The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 826 - 850 of 1467
Reuters recently reported that the 10 largest gold-producing companies worldwide have steadily increased their near-mine exploration budgets over the past few years to 56 percent in 2015 from 45 percent in 2013. They also reduced their higher-risk greenfields exploration budgets to 21 percent from 25 percent in the same time period. This retrenchment of exploration by the larger producers is occurring, while global gold output is declining with an expected reduction of 9...
Capstone Mining Corp. Oct. 13 reported higher than planned copper production at its Minto Mine resulting from the processing of high-grade ore from the Minto North deposit. At mid-year, Capstone upped its copper production guidance for Minto to 28,000 metric tons of copper for 2016. With copper grades averaging more than 3 percent, the Yukon operation produced 11,620 metric tons of copper in the third quarter, more than the entire first half of 2016. The mill recorded a...
Western Alaska Copper & Gold Oct. 17 reported results from the 2016 drill program at its Round Top copper-molybdenum project in the Illinois Creek Mining District of western Alaska. The goal of this program, which included the first drilling since Anaconda Minerals Co. tested the property in 1981, was to verify historical holes drilled at the east lobe of the Round Top deposit and then step out to test targets identified by recent soil geochemistry and high resolution...
Peak Gold is raising the bar for high-grade gold deposits in Alaska. In fact, the gold grades this joint venture has reported from summer drilling at its Tetlin project in eastern Interior Alaska are so remarkable that near-surface, minable widths of quarter-ounce-per-metric-ton-gold cut at the project's Peak zones are overshadowed by numerous 13-meter-plus intercepts of more than 1.5 oz./t gold. One such example of this eclipsing effect can be found in TET16272, one of 19...
Capstone Mining Corp. said Oct. 25 it is looking for new sources of high-grade ore that will allow the company to continue operations at its Minto copper mine in the Yukon through the end of 2017. Earlier this year, Capstone announced plans to temporarily halt operations at Minto. This planned closure is part of an initiative to cut costs during this period of low copper prices. So far, high-grade copper ore at the Minto North open-pit has allowed for low cost production at the mine. Mining at Minto North, however, was...
Over the last month the inevitable termination dust has begun to show up across Alaska, bringing with it completion of mineral exploration programs and transition of development and production projects to winter operational modes. Explorers, developers and miners will soon be gathering to compare notes at the annual Alaska Miners Association Convention in Anchorage, an event that always overlaps national and local election night. Alaska's mineral industry outlook brightened... Full story
After two years of legal wrangling, Pebble Limited Partnership and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have traded the courtroom floor for a negotiating table to resolve differences that would likely influence the viability of developing a mine at the world-class Pebble copper deposit in Southwest Alaska. In 2014, the Pebble Partnership filed a suit action in federal district court in Alaska, alleging that EPA violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act by working...
While most mining jurisdictions have seen sharp drops in mineral exploration spending, such investments in Northwest Territories has largely held steady at about C$100 million annually during the past five years. As a result, this diamond-rich territory accounted for roughly 7 percent of mineral exploration spending in Canada in 2016, compared with only about 2 percent in 2011. The ultimate measure of mineral exploration success is not the amount of exploration dollars spent... Full story
Nunavut seems to be ahead of the curve when it comes to recovering from the global downturn in mineral exploration spending. An estimated C$202.5 million was invested in unlocking this Canadian territory's mineral potential in 2015. This 28 percent increase over the C$158 million invested in 2014 came at a time when most jurisdictions around the world were continuing a four-year trend of sharp drops in mineral exploration. While early estimates have Nunavut giving up some... Full story
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...
ILLINOIS CREEK CAMP: Maps spread out here on a pool table and laptops filled with geophysical and geochemical data collected at the Round Top copper project line up on a makeshift desk against the wall – an air of optimism and excitement fills the former recreation room for the past-producing Illinois Creek Mine that now serves as the headquarters for Western Alaska Copper & Gold Company. The source of the excitement is a drill tapping into a potentially large and robust p... Full story
If you have ever played or followed sporting events, you are probably familiar with that bizarre and often game-changing event known as the "change of momentum". This is when the team that was on the ropes suddenly comes to life and often roars to victory, putting smiles on the faces of coaches, fans and bookies alike. Well, unless I am mistaken, the Alaska mining industry has been the beneficiary of just such a change of momentum over the past month. After taking head shots... Full story
After a particularly long and painful bear market for the mining sector, the more than 25 percent surge in gold prices since the beginning of the year is lifting the share price of mining and mineral exploration companies in Alaska. “It has been five very long years and hopefully this a start to what is going to be a good run,” Greg Beischer, president and CEO of Millrock Resources Inc., told an audience at a recent Alaska Miners Association meeting in Anchorage. While gol...
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...
As a follow-up to last month's realization that once again "the game is afoot" in the mining industry, major gold producer Goldcorp recently presented some arresting statistics at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Metals, Mining and Steel Conference. The presentation showed gold discovery and production information for the global mining industry that indicated that peak gold discovery occurred in 1995, this despite three periods between 1995 and 2015 when exploration...
Coventry Resources Ltd. Oct. 11 reported results from the first nine of 22 holes drilled this year at the Caribou Dome copper project about 155 miles north of Anchorage. Three holes drilled northeast of the historical Caribou Dome deposit cut significant high-grade copper. CD16-005, drilled about 120 meters northeast of the deposit, cut 1.1 meters of 5.5 percent copper from a depth of 532.1 meters. CD16-007, drilled about 100 meters southwest of CD16-005, cut 0.3 meter of 1.8...
Copper North Mining Corp. Sept. 9 reported the start of drilling at its Thor copper-gold property in northwest British Columbia. This drilling will begin at target 3 of Thor East, an area defined by sparse outcrops of granodiorite with copper oxide mineralization in the lower reaches of the mountain that is capped by mafic volcanic rocks that host numerous small veins with copper and gold and extensive alteration zones. Drilling is also planned for Thor West, an area defined...
Copper North Mining Corp. Aug. 4 reported the start of 2016 exploration at Thor, a northern British Columbia project that provides the company with an opportunity to explore for porphyry copper-gold mineralization in the slopes and valleys adjacent to the shutdown Kemess South mine. Initial exploration will focus on target evaluation in the Thor East area, followed by drilling in both the Thor West and Thor East areas. The company said historical exploration defined porphyry... Full story
Capstone Mining Corp. July 26 reported that strong mill throughput and recoveries resulted in better than planned second-quarter copper production at its Minto Mine in the Yukon Territory. Mining continues to advance in the Minto North pit, with higher than 2 percent copper grades reaching the mill by early June, resulting in significantly higher production planned for the second half of the year. Capstone's 2016 guidance to produce 108,000 metric tons of copper from its Pinto...
NovaCopper Inc. is exercising the discipline of a marathon runner as it paces towards the finish line - developing the high-grade copper deposits at its Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska into world-class mines. This year's US$5.5 million program for UKMP - a budget identical to 2015 - will continue to collect the data needed to complete a prefeasibility study for an open-pit mine at the Arctic deposit, while continuing to seek areas to expand upon the more than...
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. July 6 reported the start of a 2016 drill program at its Palmer copper-zinc-silver-gold project in Southeast Alaska. Dowa Metals & Mining Co. Ltd., which can earn 49 percent in Palmer by investing US$22 million in the project by the end of 2016, has budgeted US$3.7 million for this year's program. The work begins with an initial 1,700-meter drill program targeting several volcanogenic massive sulfide targets beyond the known Glacier Creek...
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...
NovaCopper Inc. June 22 said the Bornite Camp is being prepared for the 2016 field program at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects located in Northwest Alaska. The majority of this year's project budget of US$5.5 million is planned to be spent on roughly 3,000 meters of drilling at the Arctic project. The program will include drilling for geotechnical, hydrological, waste rock characterization and metallurgical studies as well as further resource definition. The company is also planning a series of environmental studies that...
Australia-based Coventry Resources Inc. has kicked off an extensive exploration program aimed at expanding zones of high-grade copper at Caribou Dome, a road-accessible property located about 155 miles north of Anchorage. "We anticipate spending around AU$2 million on the current work program that will comprise circa 8,000 meters of drilling, an extensive (induced polarization) survey, and further soil sampling/mapping in prioritized areas where previously very little, if... Full story
NovaCopper Inc. April 19 provided an updated resource estimate for the Bornite project located in the highly prospective Ambler Mining District of Northwest Alaska. Using a 0.50 percent copper cutoff grade, the Bornite Project is estimated to contain 40.5 metric tons of in-pit indicated resources averaging 1.02 percent (913 million pounds) copper; and 84.1 million metric tons of inferred resources averaging 0.95 percent (1.8 billion lbs.) copper. Contained copper in the...
