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 256
Iliamna Natives Ltd. (INL) May 15 is pleased to announce that it has reached an agreement with Pebble Limited Partnership to provide transportation corridor access on INL lands to support the operation and construction of the proposed Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum mine in Southwest Alaska. The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) corporation for the Village of Iliamna said this long-term agreement is a commitment to advance the Pebble project in a technically feasible,...
As the Pebble Limited Partnership advances the Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project through the permitting process, environmental groups opposed to the proposed mine are employing a wide arsenal of tactics to impede the progress. In its latest volley, Earthworks, an environmental non-governmental organization (ENGO), has requested that the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigate whether Northern Dynasty...
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...
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. March 12 announced plans to raise US$10 million to continue permitting and stakeholder engagement for its Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project in Southwest Alaska. Cantor Fitzgerald Canada Corp. has agreed to lead a syndicate of underwriters, which also includes BMO Capital Markets, H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC. and TD Securities Inc., to purchase, on a bought deal basis, 15.63 million Northern Dynasty common shares at US64 cents per share, for...
Pebble Limited Partnership has taken another step toward gaining the permits needed to develop a mine at its large copper-gold-molybdenum project in Southwest Alaska. On Feb. 20, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Alaska District announced that it has published the draft environmental impact statement for a proposed 20-year mine at this world-class deposit that could help fill the United States' increasing need for copper, a demand that is being driven by the expanding e...
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. Dec. 28 completed the second tranche of a C$8.4 million (US$6.3 million) financing that will primarily be used to pay a legal fee connected to the successful 2017 settlement of a suit the company brought against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The settlement, reached early in 2017, opened the door for the enormous Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project in Southwest Alaska to enter the permitting process unencumbered by predetermined...
WESTERN ALASKA Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. announced that it had finalized a surface right of way agreement with Alaska Peninsula Corporation for use of that latter's lands for the construction and operation of transportation infrastructure associated with the Pebble copper-molybdenum-gold project. Alaska Peninsula Corporation is an Alaska Native village corporation with extensive land holdings proximal to the Pebble site and more than 900 shareholders, many of which live...
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...
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. April 5 reported that the deadline of the framework agreement for First Quantum Minerals Ltd. to join the Pebble Partnership has been extended from April 6 to April 30. The framework agreement entered into last December provides First Quantum with the option to earn a 50 percent interest in the Pebble Partnership for US$1.5 billion, which includes a US$150 million initial investment, made in four equal payments of US$37.5 million, to fund...
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...
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. Feb. 23 announced a slight bump in the resource for its Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum-silver deposit in Southwest Alaska. The Pebble deposit now hosts 6.46 billion metric tons of measured and indicated resource averaging 0.4 percent (56.9 billion pounds) copper, 0.34 grams per metric ton (70.6 million ounces) gold, 240 parts per million (3.4 billion lb) molybdenum and 1.7 g/t (344.6 million oz) silver. Additionally, this world-class deposit...
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. Feb. 5 reported that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has selected AECOM as the third-party contractor that will support them in completing an environmental impact statement for the Pebble project – a significant milestone in the advancement of a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review of the proposed open pit copper-gold-molybdenum mine in Southwest Alaska. AECOM is a global, integrated engineering, environmental, construction and i...
As we transition from 2017 into 2018, the weight of evidence pointing to a long-awaited mining industry up-tick is being trumpeted from every financial institution, brokerage house and mining pundit across the globe. For example, RBC Capital Markets' newly released "2018 New Year Preview" has this to say: "We are in the mid-stages of a stock market recovery and the early stages of an economic cycle recovery. Gold is already in a phase where it out-performs other financial...
The permitting process for the world-class Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum mine in Southwest Alaska is officially underway. With this monumental milestone comes the first real look at the new Pebble Mine plan, an engineering feat that the Pebble Partnership believes strikes a balance between environmental footprint and sound economics. "There is a sweet spot in which you can drive down the footprint size and still reach a rate-of-return that makes sense," Pebble Partnership CEO...
The Pebble Partnership Dec. 22 submitted permit applications for the Pebble Mine project to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, initiating the project review process under the National Environmental Policy Act. With roughly 56.8 billion pounds copper, 70.4 million ounces gold, 3.4 billion lb molybdenum and 343.6 million oz silver in measured and indicated resource, Pebble hosts both the largest undeveloped copper and undeveloped gold resource on Earth. While a deposit of this size...
Extremely rare, yet a vital ingredient to emerging solar panel technologies, tellurium is the epitome of what it means to be a critical metalloid, an element that possesses the properties of both a metal and non-metal. "Most rocks contain an average of about 3 parts per billion tellurium, making it rarer than the rare earth elements and eight times less abundant than gold," the United States Geological Survey wrote in a 2015 report on this critical metalloid. "Grains of...
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. Aug. 11 reported that it is working toward the finalization of the design concept and necessary documentation to initiate permitting for its Pebble Mine project in Southwest Alaska. This work includes a field program to collect additional environmental baseline data for proposed infrastructure such as access routes, port and ferry landing sites with the objective of characterizing the existing conditions for engineering design and permitting...
As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wraps up a public comment period on its proposal to withdraw pending restrictions on Pebble, plans for an “environmentally-optimized” mine at the world-class Pebble copper project in Southwest Alaska are beginning to take shape. Pebble Partnership CEO Tom Collier rolled out this “new path forward” for Pebble at Resource Development Council’s Oct. 5 breakfast forum in Anchorage. In formulating the new Pebble Mine, the Pebble Pa...
In a framework agreement announced on Dec. 18, First Quantum Minerals Ltd. was revealed as the major mining company that will complete the Pebble Limited Partnership. "We have made good progress in the partnering process and are very pleased to be in advanced-stage discussions with First Quantum, an industry leader in mine development and management," Ron Thiessen, president and CEO, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., currently the sole owner of the Pebble Partnership. While the...
Three world-class deposits in Alaska – Pebble, Donlin Gold and Livengood – are far enough advanced to be considered beyond the exploration stage but not quite ready to break ground on development. Together, these three colossal deposits host more than US$160 billion worth of gold – with Pebble adding nearly another US$200 billion worth of copper, molybdenum and silver at today's metals prices. The jobs and revenue generated from developing operations to mine these three global...
If there is anyone still on the fence wondering if the minerals industry has started a recovery from the doldrums of the past four years, this month’s mineral industry activity in Alaska should settle the question with authority. During the past month, we have seen two merger/acquisitions occur, one by Solitario Exploration & Royalty Corp., which acquired Zazu Metals Corp. and its interest in the Lik lead-zinc-silver deposit. Then we also had Coventry Resources acquire V...
In a framework agreement announced on Dec. 18, First Quantum Minerals Ltd. was revealed as the major mining company that will complete the Pebble Limited Partnership. "We have made good progress in the partnering process and are very pleased to be in advanced-stage discussions with First Quantum, an industry leader in mine development and management," Ron Thiessen, president and CEO, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., currently the sole owner of the Pebble Partnership. While the...
Rolling into the final quarter, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. remains confident that it will meets its ultimate 2017 goal of filing for the permits needed to develop a mine at the world-class copper deposit in Southwest Alaska by the end of the year. “We entered the year with three objectives: settlement with EPA; re-partnering; and then getting the project description filed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers by the end of the year,” Northern Dynasty CEO Ron Thiessen tol...
Healthy price gains for zinc and copper this year, and gold rocketing through the US$1,300-per-ounce threshold on Aug. 28, is good news for Alaska's mining sector. Together, zinc and gold account for more than 80 percent of the value of metals mined in Alaska - silver and lead account for most of the balance. Copper, on the other hand, is set up to play an important role for the future of mining in the state. Gold rockets above $1,300 Entering 2017 at US$1,151/oz, gold made...
In early November, the Alaska Miners Association will hold its annual convention in Anchorage. Unlike the past four or five years, the excitement surrounding the convention this year is palpable due to the steady increase in exploration, development and production activities in Alaska in 2017. Clear signs of the industry's long-awaited revival include the fact that 11 new project acquisitions have taken place in 2017, half of which involve companies that are newcomers to the...
