The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Following a couple of quiet months where Alaska's mining industry focused on its work, the last month has seen an explosion of new info come out regarding that effort, some of it profound in its potential immediate, near-term and long-term implications. For example, one of Alaska's largest mines was sold to a new owner at a surprisingly low cost per ounce. The results of a robust new preliminary economic analysis were tabled by an advanced gold-silver exploration project...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. Aug. 24 announced the start of a modest drill program at its Shorty Creek Project property in Interior Alaska, where previous drilling has cut long sections of porphyry copper-gold-silver-cobalt-tungsten mineralization. Lying alongside the paved Elliott Highway about 75 miles northwest of Fairbanks, Shorty Creek is adjacent to International Tower Hill Mines Ltd.'s 11.5-million-ounce Livengood gold project. Freegold's inaugural drill program at Shorty...
Extremely hard and with the highest melting point of all the elements on the periodic table, tungsten is a vital ingredient to a wide-range of industrial and military applications, yet none of this durable metal is currently mined in the United States. According to the United States Geological Survey, more than half of the tungsten consumed in the U.S. last year was used to make the cemented tungsten-carbide, a compound typically made with equal parts tungsten and carbon....
The summer field season is in full bloom across Alaska with programs stretching from the Brooks Range to southeastern Alaska, and from the Yukon border to southwestern Alaska. Exploration targets range from grassroots to mine-site, focused on commodities including gold, silver, lead, zinc, copper, cobalt and graphite. For Alaska's exploration industry, planned, announced and estimated expenditures are well over the $100 million mark for 2018. This expenditure level is well...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. June 7 said it is putting together plans for a drill program aimed at expanding the oxide resource at its Golden Summit gold property near Kinross Gold Corp.’s Fort Knox Mine in Interior Alaska. Located along a paved highway about 30 minutes north of Fairbanks, Golden Summit hosts 61.5 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.69 grams per metric 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 o...
Seven days of near-continuous rain did nothing to dampen the mood at the recently concluded Cordilleran Roundup Convention in Vancouver. The event was buoyed by a realistic optimism we have not seen in over five years. This change from half-empty to half-full glasses is due to a number of things including strong commodities prices, increasing global demand for metals and current or looming supply shortfalls in many of the metals produced by this industry. The event was...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. Jan. 22 reported that results from its 2017 drill program at Shorty Creek continue to confirm the size potential of this large porphyry copper project in Interior Alaska. Highlights from the latest round of results was a 165-meter intercept in hole 17-05A that averaged 0.60 percent copper-equivalent, which includes the value of the copper, gold, silver and cobalt encountered. This hole was drilled at Hill 1835, a Shorty Creek target where the company...
Thanks largely to increased investments from Aussie mining explorers, mineral exploration spending across Alaska topped US$100 million in 2018. This is well above the roughly US$95 million invested last year and nearly double the US$58 million spent at the bottom of the market in 2015. "Canadian and Australian companies continue to be the source for the bulk of funds spent in Alaska in 2018, together comprising well over 80 percent of the exploration expenditures earmarked...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. Dec. 12 provided an update on Golden Summit, a bulk tonnage gold project located along the Steese Highway about 25 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska. A preliminary economic assessment completed for Golden Summit earlier this year proposed the development of an initial stand-alone valley heap leach operation focused on the existing oxide portion of the resource, taking into account the potential for oxide resource growth, with a staged approach to a larger milling scenario. The PEA evaluates a 20,000...
Earlier in November, the Alaska Miners Association held its annual convention and trade show in Anchorage and as always, the well-attended convention overlapped with election Tuesday. While the lead up to, and results of, the national and state elections were hot topics throughout the week, one comment I heard from a colleague on the morning after the elections distilled the feelings of a lot of people at the conference. When asked what he thought of the election results, he...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. kicked off its 2017 exploration with a drill program focused on expanding the oxide gold resource at the Golden Summit property in Interior Alaska. Located about 25 miles north of Fairbanks and about four miles from Kinross Gold Corp.'s Fort Knox gold mine, Golden Summit hosts 61.5 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.69 grams per metric ton (1.36 million ounces) gold; and 71.5 million metric tons of inferred resource of averaging 0.69 g/t (1.58 million oz) gold. The oxide portion of...
Alaska's minerals exploration sector is on an upswing, thanks to Australian mining explorers looking north and mining majors upping their activities in the state. South32 Ltd., a Perth, Australia-based miner spun out of BHP Billiton Plc, is the largest mining company from Down Under to express an interest in Alaska's mineral potential this year. South32, which has eight operating mines in the Southern Hemisphere, secured an option to acquire a 50 percent interest in Trilogy...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. May 9 announced the start of an initial phase of 2017 drilling aimed at expanding the oxide gold resource at its Golden Summit project about 25 miles north of Fairbanks and about four miles north of Kinross Gold Corp.'s Fort Knox Mine. During this this phase-one program, the company plans to drill 20 to 25 shallow holes to the north of the current mineral resource where previous rotary air blast drilling has identified the potential for higher grade...
The year just past was many things for the mining industry, but one of the bright spots came from the Mine Safety and Health Administration, an agency not known for awarding happy faces or gold stars. In 2016, the mining industry experienced only 25 deaths in U.S. mines, the lowest level ever recorded. This, despite the industry having more than 330,000 miners working in 13,000 mines across the country. The leading cause of death in both coal and metal/nonmetal mines was...
If there is anyone still on the fence wondering if the minerals industry has started a recovery from the doldrums of the past four years, this month’s mineral industry activity in Alaska should settle the question with authority. During the past month, we have seen two merger/acquisitions occur, one by Solitario Exploration & Royalty Corp., which acquired Zazu Metals Corp. and its interest in the Lik lead-zinc-silver deposit. Then we also had Coventry Resources acquire V...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. June 13 reported results from the first 11 holes of the oxide expansion drill program at its Golden Summit project about 25 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska. In 2016, Freegold published a preliminary economic assessment that evaluates a 20,000-metric-ton-per-day operation at Golden Summit - a 10,000 tpd heap leach facility to process the oxide material and 10,000 tpd bio-oxidation plant for the sulfide material. The area being considered for mining hosts 61.5 million metric tons of indicated resource...
While the mineral exploration season in Interior Alaska typically runs from the time the ground dries in the spring, usually mid-May, until snow and cold weather make logistics too cumbersome and expensive in October, an increasing number of explorers are carrying out successful winter programs in this especially frigid region of the Far North State. Without a doubt, mounting a successful exploration program in temperatures cold enough to make metal brittle and with only...
The summer solstice has come and gone, but the Alaska mining industry has paid little attention to the decreased amount of daylight because it is high summer in the high latitudes, time to be out completing work programs that have been in the planning since last fall. Exploration drilling programs have sprouted in the Brooks Range, Interior, Alaska Range, Southeast, Southwest and the Alaska Peninsula. In addition, the sounds of tire-kicking are being heard over a wide area of...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. has released results from an additional 10 holes of its 27-hole oxide resource expansion drill program at the Golden Summit project about 25 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska. On June 27, the company reported that hole GSDL 17-16 cut 69 meters averaging 1.14 grams per metric ton gold. The oxide portion of this this intercept was 54 meters, starting at a depth of 1.5 meters. GSDL 17-17 and GSDL 17-18, the two northernmost holes drilled during the program,...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. July 18 reported results from the final six holes of a 27-hole oxide resource expansion drill program at the Golden Summit project about 25 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska. Hole GSDL 17-28 cut 70.6 meters grading 0.82 grams per metric ton gold from surface. The oxide portion of this hole, which extended to a depth of 60 meters, averaged 0.36 g/t gold. Freegold said the results from this initial phase of 2017 drilling indicate the potential for expansion of the current oxide resource at Golden Summit....
Freegold Ventures Ltd. July 19 announced the start of 2017 drilling at its Shorty Creek copper-gold project about 75 road miles northwest of Fairbanks, Alaska. The company first tapped porphyry style copper-gold mineralization at Shorty Creek in 2015 and expanded upon its find last year. Hole SC 16-01, drilled last year at the property's Hill 1835 target, cut 434.5 meters averaging 0.57 percent copper-equivalent, which accounts for the value of the copper, gold and silver. This hole is 125 meters southwest of SC 15-03, which...
At a recent mining industry panel discussion at the Western States Land Commissioners Association meeting in Anchorage, I was asked if the recent upturn in activity in the Alaska mining industry was a function of commodities prices or a growing worldwide recognition of Alaska's enormous mineral potential. I answered that I thought neither factor was driving the Alaska mineral industry revival: commodities prices have been steady or rising slowly over the last year and...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. Nov. 16 reported that the initial holes of its 2017 drill program at Shorty Creek have intercepted significant widths of copper-gold-silver, cobalt and tungsten mineralization, further confirming and expanding the Hill 1835 target. Since the 2015 discovery hole was drilled, Freegold has completed roughly 4,200 meters of drilling at Hill 1835. Hole SC 16-01, drilled last year at the property's Hill 1835 target, cut 434.5 meters averaging 0.57 percent copper-equivalent, which accounts for the value of...
For the first time in five long years, the mood at the recently held Alaska Miners Association Convention in Anchorage was buoyant, the result of a slow but steady turnaround on mineral investments in the state. Additional new corporate interest in the state emerged during the past 30 days, and sources of exploration funds coming to Alaska continue to shift, with estimates for 2017 suggesting that 62 percent of this financing comes from Canadian concerns, 18 percent from...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. Dec. 6 said the 2016 drill program at it Shorty Creek project in Interior Alaska has confirmed the presence of a copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry system with an alteration-mineralization footprint that covers roughly 2,500 acres. The company confirmed the porphyry potential in 2015, when it stepped out from the previous shallow reverse circulation drilling completed by Asarco in 1989-1990 with deeper core drilling. The best hole drilled last year, SC15-03...
