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 84
Extremely hard and with the highest melting point of all the elements on the periodic table, tungsten is a vital ingredient to a wide-range of industrial and military applications, yet none of this durable metal is currently mined in the United States. According to the United States Geological Survey, more than half of the tungsten consumed in the U.S. last year was used to make the cemented tungsten-carbide, a compound typically made with equal parts tungsten and carbon....
One of the most common complaints I hear from companies and individuals working in the mineral industry in Alaska is our deplorable lack of modern, usable-scale digital geophysical and geologic maps. How bad is it? Consider this: the U.S. Geological Survey has estimated that less than 2 percent of Alaska has acceptable geophysical data coverage, and less than 20 percent has been geologically mapped at a scale useful to evaluate the state's mineral resources. Nobody will deny...
In a report published in December, the United States Geological Survey defined critical minerals as non-fuel minerals or mineral materials essential to the economic and national security of the United States; vulnerable to supply chain disruptions; and serve an essential function in the manufacturing of a product, the absence of which would have significant consequences for the U.S. economy or security. Using this definition, USGS has identified 35 minerals critical to the...
Metallic Minerals Corp. (formerly Monster Mining Corp.) Sept. 19 reported the appointment of Greg Johnson as CEO and chairman. Prior to joining Metallic Minerals, Johnson held the position of president and CEO at Wellgreen Platinum and South American Silver, and was a co-founder and executive at Novagold Resources. He began his career with Placer Dome (now Barrick Gold), where he held various senior roles in domestic and international exploration. Johnson was a co-recipient of the PDAC's Thayer Lindsay International...
I'll be the first to concede that the upcoming election is probably a done deal, and that for Alaskans, it is probably far more important that we do our best to ensure that Republican majorities continue in both houses of Congress; however, I have to share a certain feeling of sadness for the future if we are saddled with four (or more) years of business as usual in the White House. For most Alaskan-Americans, I believe that the incumbency has been an economic disaster....
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...
Earlier in November, the Alaska Miners Association held its annual convention and trade show in Anchorage and as always, the well-attended convention overlapped with election Tuesday. While the lead up to, and results of, the national and state elections were hot topics throughout the week, one comment I heard from a colleague on the morning after the elections distilled the feelings of a lot of people at the conference. When asked what he thought of the election results, he...
Millrock Resources Inc. Jan. 29 reported that partnership agreements on its Alaska Peninsula and Estelle copper-gold exploration properties in Alaska have been allowed to lapse. After reviewing the results from the first round of drilling, First Quantum Minerals has elected not to renew its option to acquire a joint venture interest in the Alaska Peninsula property. No mineralization of significance was discovered in drilling at the Mallard Duck Bay prospect. Mineralization...
I do love metaphors and aphorisms; there's one for every occasion. For instance, it is often noted that, on the one hand, it is always darkest before the dawn and, on the other, that the light at the end of the tunnel is another train. It would be folly to believe that in today's environment, things will be better, economically, in Alaska, any time soon; however, experience teaches that the current disaster will, like all others, one day pass. Here's the scenario: Alaska is a...
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...
First Quantum Minerals Ltd. has agreed to invest US$2 million on a drill program aimed at further investigating the potential of Millrock Resources Inc.'s highly-prospective copper-gold project in western Alaska. The roughly 500,000-acre property extends about 75 miles from Stepovak Bay near the southwestern end of the Alaska Peninsula to a few miles north of Chignik Bay, one of the primary ports in the area. Millrock optioned the property in 2012 from Bristol Bay Native...
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...
Since buying out its mining rival Inmet Mining Corp. in early 2013, First Quantum Minerals Ltd. has shown a keen interest in Alaska's copper potential. With seven mines in operation and five mineral projects under development, First Quantum is a growing, diversified miner with a particular focus on copper. Its operating mines and development projects are located in Africa, Australia, Finland, Spain, Turkey and Latin America. Yet the company has no foothold in North America....
Although mineral exploration and development activities continue around the state, year-end total expenditures are beginning to gel, and we are getting an increasingly clear picture of just what sort of year it has been for the Alaska mining industry. For the producing metal mines, gross and net revenue are down over last year, largely due to significant decreases in the spot prices for those metals, with gold down almost 15 percent and silver down almost 25 percent over...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has offered the proposal of allowing the Pebble Limited Partnership to apply for permits to develop a less than average-size porphyry mine at the world's largest undeveloped copper-gold-molybdenum deposit. Falling short of an outright ban of building a mine at Pebble, the EPA is proposing Clean Water Act Section 404(c) permit restrictions aimed at limiting the footprint of any mine allowed to be developed at the enormous porphyry...
You say the world's frontiers have all been conquered, and Nature's riddles have all been solved? Don't tell that to Darnley Bay Resources Ltd. The Toronto-based junior is celebrating two decades this summer of working to unravel one of Earth's most intriguing mineral mysteries. The puzzle lies deep beneath the earth's surface in Canada's Far North in what potentially may be the strongest isolated gravity anomaly in the world and certainly, in North America. Located near Paulatuk, Northwest Territories on the Arctic coast,...
Mining, by definition, is an environmentally invasive practice of digging holes in the earth to extract the minerals found therein. This reality, coupled with a historical legacy of leaving unsightly scars that ooze metal-laden acidic waters, has given the modern mining industry a figurative black eye. Champions of today's extraction sector, however, see the strategic resources that are critical to national security, a strong economy and the development of a green energy...
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 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...
Alaska's mining industry is entering the final lap for what has turned out to be a more robust than expected year for exploration, development and production. Strong worldwide demand for mined products has certainly helped push metallic and energy minerals prices up, but all is not rosy for Alaska's mineral industry. A recent CNBC report placed Alaska dead last of all the states in terms of overall business attractiveness. We were a dismal 46th of 50 in terms of cost of doing...
Several readers of last month's column were struck by the excessively cynical tone of my admonition that the last person out of Alaska should please turn out the lights. In retrospect, perhaps I was too rash because, in truth, Alaska will continue to be a fertile ground for all manner of relevant and critical activities for as far into the distant future as we are able to see. For instance, although there may continue to be a diminishing military establishment here, even in the total absence of saber-rattling along the...
Environmental groups are pushing for special protection of watersheds near the enormous Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum deposit, which, according to the most recent estimate by the Pebble Partnership, contains around 80.6 billion pounds of copper, 107.4 million troy ounces of gold and 5.6 billion pounds of molybdenum. The Pebble Partnership is equally owned by the London-based global miner Anglo American plc and the Vancouver British Columbia-based junior explorer Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. While many of the local...
Mantra Mining Inc. reported several major developments recently, including plans to spin off properties with significant zinc mineralization, changing its name and completion of planned 2009 work programs on its exploration properties in Alaska. The Vancouver, B.C.-based junior said it would hold a special meeting Sept. 25 to seek approval from shareholders to pass a special resolution that will spin out the properties in a company called AsiaBaseMetals Inc. The transaction would involve each existing Mantra shareholder...
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources has come under criticism from a coalition of environmental group representatives and former state officials, who say the state agency's oversight is not enough to police the effects of exploration and possible development of the Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum deposit in the Bristol Bay Region of Southwest Alaska. In an article titled, "Pebble Mine: Fish, minerals and testing the limits of Alaska's large mine permitting process," the...
When Steve Herschbach began his personal quest to find the mother lode with a metal detector on Moore Creek in Alaska's Iditarod Gold District in 1973, gold prices averaged about $70 an ounce. Nearly 35 years later, the 49-year-old miner may be nearing his goal at the very place he started looking. Herschbach was 14 years old when he talked his dad into giving him a front row seat on a gold hunting expedition by airplane to Flat in southwest Alaska. Young Herschbach had...
