The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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The unseasonably, interminably, unspeakably cold spring that is delaying mineral exploration and development work in Alaska this year is being mimicked by a financial chill that is affecting Alaska exploration efforts just like it is the rest of the world. Not to put too fine a point on it, but from a mineral exploration standpoint, Alaska is shaping up to be as dead as a doornail this summer (ever wonder where that saying came from ... but I digress.). How dead? Try this statistic on for size: Of the 49 exploration projects...
The state of the world's exploration industry was recently summarized in SNL Metal & Mining's annual "World Exploration Trends" publication, released at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention in Toronto. Not surprisingly, it painted a grim picture of 2014, a year we are all glad to have behind us. The statistics indicate that worldwide exploration expenditures declined a further 26 percent to $11.4 billion, compared with $15.2 billion in 2013 and...
Goldrich Mining Co. March 9 said Goldrich NyacAU Placer, a joint venture between Goldrich and NyacAU LLC will begin mining activities at the 23,000-acre Chandalar gold project later in the month. Work will begin with the resumption of stripping the overburden from gold-rich gravels. Goldrich reported that an initial pit has already been opened and a 1,800-foot haul road between the pit and the processing plant site is complete. Goldrich NyacAU Placer plans to use a winter haul road to transport seven 40-ton rock trucks to...
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...
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....
Goldrich Mining Co. Jan. 7 reported that Goldrich NyacAu Placer LLC, a 50-50 joint-venture between Goldrich and NyacAU LLC, spent roughly US$3.6 million on development activities at the Chandalar placer gold project in northern Alaska during 2014. The work included relocation of the placer recovery plant to a lower and broader part of the valley, construction of new water ponds and expansion of the plant. The expanded facility includes a new grizzly feeder with an expected...
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...
From the bold fortune hunters at the close of the 19th Century to the hopeful miners starring on 21st Century "reality" television programs, placer gold mining in Alaska conjures images of "Gold Rush." In truth, however, neither of these are accurate representations of the hard work and careful planning that lends to success at a contemporary placer gold mining operation in the Last Frontier. To paint a clearer picture of today's placer miner in the Far North State and to...
At the recent Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada meeting in Toronto, Dr. Richard Schodde, managing director of MinEx Consulting, presented some key factors which affect the time span between a mineral discovery and start-up of commercial mining. The study reviewed about 3,500 nonferrous metal deposits discovered between 1950 and 2013. Dr. Schodde's findings suggest that only 45 percent of all discoveries made since 1950 have turned into mines. The rate is...
Spurred by a record-setting pace at Kinross Gold Corp.'s Fort Knox Mine, Alaska gold production topped 1 million ounces during 2013, a golden milestone not achieved by Last Frontier gold miners since 1906. Though more than a century lies between these monumental milestones, they are linked by a discovery made by Felice Pedroni, an Italian immigrant better known to Alaskans as Felix Pedro. It was Pedro's gold find in an Interior Alaska stream in 1902 that sparked the Fairbanks...
As I write this summary, the annual Alaska Miners Association Convention and Trade Show is right around the corner (Nov. 6-8). Despite the softening commodities prices and generally bearish sentiment expressed by the mining industry throughout the year, in the past month or so, I have seen a refreshing resurgence of that single-most important quality of the Alaska mining industry - optimism! Despite bankruptcies, mine closures, negative feasibility studies and the exodus from...
Having enjoyed one of the warmest and driest summers on record, most of Alaska is now paying the piper as unseasonably cold and in many areas, snowy, weather takes hold of the state. With the termination dust come news that is both good and bad, a common theme in what is turning out to be a year of significant cutbacks for exploration, development and production plans. Earlier in 2013, I summarized the expected decrease in exploration expenditures this year. Now that the bulk...
Mineral consulting group Behre Dolbear Group Inc. released its 2013 "Ranking of Countries For Mining Investment Where Not to Invest." Since 1999 the group has compiled annual political risk assessments from key players in the global mining industry. Geology and mineral potential are not considered in this survey, since such potential is inherently indicated by the fact that mineral exploration, development, and mining activity are occurring in these countries. The only...
The mining industry just passed through one of the quietest year-end transitions in over a decade. The last month has seen few new public announcements regarding Alaska mineral occurrences but that relative silence is about to change. Within a week of completing this summary, the 2013 Cordilleran Roundup mineral convention will begin in Vancouver, B.C. This annual event is well-attended by individuals and corporations that are active in Alaska's mineral industry or looking to...
Alaska miners are on the cusp of topping 1 million ounces of gold produced, an annual milestone that has not been achieved since Gold Rush pioneers recovered copious amounts of alluvial aurum at the turn of the 20th Century. "When you think about what a million ounces of production means, it is all the more amazing that it was first accomplished by placer miners and a few lode miners, a few shovelfuls at a time, more than a century ago!" Curt Freeman, a well-known Alaska...
Over a year ago, Natural Resource Holdings published a report entitled "How Rare are One Million Ounce Gold Deposits?" At that time, the publisher ranked 296 gold deposits that have more than 1 million ounces of gold in all resources categories. The same firm recently published a follow-up report titled, "Global Gold Mines & Deposits 2012 Ranking." The report ranks gold deposits above 1 million ounces, whose numbers have increased to 439 deposits with total resources of...
In a long overdue step to bring Alaska into the 21st Century, state and federal agencies met in late June to discuss collaborative funding strategies for Alaska's Statewide Digital Mapping Initiative, an enterprise designed to create Alaska's first high-quality digital topographic map. The roundtable was convened by Alaska Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell and the Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, U.S. Department of Interior. Alaska remains the only state in the United States...
Although spring took its good old time in arriving across much of Alaska, the mining industry's busy summer exploration and development season has arrived. Five of Alaska's major mines reported strong first-quarter operating results, and two new companies acquired exploration properties in Alaska in the last month. These new acquisitions are not expected to be the last, as the prolonged venture capital drought continues with no end in sight. The news this month is sparse, prim...
The winds of change are once again blowing across Alaska's mineral industry, not only because the industry is gearing up for another busy summer season, but also because the mining investment climate has turned from cautiously optimistic to decidedly undecided. The sea change occurred steadily and without a lot of fanfare between mid-January and mid-March. As is always the case, good projects continue to advance with those that are drilling and adding resources or moving throu...
NyacAU LLC and Goldrich Mining Co. inked a deal in early April to create a joint-venture company to mine rich alluvial gold deposits that blanket the valleys of the vast Chandalar land package some 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Fairbanks, Alaska. Goldrich brings to the newly formed partnership the placer potential of the 22,840-acre Chandalar Mining District, including a quarter-million-ounce drill-tested alluvial gold deposit on Little Squaw Creek and a multitude of...
I was tempted to make a few 2012 predictions now that 2011 is nearly gone, but I decided not to when I came across the following lines and was struck by how closely they mimic our current mining climate: "On a more local level, several old Alaska properties have been rejuvenated by new players to the Alaska mineral scene. Reserve announcements have touched off renewed land acquisitions and property negotiations. Contracts for technical personnel, drill rigs, helicopters and...
As a busy year in the Alaska and global mining industry starts to slide closer to its end, I figured now was a good time to gaze into my crystal ball (rutilated quartz, of course) to see what next year might bring. While strong metals prices promise another busy year for Alaska, a dose of global reality was provided by the financial giant Ernst & Young, who recently published a list of the top 10 business risks for the mining and metals industry for the coming year. Resource n...
As termination dust settles over Alaska, the diversity of mineral exploration, development and production news this month covers the entire spectrum of mining industry activities. The last of the seasonal early-stage exploration projects are reporting in, a major producing company has entered the state for the first time, Alaska finished its first off-shore mineral lease process in more than a decade, several projects reported on resource definition and feasibility studies, a gold deposit was sold, a ballot initiative aimed...
Every year about this time, I notice new ways to gauge just how busy the Alaska mining industry is. This year, it is the silence. Not the amazing silence of a mountaintop in the Alaska Range but the virtual and literal silence being practiced by the people who make up the industry. In an age where communications options are abundant and the opportunity to be "connected" is a 24-7 reality, people in the Alaska mining industry go silent in the depths of summer, primarily...
The last month has seen a massive transition in Alaska from planning to execution, from getting ready to go to the field to boots on the outcrop and drills in the ground. Each year the hustle and bustle of the Alaska summer exploration season subsumes virtually everything else (except the Stanley Cup) as field programs launch around the state. This year has been no different with base metal programs in the Brooks Range, gold programs in Interior Alaska and the Seward...
