The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 976 - 1000 of 1467
After two seasons of exploration, Prophecy Platinum Corp. envisioned building a conventional, diesel truck-shovel open pit mine at its 64.5-square-kilometer (25 square miles) Wellgreen Project in southwestern Yukon Territory. The junior released a preliminary economic assessment in 2012 that happily outlined plans for a 32,000-metric-tons-per-day operation with a 37-year of mine life. With initial capital expenditures of C$863 million and an average strip ratio of 2.57:1, the company anticipated producing a suite of highly...
ANCHORAGE - "Mining in Alaska: Build it, keep it, grow it" was the theme of the Alaska Miners Association 2013 Convention, but "screwed by the federal government" was an underlying refrain that permeated conversations from chats over coffee to keynote speeches at the annual gathering. "If there is a poster-child for being screwed by the federal government, Alaska is the one," Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Washington told the mining community during his Nov. 6 opening speech at the convention. The latest in this series of posters...
For those of you that could not attend, the annual Alaska Miners Association Convention and Trade Show was well-attended, with most people pleasantly surprised by the strong turnout. Compared to a year ago, more companies are planning to get back in the field with exploration and development programs in 2014, a sentiment making up one of the few bright spots in a recent IntierraRMG resource sector exploration summary. This report and a similar snapshot of the exploration...
Splayed across several steep slopes that plunge into the Yukon River some 78 kilometers (48.4 miles) south of Dawson City in Yukon Territory, the early-stage QV Project is beginning to answer some geological questions that surfaced at least four years ago. That's when Underworld Resources Inc. captured international attention with the discovery of the Golden Saddle gold deposit on its White Gold Project nearby and touched off a modern-day gold rush to the Yukon. Underworld since has been acquired by Kinross Gold Corp., and th...
The Alaska Miners Association's annual convention marks the changing of seasons for junior exploration companies with mineral projects in Alaska. As a blanket of snow hides outcropping rocks and the water needed for drilling crystalizes, geologists who have spent the long summer days investigating the vast mineral endowment across the Far North trade in their hammers, backpacks and hiking boots for suits, ties and PowerPoint presentations that show off the achievements of their latest field programs. While the 2013...
The ongoing scarcity of venture capital available to junior companies coupled with a retreat in metals prices has landed a one-two blow that sent mineral exploration spending in Alaska plunging for the second straight year. A handful of big-budget projects scattered across Alaska, though, is softening the hit to exploration spending across the Far North State during 2013. Mineral exploration expenditures in Alaska, which were a meager US$23.8 million in 2001, topped US$365...
Led by a petroleum engineer with a 25-year history in the oil and gas industry, Contango ORE Inc., known as Core, may be the most unconventional mineral exploration company working in Alaska. Yet, while most of the company's more orthodox colleagues were unable to raise the venture capital needed to mount significant exploration campaigns during 2013, the Houston, Texas-based junior topped its coffers with a US$14.2 million private placement that closed in March. Core...
Market-defying mineral exploration grabbed the spotlight in British Columbia throughout 2013, despite the doldrums that appeared to set in north of the 60th parallel. "British Columbia is blessed with an abundant supply of the resources the world needs and the most innovative mining and exploration sectors," British Columbia Premier Christy Clark touted the phenomenon at the 2013 Mineral Exploration Roundup in January. Still, Clark told the crowd that she doubted B.C. exploration could top the record C$462 million spent in...
The 6.4 million ounces of low-cost silver recovered from the Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska during 2012 is funding growth aspirations at Hecla Mining Co., including a foray into Canada's mining sector. This growth begins with the first silver production from the Lucky Friday Mine since the Idaho operation was put out of commission for safety and operational upgrades at the end of 2011. With the Idaho operation scaling back up to full capacity in 2013, Hecla is looking...
Northwest Territories continued to benefit in 2013 from a recent surge of exploration interest. A vast expanse of mountains, forests and tundra that is roughly two-thirds the size of Alaska, the territory covers 1.17 million square kilometers (431,162 square miles). "We have, in the North, what the world wants - what emerging markets need," Northwest Territories Premier Robert "Bob" McLeod told an audience at a Prospects North gathering in Yellowknife Sept. 11. "We are the third-largest diamond producer in the world. In...
As NovaCopper Inc. continues to adds to the more than 5.5 billion pounds of copper it has identified at the highly prospective Ambler mining district, the explorer is beginning to formulate a plan to develop the first of three ultra-high-grade deposits in this highly prospective but remote region of Northwest Alaska. The Vancouver B.C.-based junior launched into 2013 with the February release of a maiden NI 43-101-compliant mineral resource estimate for South Reef, one of two...
There is a reason why Nunavut has one of the fastest-growing economies in Canada: mining. With one operating gold mine at Meadowbank, two huge projects on the verge of startup at Hope Bay and Mary River, five projects advancing through the environmental assessment process at Meliadine, Back River, Hackett River, and the Izok corridor as well as exploration activities continuing across all three regions of the territory in 2013, there's little wonder that Nunavut's "time has come." "Mining has the best potential to create...
With roughly C$216.6 million in the bank at the end of the third quarter, Novagold Resources Inc. is well-positioned to complete permitting at its Donlin Gold project in Alaska and continue exploration at its Galore Creek copper-gold project in British Columbia. "These are turbulent times in the business, but we have got the cash to see us through the permitting," Novagold President Greg Lang told attendees at the Denver Gold Forum. Ahead of the financial tempest that is battering most of the titanic gold producers and...
In 2013, the mineral industry globally has been buffeted by financial challenges. Development infrastructure has seen major cost increases. Multinational corporations have had major write-downs of assets associated with falling mineral prices. Junior exploration companies have not been able to raise venture capital for funding projects as investors appear to be shying away from what is seen as a risk investment. Yukon was not exempt from these challenges. Most exploration programs were downscaled with emphasis on lower-cost...
Asubstantial amount of exploration activity continued apace in Yukon Territory this season despite the truncated budgets that forced most mining companies to juggle their projects and priorities. Some exploration companies found creative ways to raise capital, turning out their pockets to return to Yukon in 2013 to explore for Carlin-style gold mineralization in the east-central region of the territory, for more gold-bearing structures in the White Gold and Klondike districts to the west and for other styles and types of...
MRO: TSX-V President and CEO: Gregory Beischer Chief Exploration Officer: Philip St. George Chief Operating Officer: Sarah Whicker Millrock Resources Inc., which has become one of the one of the more prolific Alaska exploration companies since adopting the project generator model in 2009, is tightening its belt in 2013. As a project generator, Millrock relies on joint venture partners to do most of the heavy financial lifting on its portfolio of properties in Alaska and Arizona. This model diminishes the company's need to rai...
NKL: TSX-V President and CEO: Greg Johnson Senior Vice President and COO: John Sagman Project Manager: Neil Froc During the year ended March 31, 2013, Prophecy Platinum spent C$7.2 million on exploration at the Wellgreen property in southwestern Yukon Territory that was principally focused on drilling and resource determination followed by preliminary economic assessment work programs. The company's 2013 Wellgreen exploration program has been designed to support and maximize the results of a revised PEA and updated mineral...
SEA:TSX SA: NYSE-A Chairman and CEO: Rudi Fronk President: Jay Layman Senior Vice President, Exploration: William Threlkeld Seabridge Gold Inc. is focused on further advancing its KSM (Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell) Project near Stewart, B.C., and its Courageous Lake Project in the Slave Province of Northwest Territories, two of its eight advanced-stage gold projects in North America. At KSM, Seabridge launched its 2013 drilling program in late May, following-up on the high-grade copper-gold zone discovered in 2012 below the Kerr...
As I write this summary, the annual Alaska Miners Association Convention and Trade Show is right around the corner (Nov. 6-8). Despite the softening commodities prices and generally bearish sentiment expressed by the mining industry throughout the year, in the past month or so, I have seen a refreshing resurgence of that single-most important quality of the Alaska mining industry - optimism! Despite bankruptcies, mine closures, negative feasibility studies and the exodus from...
With nearly five exploration seasons under its belt, Kaminak Gold Corp.'s Coffee Gold Project appears to be on the road to delivering on its potential as an emerging district-scale mining opportunity. Located in the White Gold district of west-central Yukon Territory, Coffee was optioned by Kaminak in 2009 from Yukon prospector Shawn Ryan. The company has explored the property every year since, and reported discovery of at least 11 gold zones. Kaminak CEO Eira Thomas said the fine-grained gold mineralization found at Coffee,...
From Kotzebue to Ketchikan, Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority is using its financial muscle and its ability to build and operate large infrastructure projects to help mining companies overcome the challenges of developing the often remote mineral riches that the Last Frontier has to offer. "We are working with local communities and mine developers on infrastructure projects throughout Alaska, including port facilities and energy supply," said AIDEA external...
Having enjoyed one of the warmest and driest summers on record, most of Alaska is now paying the piper as unseasonably cold and in many areas, snowy, weather takes hold of the state. With the termination dust come news that is both good and bad, a common theme in what is turning out to be a year of significant cutbacks for exploration, development and production plans. Earlier in 2013, I summarized the expected decrease in exploration expenditures this year. Now that the bulk...
An exploration gamble undertaken in southern Nunavut in late 2010 by Northquest Ltd. is proving to be a good bet. The Toronto-based junior Sept. 4 reported results from three holes drilled in the Vickers Target on the Pistol Bay Gold Project in Nunavut, including 158.4 meters averaging 3.46 grams per metric ton gold from 9.95 meters depth in hole PB-13-03. Two intervals of high-grade mineralization were encountered including 16 meters averaging 9.47 g/t gold at 17.51 meters depth and 18 meters averaging 11.33 g/t gold at...
A new preliminary economic assessment has stripped away the idea of underground mining as the only means to recover the copper, zinc, lead, silver and gold from the volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit at the Arctic deposit. Instead, the scoping study has encouraged NovaCopper Inc. to favor an open-pit mine scenario as it advances the Northwest Alaska project towards a pre-feasibility study. "We think this (PEA) demonstrates that the open-pit is a viable alternative; and I...
A substantial amount of mining activity continued apace in Yukon Territory this season even though most mining companies are shying away from the anorexic capital markets. Many exploration companies raised funds in other ways, turning out their pockets to return to Yukon in 2013 to explore for Carlin-style gold mineralization in the east-central region of the territory, for more gold-bearing structures in the White Gold and Klondike districts to the west and for other styles and types of mineralization elsewhere in the territ...
