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 93
11 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for the Palmer copper-zinc-silver-gold project in Southeast Alaska. A roughly US$9 million exploration program outlined by Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. on May 10 proposes not only the annual tradition of resource expansion and new discoveries but also plans to provide the first peek into the economics of mining the copper- and zinc-rich volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits found there so far. Being carried out by a joint venture...
With the holidays in the rear view mirror and the convention season half-way over, mining operators in Alaska, big and small, are processing their paperwork for the upcoming field season. The major properties work around the calendar, but when it comes to placer operations and exploration projects, the time for 2018 field season planning is at hand. All the signs are that 2018 will be the best season in five years. Although the stock market is rising steeply, the incremental... Full story
A group of diverse global-scale mining companies hailing from Australia, Japan, and the United States are quietly exploring a relatively small region of Alaska's Interior. Two of these international players - Sumitomo Metal Mining and Newmont Mining Corp. - are seeking gold in the Pogo region of the Tintina Gold Belt. Melbourne-based MMG Ltd., on the other hand, is seeking nickel in the Wrangellia Terrane, a promising band of rocks immediately south of the legendary gold... Full story
As gold exploration cools globally, the search for the precious metal is once again heating up in the larger Pogo Mine region of Interior Alaska. One of the reasons this region continues to be a hotbed of gold exploration is Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo LLC’s success in finding and expanding new deposits of high-grade gold on its Pogo Mine property, which anchors the Goodpaster Mining District. Another dozen promising prospects found beyond the borders of the Pogo Mine claims a...
It is high summer in Alaska and the mining industry is busy breaking rocks, drilling holes, collecting baseline data, making upgrades to mine facilities and producing metal and coal across the state. The effects of declining prices for metals are starting to be felt at the operating metal mines and except for a few projects, the exploration sector continues to wallow in the doldrums, which have plagued the industry since 2013. That said, the tire-kicking of earlier this...
Great American Minerals Exploration Inc. has closed a landmark option agreement with Sumitomo Metal Mining that consolidates the Monte Cristo and Uncle Sam gold properties into a single 55,465-acre project about 40 miles west of the Pogo Mine in Interior Alaska. GAME, as the company is commonly known, is no stranger to the Pogo region. In fact, the privately held Nevada corporation staked its first claims there in 1997 and has held onto a position in the area ever since. This... Full story
Mineral exploration spending in Alaska hit an apex of US$365 million in 2011, but as venture capital for mining explorers dried these expenditures plummeted 78 percent to US$80 million in 2015. However, rising gold prices and a loosening of venture capital in 2016 seems to have marked an end to a painfully long bear market for mining explorers in Alaska. “After taking head shots for the past four years, the industry suddenly came to life over the past month, with new budgets,...
After eight years of battling anti-mining policies being promulgated by the Obama Administration, the National Mining Association is cautiously optimistic about the positive change in the tone and substance of U.S. resource development policies since Donald Trump has moved into the White House. “The November election ushered in a surprisingly swift and dramatic change, particularly in the way people in Washington D.C. view natural resources,” NMA President and CEO Hal Quinn said during a June 28 keynote speech at the Res... Full story
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...
Heatherdale Resources Ltd. April 1 reported that Patrick Smith has resigned as president and CEO and as a director of the company. Heatherdale Chairman Scott Cousens will serve as interim president and CEO of Heatherdale. Heatherdale is focused on Niblack, a volcanogenic massive sulfide project located on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. "Pat's experience and understanding of Southeast Alaska was of particular value over the past five years during the exploration ph...
Since buying out its mining rival Inmet Mining Corp. in early 2013, First Quantum Minerals Ltd. has shown a keen interest in Alaska's copper potential. With seven mines in operation and five mineral projects under development, First Quantum is a growing, diversified miner with a particular focus on copper. Its operating mines and development projects are located in Africa, Australia, Finland, Spain, Turkey and Latin America. Yet the company has no foothold in North America....
Valued at US$4 billion per year, Alaska's mining industry is as healthy as it has ever been. Much of this success is owed to the Alaska Miners Association, which celebrated its 75th anniversary during its annual convention and trade show held in Anchorage Nov. 3-9. The anniversary event also highlighted many of the challenges the association and its constituents face going forward. Under the stewardship of AMA, Alaska boasts six large-scale operating mines churning out gold,...
A coalition of 38 companies and organizations, representing a broad spectrum of America's economy, is urging lawmakers on Capitol Hill to dust off pending critical minerals legislation and send a version to the White House for President Barack Obama's signature. "Updating our geologic data, reducing delays in permitting, bolstering research, and encouraging efficient use can pay dividends for future generations," explains the group pressing for critical minerals legislation....
Ending a streak of robust growth, mineral exploration spending in Alaska during 2012 took a downward turn from the record US$300 million spent a year earlier. "More advanced-stage projects that added ounces or pounds to their resource base had a better go of it than early-stage exploration projects which have taken a hard right cross to the jaw!" Curt Freeman, a well-known Alaska geologist and president of Fairbanks-based Avalon Development, observed in September. This blow de...
Northwest Territories, a vast expanse of mountains, forests and tundra, has been slower to experience the surge in mineral exploration and development activities that has swept across Yukon Territory and Nunavut in recent years. But the mining industry is turning its attention to the 1.17 million square kilometers (431,162 square miles) Arctic land - roughly two-thirds the size of Alaska - that lies in between. Permits have been issued for new areas of exploration and claims are being staked in places where such activity has...
British Columbia, Yukon Territory and Alaska - the headliners of the Association for Mining Exploration British Columbia's annual Mineral Exploration Roundup - tallied more than C$1 billion of mineral exploration spending and some C$12.7 billion in mine production in 2011. "We are going to talk in the next three sessions about the wrinkly parts of western North America - B.C., Yukon and Alaska. The geological phenomena that has created these mountain chains that we have in...
Whether it is multimillion-ounce gold discoveries, copper deposits that measure in the billions of pounds or massive ore-bodies of 20 percent zinc, Alaska is renowned for its mammoth deposits. The prospect of finding another Donlin, Pebble or Red Dog continues to draw explorers to this vast and underexplored corner of the United States. In the Survey of Mining Companies: 2010/2011, conducted by the Fraser Institute, top executives from 494 mining and mineral exploration...
A March ruling by U.S. District Judge John W. Sedwick, which reinstated the so-called "Roadless Rule" in the Tongass National Forest, promised an early end to Ucore Rare Metal Inc.'s 2011 exploration at its Bokan Mountain rare earth elements project on Prince of Wales Island and left several other Southeast Alaska mineral projects needing special permission to carry out planned drilling. "The implementation of the 'roadless rule' in the Tongass National Forest by Judge...
The Pebble Partnership - an equally-owned joint venture formed between Northern Dynasty Ltd. and Anglo American plc to advance the exploration and development of a colossal copper-gold-molybdenum deposit in Southwest Alaska - has approved a budget of US$91 million for 2011, a 25 percent increase over the US$72.9 million spent at the project in 2010. This extensive program will largely center on the ongoing environmental studies and the engineering work needed to complete a...
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. has hung a "for sale" sign on its 50 percent stake in the enormous Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project. Since Wardrop Engineering Inc. completed an appraisal of the Southwest Alaska deposit, executives have touted the company's merits as a takeover target. "Given the state of the current industry, the competition in the industry and the commodity market conditions we believe that going forward there will be competitive interest in Pebble from a...
Miners, explorers, suppliers and others interested in Alaska's mining industry got a generous helping of surf and turf during the Alaska Miners Association 2010 Annual Convention and Trade Show, held the first week of November at the Sheraton Anchorage Hotel. Mining and Fisheries, the theme of this year's convention, also was the subject of a two-day course held Nov. 1-2. The class provided miners with information on the importance of the fishing industry to the economy and...
As mining heats up in Yukon Territory, professionals from around the globe are finding new roles in the region and employing a host of unique experiences and perspectives in pursuit of exploration, development and production of the territory's minerals. This growing international contingent covers the industry spectrum and hails from around the globe. Their presence is most evident in exploration camps scattered across the Yukon; however, the new manager of Yukon's sole producer, Capstone Mining Corp.'s Minto Mine, is a...
From its search for White Gold-style mineralization in the Fortymile placer gold district just across the border from the Klondike in eastern Alaska to exploration of the Pyramid copper-gold project some 900 miles, or 1,450 kilometers, to the southwest, Full Metal Minerals Ltd. returned to the Alaska mining exploration scene in 2010. The Vancouver B.C.-based junior also worked with fellow junior and senior mining companies on projects across Alaska's vast expanse. Beyond...
Government and industry officials agree that mining exploration and development in recent years have brought substantial positive change to Nunavut, Canada's newest and least explored territory. Ongoing and new exploration, however, are rapidly advancing understanding of this vast Arctic land's mineral potential. "In this industry, it seems that all of the best and worst of times were compressed into less than two years (between 2008 and 2010)," said Peter Taptuna, minister of Economic Development & Transportation for the Gov...
MTB: TSX-V President and CEO: Frank Kamermans Director: Edward Kruchkowski, P. Geo, P. Geol. Mountain Boy Minerals Ltd. is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on mineral prospects in north-central British Columbia near Stewart, B.C. Mountain Boy owns a 49 percent interest in the Silver Coin mineral claims (19 percent is optioned to Pinnacle Mines Ltd.), a 26.95 percent interest in the Indi mineral claims and a 29.4 percent interest in the Kansas mineral claims. These 26 contiguous claims cover 1,255 hectares and...
