The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 826 - 850 of 922
Full Metal Minerals Corp. May 15 said it signed an exploration agreement with an option to purchase 100 percent interest in the Granite Creek Gold Property in southwestern Alaska. The Vancouver, B.C.-based junior said it can earn 100 percent interest in the Granite Creek property from a third-party Alaska resident by paying $375,000 in cash ($50,000 first year), and incurring $3.25 million in exploration expenditures ($200,000 first year). After exercising the option, Full Metal said it will make annual $150,000 advance royal...
After decades of doggedly chasing the legendary allure of the gold-rich Chandalar District northern Alaska, Little Squaw Gold Mining Co. is showing signs of closing in on its recent goals. The Spokane, Wash.-based junior changed its name in May to Goldrich Mining Co. It also released findings April 30 from an independent, conceptual economic scoping study of its alluvial gold deposit discovery in the Little Squaw Creek drainage on the property. Goldrich controls key acreage in the Chandalar district, which is about 190 air... Full story
International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. May 13 said the results from a recent high resolution airborne magnetic and EM survey completed over 30 square kilometers of mineralized areas of the company's BMP project in central Alaska show huge anomalies that warrant aggressive follow-up exploration. A day earlier the Vancouver, B.C.-based junior announced the start of resource expansion drilling at the Livengood Gold Project 100 kilometers, or 60 miles, north of Fairbanks. The company plans to drill about 42,000 meters, 136,500... Full story
Nearly eight months into a concentrated digging program in Southeast Alaska, Niblack Mining Corp. has bored more than 2,200 feet into a mountain on Prince of Wales Island in a plan to create a 3,000-foot main access tunnel to the underground Niblack gold-silver-copper-zinc volcanic massive sulfide deposit. The tunneling program has been the primary focus of the Vancouver, B.C.-based junior since it began digging in September. The portal is located just above the Mammoth Zone... Full story
Last month's perfect storm of news from around the state has blown itself out so that this month we are getting only a drizzle or two. Why? Seems straightforward to me. If you have a budget, you already have started working on it, and you are too busy working to have anything much to report. If you don't have a budget yet, it is unlikely that you will be getting one at this late date so you have even less to say. Time to put boots on the outcrops! Western Alaska NovaGold... Full story
Millrock Resources Inc. has added four significant Alaska gold properties to its portfolio in preparation for substantial exploration in 2008. Millrock is currently working on its 2008 exploration budget, but early estimates are that the company will spend between $3 million and $4 million on its Alaska properties this year. The bulk of the budget will be applied to exploration at the Ketchem, Estelle and Divide properties, Millrock President Greg Beischer told Mining News...
After purchasing a 50 percent interest in the Lik in Northwest Alaska last year, Zazu Metals Corp. has begun to explore the zinc-lead-silver-rich property. In 2007, the Vancouver, B.C.-based junior drilled 1,400 meters in 11 holes with the intention of confirming 26,200 meters of historic drilling completed on the property. Lik is located about 22 kilometers, or 14 miles, northeast of the Red Dog Mine, the world's largest zinc mine. Teck Cominco Ltd., operator of the Red Dog...
Tonogold Resources Inc., in hopes of drawing attention to its search for an Alaska partner, released a geology, geochemistry and drilling report April 17 that covers exploration from 2005 to 2007 of its Nyac Porphyry Gold Project in southwestern Alaska. The Nyac property consists of 57,600 acres and is located at the western end of the Alaska-Yukon Tintina Gold Belt on lands owned by Calista Corp, the Alaska Native regional corporation for the Yukon-Kuskokwim region. Tonogold leases the Nyac property from Calista. During 2007... Full story
Let me extend my apologies to all those looking for a quick summary of the Alaska mining industry this month. There is nothing "quick" about the tome you are about to read, but don't blame the messenger. I just report what I read, and this month it's a sack full! No need for more words, just read on! Western Alaska NovaGold Resources announced results of a newly released report on the Rock Creek project, nearing commercial production outside of Nome. The revised feasibility... Full story
When Steve Herschbach began his personal quest to find the mother lode with a metal detector on Moore Creek in Alaska's Iditarod Gold District in 1973, gold prices averaged about $70 an ounce. Nearly 35 years later, the 49-year-old miner may be nearing his goal at the very place he started looking. Herschbach was 14 years old when he talked his dad into giving him a front row seat on a gold hunting expedition by airplane to Flat in southwest Alaska. Young Herschbach had... Full story
Final assay results from the 2007 drill program at the Pebble Project in Southwest Alaska are bearing out predictions about the copper-gold-molybdenum deposit made by Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. and Anglo American plc, co-owners of the project. Samples from 157,000 feet taken from 36 drill holes offered enticing clues to the overall size, copper-gold-molybdenum grade distribution and geometry of the Pebble East deposit. Sean Magee, a spokesman for the partnership formed by...
Mineral exploration activity in British Columbia climbed to an all-time high of nearly $416 million in 2007, up 57 percent from the previous record of $265 million in 2006. B.C. officials reported 472 exploration stage projects across the province, with British Columbia steadily gaining a larger share of Canada's exploration activity. Last year, 23 new mine development proposals were in the works for 13 metal mines, seven coal mines and three industrial mineral mines, the B.C. government said in a statement Jan. 22....
Hecla Mining Co., longtime minority share owner of the Greens Creek Mine, Feb. 12 said it agreed to purchase for $750 million the remaining 70.3 percent interest in the Southeast Alaska operation that is owned by Rio Tinto subsidiary Kennecott. The cash deal will give Hecla of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, 100 percent control of the world's fifth largest silver mine and will nearly double the company's silver output to about 11 million ounces annually. Greens Creek also produces commercial quantities of gold, zinc and lead. The...
Full Metal Minerals Corp. is gearing up for a busy 2008 exploration season. And Rob McLeod, the Vancouver, B.C.-based junior's vice president of exploration, "can't think of a better place to explore than Alaska in terms of mineral potential." McLeod told Mining News in a recent interview that the company will spend between $17 million and $20 million on exploration this year on ten projects in Alaska and one prospect in Canada's Yukon Territory. Some $6.5 million of that... Full story
A bold gambit to revive what was once Canada's largest and most profitable zinc-lead mine is still on track thanks to the tenacity and innovation of Tamerlane Ventures Inc., a Blaine, Wash.-based junior mining company led by some of the industry's savviest mining veterans. Located just across Great Slave Lake from Yellowknife about 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of the village of Hay River in the Northwest Territories, the historic Pine Point Mine produced some 4.5 million metric tons of zinc and 2 million metric tons of lead... Full story
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... Full story
Since agreeing to acquire the Alaska portfolio of South Africa major AngloGold Ashanti in August 2006, International Tower Hill Mines of Vancouver, B.C., has been exploring the state and expanding its claims as it goes. A total of nine properties were involved in the junior exploration company's agreement with AngloGold. In the 15 months since, International Tower Hill has purchased 100 percent interest in seven of the properties and entered into joint ventures with AngloGold...
Vancouver-based Andover Ventures Inc. launched an aggressive acquisition and exploration campaign when it entered Alaska in the spring of 2006, starting with a $42 million deal with Full Metal Minerals on the Kamishak property in southwest Alaska. Today, the ambitious junior holds interests in eight Alaska mining properties, less than two years after incorporation. Six of the properties are located in Southwest Alaska, one in the Nome mining district and, arguably, the most...
Sherwood Copper, a Vancouver-based junior mining company, has found success with a little-used geophysical method known as Gradient Array Induced Polarization survey at its Minto Mine in central Yukon Territory. GAIP is less expensive and provides quicker results than other IP surveys, but has the drawback of not being able to provide information on the depth of the mineralization found. This is not a problem in an area like Minto where the geology is well known, according to...
Gold Crest Mines Inc., a Spokane, Wash.-based junior gold exploration company, reported promising results Oct. 8 from its 2007 exploration drilling campaign at the Kisa Project in the Kuskokwim Mineral Belt of southwest Alaska. Organized a little over a year ago by a group of mining industry veterans, Gold Crest has a wholly owned Alaska subsidiary, Kisa Gold Mining Inc. It is KGMI that began exploring about 93,500 acres in three different and distinct areas of Alaska in late 2006. KGMI has established 14 claim groups in two...
Even though the concept of global warming is a welcome idea to many companies working in Alaska, its effects are not being felt fast enough to allow companies to complete all of the work they had hoped to finish in 2007. Drills are still turning all over the state, but the first signs of "termination dust" are showing on the higher peaks and the smell of fermenting berries fills the air, giving us all a not-so gentle prod to get ready for winter. Western Alaska Teck Cominco... Full story
Greg Beischer is a familiar face in Alaska's mining industry, but he's wearing a new hat now. For the past few years he's played a peripheral role, working for Bristol Environmental and Engineering Services, advising parent company Bristol Bay Native Corp. on mineral, oil and gas developments in the Bristol Bay region, including the Pebble project. He's also the outgoing chairman of the Alaska Miners Association's Anchorage branch. This summer Beischer has gone back to breaking rocks in an entirely new job. Beischer is now... Full story
At the site of Alaska's most controversial mining project, Pebble, near-tranquility reigns. Out on the mossy tundra, surrounded by deep blue lakes and streams, mountains and sky, the drone from the drill rigs and the buzzing of helicopters are the only disturbances. Away from the deposit itself, field crews conduct environmental studies in spots that would be ideal for picnicking, if they weren't so remote. Back in the village of Iliamna, where Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty has its project headquarters, core shack and empl...
The trials and tribulations of Alaska's mining industry continued in the last month with one challenged mine given the green light to proceed, the other halted in midstride by the same legal system. In the background, exploration programs quietly began at several locations across the state as the busy 2007 mining season started in earnest. Alaska's global rank dropped from 13th to 24th position in the most recent Fraser Institute survey of mining jurisdictions worldwide. At...
With startup of the Minto advanced stage copper-gold project in the central Yukon just around the corner, Sherwood Copper Corp. has already embarked on a plan to add to reserves and extend production at the site. Minto, a relatively small project by industry standards, is a standout because of its exceptionally high grade copper reserves. Its reserves currently exceed 356 million pounds of copper, with estimated recovery rates of 95 percent for copper and silver and 75 percent for gold. Sherwood, a Vancouver, British... Full story
