The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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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...
The owners of Alaska’s five large metal mines – Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo, Hecla Mining Company, Kinross Gold Corp, Teck Resources Ltd. and Coeur Mining Inc. – accounted for nearly half the US$92 million of exploration spending in the state during 2014 and similar investments by these companies is providing solid footing for the Far North state’s mineral exploration sector this year. Avalon Development President Curt Freeman said he is seeing more mining majors shopping for d... Full story
Although news from the mining industry is generally limited this time of year, several items of import over the past month bear discussion. Alaska suffered a tragedy with the recent passing of mineral industry giant Chuck Hawley, one of Alaska's most talented and respected geologists. Although Chuck loved the mineral exploration game, he was far more than a geologist to many of us and to the state. His plus-50-year love affair with Alaska spanned some of the state's most...
Over the past month, three of Alaska's large mines reported strong quarterly results; two projects in advanced permitting and pre-feasibility reported recent progress; and three exploration properties changed hands. The latter is a trend putting 2015 on course to be one of the most active years for new acquisitions in the past decade. Placer gold production has all but ceased for the year; however, output from Alaska's placer mines is not likely to be known with any certainty...
Higher grades, increased milling rates and improved recoveries add up to a banner year for both the Kensington and Greens Creek mines in Southeast Alaska. Kensington, the youngest of the two mines located near Alaska's capital city of Juneau, got off to a slow start when owner Coeur Mining Inc. was finally able to begin operations in 2010. In recent years, however, the mine has steadily increased its gold output while reducing the costs to mine the precious metal -...
Earlier this month, the Alaska Miners Association held its annual convention in Anchorage amid plummeting metals prices and an over-all atmosphere of economic uncertainty now stretching into its fourth year. Individuals from around North America and beyond were present and conversations outside of the technical sessions seemed to gravitate toward how best to climb out of the doldrums that seem to grip the mining industry on a global scale. One individual was heard to say that...
A four-year rout in metals, coal and oil prices left Alaska's mining community digging deep for reasons to be optimistic during their annual gathering at the Alaska Miners Association convention in Anchorage. While depressed metals prices naturally cut into the bottom lines of those companies mining gold, silver, zinc, lead and coal in Alaska, the effects reverberate across the entire mining community. In order to adjust to lower metals prices, the producers have cut back on...
HL: NYSE President and CEO: Phillips Baker Jr. Chairman: Ted Crumley Senior VP, Exploration: Dean McDonald The low cost of producing silver at the Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska is helping Hecla Mining Co. weather low metals prices. In addition to Greens Greek, the Idaho-based miner operates the Lucky Friday silver mine in Idaho and the Casa Berardi gold mine in Quebec. In June, Hecla bought Revett Mining Co. in an all-share transaction valued at roughly US$19 million. Hecla now owns the Rock Creek mine project in... Full story
Hecla Mining Co. Oct. 20 reported production of 2.59 million ounces of silver and 43,635 oz. of gold during the third quarter 2015. The Greens Creek Mine produced 1.99 million oz. of silver during the third quarter, a 5.3 percent increase over the same period of 2014. Gold production at the Southeast Alaska operation was 14,376 oz., 6.3 percent higher than the third quarter of last year. The increased precious metals production was a result of higher recoveries and tonnage,...
More gold and silver at lower costs is a common theme for the Greens Creek, Kensington and Fort Knox mines in 2015 and an important component of keeping these operations economically viable for their respective owners - Hecla Mining Co., Coeur Mining Inc. and Kinross Gold Corp. "Cost control is always a priority and ensures that operating mines can succeed even during downtimes in commodities cycles," said Karen Mathias, managing consultant, Council of Alaska Producers. This...
Hecla Mining Co. July 16 said its Greens Creek Mine produced 1,856,125 million ounces of silver during the second quarter, a 10 percent increase over the 1,689,183 oz. recovered from the Southeast Alaska operation during the same period of 2014. Hecla attributes this higher silver production to improved recoveries and grade, partially offset by slightly lower tonnage. Silver recoveries increased 8 percent, or 5.6 percentage points, to 75.4 percent compared to 2014 due to...
Over the past month Alaska's mining industry has suffered a perfect storm of manmade and natural issues that read like something from a pulp fiction novel. On the man-made side of the ledger, gold, silver, copper, and lead prices have all hit 5-year lows and zinc prices continue to slide lower. Mining equity markets are still in severe decline, making it extremely challenging for junior exploration companies to raise the risk capital necessary to explore their Alaska...
I recently returned from the Geological Society of Nevada's once-every-five-years Symposium in Reno and was surprised to learn a number of things regarding Alaska, despite the symposium's tight focus on the Great Basin of the western United States. First off, mineral exploration guru Brent Cook presented information suggesting we have reached and are "bumping along" the bottom of the current metals market slump. Reminded me of an overloaded fixed-wing aircraft bumping down the...
Alaska miners are taking U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to task over recent comments she made that suggest mining is prolific on federal lands in Alaska. Following a speech to the Center for American Progress, a liberal think-tank based in Washington, D.C., Jewell told Alaska Public Radio Network Correspondent Liz Ruskin that "much" of mining in Alaska is done on federal lands. The Alaska Miners Association said this assertion contradicts what is actually... Full story
With a mild winter for most of Alaska behind us and an early spring in progress over much of the state, spring fever has once again laid its grip on the mining industry. A number of exploration and development programs are slated for the summer season, suggesting the mining industry has finally started to rise from the three-year miasma that has gripped it worldwide. A couple of macro-scale items also are pointing toward a more robust industry. The U. S. Geological Survey's...
Hecla Mining Co. April 12 reported that its silver production for the first quarter of 2015 was 2.9 million ounces, a 16 percent increase over the same period last year. Some 2.0 million ounces of this silver was recovered from the Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska, a 14 percent increase from the first three months of 2014. "Greens Creek, with higher grades and recoveries, led another strong operating quarter for Hecla - silver production is among the highest in our...
Environmentalists are often perceived as watermelons (Green on the outside and Red on the inside) by the business community because of their total disregard of the social costs associated with their advocacy. Certainly, it seems fundamental that they freely embrace fiscal impact in their guerilla attacks; however, implying that they are committed Communists overstates the motivation of all but the most extreme individuals. For me, the definition of a Communist is someone... Full story
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... Full story
Slipping metals prices and investors' ongoing reluctance to risk venture capital in the junior mining sector is hitting Alaska's mineral exploration sector hard; and the Far North state is not the only mining jurisdiction reeling from this one-two punch. "After another year of strong headwinds in 2014, and with lower demand and overproduction continuing to depress metals prices, the mining industry's outlook for 2015 is unpromising at best," SNL Metals & Mining wrote recently... Full story
Alaska and Yukon Territory share more than a 750-mile border in the eyes of the 485 mining executives that participated in Fraser Institute's Survey of Mining Companies 2014. This group of miners, explorers and consultants ranked these northern neighbors as two of the richest mineral jurisdictions on earth but found certain mining policies in each a cause for concern. As a result, Yukon was ninth and Alaska was 10th on the survey's investment attractiveness index, a measure... Full story
Amid the volatile metals markets that have become the norm in the past year, miners, developers, explorers, prospectors and investors met in Vancouver at the end of January for the annual Cordilleran Roundup mining convention. The mood was decidely positive, and having seen a lot of "whistling in the cemetary" at this convention in the past, I know the difference between false bravado and contagious optimism. Perhaps it was the stabilization of copper prices after a nine month... Full story
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...
Greens Creek Mine is preparing for the next stage of its long-running tenure as a low-cost primary silver producing mine in Southeast Alaska. The underground mine, located on Admiralty Island about 18 miles southwest of Juneau, extracts ore from a volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit with an unusually high silver content. The mine produces silver, along with zinc, lead and gold as by-products. Idaho-based Hecla Mining Co. owns the mine, which has operated for most of the quarter-century since its operations began in 1989....
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.... Full story
Thanks to higher grades and improved recoveries, Greens Creek and Kensington, the two producing mines located in the Alaska Panhandle, reported strong output in 2014 and outstanding results for the fourth quarter. Record output at Greens Creek At Greens Creek which is owned and operated by Idaho-based Hecla Mining Co., about 360 full-time workers carved some 7.83 million ounces of silver and 58,753 oz gold, as well as lead and zinc concentrates from the volcanogenic massive sulphide mine in 2014, milling ore at an average rat... Full story
