The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 476 - 495 of 495
Efforts to build an electricity transmission line critical to economic development of northwestern British Columbia moved closer to reality in 2010. Cheered by the prospect of access to cheap power, scores of miners flocked to the region to re-activate dormant projects and scour the mountainous terrain for new discoveries. The Canadian government allocated C$130 million in funding for construction of the Northwest Transmission Line in September 2009, providing critical funding for the estimated C$404 million needed to build... Full story
Several readers of last month's column were struck by the excessively cynical tone of my admonition that the last person out of Alaska should please turn out the lights. In retrospect, perhaps I was too rash because, in truth, Alaska will continue to be a fertile ground for all manner of relevant and critical activities for as far into the distant future as we are able to see. For instance, although there may continue to be a diminishing military establishment here, even in the total absence of saber-rattling along the... Full story
In the last month, several of Alaska's major metal mines reported strong operating numbers; one company released a preliminary economic assessment and three new mineral exploration companies acquired exploration interests in Alaska. While the functions of explorers and producers are quite different, the symbiotic relationship between the two ends of the mining cycle is unequivocal: exploration would not exist without production and production would eventually cease without...
China, which mines the majority of the global supply of rare earth elements within its borders, has, over recent years, increasingly restricted its exports of the unique minerals to non-China-based production facilities. This trend has continued with a July announcement that the Far East country intends to slash its exports of the high-technology metals by an additional 72 percent. Rare earth minerals are made up of 17 elements including terbium, thulium and yttrium. They are...
Mark Twain once pointedly observed that "no man's life, liberty or property is safe when the Legislature is in session." Certainly, we can all feel much safer when the 90th day of the Alaska Legislature arrives - especially this most recent Legislature, which, fortunately, was prevented from doing too much harm by a split Senate. Nonetheless, there were threats that unresolved issues would be tossed back on the table once again next year. Among the issues that just won't seem to accept perpetual sublimation as its fate is the...
Rare earth elements have become a hot topic among United States policymakers. The growing demand for the unique properties of these metals in "green energy" technology and military applications, coupled with China's monopoly on the rare earth market has lawmakers and the Pentagon investigating the need to stimulate domestic production, manufacture and stockpiling of these elements. A bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., in March has moved the rare earth conversa...
Although there are innumerable differences between any point in the past and the present, modern political activists of all political stripes routinely draw on one half-recalled and poorly understood event or another from the past to "prove" a point. Strict constructionists of the U. S. Constitution gladly leap over 230 years of history to bemoan the way that the President, or Congress or the Judiciary are misconstruing the framers' "intent," while the progressive opposition hastily condemns them as being Nazis. One group cel...
As the active exploration season winds down in Alaska, both good news and bad is afoot and both sets of news turn out to be the same data. Double speak you say? Read on and judge for yourself. Halifax-based Metals Economics Group announced some preliminary numbers relating to worldwide mineral industry exploration for 2009. The group estimates that worldwide exploration spending will drop to US$8.4 billion in 2009, a 40 percent decrease from the US$14 billion spent in 2008.... Full story
Reclamation is a critical element of modern mining and mine planning. In Alaska, companies who wish to extract minerals from the earth must first present a plan on how they propose to return the disturbed land to a reusable state and post financial assurances that they will complete the job. Planning for what the site will look like and be used for begins before any mining is started. The information needed to design a successful reclamation plan is gathered from the...
Advances in high technology, especially the recent drive to produce increasingly efficient hybrid automobiles, is spurring demand for rare earth elements and energizing a little-known mining sector with at least one known Alaska mineral deposit. Thanks to analysts touting the virtues of investing in rare earth mining, two companies, Commerce Resources Corp. and Rare Element Resources Ltd. listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange have seen gains in their stock price of 32 percent and 37 percent, respectively, this spring,...
Australian Mineral Fields believes it is onto a world-class gold discovery in Interior Alaska. The Perth, Australia-based junior considers its innovative exploration techniques, used to uncover high-grade gold deposits in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia, uniquely suited for locating high-grade mineralization at the Tushtena gold project about 20 miles west of Tok. The Western Australia-focused exploration company was not looking to expand its operations to the...
The financial markets haven't been kind to junior mining and exploration stocks lately. During the past six months, five of Alaska's junior explorers have lost more than three-quarters of their average stock values. This decimation of junior stocks is not isolated to companies doing business in Alaska and northern Canada, but sweeps the industry across the board. The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index, which represents about 40 percent of mining companies worldwide, has declined... Full story
Taking into consideration that the planet's second largest porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum resource is located on a plot of land equal to 0.00076 percent of Alaska's total land mass, is being developed under one of the world's most stringent permitting systems, and could help meet the growing demand for copper worldwide; is it irresponsible and unfair to Alaska and its citizens not to develop the Pebble Project? The real question begging for an answer is, "Why not Pebble?"... Full story
Representatives Nick Rahall, D-W.V., and Jim Costa, D-Calif., introduced H.R. 2262, the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007, in the U.S. House of Representatives as a replacement for the 1872 Mining Law. Since the bill passed the House with a vote of 244-166 Nov. 1 it has received criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike. Just before the legislation came up for a vote in the House, the Bush administration issued a statement that the president strongly opposed...
Though environmentalists appear to be fighting to curtail logging in the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska, the stakes are much bigger, according to concerned Alaskans. The battle currently being waged in and out of the courts is actually aimed at stopping all resource development within the 16 million-acre forest, they say. "The opposition to the Tongass is focused on cutting the trees," said Steve Borell, executive director of the Alaska Miners Association. "But as soon as logging is dead, they will refocus on... Full story
An investor attending the Alaska Miners Association convention in Anchorage mentioned that he was listening intently to all the exploration talks because he was looking for the next Full Metal Minerals. In other words, a junior company that breaks out from the bottom of the stockpile, as it were, and builds a reputation for acquiring promising properties and working diligently on them. For Alaskans the rise of Vancouver-based Full Metal is doubly exciting, since all most all of the company's projects are located in the state.... Full story
An ambitious plan by Canadian junior Cash Minerals could bring 1.2 million tonnes of coal per year to Southeast Alaska's Skagway Ore Terminal for export to Pacific Rim markets. Cash has begun talks with the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, the contractual owner of the ore terminal, about the logistics that would be involved in using the facility. The coal would be mined over a 20-year period at Cash's Division Mountain deposit in Yukon. The Skagway Ore Terminal was constructed in the 1960s by the White...
Since the Pebble project began hitting the headlines, Bob Loeffler has been asked some strange questions. People accost the mild-mannered director of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Mining, Land and Water and demand to know why he issued permits for the Pebble project and when it is going to break ground. Loeffler is puzzled, because he hasn't issued any permits for the Pebble project. The developer, Northern Dynasty, won't even submit its permit applications until next year. Loeffler spoke to the Newh...
It's still a few years off, but if NovaGold Resources Inc. turns the Ambler prospect into an operating mine, it could open up a mineral belt with a total of $12 billion in reserves - at 1982 prices. That $12 billion figure comes from a 1982 state report listing 10 major volcano-derived deposits in northwestern Alaska, from the operating Red Dog Mine all the way to the border of Gates of the Arctic National Park. Perhaps the biggest and richest concentration is the Arctic deposit 150 miles east of Kotzebue near the villages...
Despite the fact that winter has arrived over much of Alaska, exploration efforts continued at record pace throughout the state in October. Late summer programs are now competing for people and drills with early winter programs in a number of areas, a problem not normally encountered in Alaska. In a further sign of the strength of the rebound in the metals markets, a number of companies are already tying up people, drills, camp equipment, analytical services and helicopter... Full story
