The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 351 - 375 of 395
Bankers, miners and scientists are predicting a shortage of copper in the coming decade as developing countries, particularly China and India, urbanize and industrialize. This growing need has spurred Barclays Capital, the investment division of the London-based Barclays Bank plc, to back a team of top-level copper miners who are scouring the globe for large, undeveloped copper assets. Barclays Natural Resource Investments and five former top executives from Phelps Dodge, Free...
As we plunge headlong into a new year and a new decade, the broad economic indicators for the mining industry suggest continued strong prices for most commodities in 2010 followed by slightly lower average prices in 2011 and beyond as supplies catch up to demand. Not surprisingly, the source of much of the commodities demand will be Asia with China and India being the two leading economic engines driving commodity prices. Where Alaska's mining industry fits into this global...
The prospector who discovered the highly promising White Gold property near Dawson City, Yukon Territory says he believes the future is beyond bright for the region - it's blazing. Shawn Ryan, a self-taught mineral hunter who has spent the past 12 years tramping the Klondike bush and adjacent areas, is being honored by the Association for Mineral Exploration in British Columbia at its annual Mineral Exploration Roundup Jan. 18-21. AMEBC is singling out Ryan as the 2009 recipient of the coveted H.H. "Spud" Huestis Award for ex...
WHITEHORSE - Since the Klondike Gold Rush when tens of thousands of fortune-seekers stampeded to this northern land looking for gold, the mining industry has been the backbone of Yukon Territory's economy, Yukon government leaders said during their opening remarks at the 37th annual Yukon Geoscience Forum Nov. 23. "Mining, of course, is the cornerstone of the Yukon economy," said Yukon Premier Dennis Fentie. "The mineral industry has provided many opportunities for Yukoners hi...
Metals markets continue to climb out of the basement as the world demand for metals resumes its upward trend. Fueled by this growing demand, numerous Alaska precious, base and rare metal projects reported results of their 2009 exploration, development and production programs. The recent Alaska Miners Association Convention in Anchorage felt this surge of interest with the highest attendance in more than a decade. The atmosphere at the conference was charged with optimism, a co...
Kaminak Gold Corp. is one of the frontrunners in the exploration rush sparked by Underworld Resources Inc.'s recent gold discovery in the White District of Yukon Territory. In less than six months, the junior mining company has acquired and explored claims that offer as much promise initially as Underworld's White Gold Project did in its first season of exploration. Kaminak is primarily a prospect generator with a successful business model that targets discovery-stage projects with strong exploration potential for strategic c...
With its sights set on becoming one of North America's newest junior gold producers, Harmony Gold Corp. has entered into a joint venture agreement with Full Metal Minerals Ltd. on that company's high-grade Lucky Shot gold property, about 145 kilometers, or 90 miles, north of Anchorage. Vancouver B.C.-based Harmony Gold has the opportunity to earn a 60 percent stake in the high-grade gold project as it works toward putting the historic mine back into production. During a Nov....
Nunavut was created on April 1, 1999. The new territory and the public government, in which I am proud to be the Minister of Mines, was created as part of the largest aboriginal land claims settlement in Canadian history. The signing of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement in 1993 marked a historic agreement between the Inuit of Canada's eastern Arctic and Canada. One of the key outcomes of that agreement was the creation of a new territory for all the people of Nunavut. This is a large territory. It is three times the size of...
Mineral-rich Nunavut Territory celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2009 and mining explorers seeking diamonds and precious and base metals brought their drills to the party. The territory, home to only 31,000 people living in 25 small, scattered communities, covers 1.9 million square kilometers, or one fifth the land mass of Canada and dwarfs Alaska by nearly 200,000 square miles. Of the young territory's economic prospects, mineral resource development offers perhaps the most long-term potential. "When I started work in...
Most of the mining companies looking for minerals in northern British Columbia ushered in 2009 with high hopes and little else. "It's a perfect storm. The credit crunch in the world financial system has led to a worldwide recession and a collapse in commodity prices. In equities, there is nowhere to hide. Financing has become expensive and difficult to get. I have never seen more difficult conditions for junior resource companies in my entire career," said Hard Creek Nickel Corp. President and CEO Mark Jarvis in describing...
Decade Resources Inc.'s decision to option up to 80 percent of the Red Cliff property in the Stewart Mining Region last November is shaping up to be one of the best exploration plays in 2009 in northwestern British Columbia. The Vancouver, B.C.-based miner reported discovering a 28.4-meter interval of gold mineralization grading 7.3 grams per metric ton gold in September and followed up with more favorable drill results in October. The news has sparked a mini-staking rush with at least a half-dozen juniors scrambling in...
Thanks to one junior's report of encountering substantial gold mineralization this season near the old Red Cliff Mine in Northwest British Columbia's Stewart Mining District, a gaggle of excited juniors are grabbing up mineral claims and leases in the area. The small but growing stampede to Stewart surfaced in September after Decade Resources Inc. released assay results from the first few holes drilled in its 2009 exploration program. Vancouver, B.C.-based Decade reported intersecting 28.4 meters grading 7.3 grams per metric...
The hunt for gold launched by Underworld Resources Inc. more than a year ago in Yukon Territory's Dawson Mining District is yielding more encouraging results for the junior at its White Gold Project. Meanwhile, other mining companies, including Anglo Canadian Uranium Corp., Aldrin Resource Corp., Radius Gold Inc. and Habanero Resources Inc., are rushing to get in on the action, staking more than 6,000 new placer and quartz claims in the Dawson area since April 1. Underworld reported discovery of more than 100 meters of...
Seabridge Gold Inc. is inching closer to production of one of the world's five-largest undeveloped gold deposits, the KSM Project located in the Iskut-Stikine region about 65 kilometers, or 40 miles, northwest of Stewart, B.C. The aggressive junior envisions building a huge open-pit copper-gold mine in this highly prolific mountainous terrain, known as the "Golden Triangle" of northern British Columbia. Toronto-based Seabridge has pursued development of the project, which also boasts significant silver and molybdenum resource...
As mineral-rich Nunavut Territory celebrates its 10th anniversary, Canadians and others are assessing changes made in the past decade and debating what the future will hold for Canada's newest territory. Nunavut, which means "our land," is a vast, frozen expanse of tundra laced with lakes, inlets and bays in the eastern Arctic. Spanning three time zones, it covers 1.9 million square kilometers, or one fifth the land mass of Canada. It also dwarfs Alaska by nearly 200,000 square miles. The territory is home to only 31,000...
TORONTO - For a first-timer, attending the 77th Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada annual International Convention, Trade Show and Investors Exchange overwhelmed, teased, tantalized and downright exhausted. Though folks remarked that convention attendance seemed down from the record-breaking levels of recent years, one couldn't discern any slackening in the steady streams of dark-suited conventioneers pouring onto the escalators in the multistoried convention hall, or crowding into meeting rooms at neighboring...
The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada is set to recognize Richard Garnett and NovaGold Resources Inc. for their role in the discovery and exploration of the multimillion-ounce Donlin Creek gold deposit in Southwest Alaska. The Thayer Lindsley Award for an international mineral discovery will be presented to the explorers March 2 at the organization's 2009 International Convention, Trade Show and Investors Exchange. This annual award, which honors the memory of...
The discovery story of the multimillion-ounce gold deposit at Donlin Creek began in 1909 when prospectors rushed through the region following news that gold had been discovered on the George River about 50 miles to the southwest. For the next 25 years, hand and hydraulic placer mining continued on Donlin Creek in Southwest Alaska. In 1941 Robert Lyman started the modern era of placer mining on Donlin Creek. Signing away his entire winter salary, the hardworking miner put a...
Despite the strong price and increasing investment surge for gold, Gold Fields Mineral Services reported in it's Gold Survey 2008 summary that global gold mine production dropped 4 percent in 2008 to reach its lowest level since 1995. Australia, Indonesia and South Africa experienced the most significant declines in production with Mexico and Russia seeing increases in production. South African production plummeted by an estimated 14 percent, the sharpest percentage fall...
Though plummeting metals prices and fading investor confidence have hammered the mining sector this year, the Northwest Mining Association's 114th annual meeting in Reno, Nevada, Dec. 1 - 5 drew more than 2,000 attendees, a crowd the yearly gathering has not seen in more than a decade. Miners and others attending the NWMA meeting said the economy and its impact on the mining industry is their primary concern. The meeting's two luncheon speakers echoed that concern in discussin...
Alaska's mineral industry set a new spending record of about $4 billion in 2007, up 13.3 percent from the value of the industry's expenditures in 2006, according to an 89-page report released Nov. 5 by the Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys and the Office of Economic Development. The industry's reported value, according to DGGS, is calculated by combining the amount spent on exploration and development with the production value of mines in Alaska. While 2007 was a...
10 is 90 percent over. As we approach the calendar change and the other mid-winter holidays, it is reasonable to reflect and prognosticate. Eight short years ago, we were on the dawn of a new era. Republicans controlled the White House, both houses of Congress, Alaska's governor's mansion and both houses of our state Legislature. The stars were perfectly aligned. It was a time for celebration because the dark decade was past and resource development in Alaska, most...
A decade after first kicking rocks around the Palmer Project, Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. President and CEO Garfield MacVeigh and Constantine's new Vice President of Exploration Darwin Green have reunited to uncover what they hope will be a mammoth in a land of elephants. According to Mac Veigh, Constantine was formed to explore the Palmer volcanic massive sulfide property when the company was incorporated in March 2006. The Palmer Project, located about 35 miles northwes...
The national sucking sound of venture capital exiting the mining industry has now expanded to a worldwide sucking sound as virtually all of the world's economies fight the massive, unprecedented credit crunch which started in the U.S. The mining industry is certainly not alone in feeling the down turn but its effects in Alaska began to be felt last month and continued this month as projects were shortened, plans down-sized or programs cancelled, all in an effort to preserve...
For those of you who could not attend the Alaska Miners Association convention in Anchorage in early November, you missed what I understand was a record attendance and presentations on some of the most exciting mining developments in the last decade. In addition, I noticed a lot more business being conducted around the conference hotel than is normally the case. Geologists and engineers from companies large and small could be seen hunkered down over reports and maps with...
