The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Covering a roughly 450-mile stretch of postcard-worthy Gulf of Alaska coastline where glacier-carved fjords and bays teeming with fish, birds, and marine mammals are framed by dense forests of hemlock and spruce and majestic mountain vistas, the Chugach Alaska Corp. region epitomizes Alaska beauty. In addition to the immediately apparent abundance of subsistence, fishing, tourism, and timber resources, this 10-million-acre picturesque area along Alaska's southern coast is...
The Bristol Bay region is home to two resources that beyond a doubt earn the moniker "world-class" – an annual run of sockeye salmon that is second to none and Pebble, the largest undeveloped copper and gold deposits known to exist on Earth. These world-renowned resources, however, have stirred up controversy in this Oklahoma-sized region of Southwest Alaska, as many of the roughly 7,400 Bristol Bay residents are concerned that mining the copper, gold, molybdenum, rhenium, and...
With such incredible technologies at mankind's disposal today, it is easily forgotten the ingenuity and sheer gumption that our predecessors brought to solving some of the more rigorous and demanding jobs that construed early development. The ever-present wheel, hand tools, weaponry, and beyond, the plethora of devices humanity has created, only expanded into breathtaking and mind-numbing concepts our forebearers could never fathom. Areas such as animal husbandry, agriculture,...
From the transistors in quantum computers that are millions of times faster than their classical counterparts to fiber optic cables that send data at the speed of light, germanium is a little-known semiconductor that is a small but extremely important ingredient in the technologies behind the future of ultrafast computing and communications. Germanium traces its technological roots back to the 1950s, when scientists developed the transistor to replace vacuum tubes in the...
Lightweight, strong, and resistant to corrosion, titanium is best known for the properties it lends to rockets, aircraft, and high-performance sports equipment. Only about 3% of the more than 8 million metric tons of titanium minerals mined each year globally, however, go into high strength-to-weight ratio and corrosion-resistant alloys. What does drive the mass majority of the demand for this critical mineral is "enwhitening." According to the United States Geological...
Extremely hard and with the highest melting point of all the metals, tungsten's toughness is legendary. Like many of the other metals that have found their way onto critical mineral lists in Canada, Europe, and the United States, this durable metal is vulnerable to Chinese control. "World tungsten supply was dominated by production in China and exports from China," the U.S. Geological Survey inked in its 2021 mineral commodities report. It is estimated that mines in China...
Metallic Minerals Corp. April 7 reported that its 2020 drill program at West Keno confirmed the presence of high-grade silver mineralization at advanced targets on this property along extensions of structural corridors being mined on Alexco Resources Corp.'s adjacent Keno Hill project in the Yukon. Metallic Minerals completed 2,674 meters of drilling in 12 holes during its 2020 program at West Keno. This included 11 holes at Formo, a top priority target for near-term resource...
Granite Creek Copper Ltd. is leveraging the power of artificial intelligence to help discover more copper, gold, and silver across its Carmacks and Carmacks North project in the Yukon. After acquiring Copper North Mining Corp. late last year, Granite Creek expanded its land position within Yukon's Minto Copper Belt to 176 square kilometers (68 square miles). This merged land package includes the Carmacks deposit, which hosts 23.76 million metric tons of resources averaging...
Already headed toward the lowest level of annual mineral exploration spending in nearly two decades, the mining industry in Nunavut got broadsided by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Travel and workplace restrictions quickly imposed last spring by federal and local authorities to prevent the spread of the disease to the northern territory led some companies to cancel or postpone planned exploration programs until 2021. In February, Natural Resources Canada released figures...
The United States is heavily dependent on China and other foreign suppliers for its barite, a mineral critical to the petroleum sector. Barite derives from barús, the Ancient Greek word for heavy, owing to an exceptionally high specific gravity for a non-metallic mineral. It is this weight that makes barite a key element to the oil and gas sector and lands the mineral on USGS' critical list. "More than 90% of the barite sold in the United States was used as a weighting agent...
America's supply of tungsten, an extremely durable metal that is vital to a broad range of American industrial sectors, is at high-risk. A recent U.S. Geological Survey assessment to identify which mineral commodities are most at risk to supply disruptions ranked tungsten near the top of the list – alongside rare earth elements, cobalt and graphite, platinum group metals and tungsten. Like many of its neighbors at the top of the mineral commodity supply risk list, much of the...
The United States imported more than 90% of the 1.4 million metric tons of titanium minerals it consumed during 2019. What the mass majority of this critical mineral was used for, however, may come as a surprise. While titanium's lightweight and extreme durability make it an excellent material for aircraft and high-performance sporting equipment, more than 90% of this mineral mined each year is used to impart a stark whiteness to a surprisingly wide variety of consumer goods w...
When Granite Creek Copper Ltd. decided to refocus its energies on finding copper in Yukon Territory in October 2018, it swung into action, aggressively tackling its vision of becoming a leading copper exploration company. Just over two years later, the junior has acquired the advanced Carmacks Copper Project and is hoping to establish a mineral resource estimate on its larger Stu Project next door. To begin its transition, the junior changed its name from Granite Creek Gold...
Stretching along roughly 400 miles of Alaska's southern coast – from the north end of the Southeast Alaska Panhandle near Icy Bay to the tip of the Kenai Peninsula near Homer – the Chugach Alaska Corp. region epitomizes Alaska beauty. This 10 million-acre region along Gulf of Alaska coastline is carved with majestic fjords and bays teeming with fish, birds and marine mammals, and vistas of mountains and glaciers rising above and cutting through dense forests of hemlock and...
Yukon Territory, a mineral exploration frontrunner in Canada's North, is witnessing a significant slowdown in 2019. As a result, growth in Yukon's economy is expected to slow this year but rebound in 2020, according to The Conference Board of Canada. In its "Territorial Outlook Economic Forecast: Summer 2019," released in June, the board said new mines coming online in 2020 will drive Yukon's growth in the near future. Several factors, however, have converged to put the...
In the westernmost reaches of Alaska lies "Tin City," a mining settlement that all but disappeared except for a lonely radar station looking out over our seas and skies today. Located on the Seward Peninsula's Bering Sea coast, about 90 miles northwest of Nome and five miles southeast of Cape Prince of Wales, Tin City was founded with aspirations as simple and as grand as the name had hoped for it. An all but forgotten camp that had implications far larger than it probably...
The Bristol Bay region is home to two resources that beyond a doubt earn the moniker "world-class" – an annual run of sockeye salmon that is second to none and Pebble, the largest undeveloped copper and gold deposits known to exist on Earth. These world-renowned resources, however, have stirred up controversy in this Oklahoma-sized region of Southwest Alaska, as many of the roughly 7,400 Bristol Bay residents are concerned that mining the copper, gold, molybdenum and other m...
Granite Creek Copper Ltd. Feb. 19 said it has secured a substantial historical database detailing exploration work conducted on the area covered by the company's newly acquired Stu copper-gold-silver project about 47 kilometers (29 miles) northeast of Carmacks, Yukon. Granite Creek Copper is a newly formed exploration company that closed a deal to acquire Stu in January. At the time of the acquisition, the company closed a C$1.8 million non-brokered private placement...
Metallic Minerals Corp. Jan. 28 reported additional high-grade silver results from the 2018 exploration programs at its 100% owned McKay Hill Project, located 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the historic Keno Hill Silver District in the Yukon. While McKay Hill is earlier stage than Metallic's Keno Silver project to the south, the company see's similar potential for a district-scale, high-grade silver-lead-zinc-copper system on the property. The company said its 2018 explorat...
Titanium conjures images of the durable and lightweight metal used to build aircraft, replacement hips, high-end bicycle frames and even quality golf clubs. While its outstanding weight-to-strength ratio and corrosion resistance makes this critical metal ideal for these applications, roughly 93 percent of the world's titanium is used to impart a stark whiteness to many of the consumer goods we use every day. "Titanium is different than most other metallic elements in that it...
Though mineral exploration in Yukon Territory this year lagged the pace seen in 2018, mine development projects advanced at a steady clip in 2019, while several past-producing mines moved toward resuming output. Yukon ranked fourth in Canada for projected spending on mineral exploration and deposit evaluation for 2018, according to statistics distributed by Natural Resources Canada. Spending for mineral exploration and deposit evaluations totaled C$249.4 million, made up of C$...
Extremely hard and with the highest melting point of all the elements on the periodic table, tungsten is vital to a broad spectrum of commercial and military applications, yet there are no mines in the United States producing this durable metal. Nearly 60 percent of the tungsten consumed in the U.S. during 2018 was used to make the cemented tungsten-carbide, a compound of roughly equal parts tungsten and carbon. Roughly twice as strong as steel, tungsten carbide is often...
Titanium conjures images of the durable and lightweight metal used to build aircraft, replacement hips, high-end bicycle frames and even quality golf clubs. While its outstanding weight-to-strength ratio and corrosion resistance makes this critical metal ideal for these applications, roughly 93 percent of the world's titanium is used to impart a stark whiteness to many of the consumer goods we use every day. "Titanium is different than most other metallic elements in that it...
If you are reading this article on your computer, tablet or phone, you are almost certainly looking through indium as we speak; and, if that devise happens to be a touchscreen you have the unique properties of this critical mineral to thank as you scroll down to read more about indium and where it can be found in Alaska. This is because indium-tin oxide is used as a transparent conducting film applied to virtually every flat-panel display and touchscreen on the market. This...
While not the flashiest of the 35 minerals on the United States Geological Survey's critical list, barite plays an essential role in America's energy sector. Barite derives its name from barús, the Ancient Greek word for heavy, owing to an exceptionally high specific gravity for a non-metallic mineral. It is this weight that makes barite a key element to the oil and gas sector and lands the mineral on USGS' critical list. "More than 90 percent of the barite sold in the United...
