The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 901 - 925 of 1467
The world's mining industry has once again transmogrified itself in the face of changing global metals markets and investor expectations. In a recent Reuters report, several companies, including Newmont Mining Corp., Goldcorp Inc. and Yamana Gold Inc., were singled out as having taken steps to bring smaller, leaner, lower output projects into production to avoid the cost over-runs which have plagued the large multibillion-dollar projects in recent years. The same large mine...
Did the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency secretly collaborate with environmental activists to contrive and execute a plan to roadblock the enormous Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project? This is the question that U. S. District Court Judge H. Russel Holland in Anchorage is trying to answer after hearing May 29 arguments from both sides. The Pebble Limited Partnership alleges that EPA worked behind the scenes with lawyers, scientists, non-governmental agencies and other an...
The United States is richly endowed with a broad range of metals and minerals critical to national security, green energy and modern technology but is often overly-reliant on foreign sources for these same commodities. This was the resounding message from miners, manufacturers, regulators and analysts who testified on U.S. Senate Bill 883, "The American Mineral Security Act of 2015." Introduced by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, S.883 aims to reduce the United States' heavy...
Alaska Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott spent this week getting a firsthand look at trans-boundary water issues from the British Columbia side of the border, where a number of mines are being proposed on water systems that feed rivers that run through Southeast Alaska. "These rivers are key to Southeast Alaska's way of life, including Native cultures, community economies, recreation and subsistence, and, of course, its profitable seafood and tourism industries that employ thousands of...
It has been nearly four years since any significant exploration has been carried out at the Whistler property, but a preliminary deal for Kiska Metals Corp. to sell it could mean a renewed focus on this copper-gold project in Southcentral Alaska. Under a non-binding agreement reached April 9, Alternative Earth Resources Inc. would acquire full ownership of Whistler in exchange for issuing Kiska 24.5 million of its shares, which would represent half of the company's shares upon...
The state of the world's exploration industry was recently summarized in SNL Metal & Mining's annual "World Exploration Trends" publication, released at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention in Toronto. Not surprisingly, it painted a grim picture of 2014, a year we are all glad to have behind us. The statistics indicate that worldwide exploration expenditures declined a further 26 percent to $11.4 billion, compared with $15.2 billion in 2013 and...
Copper North Mining Corp. March 19 reported the completion of a C$318,000 financing. The non-brokered private placement consists of 5.3 million units priced at C6 cents per unit. Each unit consists of one Copper North common share and one half of a warrant. Each whole warrant is redeemable for the purchase of an additional share at for C9 cents until March 19, 2017. Copper North Chairman Dale Corman bought 1.7 million of the units. The company intends to use the proceeds from...
Slipping metals prices and investors' ongoing reluctance to risk venture capital in the junior mining sector is hitting Alaska's mineral exploration sector hard; and the Far North state is not the only mining jurisdiction reeling from this one-two punch. "After another year of strong headwinds in 2014, and with lower demand and overproduction continuing to depress metals prices, the mining industry's outlook for 2015 is unpromising at best," SNL Metals & Mining wrote recently...
Primarily associated with cans, cups and roofs, tin is not the flashiest metal on the market. Despite its lowly ranking, even among base metals, this lackluster commodity fetches around US$8.00 per pound - substantially more than copper, zinc, lead, or even nickel - and Alaska has plenty of it. Strongbow Exploration Inc., a company primarily focused on exploring for nickel in Northwest Territories, is working on a deal that would allow it to acquire two Alaska tin properties...
Strongbow Exploration Inc. March 10 said it has agreed to acquire a 100 percent interest in the Sleitat and Coal Creek tin properties in Alaska through the purchase of Thor Gold Alaska Inc., a private company. The Sleitat property consists of 3,520 acres of State of Alaska mining claims located roughly 85 miles northeast of Dillingham. This tin property was explored by Cominco America Inc. in the mid-1980s and Solomon Resources in the mid-2000s. In 1989, the U.S. Bureau of...
Alaska and Yukon Territory share more than a 750-mile border in the eyes of the 485 mining executives that participated in Fraser Institute's Survey of Mining Companies 2014. This group of miners, explorers and consultants ranked these northern neighbors as two of the richest mineral jurisdictions on earth but found certain mining policies in each a cause for concern. As a result, Yukon was ninth and Alaska was 10th on the survey's investment attractiveness index, a measure...
American billionaires John Paulson, Seth Klarman and Thomas Kaplan have taken a keen interest in Alaska's next generation of gold and copper mines. While it is natural for hedge fund managers such as Paulson and Klarman, and resource investors such as Kaplan, to hold mining stocks in their portfolios, this trio holds major positions in three of the top Alaska-focused mineral exploration and development companies. In fact, the companies founded and managed by these...
Capstone Mining Corp. Feb. 17 reported that its Minto Mine in Yukon Territory produced 18,411 metric tons of copper in concentrates during 2014 at a C1 cash cost of US$2.33 per pound of payable copper. Surface mining at Minto was suspended at the end of the third quarter 2014 due to delays in receipt of a water use license amendment required for pre-stripping at Minto North. Fresh ore from underground mining was supplemented with stockpiled ore to feed the mill during the four...
Galvanized by higher zinc prices and strong production at Teck Resources Ltd.'s Red Dog Mine, the value of Alaska's mineral production topped US$3 billion for the fifth year running. Larry Freeman, chief of Minerals Resources at the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys, told an audience at the AME BC Mineral Exploration Roundup that production of zinc, lead and silver - all metals produced at Red Dog - climbed in Alaska during 2014. Gold production, on the...
Imperial Metals Corp. Feb. 6 reported that commissioning is underway at the Red Chris gold-copper mine in northwestern British Columbia. The company Feb. 2 received approvals needed to start up the processing plant at Red Chris and began testing the grinding circuit Feb. 3. Mining in both East and Main zones continues, providing a selection of ore styles for mill optimization. Imperial said it is continuing to work closely with the Tahltan First Nation, whose cooperation has been instrumental in construction of Red Chris....
A design flaw resulting from an inadequate understanding of the glacial lake sediments that formed a portion of the foundation on which the tailings dam at the Mount Polley mine located in south-central British Columbia was built caused the structure to collapse under its own weight, according to engineers tasked with finding out why the dam burst on Aug. 4. Mount Polley is an open pit copper-gold mine with a developing underground project. "The design did not take into...
Plummeting oil prices have put Alaska residents and Alaska miners in the same boat. Suddenly, it's less expensive to top off the tank of an SUV or a haul truck, but the state budget, fueled by oil revenue, is teetering on the edge of an estimated $3.5 billion deficit. That's $10 million a day for 2015. "We know Alaska is experiencing a significant drop in revenue - the price of oil has dropped more than 50 percent over the past six months," Alaska's new governor, Bill Walker,...
British Columbia Premier Christy Clark Jan. 26 unveiled C$9 million in new funding to support mining in the province. Clark said the funds will establish a Major Mines Permitting Office to improve coordination of major mine permits across government, add staff to conduct more inspections and permit reviews, and maintain improved turnaround times for notice of work permits. The base budget of the ministry will be increased by about C$6 million, including a portion to make...
Copper North Mining Corp. Jan. 21 said recent testing demonstrates that an agitated tank leach is the optimal recovery process for copper, gold and silver from oxide mineral resources at the Carmacks Copper Project in central Yukon Territory. A new process plan consists of three-stage crushing and rod mill grinding prior to placing ore in an agitated tank for leaching of copper oxides with weak sulfuric acid. Testing indicates 84 percent copper recovery with leach times of 16...
Northquest Ltd. Jan. 6 reported final results from its 2014 drill program at the Pistol Bay gold project in Nunavut. The best hole of the campaign cut 134.4 meters grading 1.36 grams per metric ton gold at the Vickers target. Twelve of the 13 drill holes completed at Vickers in 2014 intersected the gold zone. Northquest said this drilling extended the Vickers zone for 200 meters to the east of all previous drilling. The best hole at Vickers, previously reported, cut 221.7 mete...
On the face of it, President Barack Obama's decision to place a ban on offshore oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Bristol Bay Region appears to have handed opponents of the Pebble Project another weapon in their ongoing fight to block development of the enormous copper-gold-molybdenum deposit. But Pebble supporters say a moratorium on petroleum exploration in Bristol Bay has little or no relationship to the merits of the mine project. Oil and gas drilling in Bristol Bay has long been a contentious issue, dating back to the...
The nearer your destination, the more you slip sliding away." As 2014 quickly slip-slides away, these normally melancholy lyrics by Paul Simon take on a surprisingly upbeat meaning for Alaska's mining industry. Unlike watching most years slip by, seeing 2014 in the rearview mirror will bring a smile to most in the mining industry, not only in Alaska, but worldwide. This was our third consecutive year of declining commodities prices, near-zero investor interest and the...
Thanks to recent progress in development of several major projects in 2014, the outlook for diamond mining in Northwest Territories is suddenly a lot brighter. This is especially good news for the territory's mining industry, which is largely dependent on the production of diamonds now and in the foreseeable future. This point was driven home most forcefully in "Measuring Success 2014: NWT Diamond Mines Continue to Create Benefits," a report recently released by the NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines. An update of a January 2013...
The nearly operational Red Chris Mine is plugged into the electrical grid, and Imperial Metals Corp. is readying all the components for operations in anticipation of final approvals from the local Tahltan First Nation and Government of British Columbia. By the end of October, the final leg of the power line that connects Red Chris to the affordable and clean power delivered by the 287-kilovolt Northwest Transmission Line was complete. This milestone is allowing Imperial...
Since buying out its mining rival Inmet Mining Corp. in early 2013, First Quantum Minerals Ltd. has shown a keen interest in Alaska's copper potential. With seven mines in operation and five mineral projects under development, First Quantum is a growing, diversified miner with a particular focus on copper. Its operating mines and development projects are located in Africa, Australia, Finland, Spain, Turkey and Latin America. Yet the company has no foothold in North America....
