The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 76 - 84 of 84
Nash Minerals Ltd. and its joint venture partner Mega Uranium Ltd. may have a tiger by the tail, but the beast these explorers are tracking is metallic in nature. Unveiling the most promising results to date from four years of exploring the Wernecke Uranium District in northern Yukon Territory, Cash Minerals Jan. 23 said it is moving into the resource definition stage at its Igor property with a goal of developing a resource estimate for the iron oxide copper-gold-uranium (IOCG-U) prospect by this summer. Igor is the most adv...
Current nickel prices may be the icing on the cake for rapidly growing Toronto-based Pure Nickel Inc. As Nevada Star Resources Corp. joined the company in a reverse takeover this spring and became Pure Nickel, prices for the shiny metal hurtled skyward. More than tripling in the past 14 months, nickel prices will remain under upward pressure this year, according to industry analysts. Booming demand, especially from China, will spur consumption to exceed production for a second consecutive year, causing nickel cash prices to...
The exploration season has started but not before a bevy of new corporate competitors have entered the Alaska mineral scene and not before a number of past producing mines have been dragged into the 21st century. During the last month, three new companies have acquired properties in Alaska and two old Alaska producers have been brought out of mothballs to have new exploration done on them. This month's commodities of interest include gold, copper, lead, zinc, silver, uranium,...
Okay, the lull is over. It lasted about 25, maybe 30 minutes, after I wrote those prophetic but ill-considered words in late January! Shortly after that point I was in Vancouver for the annual Cordilleran Roundup mining conference, an annual barometer of mining activity in western North America if not the world. What I saw at the 2007 conference was a crowd well in excess of 5,000, populated by two types of people: those who were smiling from ear to ear and those whose terrified eyes reminded me of a whitetail deer in the...
When a University of Alaska Fairbanks professor moonlighting as a consultant asked student Mike Busby to drive out to a gold mine north of the city, Busby had no idea the day trip would change his life. It turned out the mine was looking for workers and hired Busby on the spot. That opportunity in the mid-1970s thrust Busby into a gold mining career in Interior Alaska that has lasted for 30 years. Along the way, Busby met his wife, Lou, and raised two children. In 1990, the Busbys began mining a site about 180 miles east of...
Hang on to your hat, the data is beginning to roll in from Alaskan field programs and there are some hum dingers in this month's data and several others will be showing up next month. What's a "hum dinger"? How about an Alaska gold project at the center of a $1.5 billion corporate takeover by the world's largest gold producer? Or how about 75 feet grading more than 2 ounces of gold per ton? Or maybe silver production costs of a negative $2.28 per ounce? But wait, there's more...
Although results from 2005 activities have finally slowed to a trickle, don't equate this lack of news with lack of activity. Behind the holiday season façade there is a mad scramble going on with companies already jockeying for personnel, drill rigs, helicopters, geochemical services, field camps and all manner of field supplies. While wishing each other season's greetings over a cup of grog, competitors are quietly trying to steal the jump on each other to get the best...
In case you have not heard, Alaska's mineral industry is cooking! Over the last month two new companies have acquired mineral properties in Alaska and most of the existing projects kicked off their summer programs in earnest. One of Alaska's major mining projects received its final permits to allow mine construction to begin and several others are conducting preliminary and final feasibility studies. Drilling rigs are scarce as hen's teeth and the helicopters to lift them and the people who run them are booked from now until...
One of the most bizarre summers in Alaska's recent history is in full swing and only the snows of winter will dampen things. I am speaking of course of the impact that Alaska's plus-4 million acres of wildfires have had on mineral exploration, development and operations in the central and eastern parts of the state. The fires came along with an unusually dry and warm summer for virtually all of the state. In addition to the usual problems of who's AWOL after the Fourth of...
