The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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An early spring coupled with low snow fall in many parts of Alaska have combined to enable companies large and small to start their summer field programs early this year. As expected, competition is stiff for people, drills, helicopters, heavy equipment and related services, awarding those who committed budgets early and penalizing those who did not or could not commit early. For the first time in half a decade, projects with money at hand may not be able to get the services t...
In 2017 Alaska’s mineral exploration industry saw its first up-tick in exploration spending since 2011, an increase that S&P Global Market Intelligence’s “World Exploration Trends” indicates was mirrored on the world-wide level. According to S&P’s data, the worldwide exploration industry spent $8.4 billion in 2017, the first such increase in spending since 2012. S&P also forecast a 15-20 percent increase in exploration spending for 2018 as well. The study also showed that dema...
Born from an idea to create a vehicle that could provide Alaska businesses lower interest rates offered by tax-exempt financing, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, or AIDEA, has been doing its part to create jobs and bolster Alaska's economy for five decades. "Fifty years ago, the Alaska State Legislature created the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, to develop, encourage, and improve the economic potential and welfare of the people of...
Wellgreen Platinum Ltd. Jan. 8 announced that it is changing its name to Nickel Creek Platinum Corp., part of a rebranding aimed to reflect a new direction for the company and the uniqueness of its asset, which is one of the largest undeveloped nickel sulfide and Platinum Group Metals (PGM) deposits in North America. "We are thrilled to complete our corporate rebranding to Nickel Creek Platinum, a name which reflects our company's significant endowment of nickel and PGMs, part...
A group of diverse global-scale mining companies hailing from Australia, Japan, and the United States are quietly exploring a relatively small region of Alaska's Interior. Two of these international players - Sumitomo Metal Mining and Newmont Mining Corp. - are seeking gold in the Pogo region of the Tintina Gold Belt. Melbourne-based MMG Ltd., on the other hand, is seeking nickel in the Wrangellia Terrane, a promising band of rocks immediately south of the legendary gold...
Mineral exploration in Yukon began 2016 much like it finished 2015... Challenging equity market conditions and cautious investors meant junior exploration companies started the season conservatively. The industry got a boost early in the season with the mid-May announcement of Goldcorp’s (www.goldcorp.com) interest in Kaminak Gold’s (http://kaminak.com) Coffee property. By the time Kaminak shareholders approved the C$520 million deal in July, companies were raising money, expanding field programs and making deals across the...
Like a gong proclaiming the end of the long and arduous bear market for North of 60 mining explorers, the May 12 news that Goldcorp Inc. would buy Kaminak Gold Corp. for roughly C$500 million reverberated from Yukon Territory throughout the North. While the rich lure of developing a mine at Kaminak's robust Coffee gold project lured Goldcorp to the Yukon, it was the exploration potential and the ability to permit and build a mine that convinced the producer to expand into the...
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...
Over the past month, three of Alaska's large mines reported strong quarterly results; two projects in advanced permitting and pre-feasibility reported recent progress; and three exploration properties changed hands. The latter is a trend putting 2015 on course to be one of the most active years for new acquisitions in the past decade. Placer gold production has all but ceased for the year; however, output from Alaska's placer mines is not likely to be known with any certainty...
Most of Alaska is now enjoying a warm, early spring, allowing field programs to get off to an quicker start this year. While budgets are still tight, interest in Alaska projects has steadily increased as the mining and metals markets slowly recover from a four-year slowdown. Current estimates for 2016 exploration expenditures are looking like they will end up in the US$50 million to US$60 million range, down from the US$75 million range of last year but less precipitous than...
Quantum Resources Ltd. Nov. 20 announced that it has entered into an option five Alaska projects prospective for gold, silver, zinc, nickel, copper, cobalt and rare earth elements. The primary property optioned by the Australia-based junior is Estelle, a district-scale gold-copper-silver project about 100 miles northwest of Anchorage. The other four properties, collectively known as the Farewell group are located northwest of Estelle and include: Chip-Loy-Roberts, a...
As the first snows of the coming winter began to fall at high elevations across Alaska, results of summer programs likewise began to trickle in from far-flung areas of the state. Meanwhile, second- and third-quarter production data began to show up and mining industry analysts released a series of reports covering a wide range of industry-wide trends. For example, SNL Metals and Mining Research released information on how long it takes to move a new discovery to production....
Group Ten Metals Inc. Feb. 29 reported completion of an exploration and staking program on its Spy mineral property in southwestern Yukon Territory. Situated in the Kluane Ultramafic Belt, a sequence of igneous and sedimentary rocks extending from northern British Columbia through the Yukon into southern Alaska, the Spy property is prospective for copper and nickel sulfide mineralization as well as platinum group metals. Based on the results of the exploration program, the...
In 2014, many junior exploration companies work to preserve capital by undertaking modest exploration programs. The injection of funding into the Yukon Mineral Exploration Program continues to be a valuable source of seed money for prospectors and juniors. The Government of Yukon increased its 2014 program funding to C$1.4 million from C$1.17 million in 2013. Forty-eight placer and hardrock exploration projects received funding in 2014. The program also has increased its limits from C$35,000 to C$50,000 matching dollars per...
Unlike its neighbors in the North, the Yukon Territory is forecasting a marked increase in exploration in 2014. While well shy of the roughly C$300 million invested in exploration in 2011, the peak of the modern Yukon gold rush, the C$65 million forecast to be invested on exploration in the Yukon during 2014 is roughly a 45 percent leap over last year. This exploration spending is dominated by an aggressive drill program at the Selwyn zinc project, situated in an area of...
HKG: 1208 Chief Executive Officer: Andrew Michelmore Executive General Manager, Exploration: Steve Ryan Principal Geologist, Americas: Katherine Smuk Headquartered in Melbourne and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, MMG Ltd. continues to advance its Izok Corridor and Hood zinc-copper projects in Nunavut and to complete early-stage exploration at its Nikolai nickel project in Alaska. The Izok Corridor project includes the High Lake and Izok volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits. Izok has a mineral resource of 15 million...
WHITEHORSE, Yukon Territory - Quieter streets, emptier skies, shorter business hours and closed shops here are sure signs of tough times in the mining industry. Hours away by helicopter, one can find bare-bones exploration camps and skeleton staffs sprinkled like the occasional grain of visible gold across remote mountain vistas, which also reflect the return to the frugal times of the past. In the wake of more than two years of scarce capital, mineral exploration activity is a shadow of the booming times the territory...
At the recent Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada meeting in Toronto, Dr. Richard Schodde, managing director of MinEx Consulting, presented some key factors which affect the time span between a mineral discovery and start-up of commercial mining. The study reviewed about 3,500 nonferrous metal deposits discovered between 1950 and 2013. Dr. Schodde's findings suggest that only 45 percent of all discoveries made since 1950 have turned into mines. The rate is...
I recently attended the 119th Annual Meeting of the Northwest Mining Association in Reno and came away feeling better about Alaska than when I arrived. Alaska Miners Association Director Deantha Crockett chaired and spoke in a session that covered everything from small mining operations and new exploration discoveries to advanced exploration projects and operating mines. The 8 a.m. session was surprisingly well-attended, despite the fact that the hotel was host to 1,000 explor...
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...
The Alaska Miners Association's annual convention marks the changing of seasons for junior exploration companies with mineral projects in Alaska. As a blanket of snow hides outcropping rocks and the water needed for drilling crystalizes, geologists who have spent the long summer days investigating the vast mineral endowment across the Far North trade in their hammers, backpacks and hiking boots for suits, ties and PowerPoint presentations that show off the achievements of their latest field programs. While the 2013...
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...
Asubstantial amount of exploration activity continued apace in Yukon Territory this season despite the truncated budgets that forced most mining companies to juggle their projects and priorities. Some exploration companies found creative ways to raise capital, turning out their pockets to return to Yukon in 2013 to explore for Carlin-style gold mineralization in the east-central region of the territory, for more gold-bearing structures in the White Gold and Klondike districts to the west and for other styles and types of...
Further proof that the mining industry is undergoing fundamental changes can be found in "Mine: A Confidence Crisis," the 10th edition of PricewaterhouseCoopers's annual report on the global mining industry. This recently released report indicates that in 2012 the top 40 global mining companies saw net profits plummet 49 percent to US$68 billion. To make matters worse, after a 25 percent decline in average mining stock value in 2011 and a slower but still downward trend in 201...
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...
