The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 323
On Feb. 22, 2022, Teck Resources Ltd.'s Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska became the largest critical minerals operation in the United States, both in terms of quantity and value of the materials produced at this world-class base, precious, and critical minerals operation. Being catapulted to America's top dog when it comes to critical minerals production is not due to the germanium produced, though this semiconductor metal vital to ultrafast computing and communications is...
BLM anticipates publishing second draft EIS before mid-2023 and final record of decision by end of the year. Trilogy Metals Inc. Nov. 23 reported that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management expects to reach a final decision on the Ambler Access Project – a proposed 211-mile road that would connect the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects to Alaska's highway system – by the end of 2023. This industrial access road would provide an economical means of delivering mineral concentrates con...
Federal agency is accepting public input on second Ambler Road EIS until Nov. 4 After months of uncertainty, the United States Bureau of Land Management has provided some clarity to the plans to carry out further review of the Ambler Access Project – a proposed 211-mile road that would link Ambler Metals' Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (UKMP) in Northwest Alaska to the Dalton Highway. BLM, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the National Park Service issued a joint record o...
Russia's invasion of Ukraine, America's tenuous relationship with China, and global competition for the enormous volume of mined materials needed to build the envisioned clean energy future has elevated the urgency for the United States to bolster domestic critical mineral supply chains. For many, these geopolitical and economic realities have elevated the development of Alaska's incredible critical mineral resources to a national imperative. The urgency of this matter is why...
The White House's bold clean energy ambitions, which are intricately linked to the availability of reliable supplies of the metals needed to build electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure, are being slowed by a tug-o-war between departments within the Biden administration. While the departments of Commerce, Defense, and Energy are forging ahead with programs and investments aimed at ensuring America has the minerals and metals needed to support the clean energy...
A blue-collar metal that is vital to weatherizing envisioned green energy future Critical minerals are typically thought of as obscure rare earth elements cloaked in geopolitical intrigue, or exciting metals and metalloids that have risen to stardom due to the special properties they bring to cutting-edge technologies such as quantum computing, smartphones, renewable energy, and electric vehicles. Zinc – a blue-collar metal better known for galvanizing guardrails, light p...
Chiefs from the Doyon region and village leaders from the NANA region came together for a meeting at Ambler Metals' Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects to gain a first-hand understanding of the mining proposed for the Ambler Mining District, as well as to discuss the economic benefits this resource development and a proposed road into the region could have on both the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) regions represented. "One of our core values is respect – for people, t...
Teck Resources Ltd. July 26 reported another quarter of strong zinc production and revenues from its Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska. During the second quarter of this year, Red Dog produced 143,800 (317 million pounds) of zinc, 9% higher than the 131,600 metric tons (290.1 million lb) produced during the first quarter of this year and a slight increase over the 140,300 metric tons (309.3 million lb) produced during the same period of 2021. Second quarter lead production at...
With zinc prices on the rise and strong production of the galvanizing metal, the Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska generated strong profits for Teck Resources Ltd. and revenues for NANA Corp., the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) regional corporation for Northwest Alaska. During the first quarter of this year, Red Dog produced 131,600 metric tons (290.1 million pounds) of zinc, a roughly 10% increase over the 119.7 metric tons (263.9 million lb) produced during the...
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...
United States District Court Judge Sharon Gleason confirmed the U.S. Department of Interior's request to remand the previously issued federal permits for construction of the proposed 211-mile Ambler Access Project but ruled the permits will not be terminated altogether. Earlier this year, DOI requested a voluntary remand of the previously issued joint record of decision that authorized a right-of-way across federal lands for building the industrial-use-only road that would...
May 10, 2022, celebrates the ninth annual Alaska Mining Day. Established in 2013, Alaska Mining Day was created through legislation sponsored by Sen. Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, "to recognize and honor the intrepid individuals and industry that played an enormous role in settling and developing the territory and the state that continue to contribute to the economy of the state." Why May 10? On this day in 1872, the General Mining Act of the United States was approved – w...
While hailing President Joe Biden's use of the Defense Production Act to bolster domestic production of critical lithium-ion battery minerals and metals as good news for the Far North State's mining sector, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy says this move contradicts actions taken by the administration to reevaluate a road to the Ambler Mining District. "I fully support the President making the development of these minerals a priority in our nation's interest. But the Biden...
Trilogy Metals Inc. March 17 reported additional "outstanding but not unexpected" results from the 2021 infill drilling at the Arctic deposit on the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska. The company also provided a brief update on the U.S. Department of Interior's suspension of permits to build a road to the Ambler Mining District where UKMP is located. Being advanced by Ambler Metals LLC, a joint venture operating company equally owned by Trilogy and South32...
In a move criticized by a wide swath of Alaska policymakers and trade organizations, the Biden administration has filed a motion to reverse the federal authorizations for a proposed 211-mile road to the mineral-rich Ambler Mining District in Northwest Alaska. "You would think President Biden would want to improve access to American sources of copper and other strategic minerals that are needed in our combined efforts to increase renewables. Instead, actions like this only...
The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority and Ambler Metals LLC have agreed to equally fund $30.8 million for a 2022 field program to advance the Ambler Access Project, a proposed 211-mile road that serves as an Alaskan epitome of connecting the aspirations of a low-carbon future with the large volumes of minerals and metals required to build the electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure that will make the green energy future a reality. The World Bank...
Trilogy Metals Inc. Jan. 25 reported that the latest batch of assays from the infill drilling at Arctic continues to confirm that high copper and zinc grades are the rule and not the exception at this volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska. A 2020 feasibility study details plans for a financially robust mining operation at this world-class deposit that would produce 1.9 billion pounds of copper, 2.3 billion lb of zinc, 388...
6 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for unlocking the world-class potential of the Ambler Mining District in Northwest Alaska. Toward realizing this potential, Ambler Metals LLC, a joint venture equally owned by Trilogy Metals Inc. and a subsidiary of South32 Ltd., has budgeted US$28.5 million for 2022. This program is slated to include drilling, engineering studies, and the initiation of permitting for Arctic, the first mine to be developed on its Upper Kobuk Mineral...
While much of Teck Resources Ltd.'s investment and focus during 2021 was on the implementation of its long-term sustainability strategy, the British Columbia-based miner continued to carry out exploration behind the scenes. In Alaska, Teck operates the Red Dog zinc mine on lands owned by NANA Corp., the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) regional corporation for the Northwest Arctic region where the world-class operation is located. This operation, which produces...
Alaska boasts what many consider the most successful aboriginal land claims settlement on Earth – a solution that has not only turned out to be a cultural success but a brilliant business move for the more than 140,000 Alaska Natives and an economic boon for the state that covers the resource-rich lands these industrious and innovative peoples have called home for millennia. Signed into law by U.S. President Richard Nixon on Dec. 18, 1971, the Alaska Native Claims S...
Pioneer Alaskans swore that Alaska's economy would be destroyed if "the Natives" secured control of any lands in Alaska. However, they did not realize how practical and pragmatic Alaska Natives have had to be to survive and thrive in their Arctic homeland. Whatever tool was needed to survive, Alaska Natives created it with the minimal materials at hand-skin, wood, stone, jade, copper, seashells, mud, plants, flint, obsidian, snow, and ice. With the settlement of Alaska Native...
Vast petroleum reserves underlying what is now the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. (ASRC) region, and the need to build a pipeline to deliver this oil to an ice-free port 800 miles to the south and then to global markets that lie beyond, raised the urgency to settle aboriginal land claims in Alaska. This need for a resolution before a pipeline corridor that would bisect the state prompted lawmakers in Washington, D.C. to enact the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, a...
From the wide distribution of the massive resources provided by a bowhead whale harvested in the icy waters of the Beaufort Sea to sharing the catch from successful fishing in the Gulf of Alaska, sharing the bounty nature has to offer is among the most important core values of Alaska Natives across the state. This millennia-long tradition of sharing the hunt has been enshrined in the sections 7(i) and 7(j) provisions of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. From the early...
It is my good fortune to be asked to write a short piece on the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. My mother, Naungagiaq, would have been proud. She set me free to seek an education in a Tennessee boarding school when I was 14 – just at the time of my life that I could have been of help to her and the family in our hunting, fishing, and trapping world of the 1940s and 1950s. We had lived in three sod homes along the Little Noatak about a dozen miles from Kotzebue. She, in a...
President Richard M. Nixon signed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) in 1971, exactly 230 years after Captain Vitus Bering's Second Kamchatka Expedition finally sighted land in Alaska offshore from what is now Mount Saint Elias in 1741. In the years between, the 70,000 or so Unagan (Aleut), Sugpiaq, Yupik, Inupiat, Athapascan, Tlingit, and their descendants began to experience extreme changes brought on by Russian and American firepower, disease, religion,...
