The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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The unseasonably, interminably, unspeakably cold spring that is delaying mineral exploration and development work in Alaska this year is being mimicked by a financial chill that is affecting Alaska exploration efforts just like it is the rest of the world. Not to put too fine a point on it, but from a mineral exploration standpoint, Alaska is shaping up to be as dead as a doornail this summer (ever wonder where that saying came from ... but I digress.). How dead? Try this statistic on for size: Of the 49 exploration projects...
Mineral exploration spending in Alaska will likely struggle to top US$80 million for 2014, a dramatic fall from the US$365.1 million pinnacle reached in 2011. "The din of mineral industry activity that is normally a part of the summer months in Alaska is decidedly muted this year as the global mining industry attempts to lift itself off the bottom of a plus-18-month-long slump," Avalon Development President Curt Freeman opined in a June column written for Mining News. Unlike 2...
Millrock Resources Inc. July 29 reported that it has struck a deal with Corvus Gold Inc. to purchase Raven Gold Alaska LLC's assets located in or pertaining to the Goodpaster Mining District of Interior Alaska. As part of the agreement, Millrock has purchased the West Pogo gold property from the Corvus subsidiary. The West Pogo claims cover the projection of a favorable structure that passes through Sumitomo Metal Mining Co.'s Pogo Mine., located about two miles to the east....
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...
Alaska miners are taking U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to task over recent comments she made that suggest mining is prolific on federal lands in Alaska. Following a speech to the Center for American Progress, a liberal think-tank based in Washington, D.C., Jewell told Alaska Public Radio Network Correspondent Liz Ruskin that "much" of mining in Alaska is done on federal lands. The Alaska Miners Association said this assertion contradicts what is actually... Full story
It has been nearly four years since any significant exploration has been carried out at the Whistler property, but a preliminary deal for Kiska Metals Corp. to sell it could mean a renewed focus on this copper-gold project in Southcentral Alaska. Under a non-binding agreement reached April 9, Alternative Earth Resources Inc. would acquire full ownership of Whistler in exchange for issuing Kiska 24.5 million of its shares, which would represent half of the company's shares upon... Full story
The state of the world's exploration industry was recently summarized in SNL Metal & Mining's annual "World Exploration Trends" publication, released at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention in Toronto. Not surprisingly, it painted a grim picture of 2014, a year we are all glad to have behind us. The statistics indicate that worldwide exploration expenditures declined a further 26 percent to $11.4 billion, compared with $15.2 billion in 2013 and... Full story
Slipping metals prices and investors' ongoing reluctance to risk venture capital in the junior mining sector is hitting Alaska's mineral exploration sector hard; and the Far North state is not the only mining jurisdiction reeling from this one-two punch. "After another year of strong headwinds in 2014, and with lower demand and overproduction continuing to depress metals prices, the mining industry's outlook for 2015 is unpromising at best," SNL Metals & Mining wrote recently... Full story
Millrock Resources Inc. March 12 reported signing an agreement with a major gold mining company to explore for high-grade gold deposits in Alaska. Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, the unnamed major will fund research and reconnaissance exploration efforts undertaken in accordance with a multi-phase, open-ended, systematic program designed by a technical committee composed of representatives of both companies. The work will be focused on defined areas in Alaska...
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....
MRO: TSX.V President and CEO: Gregory Beischer Chief Exploration Officer: Philip St. George Executive Vice President: Sarah Whicker Millrock Resources Inc. identifies and acquires grassroots mineral prospects and then seeks joint venture partners to help fund the exploration. This project generator model lessens the company's need to raise money in the markets, minimizes the risks involved with grassroots exploration and exposes shareholders to a large amount of exploration expenditure per dollar invested. Since its...
TCK: NYSE / TCK.B: TSX Chairman: Norman Keevil President and CEO: Don Lindsay Vice President, Exploration: Alex Christopher Teck Resources Ltd. continued robust zinc exploration in Alaska and British Columbia, while dialing back expenditures at many of its copper exploration and development projects during 2014. The discovery and delineation of high-grade deposits near its Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska continues to be a primary focus of Teck's zinc exploration. Going into 2014, Red Dog had 45.4 million metric tons of ore... Full story
In an industry eager for even a scintilla of good news, a recent report from industry analyst SNL Metals & Mining recently gave the good-news-starved industry a bit of hope. SNL's article, titled, "Too early to start celebrating a recovery in the sector," indicated that although the downward trend in mineral exploration has not broken yet, the market has stopped down-grading mining equities, with a modest gain in market capitalization since its most recent low in mid-2013....
At the same time as the EPA is pushing forward on its planned precedent-setting, pre-emptive, pre-permit veto of the Pebble project and the tailings dam failure at the Mount Polley mine in British Columbia, former Gold Fields Ltd. Chief Geologist Rael Lipson published an eye-opening summary of where porphyry copper-gold projects like Pebble, Mt. Polley and dozens of others around the world fit into the future of gold production. The article, appearing in the July 2014...
As is normally the case in high summer in Alaska, news has started to trickle out of the hills on projects where new work is being conducted, and several properties have changed hands or are in the process of changing hands as mining deals are negotiated and announced across the state. Alaska mines are enjoying slight upticks in metals prices, but recent price volatility has left producers cautious about making long-term capital investments in new or existing projects. Regardl...
The languishing price of zinc has provided little incentive for investors to embrace companies seeking to explore and develop the next generation of mines that produce this essential metal. However, an expected 1.5 million metric tons of supply being lost to mine closures by 2016 is beginning to galvanize the zinc sector. "In the case of zinc, this is a metal that's been unloved for a long time. As a result there has been very little investment put into the industry. Due to th...
GFMS formerly known as Gold Fields Mineral Services) recently announced their outlook for gold prices in the coming months, estimating average 2014 gold prices in the US$1,225 per ounce range. The price forecast is 13 percent less than the 2013 average of US$1,411/oz. Physical demand, including official sector purchases, came in at an all-time high of 4,957 metric tons in 2013, a 15 percent increase over 2012 and some 703 metric tons higher than the supply of new gold and...
The over-all mood at the recent Cordilleran Roundup mining convention in Vancouver, B.C. was more restrained than in previous years, but also more realistic due in large part to the prolonged downturn in risk capital mining markets. It seems the industry has transitioned from the denial stage accompanying the declines of 2013 to an acceptance and determination stage that always precedes a return to market vitality. In a recent public release by financial giant Ernst and...
For those of you that could not attend, the annual Alaska Miners Association Convention and Trade Show was well-attended, with most people pleasantly surprised by the strong turnout. Compared to a year ago, more companies are planning to get back in the field with exploration and development programs in 2014, a sentiment making up one of the few bright spots in a recent IntierraRMG resource sector exploration summary. This report and a similar snapshot of the exploration... Full story
The ongoing scarcity of venture capital available to junior companies coupled with a retreat in metals prices has landed a one-two blow that sent mineral exploration spending in Alaska plunging for the second straight year. A handful of big-budget projects scattered across Alaska, though, is softening the hit to exploration spending across the Far North State during 2013. Mineral exploration expenditures in Alaska, which were a meager US$23.8 million in 2001, topped US$365...
MRO: TSX-V President and CEO: Gregory Beischer Chief Exploration Officer: Philip St. George Chief Operating Officer: Sarah Whicker Millrock Resources Inc., which has become one of the one of the more prolific Alaska exploration companies since adopting the project generator model in 2009, is tightening its belt in 2013. As a project generator, Millrock relies on joint venture partners to do most of the heavy financial lifting on its portfolio of properties in Alaska and Arizona. This model diminishes the company's need to rai...
TCK: NYSE/ TCK.B: TSX Chairman: Norman Keevil President and CEO: Don Lindsay Vice President of Exploration: Alex Christopher From grassroots discoveries to brownfields expansions, Teck Resources Ltd. is involved in a broad spectrum of exploration across Alaska, British Columbia and Yukon Territory. The Vancouver, B.C.-based mining company had drills turning at three copper-gold exploration projects in northwestern British Columbia during 2013. Galore Creek Mining Company, a 50-50 partnership between Teck and NovaGold...
This month's mining news is a smorgasbord to delight the appetites of explorers, developers and miners alike. We had quarterly reports out from Teck, Kinross, Hecla and Coeur d'Alene discussing their respective results from operating mines around the state. We had one preliminary economic analysis by NovaCopper on its Arctic massive sulfide project and one feasibility study announced by International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. on its Livengood gold project. We had Freegold and... Full story
Following a rising chorus of junior companies touting impressive exploration programs on mineral prospects across Alaska that reached its crescendo in 2011, a deafening silence is resonating across the Far North expanse in 2013. And in the junior mining sector, no news is bad news. Mineral exploration expenditures in Alaska, which were a meager US$23.8 million in 2001, climbed to US$347 million by 2008. The "Great Recession of 2008" tightened the equity markets, resulting in...
