The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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A group of diverse global-scale mining companies hailing from Australia, Japan, and the United States are quietly exploring a relatively small region of Alaska's Interior. Two of these international players - Sumitomo Metal Mining and Newmont Mining Corp. - are seeking gold in the Pogo region of the Tintina Gold Belt. Melbourne-based MMG Ltd., on the other hand, is seeking nickel in the Wrangellia Terrane, a promising band of rocks immediately south of the legendary gold... Full story
Mineral exploration spending in Alaska will likely struggle to top US$80 million for 2014, a dramatic fall from the US$365.1 million pinnacle reached in 2011. "The din of mineral industry activity that is normally a part of the summer months in Alaska is decidedly muted this year as the global mining industry attempts to lift itself off the bottom of a plus-18-month-long slump," Avalon Development President Curt Freeman opined in a June column written for Mining News. Unlike 2...
Harlan Meade, Ph.D. is a member of a very exclusive club - professional miners who have shepherded multiple Yukon Territory mines and mining projects through the rough patches of development to production or near-production. First, with Yukon-Zinc Corp.'s currently producing 1,700-metric-ton-per-day Wolverine volcanogenic massive sulfide mine in Southeast Yukon and a few years later, with the giant Selwyn lead-zinc project located in Howard's Pass near Yukon's eastern border with Northwest Territories, Meade harnessed his ext...
To further strengthen neighborly bonds, British Columbia Minister of Mines Bill Bennett met with miners, fishermen, legislators and state regulators during an early November trip to Alaska. "I hope, and I believe, that we will be able to continue to work closely with Alaska on all of the issues that we share," Bennett said during a Nov. 5 presentation at the Alaska Miners Association 2014 Convention. These shared issues are part and parcel of a common border that stretches...
The mining industry has built and sustained communities in British Columbia for more than 150 years and today B.C. is considered a global leader in mining and mineral production. Mining contributes nearly C$7 billion to B.C.'s economy and supports jobs for more than 30,000 people. Well over C$470 million was spent on mineral exploration in 2013, and British Columbia now accounts for almost 20 percent of the total exploration in Canada. Since 2011, five new major mines have opened in B.C.: Copper Mountain near Princeton, New...
Mineral and coal exploration in British Columbia, which peaked at C$680 million in 2012, retreated to roughly C$476 million in 2013. This drop is on par with the roughly 30 percent decrease in exploration expenditures worldwide. The dynamics that led to the decrease - tight capital markets that continue to challenge the ability of junior explorers to raise money, senior miners keeping tight reins on exploration spending and softer gold prices - have remained in play during...
Over the past decade, Seabridge Gold Inc. has outlined 9.9 billion pounds of copper and 38.2 million ounces of gold in reserves at its Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell project in northwestern British Columbia. While the gold reserves are the largest for any yet to be developed project on Earth and the copper reserves are themselves of world-class status, Seabridge believes that the results of exploration in 2014 could surpass all previous years of drilling at the project more...
After ushering in devolution in concert with implementing the first phase of a well-reasoned mineral development strategy, the Northwest Territories is eager to attract new mineral resource investment in 2014 in hopes of building on an uptick in exploration activity in recent years. "The Canadian North is the next frontier in mining and mineral development and nowhere is this more evident than in the NWT," said NWT Industry, Tourism, and Investment Minister David Ramsay. Home to the third-richest diamond resources in the...
Mineral exploration activity is holding its own in Nunavut this year, despite a tough funding environment and stiff competition from other attractive mining jurisdictions around the world. Although the Far North territory has only one operating mine, Meadowbank, at least eight mineral projects are currently hurtling through development and the permitting process on their way to production. Of these, two projects - one gold and one iron - have project certificates, and six projects are progressing through the environmental...
In 2014, many junior exploration companies work to preserve capital by undertaking modest exploration programs. The injection of funding into the Yukon Mineral Exploration Program continues to be a valuable source of seed money for prospectors and juniors. The Government of Yukon increased its 2014 program funding to C$1.4 million from C$1.17 million in 2013. Forty-eight placer and hardrock exploration projects received funding in 2014. The program also has increased its limits from C$35,000 to C$50,000 matching dollars per...
Unlike its neighbors in the North, the Yukon Territory is forecasting a marked increase in exploration in 2014. While well shy of the roughly C$300 million invested in exploration in 2011, the peak of the modern Yukon gold rush, the C$65 million forecast to be invested on exploration in the Yukon during 2014 is roughly a 45 percent leap over last year. This exploration spending is dominated by an aggressive drill program at the Selwyn zinc project, situated in an area of...
HL: NYSE President and CEO: Phillips Baker Jr. Chairman: Ted Crumley Senior VP, Exploration: Dean McDonald Idaho-based Hecla Mining Co. is the largest primary silver producer in the United States and is a growing gold producer. The company operates the Greens Greek silver mine in Southeast Alaska, the Lucky Friday silver mine in Idaho and the Casa Berardi gold mine in Quebec. Hecla planned to invest US$21 million for exploration and pre-development in 2014. This spending is focused primarily at its three operations and San Se... Full story
MRO: TSX.V President and CEO: Gregory Beischer Chief Exploration Officer: Philip St. George Executive Vice President: Sarah Whicker Millrock Resources Inc. identifies and acquires grassroots mineral prospects and then seeks joint venture partners to help fund the exploration. This project generator model lessens the company's need to raise money in the markets, minimizes the risks involved with grassroots exploration and exposes shareholders to a large amount of exploration expenditure per dollar invested. Since its...
HKG: 1208 Chief Executive Officer: Andrew Michelmore Executive General Manager, Exploration: Steve Ryan Principal Geologist, Americas: Katherine Smuk Headquartered in Melbourne and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, MMG Ltd. continues to advance its Izok Corridor and Hood zinc-copper projects in Nunavut and to complete early-stage exploration at its Nikolai nickel project in Alaska. The Izok Corridor project includes the High Lake and Izok volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits. Izok has a mineral resource of 15 million...
NCQ: NYSE/TSX Chairman: Thomas Kaplan President and CEO: Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse Project Manager, Upper Kobuk Mineral Project: Scott Petsel NovaCopper Inc. has nearly reached its preliminary goal of defining 10 billion pounds of high-grade copper at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects, a long-term partnership between NovaCopper and NANA Regional Corp. The alliance combines Bornite and a number of other mineral prospects on NANA-owned lands with the world-class Arctic deposit and dozens of similar volcanogenic massive sulfide...
On the surface, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's endeavor to halt the development of the Pebble Mine in Southwest Alaska has the appearance of a federal agency doing its job - protecting the environment. Pebble developers contend that under this thin but durable veneer lies a secretly crafted plan, not only to stop development of a mine at Pebble, but to lay the groundwork for a larger initiative that would broaden EPA's powers. "It lets EPA zone America - zone...
Yukon Territory, lauded in recent years for its mine-friendly business climate, boast three operating mines coming online in the past seven years as well as strong prospects for more than doubling that number by 2020. Yet all three mines have hit rough patches in their operations in 2014 for distinctly different reasons. "It's been a little bit challenging for each of the producing mines this year," observed Robert Holmes, director of the Mineral Resources Branch of Energy, Mines and Resources in the Government of Yukon in...
Although mineral exploration and development activities continue around the state, year-end total expenditures are beginning to gel, and we are getting an increasingly clear picture of just what sort of year it has been for the Alaska mining industry. For the producing metal mines, gross and net revenue are down over last year, largely due to significant decreases in the spot prices for those metals, with gold down almost 15 percent and silver down almost 25 percent over...
Taseko Mines' Aley project in northern British Columbia is one step closer to diversifying the global supply of niobium, a strategic metal that currently is mined almost exclusively in Brazil. In mid-September, the company provided a broad blueprint for developing a mine at Aley that would produce roughly 9,000 metric tons of niobium per year. In addition to providing a new North American source for niobium, a mine at Aley also would play a role in expanding and diversifying... Full story
The Dene First Nations of Northwest Territories has created what is likely Canada's first 100 percent aboriginal-owned exploration and mining company. Named DemCo Limited Partnership, the startup will celebrate one year in business in October, and is already making its mark in the industry. DemCo's mission is to enable the Dene to become owners of hardrock mines operating on their own lands. The new company is owned by Denendeh Investments Limited Partnership, which has a membership comprised of First Nations from the five...
Results from water sampling show that the immediate environmental impacts of an estimated 14.5 million cubic meters of tailings and water released from a facility at Imperial Metals Corp.'s Mount Polley Mine in central British Columbia are isolated primarily to the area immediately below the breached dam. But the extent of the spill's longer term damage to the reputation of the mining sector in B.C. and beyond rests largely on the response of industry and regulators. Leading... Full story
At the same time as the EPA is pushing forward on its planned precedent-setting, pre-emptive, pre-permit veto of the Pebble project and the tailings dam failure at the Mount Polley mine in British Columbia, former Gold Fields Ltd. Chief Geologist Rael Lipson published an eye-opening summary of where porphyry copper-gold projects like Pebble, Mt. Polley and dozens of others around the world fit into the future of gold production. The article, appearing in the July 2014...
WHITEHORSE, Yukon Territory - Quieter streets, emptier skies, shorter business hours and closed shops here are sure signs of tough times in the mining industry. Hours away by helicopter, one can find bare-bones exploration camps and skeleton staffs sprinkled like the occasional grain of visible gold across remote mountain vistas, which also reflect the return to the frugal times of the past. In the wake of more than two years of scarce capital, mineral exploration activity is a shadow of the booming times the territory...
Indicative of the state of mineral exploration in Alaska, and around the world, no drills are turning at NovaCopper's Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in 2014. Instead, crews crated up 12,918 meters of core from historical drilling at the northern Alaska project and shipped it to Fairbanks where it can more economically be re-logged and readied for re-sampling. At an expected cost of around US$2.7 million, this relatively modest program follows two years of exploration...
With 9.9 billion pounds of copper and 38.2 million ounces of gold in reserves, a provincial environmental certificate in-hand and federal approvals pending, Seabridge Gold is in the final stages of gathering all of the components needed to develop a mine at its Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell project in northwestern British Columbia. Attracting a partner of the same world-class caliber as the deposits that make up the project simply known as KSM and getting that final stamp of...
