The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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It is somewhat ironic that the lithium-ion batteries that power the growing number of zero emissions electric vehicles traveling global highways are driving the need for carbon – graphitic carbon to be exact. Despite lithium's top billing, lithium-ion batteries require roughly eight times more graphite. Graphite Creek in western Alaska hosts huge stores of graphitic carbon and Graphite One Inc., the company advancing this project, has initiated a pilot-scale program aimed a...
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) have teamed up to introduce bipartisan legislation aimed at addressing America's "Achilles' heel" – a heavy dependence on foreign countries for its growing mineral needs. "Our nation's mineral security is a significant, urgent, and often ignored challenge. Our reliance on China and other nations for critical minerals costs us jobs, weakens our economic competitiveness, and leaves us at a geopolitical d...
As is usually the case this time of year, news about Alaska mineral activities is a bit sparse this month as planning activities are at flank speed ahead of next month's surge in field activities. That said, there has been a blizzard of mineral industry data released recently that has both direct and indirect applications to the Alaska mineral industry. First off, some internally generated data. Current public and private budget announcements suggest Alaska's exploration...
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...
Graphite One Inc. March 26 reported an update resource with more graphite at higher grades, a good sign that the Graphite Creek deposit in western Alaska could provide a much needed American supply of this carboniferous material required to make the batteries powering electric vehicles. "Graphite Creek continues to show potential to be a significant domestic source of critical materials for electric vehicle batteries, power storage and various other critical and strategic end...
Graphite One Inc. March 18 reported that all six holes drilled last year at Graphite Creek, a large-flake graphite deposit about 37 miles (60 kilometers) north of Nome in western Alaska, cut sections topping greater than 10 percent graphite The best hole, 18GC026, cut 5.8 meters of 8.06 percent graphite from 27.8 meters; and 16.3 meters of 11.93 percent graphite from 44 meters. While this hole contained the widest intercept when considering both grade and width, all of the...
Graphite One Resources Inc. March 13 announced that it has received requisite approvals to change its name to Graphite One Inc. and consolidate its shares on a 10-to-1 basis. While developing Graphite Creek property in western Alaska is still a part of Graphite One's plans, the new name reflects Graphite One's transition to a technology and advanced materials manufacturing company that refines graphite mined at Graphite Creek into the materials needed for lithium-ion...
He who controls battery metals and the evolving energy storage technology controls the world of industrial power in the 21st century auto and energy storage industries. This is the message Benchmark Mineral Intelligence Managing Director Simon Moores delivered to the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Moores, a global authority on lithium-ion batteries and the metals that go into them, was invited to testify by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Lisa...
In addition to being a past producer and a future source of most of the 35 minerals and metals considered critical to the United States, Alaska currently contributes a globally significant amount of one of these vital metals – germanium. While not a widely known metal, germanium has optical qualities that make it an important ingredient in fiber-optics, infrared optics, electronics and solar energy systems. "The extensive use of germanium for military and commercial a...
With nearly indistinguishable physical and chemical properties, niobium and tantalum are almost always found together in nature. Both are also critical to the defense, energy and high-tech sectors in the United States, but neither are mined domestically. For these reasons, the United States Geological Survey considers these transition metals "indispensable twins" that are critical to America's economic and strategic wellbeing. "Niobium and tantalum are transition metals that...
With a melting point of 5,756 degrees Fahrenheit and a heat-stable crystalline structure, rhenium is extremely resistant to both heat and wear. This durability makes it a vital element in superalloys used in jet and industrial gas turbine engines. "The high-temperature properties of rhenium allow turbine engines to be designed with finer tolerances and operate at temperatures higher than those of engines constructed with other materials," the United States Geological Survey...
Underscoring the interconnected nature of the global mining market, not 48 hours after the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act was signed into law, the mining industry began wondering out loud how they were going to produce rare earth element, tungsten, tantalum and molybdenum in the near future. Why these metals and why the worry now? Because one of the many impacts the Defense Authorization Act will have on the U.S. economy is its ban on the U.S. Department of...
While not the flashiest of the 35 minerals on the United States Geological Survey's critical list, barite plays an essential role in America's energy sector. Barite got its name from the Ancient Greek word for heavy, barús, and it is the high specific gravity that earned this mineral its name that makes it a critical mineral. Added to drill mud, a solution that serves multiple purposes in bore drilling, barite's weight helps maintain the integrity of the drill hole and...
Graphite One Resources Inc. Aug. 7 announced the start of a field program to a pre-feasibility study for the company's Graphite Creek deposit about 37 miles north of Nome, Alaska. A resource estimate calculated early in 2017 outlines 744,000 metric tons of graphite in 10.32 million metric tons of indicated resource grading 7.2 percent graphitic carbon; plus 4.7 million metric tons of graphite in 71.24 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 7 percent graphitic...
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...
A vital ingredient in stainless steel and superalloys, chromium is considered by the United States Geological Survey as "one of the Nation's most important strategic and critical materials." "Because there is no viable substitute for chromium in the production of stainless steel and because the United States has small chromium resources, there has been concern about domestic supply during every national military emergency since World War I," the USGS explains. Rich chromite...
Graphite One Resources Inc. June 11 named Stanley Foo as chief operating officer of the company's wholly-owned Alaskan subsidiary, Graphite One (Alaska) Inc. With more than 35 years in the mining sector, including 21 years in Alaska, Foo has served as president and general manager for Donlin Gold LLC, general manager for Alaska Gold Torrent, chief geologist and general superintendent for Cortez Gold Mines (Nevada) and project manager roles with Placer Dome and Barrick Gold...
Graphite One Resources Inc. May 28 announced that it has raised C$2.1 million, which will help fund exploration and development of its Graphite Creek project north of Nome, Alaska, and for general working capital purposes. This non-brokered private placement financing involved the issuance of 30.62 million units at C7 cents each. Each unit consists of a Graphite One share and a transferable warrant that entitles the holder to purchase one company share for C12 cents for up to...
One of the most common complaints I hear from companies and individuals working in the mineral industry in Alaska is our deplorable lack of modern, usable-scale digital geophysical and geologic maps. How bad is it? Consider this: the U.S. Geological Survey has estimated that less than 2 percent of Alaska has acceptable geophysical data coverage, and less than 20 percent has been geologically mapped at a scale useful to evaluate the state's mineral resources. Nobody will deny...
In a report published in December, the United States Geological Survey defined critical minerals as non-fuel minerals or mineral materials essential to the economic and national security of the United States; vulnerable to supply chain disruptions; and serve an essential function in the manufacturing of a product, the absence of which would have significant consequences for the U.S. economy or security. Using this definition, USGS has identified 35 minerals critical to the...
Cobalt is an essential ingredient to optimizing the performance of batteries in the growing number of electric vehicles on global highways, yet essentially none of this battery metal is mined in the United States. With at least one advanced stage exploration project in Alaska looking into the potential of producing cobalt alongside its copper, America's 49th State could provide a domestic source for this critical metal. In its annual report, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2018,...
The surge in production of electric vehicles, and the batteries that power them, is driving the price of cobalt higher. A key ingredient in the cathodes of the batteries powering the growing number of EVs on the road today, cobalt has rocketed from around US$25 per pound a year ago to more than US$40/lb in recent weeks. This higher price, however, has electric carmakers looking for alternative recipes for rechargeable battery cathodes that use less cobalt yet delivers similar...
The six platinum group elements – platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium, and osmium – are amongst the rarest metals on Earth. This scarcity, coupled with PGEs' uses in the automotive, petrochemical and electronics industries, has this group of metals firmly planted on the United States Geological Survey's critical minerals list. "PGEs are indispensable to many industrial applications but are mined in only a few places," USGS inked in a 2017 report on platinum gro...
Geologists familiar with Alaska already know the Far North State is a great place to explore for critical minerals and metals such as graphite, rare earths, platinum metals, cobalt and tin. A new report published by the U.S. Geological Survey, however, indicates that Alaska may be richer in these and other minerals and metals vital to the economy and security of the United States than previously realized. Working alongside the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical...
