The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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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,...
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...
Seeking economic and cultural prosperity for its more than 22,000 Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian shareholders while also looking to provide even greater benefits for future generations, Sealaska takes a balanced approach to developing the resources growing above and stored beneath its lands in Southeast Alaska. This does not mean the Southeast Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) corporation shuns mining or other resource development in its region, a nearly 600-mile...
Those of you that attended the recent Cordilleran Roundup Convention in Vancouver can attest to the exuberant, upbeat atmosphere that pervaded the conference and was very much in evidence at the standing-room only festivities at our annual self-hosted Alaska Night meet and greet. But digging down under this veneer of optimism, many of the junior explorers and most of the producers admitted to their expectations of challenging times in 2019. Putting words to this apparent...
Hecla Mining Company Feb. 14 reported the highest silver, gold and lead reserves in its 128-year history. "The increase reflects the quality of the districts we control; our long-term, consistent strategy; and the capturing and use of all the data that long-lived mines have," said Hecla Mining President and CEO Phillips Baker, Jr. "It is particularly important that this growth comes at Greens Creek and Casa Berardi, who generate approximately 85 percent of our revenue and...
I, for one, feel vindicated, relieved and ready to face the New Year! How so, you ask? Please let me explain. For those of you who remember my column in November, I noted that EY Global Mining and Metals publishes an 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 was for the years 2017-2018 and stated that "Our number one risk this year is digital effectiveness." If you...
Hecla Mining Company Jan. 15 reported that its Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska produced 8 million ounces of silver and 51,493 oz of gold in 2018, compared to 8.4 million oz silver and 50,855 million oz of gold in 2017. The roughly 5 percent drop in silver production at Greens Creek is due to anticipated lower grades. The mill operated at an average of 2,316 tons per day in 2018. This marks the second straight year of record throughput for the Greens Creek mill. This...
WESTERN ALASKA Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. announced that it had finalized a surface right of way agreement with Alaska Peninsula Corporation for use of that latter's lands for the construction and operation of transportation infrastructure associated with the Pebble copper-molybdenum-gold project. Alaska Peninsula Corporation is an Alaska Native village corporation with extensive land holdings proximal to the Pebble site and more than 900 shareholders, many of which live...
As Alaska's mining industry nears the end of another hectic year during which metals prices and investor sentiments rose and fell as precipitously as the world's major stock exchanges, the industry is naturally looking into its crystal ball trying to anticipate what the new year will bring. EY Global Mining and Metals does this sort of forecasting by putting out an annual "risk radar" for mining and metals. The idea is to find out what the industry perceives as the top ten...
Hecla Mining Company Oct. 23 reported that its Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska produced 1.88 million ounces of silver during the third quarter of 2018, down 20 percent from the 2.34 million oz produced during the same period last year. The Juneau area mine also produced 11,559 oz of gold during the quarter ending Sept. 30, down 7 percent from Q3 2017. The Idaho-based mining company attributes the slight drop in precious metals production at Greens Creek to lower ore...
An 18-year-old man was fatally attacked by a female brown bear with two cubs while working at a remote drill site on Hecla Mining Company's Greens Creek silver mine property in Southeast Alaska. The mauling victim, identified as Anthony Montoya from Hollis, Oklahoma, works for Timberline Drilling, an Idaho-based company that carries out surface drilling at Greens Creek. "I want to express our condolences to the families, colleagues and friends of the individual at this...
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...
Hecla Mining Company Aug. 7 reported that drilling in the second quarter and strong assay results received from drilling in the first quarter have upgraded and expanded the Deep 200 South, Gallagher, East Ore, Upper Plate and Southwest Bench zone resources at its Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska. Drilling has extended the Deep 200 South Zone, especially to the south. One hole drilled in the southern portion of Deep 200 South cut eight feet (2.4 meters) averaging 101.4...
Although the Alaska mineral industry is in better health in the middle of 2018 than it has been in the last five years, the spirited recovery that was in progress in the first quarter of the year is now looking more like a dead-cat bounce – a minor recovery after a long down trend. This is particularly true of the exploration sector. Reviewing the Alaska minerals industry, you will note that several exploration projects are only now commencing their 2018 exploration p...
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. said the first two holes of a 10,000-meter drill program at its Palmer joint venture project encountered wide intervals of silver-gold-zinc-lead-barite volcanogenic massive sulfide mineralization 150 meters southeast of the AG Zone, increasing the strike length of this 2017 discovery to 350 meters. Being carried out by a joint venture between Constantine Metal Resources (51 percent) and Dowa Metals & Mining Co. Ltd. (49 percent), this year's...
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...
Thanks largely to increased investments from Aussie mining explorers, mineral exploration spending across Alaska topped US$100 million in 2018. This is well above the roughly US$95 million invested last year and nearly double the US$58 million spent at the bottom of the market in 2015. "Canadian and Australian companies continue to be the source for the bulk of funds spent in Alaska in 2018, together comprising well over 80 percent of the exploration expenditures earmarked...
In 1918, the Premier gold mine opened a few miles north of Stewart, a mining town that is the southern gateway to British Columbia's famed Golden Triangle. Over the ensuing 34 years, this underground operation churned out some 2 million ounces of gold and 45 million oz of silver, making it the largest gold producer in North America during that era. A century later, Premier continues to be in play and modern exploration is unveiling the vast mineral potential that northern...
Thanks to its ongoing exploration success, Hecla Mining Company entered 2018 with the highest silver, gold and lead reserves in its 127-year history, as well as the highest level of zinc reserves in the past five years. Going into 2018, the Idaho-based miner had reserves totaling 2.3 million ounces of gold, up 12 percent from the beginning of 2017; 177 million oz of silver, an increase of 3 percent; 737,290 tons of zinc, an 8 percent increase; and 840,870 tons of zinc, up 15...
