The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 242
Millrock Resources Inc. July 29 reported it has secured exclusive rights to the Treasure Creek and Ester Dome gold exploration projects in the Fairbanks Mining District, adding to the company's portfolio in the Tintina Gold Belt. Treasure Creek is a roughly 34,600-acre land package about 20 miles west of Kinross Gold Corp.'s Fort Knox Mine, which has produced more than 8 million ounces of gold. According to Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Survey reports more...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. June 16 announced the resumption of its 2020 program at Golden Summit with a planned 10,000-meter drill program targeting high-grade gold mineralization encountered on the property north of Fairbanks, Alaska earlier this year. A winter drill program that got underway in early March tested Freegold Ventures' theory that higher grade gold mineralization extends west from the historic Cleary Hill Mine, which produced 281,000 ounces of gold from ore...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. May 26 announced that it has closed C$5 million of an up to C$10 million financing, which will fund ongoing exploration and other work related to its Golden Summit and Shorty Creek mineral exploration properties in Alaska. Noted resource investor Eric Sprott has agreed to invest a total of C$6 million in Freegold's private placement, including C$2 million in the recently completed initial tranche and C$4 million in a second tranche expected to close on...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. April 6 announced that winter drilling at Golden Summit has encountered what appears to be an extension of the vein system that fed ore to the historic Cleary Hill Mine, which produced 281,000 ounces of gold from ore averaging 1.3 oz per ton before the operation was shuttered during World War II. The first hole of the winter program, GSDL2001, cut 188 meters averaging 3.69 grams per metric ton gold from a depth of 360 meters. The bottom 20 meters of...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. announced that drills are now turning at Golden Summit, an advanced staged gold exploration project located alongside the Steese Highway about a 30-minute drive north of Fairbanks. Golden Summit hosts 61.5 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.69 g/t ton (1.36 million ounces) gold; and 71.5 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.69 g/t (1.58 million oz) gold. The oxide portion of this deposit, found largely within the upper...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. Jan. 19 announced that South32 Ltd. has agreed to fund at least US$2 million of exploration at the Shorty Creek porphyry copper project in Interior Alaska this year. Early last year, South32 entered into an option agreement with Freegold to acquire 70% interest in Shorty Creek for US$30 million, less any money the Australia-based major invested in exploring the promising copper-gold-silver-tungsten targets that have been identified across the property. T...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. Jan. 16 announced results from the late-season 2019 drill program at Shorty Creek, a porphyry gold-copper project about 75 miles northwest of Fairbanks. The five-hole (1,542 meters) program was funded by a wholly owned subsidiary of South32 Ltd., which entered into an option agreement with Freegold Ventures to acquire 70 percent interest in Shorty Creek for US$30 million, less any money the Australia-based major invests in exploring the promising...
With two Australian companies making major investments and several exploration companies from Down Under chomping at the bit to get into the field, 2020 is shaping up to be the best year for Alaska's mining sector in a decade. When you add up the investments South32 Ltd. plans to make in the Ambler Mining District and other exploration projects; Northern Star Resources Ltd.'s spending at the Pogo gold mine; and the exploration dollars at least five other Aussie companies are...
An abnormally long fall has allowed the Alaska mining industry to extend seasonal work well into mid-October, creating a lot of new information about project work conducted around the state. Exploration efforts, in particular, benefitted from this additional field time. Based on information available to date, 2019 exploration expenditures are expected to be in the $135-140 million range, well ahead of the $120-125 million exploration spending tracked for 2018. In addition,...
If you have watched the metals markets over the last month, you know why Alaska's mineral industry has surged, stalled, swerved, swooped, slowed, shelved and stuttered, sometimes all at the same time! Gold has gone above US$1,500 per ounce; copper pundits are predicting an increasingly dour future; zinc markets are looking to dive below $1.00 per pound; tin markets have marched strongly upward due to supply disruptions; and silver bulls are calling for annual worldwide...
As the rest of the country suffers through the Dog Days of summer, Alaska is approaching the end of a topsy-turvy summer season that saw unseasonably hot, dry weather in some parts of the state during some parts of the summer, while other parts of the state have seen record rainfall and unseasonably early snowfall. Gold prices have skyrocketed over the $1,500 per ounce mark and silver prices have moved strongly up, now trading at a one-year high. However, copper and zinc are a...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. announced the start of a roughly 2,000-meter drill program at Shorty Creek, a porphyry gold-copper project about 75 miles northwest of Fairbanks. This drilling is being funded by a wholly owned subsidiary of South32 Ltd., which entered into an option agreement with Freegold Ventures to acquire 70 percent interest in Shorty Creek for US$30 million, less any money the Australia-based major invests in exploring the promising copper-gold-silver-tungsten...
In the famous words of Sherlock Holmes, the game is afoot! After seasonally slower news from Alaska's mining industry in March and April, the dam has broken with over two dozen Alaska mining project news releases issued in the last month. Including those projects moving forward that have not released their 2019 plans, Alaska has become a very busy place under the sun. All of our major metal mines reported strong performances in the first quarter, several of Alaska's most...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. May 15 announced the start of a US$2.2 million exploration program focused on testing the wider copper-gold potential at its Shorty Creek property in Alaska's Interior. This exploration is being funded by South32 Ltd., an Australia-based mining company that has agreed to invest up to US$10 million into exploration at Shorty Creek. Freegold Ventures identified the potential for porphyry-style copper-gold mineralization at Shorty Creek in 2014, which was...
With 12.5 million acres of land spanning Alaska's Interior, Doyon Ltd. is the largest private landholder in the state and one of the largest in the nation. For mining and mineral exploration companies, the rich mineral potential of these lands may be more impressive than the sheer size of the estate. This is because the Doyon region is a nearly Texas-sized swath of Interior Alaska that is renowned for its gold and a host of other metals, providing the regional corporation,...
As is usually the case this time of year, the mining industry is awash in backward-looking statements designed to allow for more accurate forward-looking statements. Prime among them is one of my favorites, S&P Global's annual "World Exploration Trends 2019", a summary of what happened industry-wide in 2018 and what it may portend for the mining industry in 2019. The study predicts that global exploration budgets will increase again in 2019, although by a smaller amount, with...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. March 5 reported that the potentially large porphyry copper-gold-silver-tungsten deposits it has been exploring on the Shorty Creek project in Interior Alaska has drawn the interest of Australia-based South32 Ltd. Under an option agreement with Freegold Ventures, a South32 subsidiary has agreed to fund up to US$10 million of exploration over the next four years, including US$2 million this year. This exploration spending keeps an option open for South32...
I, for one, feel vindicated, relieved and ready to face the New Year! How so, you ask? Please let me explain. For those of you who remember my column in November, I noted that EY Global Mining and Metals publishes an annual "risk radar" for mining and metals, outlining what mining companies perceive as the top ten risks facing them in the near future. This publication was for the years 2017-2018 and stated that "Our number one risk this year is digital effectiveness." If you...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. Jan. 16 reported that two holes drilled in 2018 cut wide widths of copper-gold-silver-tungsten mineralization at the company's Shorty Creek project about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of Fairbanks, Alaska. These holes – SC 18-01 and SC 18-02 – targeted a magnetic high within Hill 1835, the most explored porphyry target so far at Shorty Creek. Freegold discovered significant porphyry copper-gold mineralization at Shorty Creek during an inaugural dri...
WESTERN ALASKA Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. announced that it had finalized a surface right of way agreement with Alaska Peninsula Corporation for use of that latter's lands for the construction and operation of transportation infrastructure associated with the Pebble copper-molybdenum-gold project. Alaska Peninsula Corporation is an Alaska Native village corporation with extensive land holdings proximal to the Pebble site and more than 900 shareholders, many of which live...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. Oct. 30 provided an update on its exploration activities at its Shorty Creek and Golden Summit projects. This fall, Freegold completed a modest two-hole drill program at Shorty Creek, a copper-gold porphyry target located alongside the Elliott Highway about 75 miles northwest of Fairbanks. Freegold discovered significant copper-gold mineralization at Shorty Creek during an inaugural drill program carried out there in 2015. One hole drilled that year, SC...
South32, an Australia-based major base metal and coal producer spun out of BHP Billiton in 2015, is expanding its presence in Alaska. This company went into business with an impressive portfolio of base and precious metals mining assets in Australia, South Africa and Brazil. While all of South32's initial portfolio was south of the Equator, the Perth-based major is interested in high-quality exploration and mining projects around the globe. "Our exploration activities are...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. is focused on exploring for copper and gold on two properties in Interior Alaska – Golden Summit, an advanced stage gold project just north of Kinross Gold Corp.'s Fort Knox Mine, and Shorty Creek, an enticing porphyry copper-gold project about 75 miles northwest of Fairbanks. In March, South32 Ltd. entered into an option agreement with Freegold Ventures to acquire 70 percent interest in Shorty Creek for US$30 million, less any money the A...
While copper is not on the United States Geological Survey's list of 35 minerals and metals critical to America, there is no doubt of this metal's importance to both the everyday and avant-garde technologies vital to America's economy and security. "None of the other critical minerals work without copper," Trilogy Metals President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse told Mining News. Automobiles are a prime example of how emerging technologies and green energy will drive the demand...
Extremely hard and with the highest melting point of all the elements on the periodic table, tungsten is vital to a broad spectrum of commercial and military applications, yet there are no mines in the United States producing this durable metal. Nearly 60 percent of the tungsten consumed in the U.S. during 2018 was used to make the cemented tungsten-carbide, a compound of roughly equal parts tungsten and carbon. Roughly twice as strong as steel, tungsten carbide is often...
