The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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After two years of legal wrangling, Pebble Limited Partnership and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have traded the courtroom floor for a negotiating table to resolve differences that would likely influence the viability of developing a mine at the world-class Pebble copper deposit in Southwest Alaska. In 2014, the Pebble Partnership filed a suit action in federal district court in Alaska, alleging that EPA violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act by working...
The owners of Alaska’s five large metal mines – Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo, Hecla Mining Company, Kinross Gold Corp, Teck Resources Ltd. and Coeur Mining Inc. – accounted for nearly half the US$92 million of exploration spending in the state during 2014 and similar investments by these companies is providing solid footing for the Far North state’s mineral exploration sector this year. Avalon Development President Curt Freeman said he is seeing more mining majors shopping for d...
Pebble Limited Partnership and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are on the cusp of reaching a settlement of the longstanding legal dispute over the federal agency's attempt to use Section 404 (c) of the Clean Water Act to place pre-emptive restrictions on permits needed to develop a mine at the Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project in Southwest Alaska. The federal court where the lawsuit was being heard granted a stay of proceedings until May 4 to provide Pebble and...
Earlier in November, the Alaska Miners Association held its annual convention and trade show in Anchorage and as always, the well-attended convention overlapped with election Tuesday. While the lead up to, and results of, the national and state elections were hot topics throughout the week, one comment I heard from a colleague on the morning after the elections distilled the feelings of a lot of people at the conference. When asked what he thought of the election results, he...
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...
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. July 5 reported the closing of a C$2 million private placement. This financing involved the issuance of 4,444,376 units, each consisting of one Northern Dynasty share and one warrant, at a price of C45 cents each. The warrants are exercisable into one common share of the company at C65 cents until June 10, 2021. In June, the company raised C$17.1 million in a private placement of 38 million units with identical pricing and warrant expiration. Northern Dynasty said the proceeds from the June...
If you have ever played or followed sporting events, you are probably familiar with that bizarre and often game-changing event known as the "change of momentum". This is when the team that was on the ropes suddenly comes to life and often roars to victory, putting smiles on the faces of coaches, fans and bookies alike. Well, unless I am mistaken, the Alaska mining industry has been the beneficiary of just such a change of momentum over the past month. After taking head shots...
Is the impasse between Pebble Limited Partnership and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over the potential development of the world-class Pebble copper deposit in Southwest Alaska about to be resolved? Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., currently the sole owner of the Pebble Partnership, believes the standoff will likely be over by January if an ongoing lawsuit between Pebble and the EPA runs its full course, and possibly sooner if the parties come to an agreement outside of...
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. Jan. 11 announced plans to raise US$25 million, a financing that quickly swelled to US$32.56 million due to the immediate demand for the shares being offered. The original bought deal offering - made through a syndicate of underwriters co-led by Cantor Fitzgerald Canada Corp., TD Securities Inc. and BMO Capital Markets - involved 13.52 million Northern Dynasty shares at US$1.85 each. As a result of strong demand, Northern Dynasty said it had increased the offering to 17 million shares on Jan....
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. March 8 said Pebble Limited Partnership has selected HDR Alaska, Inc. to serve as lead regulatory and permitting consultant for the world-class Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project in Southwest Alaska. HDR will assist in preparing the documentation Pebble Partnership will need to initiate federal and state permitting by the end of the year, in anticipation of a successful outcome of the company's strategy to address the U.S. Environmental...
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. May 20 reported the Pebble Limited Partnership and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have filed a joint motion in federal court to extend a stay of proceedings to May 4 in ongoing litigation under the Federal Advisory Committee Act. In 2014, the Pebble Partnership had filed a suit, alleging EPA violated FACA by working inappropriately close to anti-Pebble groups as the regulatory agency built a case for placing restrictions on yet to be applied for permits for the development of a mine...
With the opening late last month of a public comment period for the environmental impact statement on the proposed Ambler Mining District Industrial Access Project, I am cautiously optimistic that this time, Sisyphus will get the boulder up the hill. As a lowly graduate student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks back in 1979, I helped a crew from Anaconda Minerals color township-size blocks on a huge paper map of the Brooks Range. At the time, Anaconda and numerous other...
There are good indications that large porphyry copper deposits may be found beyond the borders of the Pebble property held by Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. Quaterra Resources Inc. has cut a deal on Groundhog, one of the most promising of these prospects in this area of Southwest Alaska known for its world-class copper potential. “The Groundhog project offers the potential to discover a major deposit in an established porphyry belt,” said Quaterra Chairman and CEO Tom Pat...
With winter programs winding down and summer efforts rapidly ramping up, it is becoming clear that 2017 will be a much more vigorous year for the Alaska mining industry than the 2013 to 2016 period. For example, my internal estimates are already pushing $75 million for exploration activity alone and a significant number of projects that have announced exploration plans have not yet announced budgets for 2017, so that number is likely to rise. Compare this to estimates of less...
As the Alaska mining industry prepares for and kicks off exploration, development and production activities for 2017, the question on everyone’s lips at the recent Cordilleran Roundup mining convention in Vancouver, B. C., was the same: “Have we seen the bottom of this down cycle?” While signs of life were seen for short periods during the 2008 to 2015 period, the reality was an overall downward spiral of commodities prices and global demand. However, in a recent editi...
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. May 26 said it plans to raise up to US$17 million to fund its multi-dimensional strategy to prevent the U.S. Environment Protection Agency's proposed pre-emptive regulatory action that would critically restrict development of the Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project in Southwest Alaska. The offering, to be conducted by Global Securities Corp. and Industrial Alliance Securities Inc., will consist of 31,111,111 units at US45 cents apiece. Each...
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. Dec. 23 reported completion of a C$5.18 million private placement in which the junior mining company issued 12,573,292 common shares at C41.2 cents each. A referral fee of 300,000 common shares also was paid. The shares are subject to applicable resale restrictions, including a four-month hold under Canadian legislation. Following the financing, Northern Dynasty Minerals reported that a plan of arrangement to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Mission Gold Ltd. also has...
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. Nov. 2 said it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire full ownership of Mission Gold Ltd., a Vancouver, B. C.-based exploration company with roughly C$9 million in cash and full ownership of the Alto Parana titanium project in Paraguay. Selling Alto Parana to a third party on terms acceptable to Northern Dynasty was a condition of a preliminary agreement entered in October. The transaction will be implemented by way of a statutory plan of...
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. Oct. 8 said it entered into a binding letter agreement to acquire Mission Gold Ltd., a Vancouver, B. C.-based exploration company with C$9 million in cash and full ownership of the the Alto Parana titanium project in Paraguay. As a condition of closing the buyout, Alto Parana will be sold to a third party on terms acceptable to Northern Dynasty. To acquire full ownership of Mission Gold, Northern Dynasty will issue 27.8 million common shares,...
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. Aug. 31 reported the closing of a C$10.2 million private placement that involved the issuance of 25,624,408 special warrants exercisable into the company's listed common shares at a price of C39.9 cents per warrant. The warrants will convert on exercise into common shares of Northern Dynasty on a one-for-one basis. Following the completion of the private placement, Northern Dynasty said it has reached a definitive agreement with Cannon Point Reso...
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. Aug. 11 reported plans to raise up to C$20 million by issuing C$10-C$15 million of special warrants exercisable into the company's listed common shares at a price of C39.9 cents per warrant together with acquisition of Cannon Point Resources, an inactive TSX Venture Exchange-listed company whose primary asset is C$4.7 million cash. The special warrants will be privately placed with accredited investors, management and insiders of the company. The...
Over the past month Alaska's mining industry has suffered a perfect storm of manmade and natural issues that read like something from a pulp fiction novel. On the man-made side of the ledger, gold, silver, copper, and lead prices have all hit 5-year lows and zinc prices continue to slide lower. Mining equity markets are still in severe decline, making it extremely challenging for junior exploration companies to raise the risk capital necessary to explore their Alaska...
The world's mining industry has once again transmogrified itself in the face of changing global metals markets and investor expectations. In a recent Reuters report, several companies, including Newmont Mining Corp., Goldcorp Inc. and Yamana Gold Inc., were singled out as having taken steps to bring smaller, leaner, lower output projects into production to avoid the cost over-runs which have plagued the large multibillion-dollar projects in recent years. The same large mine...
Galvanized by higher zinc prices and strong production at Teck Resources Ltd.'s Red Dog Mine, the value of Alaska's mineral production topped US$3 billion for the fifth year running. Larry Freeman, chief of Minerals Resources at the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys, told an audience at the AME BC Mineral Exploration Roundup that production of zinc, lead and silver - all metals produced at Red Dog - climbed in Alaska during 2014. Gold production, on the...
In an industry eager for even a scintilla of good news, a recent report from industry analyst SNL Metals & Mining recently gave the good-news-starved industry a bit of hope. SNL's article, titled, "Too early to start celebrating a recovery in the sector," indicated that although the downward trend in mineral exploration has not broken yet, the market has stopped down-grading mining equities, with a modest gain in market capitalization since its most recent low in mid-2013....
