The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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About face; forward; march! The U.S. Department of Defense recently issued this order in the field of rare earth elements. The unique properties of REEs - a group of 17 previously obscure metals that include scandium, yttrium and the 15 lanthanides - are key ingredients in a number of military applications such as guided missiles, lasers, radar systems, night vision equipment and battlefield communications. China is estimated to supply between 90 and 95 percent of the world's...
Ucore Rare Metals Inc. has field programs underway at both the Bokan-Dotson Ridge rare earth elements project in Southeast Alaska and its Ray Mountain REE-tin project in the Interior region of the state. Work at Bokan Mountain is focused on collecting the last bits of information needed to complete a plan of operation that can be submitted for permitting and finalize a feasibility study scheduled for delivery in 2015. As a potential domestic source of a suite of heavy rare...
A coalition of 38 companies and organizations, representing a broad spectrum of America's economy, is urging lawmakers on Capitol Hill to dust off pending critical minerals legislation and send a version to the White House for President Barack Obama's signature. "Updating our geologic data, reducing delays in permitting, bolstering research, and encouraging efficient use can pay dividends for future generations," explains the group pressing for critical minerals legislation....
Geo-political differences aside, the challenges facing those involved in mineral development in the North are remarkably similar. Whether lack of infrastructure, scarcity of skilled labor, or negative perceptions of mining, northern jurisdictions from Alaska to Greenland grapple daily with same aspects of issues created by their location in the Arctic. This uniformity of concerns brought together about 150 participants in the inaugural Northern Regions Mining Summit in Vancouver May 28-30. Facilitated by Alaska's Institute...
At the recent Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada meeting in Toronto, Dr. Richard Schodde, managing director of MinEx Consulting, presented some key factors which affect the time span between a mineral discovery and start-up of commercial mining. The study reviewed about 3,500 nonferrous metal deposits discovered between 1950 and 2013. Dr. Schodde's findings suggest that only 45 percent of all discoveries made since 1950 have turned into mines. The rate is...
The Bokan Mountain and Niblack mineral projects are attracting substantial support from Alaska lawmakers. This vote of confidence may result in a financial boost needed to develop the Prince of Wales Island deposits into mines during an otherwise tight financial market. "In southern Southeast (Alaska), we are working on legislation right now to create hundreds of new jobs at Niblack and Bokan," Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell said during an April 10 keynote address at the Arctic Inte...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said its Bristol Bay assessment provides evidence that the Pebble copper project is too big and the Bristol Bay watershed is too special to risk the outcome of a state and federal permitting process. To circumvent permitting under the National Environmental Policy Act, a rigorous permitting regime over which EPA holds great sway, the environmental regulator Feb.28 initiated a review under Section 404(c) of the federal Clean Water Act...
If you believe what you see in the press, Alaska's mineral industry was recently given a Christmas gift that trumps even the high-grade anthracite coal that most Alaskans were dreaming of during the last 40-below cold snap. The Alaska Dispatch reported on a recent presentation at the fall 2013 meeting of the American Geophysical Union titled, "Critical Metals in Western Arctic Ocean Ferromanganese Mineral Deposits," by James Hein, a senior scientist at the U.S. Geological...
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...
It's been deceptively quiet - with a few notable exceptions - within Alaska's minerals sector this year. Thanks to low metals prices and risk-averse investors, we haven't seen much new mineral exploration in Alaska in 2013. That's after a series of gangbuster years - 2011 set a record for investment in mineral exploration in Alaska. But at the Department of Natural Resources, we remain very bullish on the magnitude of Alaska's exploration potential and the future of Alaska's minerals sector. And we are working hard to make...
A growing number of Lower 48 lawmakers are weighing in on the potential risks and rewards of building a mine at the enormous Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum deposit in Southwest Alaska, shifting the frontline of the escalating battle to Washington D.C. With the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seemingly positioning itself to exercise unprecedented powers to halt the Pebble project without giving developers the opportunity to have their plans vetted under the current permitti...
A US$22 million option and joint venture agreement forged with Dowa Metals & Mining Co., Ltd. earlier this year is providing Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. with the ability to resume the expansion of a high-grade volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit at its Palmer project in Southeast Alaska. In addition to a cash infusion during tight financial markets, Dowa brings 130 years of experience in the mining and smelting of VMS ores to its newly forged partnership at Palmer....
The 28th Alaska Legislature has forwarded a slew of bills to the desk of Gov. Sean Parnell that are aimed at recognizing the Last Frontier's rich mining history and ensuring the industry is a key component of the state's economic future. Senate Bill 1, which designates May 10 of every year as Alaska Mining Day, was the first of these to garner Parnell's endorsement. May 10 was chosen to coincide with the day the General Mining Act of the United States was adopted in 1872....
The right size operation, recovering the right rare earth elements in the right location; this is how market experts and policymakers are describing Ucore Rare Metals' Bokan Mountain REE project in Southeast Alaska. In a March 9 article, "The Rare Earth Space, 'A Culling of the Herd, and the Survivors' (Part 1: North America)," pre-eminent technology metals expert Jack Lifton said Ucore and its Bokan Mountain project has the right elements to survive "the Darwinian nature of...
Trepidation over scarce venture capital tempered the inherent ability of mineral explorers to envision the prospectivity of what lies over the horizon, resulting in an aura of guarded optimism during the 2013 Mineral Exploration Roundup, held Jan. 28-31 in Vancouver, B.C. Teck Resources Ltd. President and CEO Don Lindsay addressed the anxiety and resilience of the explorers and miners attending the annual gathering. "The mining industry is all about a license to dream," Lindsa...
FAIRBANKS - In contrast to the geology, geochemistry and geophysics that dominates discussions at most mining conventions, geopolitics grabbed the limelight at the 2012 Alaska Strategic and Critical Minerals Summit held in Fairbanks Nov. 30. "Countries that control a given element have a way to leverage businesses to come to those countries. They have a way of demanding there are technology transfers," American Elements President Michael Silver informed the more than 200...
Mining, by definition, is an environmentally invasive practice of digging holes in the earth to extract the minerals found therein. This reality, coupled with a historical legacy of leaving unsightly scars that ooze metal-laden acidic waters, has given the modern mining industry a figurative black eye. Champions of today's extraction sector, however, see the strategic resources that are critical to national security, a strong economy and the development of a green energy...
A recent letter distributed to the minerals industry by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys and the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development's Division of Economic Development is seeking faster and more efficient ways to gather, collate and publish Alaska's Annual Minerals Industry Report. The agencies are looking for feedback regarding what items the industry thinks is important to retain in the report, what items are not in the report that should be...
The state of Alaska is a strong supporter of continued investment, responsible development and growth in our minerals industry. We recognize the key role the state plays in its minerals sector. We have an enormous endowment of minerals such as gold, zinc, copper, lead, silver and coal on state lands and can support job creation and economic growth in entire regions of the state by responsibly developing our natural resources. We are working hard to make Alaska a place where miners want to explore, invest and do business....
With its sights set on gold, Contango Ore Inc. raised US$8.8 million in March to fund a US$6.75 million exploration program on its Alaska projects during the 2012 field season - the bulk of which was spent on a second-year drill program at the Tetlin gold-copper project about 12 miles (19 kilometers) southeast of the crossroads town of Tok. The Houston, Texas-based explorer, known as CORE, is an Alaska-focused mineral spinout from Contango Oil & Gas Co., an exploration and...
Over the past six months, the single-most common question I have gotten asked about Alaska's mineral industry is, "Have there been any significant new discoveries?" While there may be an as-yet unannounced new discovery in Alaska, it seems the above question is being asked more frequently in other parts of the world as well and the most common answer is a simple "no." While information on new discoveries in other sectors of the mining industry is out there, it's not as...
Access to critical minerals and metals is vital to America's military strength and economic health. As we move further forward into the technology age, we need a range of non-fuel minerals - from antimony to zinc - for defense technologies that protect the homeland and project American power abroad. These same minerals and metals underpin our manufacturing sector too, and the cost of raw materials impacts everything from productivity and innovation to economic growth and job creation. Without smarter policies that increase...
An employment forecast published by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development in October pegged the state's mining sector job growth from 2010 to 2020 at 19 percent. That is second only to health care, at 31 percent, and outpacing the 12 percent average growth across all Alaska industries. Expansion of current operations coupled with prospects of building mines at the world-class Livengood and Donlin gold deposits were cited as drivers behind adding new miners t...
Ucore Rare Metals Inc. has two things the Pentagon wants - heavy rare earths and state-of-the-art technology to extract these strategic elements from the ore. The almost magical properties of REEs - a group of 17 previously obscure metals that include scandium, yttrium and the 15 lanthanide elements on the periodic table - make them an essential ingredient to a number of avant-garde military applications such as drones, lasers, radar systems and night vision equipment. The...
Location, location, location," the old adage goes, summing up the opportunities and challenges faced by the real estate industry. Well, "infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure," can offer the same insights into the problems of modern mining in remote jurisdictions like Yukon Territory. The relative scarcity of roads, bridges, airports, power and other infrastructure in the Yukon is critical to the outlook for mining, and in many cases, the presence or lack of these important components can spell the difference between...
