The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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From the enormous Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project to grassroots gold and copper discoveries, the Kahiltna Terrane of Southwest Alaska is becoming a hot destination for mining companies seeking the mineral wealth of this rugged and underexplored region. The Kahiltna assemblage was formed when an arc of islands known as Wrangellia thrust up the ocean floor as it collided with North America. This bulldozed seabed created much of the spectacular mountains of the Alaska...
Alaska boasts some of the largest metals deposits on earth as well as vast quantities of coal, oil and natural gas. Ironically, companies such as Donlin Gold LLC (formerly Donlin Creek LLC) and Pebble Limited Partnership are looking overseas to find a reliable source of natural gas as they study the economics of building global-scale mines at their projects. "My guess is, our base case will be imported LNG. Which seems sort of weird to import natural gas into the State of...
Some months ago I was talking to a senior exploration manager regarding the lack of new discoveries worldwide in the last few years. The subject came up of just how rare a +1-million-ounce gold deposit really was. Then last week one of our project geologists lays a publication in front of me entitled "How Rare are One Million Ounce Gold Deposits?" by Natural Resources Holdings, Ltd. Although this publication comes at the question from the standpoint of which new deposits are...
Nearly a half century ago, John S. Brock ventured into Yukon Territory to explore for hardrock minerals. The young geologist soon found himself involved in Anvil Mining and Dynasty Exploration's discoveries that led to the development of Faro, which became the world's largest open-pit lead-zinc mine. "I was just a kid then, and I thought, 'This business is really easy,' " Brock recalled. Today, the longtime explorationist knows better. During the past 48 years, Brock has participated in numerous mineral discoveries in Canada,...
Can mining and Alaska co-exist? This query was the crux of Anglo American plc CEO Cynthia Carroll's message to Alaskans attending a March 3 gathering in Anchorage sponsored by the Resource Development Council. Carroll, whose company owns a 50 percent stake in the Pebble Project, said economic benefits from developing the enormous copper-gold-molybdenum project would emanate from Southwest Alaska and extend around the world, a message that resonated with the pro-development...
The Fraser Institute recently released its "Survey of Mining Companies, 2010/2011," an annual survey of exploration and mining companies that gauges the pros and cons of working in various countries around the world. This year the survey results came from 494 mining companies working in 79 jurisdictions and representing cumulative exploration expenditures of more than US$2.4 billion in 2010. There was a bit of honey and a bit of vinegar for Alaska in this report. Let's do...
From college students seeking their first job in the minerals industry to executives of the world's leading mining companies, a record-setting 7,003 people packed the Westin Bayshore Hotel in Vancouver, B.C., Jan. 24-27 to attend the Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia's 2011 Mineral Exploration Roundup. "The theme this year is 'Exploring Today for Tomorrow's Resources' - it couldn't be more important a theme, and it couldn't be more important an activity,"...
As termination dust falls across most of Alaska, the curtain has come down for the bulk of the exploration projects around the state; however, mine development programs as well as mine-site exploration continue apace as does some exploration work in tropical Southeast Alaska. With few exceptions, preliminary conclusions drawn from 2010 work indicate that 2011 is going to be a busy year. And though a lot of exploration and development is still going on for gold, copper...
Mining is becoming increasingly important to Alaskans looking for good-paying jobs. Not only does the industry provide high wages, the geographical diversity of the mines provides employment opportunities to oftentimes economically challenged rural regions of the vast state. According to the Alaska Department of Labor & Workforce Development, the number of mining jobs in Alaska has jumped 40.3 percent since 2000, almost triple the statewide average employment growth of 14.1...
The Last Frontier, as Alaska has long been labeled, is as applicable a moniker today as it was to prospectors who ventured to the territory at the end of the 19th century. Alaska is considered one of the most mineralized provinces on Earth, but due to an inter-related combination of Arctic weather, rugged terrain, limited infrastructure and high exploration costs, the state's vast mineral potential remains at the edge of exploratory expansion. Though the Far North state...
From its search for White Gold-style mineralization in the Fortymile placer gold district just across the border from the Klondike in eastern Alaska to exploration of the Pyramid copper-gold project some 900 miles, or 1,450 kilometers, to the southwest, Full Metal Minerals Ltd. returned to the Alaska mining exploration scene in 2010. The Vancouver B.C.-based junior also worked with fellow junior and senior mining companies on projects across Alaska's vast expanse. Beyond...
As the Pebble Limited Partnership approaches the completion of an extensive feasibility study for the Pebble Project, it is investigating the Southwest Alaska property beyond the bounds of the 80.6 billion pounds of copper, 107.4 million ounces of gold and 5.6 billion pounds of molybdenum known to exist in the massive deposit. "Until the latter part of last year, we hadn't drilled a hole outside the Pebble deposit proper - other than geotechnical or engineering drill holes,...
Japan is an important player in Alaska's mining industry. The island nation imports more than US$125 million in minerals from the Far North state annually and Tokyo-based businesses own the Pogo gold mine and are making significant investments in other mining projects across the state. To further strengthen this mutually beneficial bond, Alaska accepted an invitation by Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. to update the country's minerals business community about the state...
Two seminal events related to the Alaska mining industry occurred in the past month. First, in late June, Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. reported the commencement of production at it Kensington gold mine near Juneau. The mine has now joined the ranks of large-scale producers here in Alaska but only after lots of years and lots of dollars, capped by a trip to the U.S. Supreme Court! Hat's off to Coeur for its commitment to Alaska and for its desire to do this job right. Secondly,...
PEBBLE - Pebble Partnership CEO John Shively opened his June 21 presentation to the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce Make it Monday Forum with the query, "How many people here have heard of the Pebble Mine Project?" The room resonated with laughter in response to Shively's rhetorical question. Though everyone at the luncheon, like the majority of their fellow Alaskans, have been inundated with media coverage regarding Pebble, not even Shively knows what the final plan for the...
Full Metal Minerals Ltd. currently has two drills turning at its Fortymile property in eastern Alaska near the Yukon Territory border and a drill program slated for August at its recently acquired Grizzly Butte copper-gold property in Alaska's Wrangellia Terrane. In addition to drilling these core assets, the Vancouver B.C.-based junior anticipates partner-funded exploration at several of its other properties spanning the state. "It is our objective to get pretty much all of...
I recently attended the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention in Toronto where a buoyant, project-hungry crowd of 22,000 created enough of its own hot air to start the Greenland Icecap melting. In a clear case of anthropogenic global warming, representatives of companies, governments and agencies rolled out their projects in efforts to see and be seen. Alaska was well represented at the conference and should see some new investment interest coming from...
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...
Geologically, Alaska is a terrane wreck, with multiple tectonic plates dumping their mineral payloads over the landscape. Geologists are still sifting through the wreckage in many places across the state to determine which mineral deposits were dumped by which terranes and when - a task not always easily accomplished as pileups have resulted, in many cases, from multiple mineralization events happening in the same geographical regions over time. A terrane is a series of...
The plunge of base metal prices and turmoil in the financial markets caused explorers and producers alike to scale back exploration budgets for 2009. North of 60 Mining News estimates this year's exploration spending in Alaska to be around US$125 million, down more than 60 percent from the US$328.6 million spent in 2008. Though the global financial meltdown played its role, it was not the largest factor in the dramatically scaled back exploration in Alaska. Alaska's two...
As the active exploration season winds down in Alaska, both good news and bad is afoot and both sets of news turn out to be the same data. Double speak you say? Read on and judge for yourself. Halifax-based Metals Economics Group announced some preliminary numbers relating to worldwide mineral industry exploration for 2009. The group estimates that worldwide exploration spending will drop to US$8.4 billion in 2009, a 40 percent decrease from the US$14 billion spent in 2008....
Last month we talked about economic impacts of the Alaska mining industry. This month, the world mineral exploration industry is in our crosshairs. Halifax-based Metals Economics Group reported that 2008 worldwide nonferrous mineral exploration reached $13.2 billion, more than 2.5 times the previous peak exploration spending level reached in 1997. Add uranium exploration expenditures, and the total expands to $14.4 billion. Exploration spending would have been even higher...
There are some new stats out from the State of Alaska that I thought you might like to see. For 2008, the Alaska mining industry accounted for 3,500 direct jobs and 5,500 indirect jobs. The industry doled out US$350 million in payroll with the average salary totaling US$82,600 per year, which is 90 percent higher than the statewide average for all sectors. Mining salaries were higher than all other sectors, except for the oil and gas sector. The industry paid US$105 million in...
The plummet in base metal prices in 2008 will be felt across Alaska and Northwest Canada's mining sectors. Miners of the far north reaches of North America enjoyed a bounty when base metal prices reached record values in 2007, carrying into 2008. The escalation of base metal prices was driven by expanding markets in China and India, as well as a building, retail and technology boom in the West. Mines producing the industrial metals enjoyed unprecedented returns from the ore sh...
Alaska is rich with minerals and considered a safe place to do business. As a result, investment has flowed into the state. Today, a variety of mines and mining projects are scattered across the vast Alaska landscape, from the Greens Creek silver mine and Bokan Mountain uranium project in Southeast Alaska to the world-class Red Dog zinc-lead mine and Northwest Arctic Coal Project in Northwest Alaska; and from the giant Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project and the Donlin...
