deposit as one of the most valuable in the world. Drilling on the Hugo North deposit at the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project has produced impressive results, according to a Nov. 18 release from Ivanhoe Mines. Ivanhoe's controversial chairman, Robert Friedland, denies media accusations that he has been over-hyping the company's Mongolia finds. "Based on my 30 years of experience in the exploration business, I believe the Hugo North deposit is the...
After seeing his daughter Lisa elected to the U.S. Senate, the first place Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski headed to on Nov. 3 was the Alaska Miners Association convention in Anchorage. Perhaps because of his good mood, Gov. Murkowski promised to request a $700,000 addition to next year's budget for enhanced airborne geophysical surveys. In a speech to the convention two days later, Alaska Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin confirmed the state's enthusiasm for the mining industry. "Men and women of the Alaska...
After a busy summer, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. is on schedule and optimistic it can meet its timeline for a 2009 commencement of mining operations at its Pebble deposit, a proposed open pit, gold-copper-molybdenum-silver mine near Iliamna in southwestern Alaska, according to Bruce Jenkins, Northern Dynasty director of corporate affairs. The company completed intensive infill drilling in 2004, sufficient to move the project to the bankable feasibility study level, Jenkins told an audience Nov. 4 at the Alaska Miners...
Placer mining in Canada's Yukon Territory has increased significantly this year, and although there are no operating hard-rock mines in the territory yet, that may change soon. Mike Burke of the Yukon Geological Survey outlined the varied projects of the past season at the Alaska Miners Association Convention in Anchorage on Nov. 4. In particular, he drew attention to Expatriate Resources' exploration in the Finlayson Lake District at Wolverine, for which the company has raised C$16.6 million. Wolverine is one of several impo...
Neither the heat and smoke from wildfires, nor excruciatingly low winter temperatures could deter miners from expanding their operations in Alaska this past season. Representatives of several companies described their achievements in the "Development and Mine Operations" session at the Alaska Miners Association convention on Nov. 5. NovaGold Resources' Rock Creek John Odden from NovaGold Resources began with a presentation on Rock Creek, which is located on the Seward Peninsula, seven miles north of Nome. Part of it is on...
The first of two-seasons of construction is under way on the Nome Glacier Creek Road realignment in western Alaska. This is just one of a number of mining road and port projects the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities has carried into Phase II, Mike McKinnon, the project's manager, told the Alaska Miners Association annual conference in Anchorage Nov. 4. For five years, he said, the department has "been looking at the issue of industrial development roads with the idea that there are situations where...
The month of November started off with a bang with favorable results for the mining industry from both the state and federal elections standpoint. As it closes the price of gold is flirting with $450 per ounce, the highest price for this metal since mid-1988. The Alaska Miners Association convention was very well attended in early November and results were revealed there from many of Alaska's exploration, development and production properties. A quick tally of spending across...
Saskatchewan, Canada's so-called breadbasket because of its seemingly endless grain fields and also the country's second-largest oil and gas producing province, has hopes of adding diamonds to the portfolio. After years of probing beneath the Prairie and studying the results, two mining companies are inching closer to deciding whether they have the resources to go commercial. Claiming to have control of the world's largest diamond deposits, Victoria, British Columbia-based Kensington Resources and its joint venture partners...
Robust metal prices are the most positive factor affecting Alaska's mining industry over the past year, according to Steve Borell, executive director of the Alaska Miners Association. "Metal prices are what drives the industry," Borell said. He said it is a significant fact that prices for base metals such as lead, zinc, copper, nickel and molybdenum are high at the same time as those for gold, silver and platinum. In world metal pricing it is not often the case that base metals and precious metals rise simultaneously....
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. has zeroed in on a port site on the southwest corner of Iniskin Bay on Cook Inlet, to serve its Pebble deposit, a proposed open pit, gold-copper-molybdenum-silver mine near Iliamna in Southwestern Alaska, according to Bruce Jenkins, director of corporate affairs. The port site is approximately 65 miles from the deposit. The company has also, in conjunction with the Alaska Department of Transportation, established a preferred road corridor leading from the port site to the Pebble deposit, with co...
In case you hadn't noticed, one of the busiest but quietest Augusts in the last 10 years just slipped into the pages of history. Mineral exploration, development and production maintained a low profile in just about every region of the state during August. Drills continued to turn and samples continued to stream in from programs searching for gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, nickel, platinum and palladium. The hot spots continued to be the Iliamna District, the Goodpaster...
Vancouver, British Columbia-based War Eagle Mining Co. Inc. has partnered with Strategic Metals Ltd. to drill for the first time the Antimony Mountain copper-silver-gold porphyry prospect, 65 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of Dawson City, Yukon Territory. Reconnaissance field work started in late June, with core drilling beginning in August. A total of 1,000 meters (3,275 feet) is planned for this year's five-hole program, according to an Aug. 26 press release. "This summer's work program budget is $400,000, of which roughly...
Seattle-based Nevada Star Resource Corp. in mid-August began a 2,000 meter (6,561-foot) reverse circulation drilling program on the northern portion of the MAN nickel, copper and PGE property in central Alaska. It's the latest development in an active, million-dollar plus summer field season for the 271-square mile MAN property on the southern flank of the Alaska Range near the Richardson Highway community of Paxson. Nevada Star is completing about $550,000 worth of exploration work on the northern part of the property this s...
NovaGold Resources appears to have hit another prospecting grand slam one year after optioning the Galore Creek project in a remote section of northwestern British Columbia. The Vancouver, British Columbia-based junior in August released "exceptional" drill results, the first from this summer's planned 20,000-meter (60,000-foot) program, and an economically positive scoping study for developing the large gold-silver-copper deposit as an open-pit mine. Four drill rigs were working on the property in late July, and a fifth was...
For Inco, it is the road to becoming the world's largest nickel producer. For the residents of isolated, depressed Labrador, it holds the rare promise of steady jobs and solid economic gains. For the government of Newfoundland and Labrador, it will be a triumphant end to some of the toughest resource-development negotiations in Canadian history. For now, if all goes as planned, the mine and concentrator at the Voisey's Bay project and a demonstration processing plant at Argentia, Newfoundland, will begin operations in 2006, a...
One of the most bizarre summers in Alaska's recent history is in full swing and only the snows of winter will dampen things. I am speaking of course of the impact that Alaska's plus-4 million acres of wildfires have had on mineral exploration, development and operations in the central and eastern parts of the state. The fires came along with an unusually dry and warm summer for virtually all of the state. In addition to the usual problems of who's AWOL after the Fourth of...
Developers hoping to restart production at the underground, shuttered Nixon Fork gold-copper mine in central Alaska announced more high-grade drilling results from an underground drilling program this summer. The best intercept from new drilling results measured 4.6 meters at 162.5 grams of gold per ton of rock, or 15 feet at 5.22 ounces of gold per ton of rock. Other intercepts ranged from 0.94 ounces to 1.6 ounces of gold per ton of rock. Drilling work at the C-3300 Chute Zone, one of three being tested by underground drill...
As anyone can tell you who has tried recently to locate geologists, drill rigs and helicopters, Alaska is not the place to search for any of these commodities. Mineral exploration and development in Alaska is clipping along at a pace not seen in more than five years and in the process, these activities have sucked up just about all of the people, rigs and aircraft in the state. Exploration and development projects are spread from Nome to Ketchikan, the Brooks Range to...
The skies north of Lake Iliamna in southwest Alaska are buzzing with helicopters that are supporting numerous drill crews working on exploration projects at and surrounding the Pebble gold-copper-molybdenum-silver deposit. Leading this summer's activity is Northern Dynasty, a Hunter Dickinson managed mine-development company, which holds options to acquire a 100 percent interest in 36 mineral claims that host the Pebble deposit. Northern Dynasty bumped up this year's spending plan for Pebble to a total of $25 million in U.S....
Spending about $250,000 on its first phase of drilling this year, Bravo Venture Group hit the ground mid-May with a core drill to test three prospects on the Woewodski Island property in Southeast Alaska about 18 miles southwest of Petersburg. The 3,000 meter drill program will be completed mid-June, according to Jay Oness, vice president of investor relations for the Canadian junior, part of the Manex Group of mineral exploration companies. "We might increase that (drill work)," Oness told Mining News June 7. "We're getting...
The land has been staked - now the major players have taken to the ground to complete geological and geophysical work surrounding the Pebble gold-copper-molybdenum resource near Iliamna, Alaska. Leading the way in terms of spending is Northern Dynasty, which is earning a 100 percent interest in the Pebble resource lands claim block - a 1,440 acre parcel that contains the estimated 26 million ounce gold resource and the 16.5 billion pound copper resource. Northern Dynasty, which conducted extensive drilling at Pebble in 2002...
