The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 27
Trilogy Metals Inc. Nov. 29 reported that the first assays from the 2022 program at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects are from infill holes that cut multiple zones of high-grade copper, zinc, lead, gold, and silver mineralization that has come to be expected within the Arctic deposit. The 10,738-meter drill program at UKMP this year included 8,376 meters of drilling at Arctic, the most ever drilled into this world-class volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit during a single seaso...
Trilogy Metals Inc. June 8 provided details of the planned US$26.2 million exploration program slated for this year at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in the Ambler Mining District of Northwest Alaska. Ambler Metals LLC, a joint venture company equally owned by Trilogy and South32 Ltd., has begun mobilizing equipment and crews for a summer field program that is expected to include at least 10,000 meters of diamond drilling, with additional meters contingent on drill...
On March 18, 2022, Alaska's mining community lost Bill Ellis, a close friend and geologist that was universally loved for his kind spirit and optimism, traits that will live on as a legacy as solid as the Alaska rocks he explored for the better part of half a century. All of us at North of 60 Mining News were blessed to get to know Bill and wish to send our love and condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues. In honor of Bill's memory, we would like to republish "Bill...
Throughout the relatively short modern history of Alaska, many nameless and oft unrecognized explorers have contributed to the Last Frontier state in ways that future generations will never be able to truly appreciate. This, however, is not the case for Bill Ellis, an explorer and geologist who has gifted his knowledge and experience for nearly half a century and personifies the attitude needed to succeed in mineral exploration, optimism. As if by providence, Bill was born in...
Ambler Metals LLC's US$27 million work program slated for the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska includes 14,600 meters of drilling directed at a wide variety of targets, from condemnation drilling where the company plans to build the processing plant and tailings facility at the Arctic Mine project to exploring for new deposits of carbonate-hosted copper-cobalt mineralization in the Cosmos Hills. Trilogy Metals Inc. and South32 Ltd., equal owners of the Ambler...
North of 60 Mining News recently spoke with Ramzi Fawaz, president and CEO of Ambler Metals LLC, a 50-50 joint venture between South32 Ltd. and Trilogy Metals Inc. to develop the rich mineral resources at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Alaska. In a candid conversation, Fawaz talks about what attracted him to Ambler Metals; the company's Alaska-based team and partnerships; the strategy for developing Arctic Mine and the other rich metals deposits at the Upper Kobuk Mineral...
Ambler Metals LLC plans to invest US$27 million to advance the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska during 2021. The budget and program approved by equal partners in Ambler Metals – Trilogy Metals Inc. and South32 Ltd. – will primarily focus on the work required to ready the Arctic Mine project to enter permitting during the second half of 2021. According to a feasibility study finalized earlier this year, the Arctic deposit in Alaska's Ambler Mining District det...
Trilogy Metals Inc. July 8 confirmed that the 2020 field programs at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska has been deferred due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ambler Metals LLC, a joint venture operating company equally owned by Trilogy Metals and South32 Ltd., had budgeted US$22.8 million for the 2020 program. Following the novel coronavirus outbreak, Ambler Metals met with NANA Corp., the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) regional corporation for...
Trilogy Metals Inc. Feb. 26 announced that Ambler Metals LLC, a joint venture operating company equally owned by Trilogy and South32 Ltd., has approved a US$22.8 million budget for the 2020 program aimed at advancing the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (UKMP) in Northwestern Alaska. The largest part of this program will focus on advancing studies to prepare the Arctic mine project for permitting. A 2018 prefeasibility study for Arctic detailed plans for an open-pit mine and...
As the year winds down, mineral industry evaluations for 2019 are being published at a rapid rate. One of the most interesting such global reviews is EY Global Mining and Metals' 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 stated that, for the second straight year, "social license to operate" remains the number one risk facing mining companies in 2020. This was...
Trilogy Metals Inc. Nov. 7 reported copper- and zinc-rich volcanogenic massive sulfide intersections in all six holes drilled at the Sunshine prospect on its Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (UKMP) in Northwest Alaska. UKMP is a roughly 353,000-square-acre land package that covers most of the Ambler Mining District. This massive land package covers two world-class deposits – Arctic and Bornite –and numerous other prospects and targets across a roughly 60-mile-long stretch of the...
An abnormally long fall has allowed the Alaska mining industry to extend seasonal work well into mid-October, creating a lot of new information about project work conducted around the state. Exploration efforts, in particular, benefitted from this additional field time. Based on information available to date, 2019 exploration expenditures are expected to be in the $135-140 million range, well ahead of the $120-125 million exploration spending tracked for 2018. In addition,...
If you have watched the metals markets over the last month, you know why Alaska's mineral industry has surged, stalled, swerved, swooped, slowed, shelved and stuttered, sometimes all at the same time! Gold has gone above US$1,500 per ounce; copper pundits are predicting an increasingly dour future; zinc markets are looking to dive below $1.00 per pound; tin markets have marched strongly upward due to supply disruptions; and silver bulls are calling for annual worldwide...
The initial results from 2019 drilling at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska has the Trilogy Metals team excited, especially the first hole from the Sunshine exploration target about eight miles (13 kilometers) west of the Arctic Mine project. The US$18.2 million carried out this year at UKMP included six holes (1,357 meters) of exploration drilling at the Sunshine prospect, 10 holes (7,610 meters) of resource upgrade and expansion drilling at the Bornite...
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...
Trilogy Metals Inc. Jan. 6 announced a US$2 million increase to the exploration budget reported last week for the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska, swelling the total expenditures for 2019 to US$18.2 million. Trilogy will contribute US$1 million for this expanded program and South32 Limited will contribute the balance. This additional spending will be used for district-scale exploration across the Ambler Mining District with a focus on identifying and testing...
UPPER KOBUK MINERAL PROJECTS: A two-hour flight northwest of Fairbanks, Alaska lies one of the richest known undeveloped mining districts on Earth. This claim is evidenced by the rich deposits of copper, zinc, lead, cobalt, gold and silver outcropping from the Brooks Range mountains where this district is found; the copper-rich ore extracted from an exploration shaft dug by Kennecott in the 1960s; and the copper and cobalt mineralization that is easy for a journalist to...
Trilogy Metals Inc. is closing in on the completion of a feasibility study for Arctic, the first of a series of mines the company envisions being developed across the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska's Ambler Mining District. Arctic, the most advanced of the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects, hosts 43.04 million metric tons of probable reserves averaging 2.32 percent copper, 3.24 percent zinc, 0.57 percent lead, 0.49 grams per metric ton gold and 36 g/t silver. A...
NovaCopper Inc. - formed as a 2012 spinout of NovaGold Resources Inc.'s Ambler project in Northwest Alaska - already boasts some 3.6 billion pounds of high-grade copper resources plus appreciable quantities of gold, silver, lead and zinc. "This is an excellent start to NovaCopper's life as a public company," said NovaCopper President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse. In addition to some 90,624 acres of state, federal and patented mining claims blanketing the Ambler Mining Distric...
The 17,209-meter drill program carried out by NovaCopper Inc. in 2012 at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Project in the Ambler Mining District of Northwest Alaska is revealing a third copper deposit with sufficient size and grade to be deemed world-class. When the spin-out of NovaGold Resources Inc.'s copper-rich Ambler project was completed in May, NovaCopper held Arctic, a single deposit with an NI 43-101-compliant resource. But the deal also included US$40 million in start-up...
In a long overdue step to bring Alaska into the 21st Century, state and federal agencies met in late June to discuss collaborative funding strategies for Alaska's Statewide Digital Mapping Initiative, an enterprise designed to create Alaska's first high-quality digital topographic map. The roundtable was convened by Alaska Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell and the Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, U.S. Department of Interior. Alaska remains the only state in the United States...
If you are looking for proof that the mining industry is experiencing unparalleled changes, look no further than "Mine 2012: The growing disconnect," the 9th edition of PricewaterhouseCoopers' annual report on the global mining industry. This recently released report indicates that in 2011 the top 40 global mining companies posted record profits of $133 billion and generated record operating cash flows of $174 billion. However, over the course of the year, market...
The stock symbol "NCQ" lit up the boards on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges May 2, marking the official launch of NovaCopper Inc. as an independent mineral exploration company under the leadership of NovaGold Resources Inc. founder Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse. "Now that we are a public company independent of NovaGold, we are looking forward to unlocking great value from the exceptional assets we have in the Ambler mining district," said NovaCopper President and CEO Van Nieu...
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 Alaska Miners Association recently released an economic benefits summary of the Alaska mining industry. This summary indicated that in 2009 the Alaska mining industry provided 3,300 direct jobs along with 5,200 indirect jobs in 120 communities in Alaska with a combined payroll of US$320 million. Average industry jobs came in at US$83,000 per year, which is 85 percent higher than the average Alaska wage and second only to wages in the oil and gas industry. The industry...
