The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 224
Working with First Nations is key to unlocking the Golden Triangle's vast potential. A world-class copper-gold district that is also enriched with nickel, cobalt, platinum group metals, and other critical minerals, the Golden Triangle region of Northern British Columbia is poised to be a major supplier of the mined commodities critical to a low-carbon future, cutting-edge technologies, and strong global economies. "Responsible mineral exploration and development are critical...
Li-FT Power Ltd., a relatively new junior exploration company led by a team with a track record of discovering and financing mineral projects, has acquired an exciting hardrock lithium project that covers most of the Yellowknife Pegmatite Province in Northwest Territories. The Yellowknife lithium project covers at least 14 pegmatites – igneous rocks with exceptionally large crystals that are the major source of hardrock lithium worldwide – on mineral leases that are 30 kil...
With mineral exploration expenditures nearly doubling over the past year, Nunavut has dethroned Yukon as the most popular Canadian territory to discover and expand deposits of industrial, precious, and critical minerals. According to preliminary estimates published by Natural Resources Canada, roughly C$232.4 million (US$173.7 million) will be spent on exploration and deposit evaluation in Nunavut this year, a 95% leap from over the C$119.2 million (US$89.1 million) invested...
Giga Metals Corp. Oct. 27 reported a 41.5% increase in measured and indicated resources at its Turnagain nickel-cobalt project in Northern BC. Since calculating an updated resource in 2019, Giga Metals has carried out expansion and geotechnical drilling in preparation for completing a feasibility study for the battery metals project. Based on 6,295 meters of drilling completed in 2021, as well as revised geological modeling, Turnagain now hosts 1.52 million metric tons of...
Develops strategy to be the world's critical minerals supplier of choice Understanding that the renewable energy and electric vehicle revolution offers a "generational opportunity for Canada and its world-class mining sector," Ottawa is leveraging the nation's wealth of critical minerals to become a powerhouse that feeds raw materials into resource-hungry clean energy and technology supply chains. "Canada's Critical Minerals Strategy will position Canada as the global supplier...
Replacing this oft-maligned lithium-ion battery metal comes at a cost Traditionally a headline-grabbing metal due to the perceived human rights and monetary costs it adds to lithium-ion batteries and the electric vehicles they power, cobalt is being overshadowed by the enormous demand and price increases for the lithium and nickel that also go into the storage cells that deliver the "E" to the EV revolution. Cobalt, however, continues to be a vital ingredient that improves...
Tesla and other automakers clamor for nickel suppliers with low CO2 footprint Tesla CEO Elon Musk's 2020 appeal to "please mine more nickel" served as a rallying cry for mining companies with projects positioned to deliver this critical battery metal into global markets. Going into 2022, however, the electric vehicle trailblazer's words were echoing in nearly empty warehouses as the lithium-ion batteries that power EVs are demanding more nickel than global miners can supply....
Alaska is known to be a trove of the minerals and metals critical to every segment of the American economy. This critical mineral richness is despite the fact that Alaska is a vast state that remains largely underexplored. To help gain a better understanding of the Last Frontier State's potential to provide domestic supplies of the 50 critical minerals, the U.S. Geological Survey has allotted $6.75 million to explore specific regions of the state for 29 critical minerals. The...
Giga Metals Corp. Aug. 15 announced that Mitsubishi Corp. has entered into an agreement to form a joint venture to advance the development of a mine at the Turnagain nickel-cobalt project in Northern British Columbia. While best known for its automobiles, Mitsubishi businesses span a broad range of industries that include both industrial materials and mineral resources. The Turnagain project offers this diversified Japanese company with a potential carbon-neutral source of...
Rare earths from the Nechalacho Mine being delivered into the supply chain marks the opening of a new critical minerals chapter in the story of mining in Northwest Territories – a saga that includes a 1930s gold rush to the territory's capital, a whole new town to support the Pine Point zinc mine, and the unlikely discovery of world-class diamond deposits in the famed Lac de Gras region. "We have an opportunity to add to our rich and long-standing mining story," Northwest Terr...
The global transition to low-carbon energy and transportation is both an incredible opportunity and daunting challenge for Alaska's mining sector. On the one hand, Alaska is incredibly enriched with the minerals and metals required to build electric vehicles, solar panels, wind farms, and other clean energy technologies. On the other, America's Last Frontier is burdened by a lack of affordable, low-carbon energy options in the remote reaches of the state where many of these...
Recent analysis by University of British Columbia Professor Greg Dipple indicates that tailings from a mine at the Wellgreen nickel-copper-cobalt-platinum group metals deposit on Nickel Creek Platinum Corp.'s Nickel Shäw project in southeastern Yukon could absorb large quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. About 15 years ago, Dipple realized that ultramafic rocks such as those that host the nickel-rich mineralization at Wellgreen are among the largest carbon...
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...
From an expected multimillion-dollar exploration program on the hardrock sources of the placer gold discovered by Felix Pedro in the Fairbanks Mining District 120 years ago to preliminary investigations of the Nikolai nickel-copper-cobalt-chromium-platinum group element project recently added to its portfolio, Millrock Resources Inc. is looking forward to a busy year of exploration on the properties it has generated in Alaska. "Millrock is looking forward to a very active...
Mineral exploration activity in Nunavut intensified in 2021 as mining companies mounted larger and more extensive programs in response to stronger capital markets, government infrastructure initiatives, and the easing of restrictions imposed to curb effects of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Spanning 2 million square kilometers (about 782,000 square miles), the territory has 25 communities and about 39,353 residents, of whom 84% are Inuit. Nunavut has no roads, and all but one...
The Association for Mineral Exploration will recognize 11 leaders who have made significant contributions to the mineral exploration and development industry during the AME Roundup 2022. "The AME Celebration of Excellence Awards recognize the achievements of individuals who contribute to successfully finding, funding and building safe and responsible mineral exploration and development projects," explained AME Chair Jill Tsolinas. The 2021 Celebration of Excellence Awards...
VANCOUVER – Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. Dec. 29 said it has amended the terms of an agreement that gives BMC Minerals Ltd. an option to purchase Pacific Ridge's Fyre Lake property in Yukon Territory. BMC is a private United Kingdom-based resource company that is developing the Kudz Ze Kayah volcanogenic massive sulfide project in southeast Yukon. The project is designed to operate for at least nine years, producing high-grade zinc, copper, and lead concentrates with signifi...
Mineral exploration activity in Northwest Territories showed signs of revival in 2021, coming on the heels of the slowest year in recent memory. Excited by renewed interest in gold deposits in and around the capital city of Yellowknife and other hot spots after the pandemic-related restrictions of 2020, juniors joined longtime explorers Nighthawk Gold Corp. and Gold Terra Resource Corp. (formerly TerraX Minerals) in hunting for the yellow metal across the 1.14...
Despite a season challenged by heavy rains and an early snowstorm, the massive amount of exploration carried out in Northern British Columbia during 2021 piled loads of drill core and surface samples on assay labs already severely backlogged by COVID-19 protocols and restrictions that slowed the flow of samples in and data out of these facilities. Just how busy was the 2021 exploration season across the northern half of BC? According to North of 60 Mining News calculations,...
When Australia-based South32 Ltd. decided to expand its portfolio into the Northern Hemisphere, Alaska was its first stop. Under a deal struck with Trilogy Metals Inc. in 2017, the major agreed to invest more than US$175 million to earn a 50% joint venture interest in the massive Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Alaska's world-class Ambler Mining District. After investing more than US$30 million to fully understand the mineral potential at UKMP, South32 agreed to pay US$145 mil...
Goldman Sachs' declaration that "copper is the new oil" may serve as a foreshadowing of Alaska's economic future, one that is not so heavily reliant on the revenues from petroleum flowing from the North Slope and leans more heavily on the state's rich endowment of precious, critical, and base metals. The investment bank's suggestion that copper is to become the strategically most important commodity on Earth is due to the vital role the conductive metal plays in global...
With the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects being advanced under a joint venture with South32 Ltd., Trilogy Metals Inc. has begun exploring for Arctic-type volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits on three properties it staked across the southern slopes of the Brooks Range in northern Alaska during 2021. "While Trilogy is focused on the oversight of our primary asset, the UKMP which is being managed by Ambler Metals LLC, the joint venture company equally owned by Trilogy Metals and Sou...
The Red Dog Mine has been a gamechanger for the more than 15,000 Iñupiat shareholders of NANA Corp., the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) regional corporation that owns the world-class Red Dog deposits in Northwest Alaska that are the source of nearly 5% of the world's new zinc supply each year. The revenues from shipping out more than 1 billion pounds of zinc annually, along with healthy portions of lead, silver, and minor amounts of germanium, have served as a...
It is hard to quantify which is more impressive, the sheer size of the estate owned by Doyon Ltd. or the rich and underexplored mineral potential on the lands owned by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act regional corporation for Alaska's Eastern Interior. Running the breadth of Alaska between the Brooks Range to the north and Alaska Range to the south, the Doyon region blankets a mineral-rich swath of Alaska's Interior that is nearly the size of Texas. Doyon owns 12.5...
As an Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act regional corporation that is balancing traditional values with economic opportunities across a 26-million-acre picturesque and resource-rich traditional region at the epicenter of Alaska's highway system, Ahtna Inc. lies at a literal and figurative crossroads. Bordered by the majestic Alaska Range to the north, the equally beautiful Chugach Mountains to the south, the Canadian border to the east, and the Denali National Park to the...
