The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Despite owning a Pacific Rim deposit of gold, copper, zinc and silver worth some US$1.44 billion, Heatherdale Resources Ltd. has not completely escaped the financial paralysis gripping the junior mining sector. While the value of Heatherdale's stake of the Niblack Project has nearly doubled over the past year, its share price has plummeted more than 70 percent. Still, the Hunter Dickinson-affiliated junior has successfully pulled together funds to continue to advance the...
A recent letter distributed to the minerals industry by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys and the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development's Division of Economic Development is seeking faster and more efficient ways to gather, collate and publish Alaska's Annual Minerals Industry Report. The agencies are looking for feedback regarding what items the industry thinks is important to retain in the report, what items are not in the report that should be...
Ethos Gold Corp. recently wrapped up a second phase of 2012 exploration aimed at identifying a multimillion-ounce gold deposit on its Betty Property located in the White Gold district of Yukon Territory. The junior Sept. 19 reported completing 7,500 meters of reverse circulation drilling in 61 holes, and collecting 8,700 grid soil samples and 166 prospecting samples in 2012 that targeted the 17-square-kilometer (6.56 square miles) Mascot Creek gold-in-soil anomaly at Betty that Ethos outlined in 2011 and where the junior...
HL: NYSE Chairman: Ted Crumley President and CEO: Phillips Baker, Jr. Vice President, Exploration: Dean McDonald Plagued with a series of accidents that ultimately resulted in a year-long hiatus of operations at its Lucky Friday Mine in Idaho, Hecla Mining Company is leaning on Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska to sustain its strong financial position and fund a series of growth initiatives aimed at catapulting the 120-year-old mining company to a 15-million-ounce-per-year silver producer by 2017. "We will spend US$140...
An employment forecast published by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development in October pegged the state's mining sector job growth from 2010 to 2020 at 19 percent. That is second only to health care, at 31 percent, and outpacing the 12 percent average growth across all Alaska industries. Expansion of current operations coupled with prospects of building mines at the world-class Livengood and Donlin gold deposits were cited as drivers behind adding new miners t...
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...
Despite owning a Pacific Rim deposit of gold, copper, zinc and silver worth some US$1.44 billion, Heatherdale Resources Ltd. has not completely escaped the financial paralysis gripping the junior mining sector. While the value of Heatherdale's stake of the Niblack project has nearly doubled over the past year, its share price has plunged some 75 percent. Notwithstanding, the Hunter Dickinson-affiliated junior has successfully pulled together the funds it needs to continue to...
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 Fraser Institute's "Survey of Mining Companies, 2011/2012" was recently released to the public. This annual survey of exploration and mining companies gauges the pros and cons of working in various countries around the world. This year's results came from over 800 mineral industry companies working in 93 jurisdictions and representing cumulative 2011 exploration expenditures of over US$6.3 billion. The perception of Alaska from the companies that work here was about the...
Plagued with a series of accidents that ultimately resulted in a year-long hiatus of operations at its Lucky Friday Mine in Idaho, Hecla Mining Co. is leaning on Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska to sustain its strong financial position and fund a series of growth initiatives aimed at catapulting the 120-year-old mining company to a 15-million-ounce-per-year silver producer by 2017. "Hecla faced significant challenges in 2011; however, what is different today than at any...
There are some new statistics just out from the Alaska Miners Association that I thought you might like to see. For 2011, the Alaska mining industry accounted for 4,500 direct jobs and 9,000 indirect jobs. The industry paid US$620 million in payroll with the average salary totaling US$100,000 per year, which is double the statewide average for all sectors. The industry paid US$148 million in rents, royalties, taxes and other fees to the State of Alaska (up 170 percent over...
By consolidating ownership of the Niblack copper-gold-silver-zinc-silver project on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska, Heatherdale Resources Ltd. is taking long strides in advancing the volcanogenic massive sulfide project toward development. "After three years of successfully operating the Niblack project as a joint venture, the boards of directors of Heatherdale and Niblack (Niblack Mineral Development Inc.) have agreed that the best way to efficiently advance...
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...
The winter convention season is upon us, and the first of many such events is sponsored by the Alaska Miners Association each November. This year's convention was filled with the customary excitement. The papers were excellent and well received. Attendance was at record levels. The conversations were focused on the successes of the past season and the plans for next year. In brief, the convention was similar to all recent ones, save the banquet, which was unique. After 22...
While geological and engineering savvy have always been important components of advancing a promising prospect into viable operation, building a modern mine also requires a working knowledge of the complex social, biological and economic systems surrounding a project. "There is only one entity in Alaska that has any depth in all the broad technical areas that span mineral resource extraction - the University of Alaska," said Rajive Ganguli, chairman of the Department of Mining...
The implementation of Alaska's anti-degradation policy is an emerging battlefield in the ongoing conflict between environmental groups seeking maximum protection for waterways in the state and resource development companies hoping to prevent added layers of red tape and too stringent water quality guidelines. While strict water quality standards have been established on state and federal levels, many streams, rivers and lakes in Alaska have naturally occurring waters that...
Is the "Yukon Gold Rush" about to spill into Alaska? Since the 1896 discovery of gold on the aptly named Bonanza Creek sparked a stampede of fortune seekers to the rivers and streams of the Klondike, these world-class mining jurisdictions that share a common geological and mineralization history have been engaged in a cross-border rivalry of drawing prospectors and miners to their mineral-rich deposits. While 19th Century miners seeking their fortunes in Alaska's Fortymile...
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...
Despite the abundance of good news from the Alaska mining industry this month, there is an unusual black cloud hanging over the industry that threatens to rain on our parade of projects. Domestic and international markets got a severe case of the jitters during the recent United States debt crisis. The resulting economic uncertainty contributed to significant metal price volatility. For example, the London gold price jumped 20 percent, from about US$1,480 to US$1,770 during the month prior to the debt deferral and has since d...
As Alaska embarks on building a major new hydropower generation project, the question of whether the endeavor could spur development of hardrock mines in Interior and Southcentral Alaska arises. Gov. Sean Parnell signed energy legislation in mid-July aimed at moving the Susitna-Watana hydroelectric project toward licensing and construction with first power anticipated in 2023. Senate Bill 42, sponsored by the governor, allows the Alaska Energy Authority to advance the engineering and design of the Susitna Dam. "The Susitna Da...
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...
Zinc, the fourth most consumed metal in the world, is an essential building block of modern society and the dominant metal mined in Alaska over the past two decades. In 2010, 538,000 metric tons of zinc was mined at Teck Resources Ltd.'s Red Dog Mine and an additional 67,580 metric tons of zinc was recovered as a byproduct at Hecla Mining Co.'s Greens Creek silver mine, accounting for US$1.3 billion, or about 42 percent, of Alaska's US$3.1 billion of mineral production for...
Some months ago I was talking to a senior exploration manager regarding the lack of new discoveries worldwide in the last few years. The subject came up of just how rare a +1-million-ounce gold deposit really was. Then last week one of our project geologists lays a publication in front of me entitled "How Rare are One Million Ounce Gold Deposits?" by Natural Resources Holdings, Ltd. Although this publication comes at the question from the standpoint of which new deposits are...
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...
Can mining and Alaska co-exist? This query was the crux of Anglo American plc CEO Cynthia Carroll's message to Alaskans attending a March 3 gathering in Anchorage sponsored by the Resource Development Council. Carroll, whose company owns a 50 percent stake in the Pebble Project, said economic benefits from developing the enormous copper-gold-molybdenum project would emanate from Southwest Alaska and extend around the world, a message that resonated with the pro-development...
