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 332
Whether it is the exponential growth in electric vehicles traveling global highways, the massive need for storing energy at solar and wind electrical generating facilities, or cutting the cords on our electronic devices, the world is becoming increasingly dependent on lithium-ion batteries. And this is driving up the demand for cobalt, a critical safety ingredient in the cathodes of these energy storage cells. "Globally, the leading use is in the manufacture of cathode materia...
Despite COVID-19 restrictions and protocols changing how it must conduct its business, even temporarily shutting down operations at its Casa Berardi Mine in Quebec and San Sebastian Mine in Mexico, Hecla Mining Company now expects to produce more gold and silver than it forecast at the onset of 2020. Based on production through the first three quarters, the Idaho-based miner now expects to produce nearly 13 million ounce of silver and 210,000 oz of gold this year, up from the...
Rising metal prices are helping to soften the blow COVID-19 has landed on Alaska's mining sector in 2020. While mining has been deemed an essential business in Alaska, which has helped keep the six large mines in the state operating during the pandemic, measures put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19 are weighing on production at some of these operations. Efforts to flatten the curve on the spread of coronavirus also disrupted several winter drill programs in Alaska,...
Hecla Mining Company July 10 said silver production at its Greens Creek silver mine exceeded expectations during the first half of 2020, due to the higher grade ore mined there. The Southeast Alaska operation produced 5.53 million ounces of silver during the first six months of this year, a 20% increase over the 4.61 million oz produced during the first half of 2019. During the three months ending June 30, Greens Creek produced 2.75 million oz of silver, a 16% increase over...
While the COVID-19 outbreak is unique in terms of the government and societal response, Hecla Mining Company has dealt with pandemics over its 129-year history and had a plan that was implemented early on at its five mines in the United States, Canada and Mexico. "Hecla's quick response to the COVID-19 outbreak began in February and has protected our workforce, enabling them to continue to safely operate our mines," said Hecla Mining President and CEO Phillips Baker, Jr. Due...
In the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak and following the cancellation of the Alaska Miners Association 2020 Spring Convention in Fairbanks, AMA Executive Director Deantha Crockett takes the time to answer 20 questions on how the pandemic is affecting Alaska's mining sector and the association; Alaska's economy; state and federal mining policy; and due process for the Pebble Mine project. Q. Alaska Miners Association recently made the difficult decision to cancel its spring...
Hecla Mining Company March 19 announced that it has taken measures to ensure its silver and gold operations in Alaska, Idaho, Mexico and Quebec can weather COVID-19, along with the market and logistical disruptions that come with it. These de-risking measures include: • Securing contracts that guarantee a US$16 per ounce silver price and US$1,450/oz gold price for the second quarter of this year, and US$1,650/oz gold for third quarter, while maintaining exposure to the u...
The incredibly interesting history of Juneau is a tale of gold, the persistence of a Tlingit chief and a series of chance events that allowed Alaska's future capital to grow and leave its mark on history, a story that continues to be written today. Juneau is home to some of the earliest large-scale gold mining sites in Alaska. But, if you were to ask the pioneers who founded the future capital that their settlement would become the seat of government in a future state of...
Continuing a tradition of growth, Hecla Mining Company has increased its reserves of silver, lead, and zinc to historic levels. Hecla goes into 2020 with 37.08 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 212.2 million ounces of silver, 2 billion pounds of zinc, 1.6 billion lb of lead and 2.71 million oz of gold. Hecla replaced the 12.6 million oz of silver produced from ore containing 15.4 million oz and increased reserves by 11 percent during 2019, despite u...
Hecla Mining Company Jan. 7 reported that its Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska produced 9.9 million ounces of silver in 2019, a 24 percent jump over the 8 million oz produced the prior year and the highest annual production since the Idaho-based company bought full ownership of the operation in 2008. Greens Creek also produced 56,624 oz of gold last year, a 10 percent increase compared to the 51,493 oz produced in 2018. The Southeast Alaska mine also produces appreciable...
In November 1996, a little over 23 years ago, I began writing quarterly mining news summaries for the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG). Shortly after that, I began writing monthly summaries for this publication's ancestor, Mining News Alaska, and have continued both monthly, quarterly and annual mining news summaries ever since. With this summary, I have written my last Alaska update for North of 60 Mining News. When I wrote my first summary, Greens Creek was milling only...
As the year winds down, mineral industry evaluations for 2019 are being published at a rapid rate. One of the most interesting such global reviews is EY Global Mining and Metals' annual "risk radar" for mining and metals, outlining what mining companies perceive as the top ten risks facing them in the near future. This publication stated that, for the second straight year, "social license to operate" remains the number one risk facing mining companies in 2020. This was...
An abnormally long fall has allowed the Alaska mining industry to extend seasonal work well into mid-October, creating a lot of new information about project work conducted around the state. Exploration efforts, in particular, benefitted from this additional field time. Based on information available to date, 2019 exploration expenditures are expected to be in the $135-140 million range, well ahead of the $120-125 million exploration spending tracked for 2018. In addition,...
Hecla Mining Company Oct. 7 reported that its Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska produced 2.54 million ounces of silver during the third quarter, a 36 percent increase over the 1.88 million oz produced during the same period of 2018. Through the first nine months of 2019, Greens Creek has produced 7.15 million oz of silver. This is up 24 percent compared to the first three quarters of last year and puts the Southeast Alaska operation on pace to produce 9.5 million oz of...
As the rest of the country suffers through the Dog Days of summer, Alaska is approaching the end of a topsy-turvy summer season that saw unseasonably hot, dry weather in some parts of the state during some parts of the summer, while other parts of the state have seen record rainfall and unseasonably early snowfall. Gold prices have skyrocketed over the $1,500 per ounce mark and silver prices have moved strongly up, now trading at a one-year high. However, copper and zinc are a...
Hecla Mining Company Aug. 6 reported that drilling at Greens Creek has upgraded and expanded the resources in East Ore, NWW and 9A, zones. East Ore is a zone that comes to surface at the Big Sore outcrop that led to the Greens Creek discovery. Going into 2019, this zone continued to host 454,800 metric tons of indicated resource averaging 12.6 ounces per ton (5.73 million oz) silver, 7.86 percent (35,760 tons) zinc, 2.94 percent (13,390 tons) lead and 0.089 oz/t (40,600 oz) go...
Hecla Mining Company sees higher grades at its Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska as a catalyst for higher companywide silver production this year. "Silver production at Greens Creek continued to be strong due to higher grades, so we are increasing our estimates for silver production for the year," said Hecla Mining CEO Phillips Baker, Jr. Through the first half of 2019, the Greens Creek Mine has produced 4.6 million ounces of silver, which accounts for roughly 77 percent...
Earlier this month Reuters reported that several agencies within the U.S. Federal government were "rapidly assessing" our domestic ability to mine and refine rare earth elements and utilize those 17 super cool elements in value-added products needed for a wide and ever-growing array of consumer and national defense products. Not surprisingly, mining industry officials demurred when quizzed about supplying information on where rare elements might be mined in the U.S. and how...
Hecla Mining Company July 18 reported that its Greens Creek Mine produced 2.37 million ounces of silver during the second quarter of 2019, a 19 percent increase over the same period of 2018. This marks the highest silver production at the Southeast Alaska operation in three years. Greens Creek also churned out 13,256 oz of gold during the quarter ending June 30, which is down 3 percent compared to a year ago. The Idaho-based miner said higher ore grades due to mining...
In the famous words of Sherlock Holmes, the game is afoot! After seasonally slower news from Alaska's mining industry in March and April, the dam has broken with over two dozen Alaska mining project news releases issued in the last month. Including those projects moving forward that have not released their 2019 plans, Alaska has become a very busy place under the sun. All of our major metal mines reported strong performances in the first quarter, several of Alaska's most...
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...
Hecla Mining Company April 17 reported that its Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska produced 2.23 million ounces of silver during the first quarter of 2019, a 17 percent increase over the first three months of 2018. The Southeast Alaska operation also churned out 14,328 oz of gold during the quarter ending March 31, which is up 9 percent compared to a year ago. The Idaho-based miner said higher ore grades and increased recoveries, partially offset by lower mill throughput,...
Hecla Mining Company's Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska has enough reserves to keep the high-grade underground silver mine in operation until 2030. The Greens Creek Mine now has 9.23 million tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 11.5 oz/t (107.1 million oz) silver; 0.09 oz/t (840,000 oz) gold; 7.6 percent (706,470 tons) zinc; and 2.8 percent (227,740 tons) lead. This marks the highest silver reserves for Greens Creek since Hecla bought full ownership of the...
Cobalt is a critical safety ingredient in the cathodes of lithium-ion batteries powering the ever-increasing number of electric vehicles traveling global highways and a plethora of cordless electrical devices. "Globally, the leading use is in the manufacture of cathode materials for rechargeable batteries – primarily lithium-ion, nickel-cadmium, and nickel-metal-hydride batteries – which are used in consumer electronics, electric and hybrid-electric vehicles, energy sto...
If you pay any attention to the popular press, it is difficult to avoid critical references to President Trump. He has become the effigy for everything from political division to global iconoclasm. However, as is the case with so many national issues; the impact of the intense debates inside the Beltway have only an attenuated resonance on the Last Frontier. The on-going controversy between elitist progressive governance and populistic resistance surfaced with the 2016 electio...
