The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 76 - 94 of 94
I finally found something I have been thinking about for a long time but had not seen discussed in detail. We have all seen summaries of the declining rate of discoveries for new mineral deposits and have heard about the steadily increasing cost of production, now at a record US$727 per ounce, according to GFMS' Gold Survey 2012. What I really wanted to know was the replacement cost of an ounce or a pound of metal. Let's take gold for example: If I am a producing mine and I just produced an ounce of gold, what is the cost of...
A recent letter distributed to the minerals industry by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys and the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development's Division of Economic Development is seeking faster and more efficient ways to gather, collate and publish Alaska's Annual Minerals Industry Report. The agencies are looking for feedback regarding what items the industry thinks is important to retain in the report, what items are not in the report that should be...
Ending a streak of robust growth, mineral exploration spending in Alaska during 2012 took a downward turn from the record US$300 million spent a year earlier. "More advanced-stage projects that added ounces or pounds to their resource base had a better go of it than early-stage exploration projects which have taken a hard right cross to the jaw!" Curt Freeman, a well-known Alaska geologist and president of Fairbanks-based Avalon Development, observed in September. This blow de...
NovaCopper Inc. - formed as a 2012 spinout of NovaGold Resources Inc.'s Ambler project in Northwest Alaska - already boasts some 3.6 billion pounds of high-grade copper resources plus appreciable quantities of gold, silver, lead and zinc. "This is an excellent start to NovaCopper's life as a public company," said NovaCopper President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse. In addition to some 90,624 acres of state, federal and patented mining claims blanketing the Ambler Mining Distric...
TAU: TSX-V Executive Chairman: Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse CEO and Executive Vice Chairman: Raj Chowdhry Vice President, Exploration: Jerry Zieg Tintina Resources Inc. emerged on the Alaska mining scene in 2009 when NovaGold Resources Inc. rolled 397,680 acres of its early-stage Alaska exploration properties into the Vancouver B.C.-based junior. Tapping NovaGold's exploration expertise, Tintina appointed Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse as executive chairman of its board of directors and recruited geologist Jerry Zieg to become the junior's...
Over the past six months, the single-most common question I have gotten asked about Alaska's mineral industry is, "Have there been any significant new discoveries?" While there may be an as-yet unannounced new discovery in Alaska, it seems the above question is being asked more frequently in other parts of the world as well and the most common answer is a simple "no." While information on new discoveries in other sectors of the mining industry is out there, it's not as...
An employment forecast published by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development in October pegged the state's mining sector job growth from 2010 to 2020 at 19 percent. That is second only to health care, at 31 percent, and outpacing the 12 percent average growth across all Alaska industries. Expansion of current operations coupled with prospects of building mines at the world-class Livengood and Donlin gold deposits were cited as drivers behind adding new miners t...
The 17,209-meter drill program carried out by NovaCopper Inc. in 2012 at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Project in the Ambler Mining District of Northwest Alaska is revealing a third copper deposit with sufficient size and grade to be deemed world-class. When the spin-out of NovaGold Resources Inc.'s copper-rich Ambler project was completed in May, NovaCopper held Arctic, a single deposit with an NI 43-101-compliant resource. But the deal also included US$40 million in start-up...
As the first cooler days and termination dust start appearing across Alaska, seasonal exploration activities are winding down and operating mines are preparing for another winter. To be sure, less money was spent on fewer projects by the mineral industry exploring and developing Alaska's mineral resources in 2012 versus 2011. More advanced-stage projects that added ounces or pounds to their resource base had a better go of it than early-stage exploration projects which have...
Andover Mining Corp. is hoping to shed some light on the true potential of its Sun volcanogenic massive sulfide project in Northwest Alaska. To accomplish this, the Vancouver B.C.-based junior has put together US$3.5-million program aimed at expanding the copper-silver-lead-zinc-gold mineralization at the historical Sun deposit and testing new prospects across an expanded land-package in the Ambler Mining District. "We designed our program this year to enable us to come out wi...
In a long overdue step to bring Alaska into the 21st Century, state and federal agencies met in late June to discuss collaborative funding strategies for Alaska's Statewide Digital Mapping Initiative, an enterprise designed to create Alaska's first high-quality digital topographic map. The roundtable was convened by Alaska Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell and the Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, U.S. Department of Interior. Alaska remains the only state in the United States...
Putting Alaska on the map as a domestic source of rare earth elements and other strategic and critical minerals is a priority of Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell. During the 2012 budget cycle, Alaska lawmakers approved US$498,000 proposed by the administration to begin a statewide REE evaluation. This year's budget includes US$2.7 million for a three-year project to continue this initiative. "Alaska can become America's source for rare earth elements," Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell...
If you are looking for proof that the mining industry is experiencing unparalleled changes, look no further than "Mine 2012: The growing disconnect," the 9th edition of PricewaterhouseCoopers' annual report on the global mining industry. This recently released report indicates that in 2011 the top 40 global mining companies posted record profits of $133 billion and generated record operating cash flows of $174 billion. However, over the course of the year, market...
The stock symbol "NCQ" lit up the boards on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges May 2, marking the official launch of NovaCopper Inc. as an independent mineral exploration company under the leadership of NovaGold Resources Inc. founder Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse. "Now that we are a public company independent of NovaGold, we are looking forward to unlocking great value from the exceptional assets we have in the Ambler mining district," said NovaCopper President and CEO Van Nieu...
The Fraser Institute's "Survey of Mining Companies, 2011/2012" was recently released to the public. This annual survey of exploration and mining companies gauges the pros and cons of working in various countries around the world. This year's results came from over 800 mineral industry companies working in 93 jurisdictions and representing cumulative 2011 exploration expenditures of over US$6.3 billion. The perception of Alaska from the companies that work here was about the...
I was tempted to make a few 2012 predictions now that 2011 is nearly gone, but I decided not to when I came across the following lines and was struck by how closely they mimic our current mining climate: "On a more local level, several old Alaska properties have been rejuvenated by new players to the Alaska mineral scene. Reserve announcements have touched off renewed land acquisitions and property negotiations. Contracts for technical personnel, drill rigs, helicopters and...
NovaGold Resource Inc. has made tectonic shifts in its leadership and corporate structure. Shedding all of its assets except for the Donlin Gold project in Southwest Alaska, the restructured company is singularly focused on bringing this 40-million-ounce gold deposit into production by the end of the decade. Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse - who founded NovaGold and guided the exploration company through 15 years of trials and triumphs - is relinquishing NovaGold's top executive office...
Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse, who is stepping down as the president and CEO of NovaGold Resources Ltd., is jumping into the driver's seat of NovaCopper Inc., a vehicle designed for the continued exploration of NovaGold's Ambler project and other prospects in the Upper Kobuk region of Northwest Alaska. "My passion is exploration and just like we found two other world-class, high-quality targets in Donlin and Galore (projects), we are looking to do the same thing in the Ambler...
Preliminary estimates released by NovaGold Resources Inc. in early September plants an anticipated US$7 billion price tag on building the facilities needed to mine the 38-million-ounce Donlin Creek gold deposit. That is about US$2.5 billion more than was calculated for a feasibility study completed in 2009. Though the preliminary capital costs seem staggering, both NovaGold and its equal partner in Donlin Gold, Barrick Gold Corp., seem confident the feasibility study...
