The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Reuters recently reported that the 10 largest gold-producing companies worldwide have steadily increased their near-mine exploration budgets over the past few years to 56 percent in 2015 from 45 percent in 2013. They also reduced their higher-risk greenfields exploration budgets to 21 percent from 25 percent in the same time period. This retrenchment of exploration by the larger producers is occurring, while global gold output is declining with an expected reduction of 9...
It is high summer in Alaska and the mining industry is busy breaking rocks, drilling holes, collecting baseline data, making upgrades to mine facilities and producing metal and coal across the state. The effects of declining prices for metals are starting to be felt at the operating metal mines and except for a few projects, the exploration sector continues to wallow in the doldrums, which have plagued the industry since 2013. That said, the tire-kicking of earlier this...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. Oct. 26 provided results from the second hole of a summer drill program at its Shorty Creek copper-gold project about 75 road-miles northwest of Fairbanks, Alaska. Hole SC 16-02 cut 93.5 meters averaging the equivalent of 0.55 percent copper when you factor in the value of the gold and silver in the intercept. Hole two was drilled at the Hill 1835 prospect about 120 meters southwest of hole SC 16-01, which cut 434.5 meters averaging 0.57 percent copper-equivalent. In addition to the copper, gold and...
After raising C$7.3 million in May, Freegold Ventures Ltd. returned to work at its Shorty Creek and Golden Summit projects in Interior Alaska. The company kicked off drilling at Shorty Creek, a 26,000-acre porphyry copper-gold project located near Livengood, in July. Since securing a long-term lease with Fairbanks-based Gold Range Ltd. in 2014, Freegold has carried out systematic geophysics and soil sampling over two target areas - Hill 1835 and Hill 1710. Drilling in 2015 further demonstrated the copper-gold potential at...
Mineral exploration spending in Alaska hit an apex of US$365 million in 2011, but as venture capital for mining explorers dried these expenditures plummeted 78 percent to US$80 million in 2015. However, rising gold prices and a loosening of venture capital in 2016 seems to have marked an end to a painfully long bear market for mining explorers in Alaska. “After taking head shots for the past four years, the industry suddenly came to life over the past month, with new budgets,...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. Nov. 16 reported that the results of the fall 2015 drill program on its Shorty Creek project demonstrate the potential for a significant copper-gold porphyry deposit at this Interior Alaska property. The best intercept of the program was 91.4 meters of 0.71 percent copper-equivalent. A total of four holes were drilled during the 2015 program, which was hampered by challenging weather, including the second-largest for September snowfall in 102 years. Despite the challenges, Freegold said the program...
The owners of Alaska’s five large metal mines – Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo, Hecla Mining Company, Kinross Gold Corp, Teck Resources Ltd. and Coeur Mining Inc. – accounted for nearly half the US$92 million of exploration spending in the state during 2014 and similar investments by these companies is providing solid footing for the Far North state’s mineral exploration sector this year. Avalon Development President Curt Freeman said he is seeing more mining majors shopping for d...
Although news from the mining industry is generally limited this time of year, several items of import over the past month bear discussion. Alaska suffered a tragedy with the recent passing of mineral industry giant Chuck Hawley, one of Alaska's most talented and respected geologists. Although Chuck loved the mineral exploration game, he was far more than a geologist to many of us and to the state. His plus-50-year love affair with Alaska spanned some of the state's most...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. is testing the idea that a large and previously unrecognized porphyry deposit could lie beneath its Shorty Creek property in the Livengood Mining District of Interior Alaska. Earlier this month, the exploration company raised C$1.35 million to fund a 3,000- meter drill program that could provide definitive evidence that various zones of copper, gold and molybdenum found across the 26,000-acre Shorty Creek land package are actually pieces of one porphyry...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. July 6 said drilling is about to begin at its Shorty Creek copper-gold project near Livengood, Alaska. The company acquired this project through a long-term lease with Fairbanks-based Gold Range Ltd. Freegold has carried out ground geophysics and soil sampling over the two target areas. This, in conjunction with compiling previous work and using State of Alaska airborne geophysical data, resulted in the identification of two significant target areas - Hill 1835 and Hill 1710. Drilling in 2015 indicates...
Mineral exploration spending in Alaska will likely struggle to top US$80 million for 2014, a dramatic fall from the US$365.1 million pinnacle reached in 2011. "The din of mineral industry activity that is normally a part of the summer months in Alaska is decidedly muted this year as the global mining industry attempts to lift itself off the bottom of a plus-18-month-long slump," Avalon Development President Curt Freeman opined in a June column written for Mining News. Unlike 2...
With metal prices stabilizing, physical stockpiles dwindling and demand again on the rise, things are beginning to look up for the beleagered mining industry. Gold's performance over the past several months is a case in point. The World Gold Council reported that during the first quarter, buying of exchange-traded gold funds rose to its highest level since early 2009, wiping out the deep sell-offs of 2014 and 2015 for this instrument. Uncertainties in the fiscal stability of...
As a follow-up to last month's realization that once again "the game is afoot" in the mining industry, major gold producer Goldcorp recently presented some arresting statistics at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Metals, Mining and Steel Conference. The presentation showed gold discovery and production information for the global mining industry that indicated that peak gold discovery occurred in 1995, this despite three periods between 1995 and 2015 when exploration...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. Sept. 8 provided results from the first hole of a 2016 drill program at the company's Shorty Creek copper-gold project in Interior Alaska. Drilling commenced on Hill 1835, where drilling in 2015 cut 91.4 meters averaging 0.14 grams per metric tons gold, 7.02 g/t silver and 0.55 percent copper, or 0.71 percent copper-equivalent from a depth of 279 meters in hole SC 15-03. Collared about 125 meters southwest of SC 15-03, and in the center of a distinct...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. May 20 reported closing a C$7.28 million financing in which it issued 40,461,766 units at C18 cents each. Each unit consists of one Freegold common share and half of a purchase warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Freegold share at C25 cents for a period of three years. Freegold also granted Paradigm Capital Inc., the financing agent, an option to arrange for purchasers to acquire up to an additional 15 percent of the units...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. May 2 said it has filed a preliminary short form prospectus in connection with plans to raise at least C$3 million. The offering will be conducted on a best-effort basis through Paradigm Capital Inc., acting as agent. The company is offering between 16.67 million and 55.56 million units at C18 cents each. This will raise a minimum of C$3 million and up to C$10 million, if the maximum offering is completed. Each unit consists of one Freegold share and...
Earlier this month, the Alaska Miners Association held its annual convention in Anchorage amid plummeting metals prices and an over-all atmosphere of economic uncertainty now stretching into its fourth year. Individuals from around North America and beyond were present and conversations outside of the technical sessions seemed to gravitate toward how best to climb out of the doldrums that seem to grip the mining industry on a global scale. One individual was heard to say that...
FVL: TSX President and CEO: Kristina Walcott VP, Exploration and Development: Alvin Jackson In recent years, Freegold Ventures Ltd. has focused its exploration primarily on Golden Summit, a 6-million-ounce bulk-tonnage gold project located roughly 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Fairbanks and four miles (seven kilometers) from Kinross Gold Corp.'s Fort Knox Mine. In 2015, the company turned its attention to Shorty Creek, a copper-gold project in the Livengood region of Interior Alaska. For at least three decades,...
Several events have dramatically affected Alaska's mining industry in recent weeks, underscoring critical links between Alaska and the global economy. First came bad news for newly-elected Gov. Bill Walker: The plunge in world oil prices pushed Alaska's coming-year budget projections about $3.5 billion into the red. The ripple effect of this was a slashing of everything not required and one of the cuts, temporarily at least, was state funding of the Ambler District Road....
Freegold Ventures Ltd. Jan. 6 said results from recently completed metallurgical tests of the oxide mineralization at Golden Summit near Fairbanks are extremely encouraging. Gold extractions of more than 80 percent were achieved within 14 days on coarse crushed material. The column test was permitted to run for 65 days and final gold extractions were 85 percent. Freegold says these results compare favorably with earlier bottle roll test results on coarse crushed material. Results of these tests will be incorporated into the...
As the year winds down, financial information has begun to trickle in quantifying just how tough 2014 was on the mining industry. Industry analyst SNL Metals & Mining announced that the total estimated global budget for nonferrous metals exploration dropped another 25 percent in 2014, to US$11.36 billion, from US$15.19 billion in 2013. Perhaps even more arresting is the precipitous fall in just the past two years from an all-time high of US$21.5 billion in nonferrous metal exp...
TSX: FVL President and CEO: Kristina Walcott Vice President, Exploration and Development: Alvin Jackson Freegold Ventures Ltd. has a portfolio of four gold exploration properties in Alaska. In recent years, the company has focused its exploration primarily on Golden Summit, a 6-million-ounce bulk-tonnage gold project located roughly 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Fairbanks and four miles (seven kilometers) from Kinross Gold Corp.'s Fort Knox Mine. The Dolphin-Cleary zone at Golden Summit has an indicated resource of...
In an industry eager for even a scintilla of good news, a recent report from industry analyst SNL Metals & Mining recently gave the good-news-starved industry a bit of hope. SNL's article, titled, "Too early to start celebrating a recovery in the sector," indicated that although the downward trend in mineral exploration has not broken yet, the market has stopped down-grading mining equities, with a modest gain in market capitalization since its most recent low in mid-2013....
At the same time as the EPA is pushing forward on its planned precedent-setting, pre-emptive, pre-permit veto of the Pebble project and the tailings dam failure at the Mount Polley mine in British Columbia, former Gold Fields Ltd. Chief Geologist Rael Lipson published an eye-opening summary of where porphyry copper-gold projects like Pebble, Mt. Polley and dozens of others around the world fit into the future of gold production. The article, appearing in the July 2014...
As is normally the case in high summer in Alaska, news has started to trickle out of the hills on projects where new work is being conducted, and several properties have changed hands or are in the process of changing hands as mining deals are negotiated and announced across the state. Alaska mines are enjoying slight upticks in metals prices, but recent price volatility has left producers cautious about making long-term capital investments in new or existing projects. Regardl...
