The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 876 - 900 of 922
Vancouver, British Columbia-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. will defer permit applications for its Pebble project near Iliamna on the Alaska Peninsula for at least one year while it evaluates the ramifications of its adjacent new east zone discovery, according to Bruce Jenkins, chief operating officer of Northern Dynasty Mines Inc. (Alaska). The company will pursue a new feasibility study that includes the new porphyry copper-gold system discovery it announced in September, Jenkins told Mining News Dec. 8. "Why permit a... Full story
Over the course of the last several months, a series of new gold and base metal discoveries have been made. Several of these new discoveries were reported in the last month and highlights of these and other activities were presented at the annual Alaska Miners Association convention in Anchorage in early November. The convention was one of the most exciting and up-beat events in nearly a decade. The new discoveries are a trend that, while long in coming, are an inevitable...
As expected, results from the summer field programs have begun to roll in from all over the state. Discoveries from base and precious metals properties were reported in September and several properties previously explored in the Carter administration were rediscovered and are turning out promising results. Metals prices remain robust with gold pushing the $475 per ounce mark. While Alaska's mining industry is still trying to catch its breath from this year, many companies...
Higher prices for precious and base metals, gemstones, coal and other minerals are luring explorers back to the Yukon Territory, and this resurgence in mining activity has government officials grappling with ways to encourage the miners to stay. The number and variety of mining exploration projects under way this year bodes wells for the territory's future and for government's chances of re-awakening what many call a sleeping giant - Yukon's mining industry. "Yukon is coming back," says Ivan Jacobsen, a stockbroker at Canacco...
Vancouver, British Columbia-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. has discovered a significant new porphyry copper-gold system at its Pebble project in near Iliamna in Southwest Alaska, according to Ronald Thiessen, company president and CEO. The discovery has the potential to significantly enhance the size and overall grade of the Pebble deposit, Thiessen said in a Sept. 21 statement. Based on a March 2005 estimate, the Pebble deposit contains measured and indicated resources of 3 billion tonnes, including 31.3 million...
There has recently been a great deal of talk about how the hard rock mining industry in Alaska "needs to pay its share." One proposal is that this industry should be singled out for the imposition of a severance tax. In discussing this matter with a friend who is not involved with the hard rock mining industry, I was somewhat amazed by her support for this type of taxation. When I suggested to her that major mines often take more than a decade to go from discovery to... Full story
Anglo American Exploration (USA) Inc. completed phase 2 program of its exploration on Area 1 (Fish Lake-Dunite Hill Area) of the MAN Alaska property June 20, according to owner Nevada Star Resource Corp. A total of 7,330 feet of drilling was completed in eight holes. The MAN Alaska property is 164 miles southeast of Fairbanks and 248 miles northeast of Anchorage. Exploration by Nevada Star began in 1995 in this large area which is characterized by its extremely anomalous nickel, PGE, and gold concentrations. Exploration... Full story
Anyone who owns mining claims - from grizzled old prospectors to multinational companies - struggles to make a profit. So one particular kind of prospect may be particularly attractive to them: having people pay for the privilege of mining on the claims, with the search itself often turning out to be more rewarding than the discovery of a tiny gold nugget or a pinch of fines. Recreational miners come in all shapes and sizes, and they're bringing new life to land that might otherwise have been abandoned. To make the most of...
A reclusive prospector panning for gold in the Quesnel River in British Columbia found something far more rare, the fossilized cannon bone of a deer, and kept it a secret for years, experts say. The artifact found by Ben Miller, a fossilized support bone from the shank, is jet black and hard as a hammer, said Norm Canuel, a local archaeologist who has been on digs from Peru to Alaska. "It is rare to find anything like that," Canuel said. "Once I found the fossil of a shrimp in the Nechako (a valley in far northern British...
Other mining projects may be jumping on the bandwagon, but Teck Cominco still leads the race to find local gas reserves to feed the voracious appetite of a large-mine power plant in Alaska. Seven years after discovering gas deposits in shale near the Red Dog lead/zinc mine, the owner of the huge Northwest Alaska mine is ready to drill a two-well exploration program in hopes of replacing costly diesel fuel it must barge in every year. Though oil companies have developed gas reserves to power production facilities on the North...
In the waning days of the Klondike Gold Rush, the Arctic tundra far to the north gave birth to another Alaska gold mining legend. Japanese sailor Frank Yasuda left a whaling vessel to make his home among the Inupiat people at Point Barrow. A few years later, disease and hardship had decimated the village of Barrow. Yasuda, an enterprising fellow, and his young Inupiat wife, Eneveloe, joined another explorer in traveling south to the Brooks Mountain Range in search of a new home for the people of Barrow. Near Chandalar Lake...
The good news from Teryl, Kinross, Geoinformatics, Midas, Geocom and others is tempered by the loss of Alaska's gentleman scientist Ernie Wolff, who passed away on May 3; Liberty Star Gold appoints Phil St. George as VP of exploration s I write this summary of recent activities in Alaska's mining industry I am attending a once-every-five-year symposium in Reno put on by the Geological Society of Nevada. Some 1,500 attendees, mostly exploration geologists, are eagerly lapping up hours of new and previously unheard ideas on... Full story
Explorers from Canada, Washington, Arizona - and Alaska too - have staked claims in the vicinity of the massive Pebble gold-copper deposit. These juniors hope to emulate the success of Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty and take a project to the development stage. As some of their representatives told a mining and sustainable resources conference in Newhalen, Southwest Alaska, in April, the explorers are seeking harmonious relations with the local community as well as valuable minerals. Full Metal Minerals, another Vancouver...
A mention of the world's richest diamond mines conjures images of hot, steamy African jungles. Yet it is the frozen tundra of the Canadian Arctic that is yielding the latest treasure trove of diamonds and sparking a staking stampede that is bringing hundreds of prospectors to the far north. Between 1998 and 2002, 13.8 million carats have been mined in Canada, and the diamonds - precious stones of pure carbon - are worth $2.8 billion. That is roughly a 1.5-kilogram bag of rocks each day for five years, with each bag worth... Full story
On the cusp of what promises to be one of the busiest mineral exploration and development seasons in the last 20 years, the mineral industry is madly preparing its personnel and equipment all across the state. Despite the late season snows and unusually cool temperatures being experienced as this summary is being written, many of Alaska's exploration programs are either under way or will be sometime in early May. Competition for funds within and between companies remains fierce as projects in the U.S., Canada, Europe,...
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., owner and operator of the Pebble project in southwestern Alaska, is gearing up for a new season with a larger ownership stake in the gold-copper-molybdenum deposit and a C$36 million work program for 2005. The company announced results March 4 of a recent independent analysis that indicated the world-class mineral system at Pebble is significantly larger than previously envisioned. Northern Dynasty also said March 14 it agreed to acquire the remaining 20 percent ownership interest in Pebble in...
The Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys and the Department of Commerce and Economic Development have released their annual preliminary report on Alaska's mining industry for 2004. As expected, investment in all categories was up significantly over previous years. Exploration spending in 2004 was estimated at $63.7 million, up from $27.6 million in 2003. The 2004 expenditures were the highest in the state since 1981. Development expenditures jumped to $105.6 million vs. $39.2 million in 2003, thanks largely t...
The adventures of an intrepid judge at the height of Alaska's gold rush have been published online, thanks to the Alaska State Library. Judge James Wickersham was appointed district judge in 1900, and came up from Washington, initially to Eagle City, but soon afterwards cleaned up scandal-ridden Nome. On his death in 1939, Wickersham left behind 47 diaries containing a detailed account of Alaska's formative years as a territory of the United States. The first 13 diaries, up to 1908, were transcribed by Mary Anne Slemmons at... Full story
December, January and February are normally a time when the mining industry can stop and catch its collective breath, look into its often cloudy but well-used crystal ball and prepare for the coming year. Not so the last December, January and February! While 2004 results continued to pour in from projects large and small, plans for 2005 are well advanced and in some cases, already in full swing. Metals prices remained strong and even the most pessimistic prognosticators...
Mining, of course, is the oldest profession in Alaska. In the late 19th century the "fancy ladies" followed the miners up to outposts like Juneau and Nome, and then came the lawyers. A motley crew of Alaska mining history buffs told entertaining stories at a panel discussion in Anchorage on Nov. 4, but they also had a serious message about the way disputes over mineral rights necessitated the writing of laws for this unruly territory. The first attempts at mining in Alaska took place under Russian rule, after Tsar Nicholas I...
An initial investment of $10 in a gold-silver property by Vancouver-based Rimfire Minerals might pay off handsomely in the long term. Rimfire purchased the Tide property in British Columbia from Newmont Exploration in 2001 for that nominal fee, and last year partnered with another Vancouver company, Serengeti Resources, to push forward a drilling and fieldwork program. Serengeti is earning a 51 percent interest in Tide by spending C$1.4 million on exploration. The results so far have been very promising. High-grade gold and... Full story
As its 2004 drilling program draws to a close, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. is awaiting a revised independent estimate of the size of its Pebble gold-copper-molybdenum deposit in Southwest Alaska, Ronald W. Thiessen, the company's president and CEO announced in mid-December. Northern Dynasty said it spent C$33.5 million to drill 173 holes that include the new East Zone discovery holes, which intercepted substantial higher-grade gold-copper-molybdenum mineralization outside of the previous resource boundary. Earlier this...
A new copper discovery in Mongolia's South Gobi region could rival Alaska's Pebble deposit as one of the most valuable in the world. Drilling on the Hugo North deposit at the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project has produced impressive results, according to a Nov. 18 release from Ivanhoe Mines. Ivanhoe's controversial chairman, Robert Friedland, denies media accusations that he has been over-hyping the company's Mongolia finds. "Based on my 30 years of experience in the exploration business, I believe the Hugo North deposit is the... Full story
Exploration at five porphyry-copper gold properties in the Quesnel trough of northern British Columbia is proving its worth, Vancouver-based Serengeti Resources announced in a Nov. 18 release. All the properties lie within 10 kilometers of the Omenica mining access road, with the Choo and Darby prospects directly accessible off logging and mining roads. The Choo property is 25 kilometers west of Placer Dome's Mount Milligan Deposit. "Serengeti's recently completed fall program on these five highly prospective properties,...
Placer mining in Canada's Yukon Territory has increased significantly this year, and although there are no operating hard-rock mines in the territory yet, that may change soon. Mike Burke of the Yukon Geological Survey outlined the varied projects of the past season at the Alaska Miners Association Convention in Anchorage on Nov. 4. In particular, he drew attention to Expatriate Resources' exploration in the Finlayson Lake District at Wolverine, for which the company has raised C$16.6 million. Wolverine is one of several impo...
