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 75
Primarily associated with cans, cups and roofs, tin may not be the flashiest metal on the market, but it has been a strategic metal that has defined human progress since the onset of the Bronze Age around 5,500 years ago and is on the list of minerals critical to the security of the United States even today, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. "In a congressionally mandated U.S. Department of Defense study of strategic minerals published in 2013, tin was shown to have...
The State of Alaska’s mining industry continues to be a bright spot for Alaska’s economy during difficult fiscal times. Thanks to our world-class natural resource endowment, investors continue to be interested in new exploration and development opportunities in Alaska, and our large mines are still running strong. Recently, our new Natural Resources Commissioner, Andy Mack, had the opportunity to visit the Fort Knox mine. This visit was a great opportunity for Commissioner Mack to become familiar with the operations of a lar...
The State of Alaska and its mining industry continue to benefit from a world-class natural resource base while being buffeted by significant challenges, mostly related to downward market trends for minerals and energy. The wide array of complex resource development issues and decisions facing Alaska resource managers, policy makers and the private sector is unabated - in fact it has grown - and the Alaska Department of Natural Resources is determined to address them as best we can despite adverse fiscal conditions. Some good...
Though lower metals prices weighed on the value of Alaska’s mining sector, the production of minerals, not including coal and oil, in the 49th State topped US$3 billion for the sixth year running. According to the United States Geological Survey’s annual report, “Mineral Commodity Summaries 2016,” Alaska mines produced roughly US$3.09 billion worth of non-fuel minerals during 2015. This reflects roughly a 12 percent decrease compared with the US$3.51 billion that USGS reporte...
According to the United States Geological Survey’s annual report, “Mineral Commodity Summaries 2017,” the value of non-fuel minerals produced in the United States and Alaska during 2016 remained at similar levels to 2015. Alaska mines produced roughly US$3.09 billion worth of minerals, excluding petroleum and coal, marking the seventh year straight that output from Alaska mines have topped US$3 billion. Gold and zinc account for roughly 80 percent of Alaska’s mineral productio...
Having outlined 1.26 million ounces of gold, 5.11 million oz of silver and 39.6 million pounds of copper in the measured and indicated resource category at the Peak deposits, Royal Gold and Contango Ore are now looking for new zones of similar high-grade gold mineralization at other prospect across theTetlin gold project near Tok, Alaska. “Having discovered and now defined a substantial body of ore, our drilling plans for the summer of 2017, which commenced in mid- May, are ta...
Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys March 10 published a preliminary report on mineral occurrences observed during a 10-day preliminary geologic reconnaissance of the Tok River area in preparation for a proposed 2016 mapping project. This work included sampling of Hona, a gold-copper target about 17 miles southwest of the community of Tok; a previously undocumented lode gold occurrence about five miles southwest of Hona; and a placer deposit about 3.5 miles to...
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys is considering instating a fee schedule for services offered at the Alaska Geologic Materials Center in Anchorage. Fees would help offset increased operational costs of the newly renovated, larger facility and benefit the public by improving sample accessibility and ensuring a higher quality and increased number of services provided. DGGS is seeking the public's ideas, views, and opinions to make a proposed fee schedule that is...
Galvanized by higher zinc prices and strong production at Teck Resources Ltd.'s Red Dog Mine, the value of Alaska's mineral production topped US$3 billion for the fifth year running. Larry Freeman, chief of Minerals Resources at the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys, told an audience at the AME BC Mineral Exploration Roundup that production of zinc, lead and silver - all metals produced at Red Dog - climbed in Alaska during 2014. Gold production, on the...
It's official! The Alaska Geologic Materials Center (GMC) is set to make the long-awaited move to its new, larger Anchorage quarters on April 6, weather permitting. The center, a unit of the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys within the state Department of Natural Resources, is the repository for geologic materials collected from across Alaska, and then catalogued, stored and studied. Visitors to the center, primarily representative of companies, state and federal agencies, and academia, examine hardrock...
The increasing crush of complex issues and decisions facing state land managers has a silver lining for Alaskans and our mining industry. It means things are happening. The busier we are at the Department of Natural Resources, the better Alaska is doing, in terms of jobs, revenue and overall economic health. Much already has been said in this publication about the difficulties facing large mining projects in Alaska. On many fronts, the State is engaged in a continual battle to maintain and protect a state and federal permitti...
You say the world's frontiers have all been conquered, and Nature's riddles have all been solved? Don't tell that to Darnley Bay Resources Ltd. The Toronto-based junior is celebrating two decades this summer of working to unravel one of Earth's most intriguing mineral mysteries. The puzzle lies deep beneath the earth's surface in Canada's Far North in what potentially may be the strongest isolated gravity anomaly in the world and certainly, in North America. Located near Paulatuk, Northwest Territories on the Arctic coast,...
The 28th Alaska Legislature has forwarded a slew of bills to the desk of Gov. Sean Parnell that are aimed at recognizing the Last Frontier's rich mining history and ensuring the industry is a key component of the state's economic future. Senate Bill 1, which designates May 10 of every year as Alaska Mining Day, was the first of these to garner Parnell's endorsement. May 10 was chosen to coincide with the day the General Mining Act of the United States was adopted in 1872....
FAIRBANKS - In contrast to the geology, geochemistry and geophysics that dominates discussions at most mining conventions, geopolitics grabbed the limelight at the 2012 Alaska Strategic and Critical Minerals Summit held in Fairbanks Nov. 30. "Countries that control a given element have a way to leverage businesses to come to those countries. They have a way of demanding there are technology transfers," American Elements President Michael Silver informed the more than 200...
Location, location, location," the old adage goes, summing up the opportunities and challenges faced by the real estate industry. Well, "infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure," can offer the same insights into the problems of modern mining in remote jurisdictions like Yukon Territory. The relative scarcity of roads, bridges, airports, power and other infrastructure in the Yukon is critical to the outlook for mining, and in many cases, the presence or lack of these important components can spell the difference between...
Putting Alaska on the map as a domestic source of rare earth elements and other strategic and critical minerals is a priority of Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell. During the 2012 budget cycle, Alaska lawmakers approved US$498,000 proposed by the administration to begin a statewide REE evaluation. This year's budget includes US$2.7 million for a three-year project to continue this initiative. "Alaska can become America's source for rare earth elements," Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell...
A thriving minerals industry is essential for Alaska's economic growth. If Alaska were a country, we would be among the top 10 countries in the world for coal, zinc, copper, lead, zinc, and silver resources. By responsibly developing these resources, we have the potential to support the economies of entire regions of the state and help secure a stable domestic supply of minerals. The Parnell Administration is focusing on ways to advance mining opportunities in Alaska in an environmentally responsible way. A major step in...
Alaska officials are seeking to turn the national challenge of securing domestic supplies of critical minerals into an opportunity. "Alaska has accepted the challenge," Gov. Sean Parnell told participants in the Strategic and Critical Minerals Summit held Sept. 30 in Fairbanks. "Where China has said, 'We're going to curtail exports,' Alaska is accepting the challenge of saying, 'We've got them here, and we want to provide them to our nation and to the world beyond." The Department of Natural Resources organized the...
Rio Tinto Exploration Canada Inc., 60 percent owner and operator of the Diavik Diamond Mine in Northwest Territories is quietly looking for more diamond deposits in Canada's high Arctic. Though the company declined to confirm a start date for its 2011 exploration program or discuss its plans, officials of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Parks Canada, Environment Canada and other affected federal regulators signed off this spring on a new land use permit for proposed work to be carried out between March and October 2011...
U.S. Sens. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., are up in arms over the U.S. Department of Defense's apparent laidback approach to ensuring it has an ample supply of the rare earth elements critical to many of the weapons systems in the U.S. military's arsenal. "Clearly, rare earth supply limitations present a serious vulnerability to our national security. Yet early indications are the DoD (Department of Defense) has dismissed...
It is said that those who forget their history must relive it. It appears that geologists working together with the State of Alaska have found a unique way to make that adage come true. Imagine spending hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars building an active database and then stashing it in an unsecured facility where access, at best, is difficult and retrieval of the data for review places those very data at risk. That, however, is exactly the way the State is...
Fortunately for Alaska, there are relatively few abandoned mine sites in the state that pose a hazard to the public. Historically, placer mining was widespread in Alaska, which means there aren't too many deep adits where necks can be broken. But there is still reclamation work to be done, and when there is no new owner to take responsibility on federal lands, the Bureau of Land Management steps in. Over the past few years staff from BLM's Fairbanks office have been working at two sites on Harrison Creek and Nome Creek in Int...
Mining companies spent an all-time record $103.9 million on exploration in Alaska in 2005, a big jump from the $70.8 million that was spent the previous year, and a long way from the relatively modest $27.6 million in 2003. At least 16 projects had exploration expenditures of $1 million or more. The companies employed 303 people in exploration projects in 2005, up from 184 in 2004 and 88 in 2003, according to the state's Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys. These impressive figures in Alaska reflected the 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,...
Heavy rains in late July and early August have dampened the number of wildlands fires that burned through Interior and the eastern part of Alaska, adversely affecting placer miners and metals prospectors attempting to complete field work this summer. Large fires in the eastern Interior, covering the Fortymile mining district, continue to smolder and creep, according to the Aug. 2 report from the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center, which is monitoring about 100 active fires in the state. So far, 520 fires in Alaska have...
