The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 751 - 775 of 922
From the enormous Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project to grassroots gold and copper discoveries, the Kahiltna Terrane of Southwest Alaska is becoming a hot destination for mining companies seeking the mineral wealth of this rugged and underexplored region. The Kahiltna assemblage was formed when an arc of islands known as Wrangellia thrust up the ocean floor as it collided with North America. This bulldozed seabed created much of the spectacular mountains of the Alaska...
Heatherdale Resources Ltd., a subsidiary of Hunter Dickinson Inc., is living up to its pledge to aggressively explore the Niblack copper-gold-silver-zinc project on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. Some 18,000 meters of drilling completed by the junior over the past year traced nearly 1,000 meters of precious metal-rich volcanic massive sulfide mineralization under Lookout Mountain. Heatherdale optioned the project from CBR Gold Corp. (now Niblack Mineral...
Two seminal events related to the Alaska mining industry occurred in the past month. First, in late June, Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. reported the commencement of production at it Kensington gold mine near Juneau. The mine has now joined the ranks of large-scale producers here in Alaska but only after lots of years and lots of dollars, capped by a trip to the U.S. Supreme Court! Hat's off to Coeur for its commitment to Alaska and for its desire to do this job right. Secondly,...
FORTYMILE - The storm clouds responsible for the torrential rains that recently washed away long sections of the Taylor Highway are not the only source of rumbling in the Fortymile region of eastern Interior Alaska. Full Metal Minerals Ltd. has launched the Rolling Thunder Project here this summer. The staking and exploration initiative is targeting the lode source of more than half a million ounces of placer gold recovered historically from the streams draining the rolling...
As the long-awaited summer solstice comes and goes, Alaska's mining industry is deep in the midst of its summer exploration, development and production programs. Mineral exploration programs are under way from far Southeast Alaska to the Brooks Range, from eastern Interior Alaska to the Seward Peninsula. The commodities being explored for, developed and mined are equally diverse and include gold, silver, copper, nickel, lead, zinc, platinum and palladium. Two new exploration...
Corvus Gold Inc., a Vancouver B.C.-based junior company being formed to explore International Tower Hill Ltd.'s early stage properties, will initially hold four projects in Alaska and the North Bullfrog project in Nevada. Under the terms of the proposed transaction, Tower Hill will retain all assets relating to the Livengood gold project in Alaska and about C$41 million in working capital. Corvus will get the five properties and about C$3 million in cash. The spin-out...
As Alaska's mining industry moves into the frenetic summer exploration and development season, the rest of the world is being buffeted by wild financial and commodity "mood swings" that are affecting the metals markets. The big markets shake the little markets and the little markets shake Alaska. Perfect example: the World Gold Council recently reported that China's growing middle class is expected to double its demand for gold for jewelry and investment purposes over the...
Eager to discover whether Rio Tinto Ltd. subsidiary Kennecott Exploration Inc. will exercise its right to buy back a 60 percent stake in the Whistler gold-copper project, Kiska Metals Corp. has launched a 15-hole drill campaign and corresponding 3-D-induced polarization survey to explore the larger potential of the 173-square-mile, or 448-square-kilometer, central Alaska property. The largest portion of the drill program, which began in mid-March, is testing targets within...
LIVENGOOD - International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. is rising to the challenges posed by Interior Alaska's sub-zero temperatures in successfully conducting a winter drill program here. The explorer completed more than 30 holes since it kicked off 20,000 meters of drilling at the Livengood gold project about 70 miles, or 110 kilometers, north of Fairbanks in early February. The company attributes the success of its winter campaign to the drill crews, an established camp and...
Kinross Gold Corp. is making good on its promise to return to Canada. The gold producer entered into a definitive agreement with Underworld Resources Inc. March 16 to acquire 100 percent of the junior's outstanding common shares not already owned by Kinross for stock and cash valued at C$139.2 million. Kinross already owns 8.5 percent of Underworld's shares (on a fully-diluted basis). Underworld is the owner of the highly prospective White Gold property, which hosts a substantial new gold discovery 95 kilometers south of...
The Alaska Miners Association recently released an economic benefits summary of the Alaska mining industry. This summary indicated that in 2009 the Alaska mining industry provided 3,300 direct jobs along with 5,200 indirect jobs in 120 communities in Alaska with a combined payroll of US$320 million. Average industry jobs came in at US$83,000 per year, which is 85 percent higher than the average Alaska wage and second only to wages in the oil and gas industry. The industry...
Geologically, Alaska is a terrane wreck, with multiple tectonic plates dumping their mineral payloads over the landscape. Geologists are still sifting through the wreckage in many places across the state to determine which mineral deposits were dumped by which terranes and when - a task not always easily accomplished as pileups have resulted, in many cases, from multiple mineralization events happening in the same geographical regions over time. A terrane is a series of...
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...
Although commodities prices have improved for the mining industry over the past year, 2009 has been the kind of year most of us hope not to repeat. The best analogy I can come up with is the one that says "All boats rise and fall with the tide." Under this scenario, company fortunes fell as the general market declined. Unfortunately, not all boats (companies) rise when the tide goes back up. Some get holed on the rocks of economic misfortune and remain on the bottom....
Heatherdale Resources Ltd., the Hunter Dickinson subsidiary that joined forces with CBR Gold Corp. on the Niblack project, plans an aggressive exploration campaign at the copper-gold-silver-zinc project on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. "One of the hallmarks of a Hunter Dickinson program is that when we get involved with a project where the project warrants an aggressive, substantial program to move the project forward quickly and aggressively, but obviously...
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...
Hecla Mining Co. has repaid the US$380 million it borrowed to buy out Rio Tinto plc's 70.3 percent interest in the Greens Creek Mine. The purchase, which gave the Idaho-based miner 100 percent interest in the Southeast Alaska silver mine, nearly proved to be the company's undoing. "It was frankly a near-death experience for the company," Hecla Vice President of Corporate Development Don Poirier told an audience at the Alaska Miners Association 2009 annual convention Nov. 5....
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...
International Tower Hill Mines Ltd.'s Livengood gold project can best be compared to the proverbial snowball. As positive drill results continued to roll in so did investment cash, in turn funding an evermore expansive exploration program that has revealed a multimillion-ounce gold resource lying in the shadow of the appropriately named Money Knob. Raising about C$37 million in 2009, the explorer increased its 2009 drill program at Livengood from 16,000-meters at the onset of...
Consolidating its name to CBR Gold Corp. and its shares on a 5-to-1 basis, 2009 was a transitional year for the Vancouver B.C.-based junior formerly known as Committee Bay Resources Ltd. With the transition complete in February, CBR Gold management began brainstorming for the best approach to move forward at its two advanced exploration projects in North America; the Niblack gold-copper rich volcanogenic massive sulfide prospect on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska,...
Recession, what recession? That could have been the cry of some gold exploration companies in Yukon Territory in 2009. Thanks to several very impressive gold discoveries in 2008 at a time of unprecedented highs in gold prices, momentum lost in other sectors of Canadian mineral exploration seemed to hardly touch the gold-rich hills of this mining-friendly jurisdiction. Some 63 companies started 2009 with planned exploration programs in Yukon, but before all was said and done, a horde of additional gold seekers poured into the...
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. President and CEO Garfield MacVeigh and the Vancouver B.C.-based junior's Vice President of Exploration Darwin Green returned to Southeast Alaska in 2009 to explore the Palmer project. A copper-rich deposit found in the same belt of late-Triassic volcanic massive sulfide that hosts the precious-metal-rich Greens Creek Mine to the south and the enormous copper-laden Windy Craggy deposit about 35 miles to the northwest. Raising C$3 million in...
Kiska Metals Corp. emerged on the Alaska exploration scene as the result of a merger between Geoinformatics Exploration Inc. and Rimfire Minerals Corp. The amalgamated company has a portfolio of ten precious metal properties including its flagship Whistler gold-copper project located 150 kilometers, or 92 miles, northwest of Anchorage, Alaska. Kiska will be led by the current Rimfire management team, including President and CEO Jason Weber and Mark Baknes, vice president,...
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...
After spending $750 million to buy out Rio Tinto's 70.27 percent interest in the Greens Creek Mine in April 2008 and then watching base metal prices plummet, Hecla Mining Co. chose to be prudent in its 2009 exploration of the zinc-rich silver mine. Though restrained, the Idaho-based silver miner's US$3.4 million exploration budget for Greens Creek continued the tradition of replenishing the reserves currently being mined as well as drilling a contact zone that could become a...
