The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 101 - 125 of 135
An abnormally long fall has allowed the Alaska mining industry to extend seasonal work well into mid-October, creating a lot of new information about project work conducted around the state. Exploration efforts, in particular, benefitted from this additional field time. Based on information available to date, 2019 exploration expenditures are expected to be in the $135-140 million range, well ahead of the $120-125 million exploration spending tracked for 2018. In addition,...
Nova Minerals Ltd. Sept. 30 said it is gearing up for a planned 25,000-meter drill program at its Estelle gold property in Alaska. The Australia-based explorer, which submitted applications for the permits needed to carry out the exploration and establish a permanent camp at Estelle, plans to have drills turning on the gold property in January. "We are currently in planning and permitting stage on the Estelle gold project and will be drilling as soon as permits are in," said...
If you have watched the metals markets over the last month, you know why Alaska's mineral industry has surged, stalled, swerved, swooped, slowed, shelved and stuttered, sometimes all at the same time! Gold has gone above US$1,500 per ounce; copper pundits are predicting an increasingly dour future; zinc markets are looking to dive below $1.00 per pound; tin markets have marched strongly upward due to supply disruptions; and silver bulls are calling for annual worldwide...
Nova Minerals Ltd. Sept. 17 announced that re-assaying of core from previous drilling has confirmed another potential gold deposit on its Estelle property in Alaska. Last week, the Australia-based explorer announced a maiden inferred resource of 181.3 million metric tons averaging 0.43 g/t (2.5 million oz) gold for the Oxide Korbel deposit at the north end of Estelle. Now, the company reports promising results from RPM, a target at the southern end of the roughly 18-mile-long...
Nova Minerals Ltd. Sept. 11 reported that it has outlined 2.5 million ounces of gold in a maiden inferred resource estimate for the Oxide Korbel deposit on the company's Estelle project in Alaska. Previously known as Oxide Ridge, the Oxide Korbel is located at the northern end of the roughly 18-mile-long Estelle property. The Oxide Korbel discovery hole, drilled by Millrock Resources Inc. in 2011, cut 450.7 meters averaging 0.38 grams per metric ton gold in an area Nova now...
Nova Minerals Ltd. Sept. 2 said results from this year's drill program at its Estelle gold project in Alaska has cut higher grade, near-surface mineralization within a bulk tonnage gold deposit at Oxide Korbel. Oxide Korbel is a prospect area that roughly covers an area previously referred to as Oxide Ridge toward the north end of the roughly 18-mile-long Estelle property. SE11-01, the Oxide Ridge discovery hole drilled by Millrock Resources Inc. in 2011, cut 450.7 meters...
As the rest of the country suffers through the Dog Days of summer, Alaska is approaching the end of a topsy-turvy summer season that saw unseasonably hot, dry weather in some parts of the state during some parts of the summer, while other parts of the state have seen record rainfall and unseasonably early snowfall. Gold prices have skyrocketed over the $1,500 per ounce mark and silver prices have moved strongly up, now trading at a one-year high. However, copper and zinc are a...
Nova Minerals Ltd. Aug. 12 reported that the preliminary resource drill program at its Estelle gold project in Alaska has been completed on time and under budget. As a result of the acceleration of its induced polarization (IP) geophysical survey and drill campaign this year, Nova said it has made significant headway toward reporting an initial Australian Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (JORC) compliant for Oxide Korbel, a new occurrence in the Oxide area at the north end of the...
Earlier this month Reuters reported that several agencies within the U.S. Federal government were "rapidly assessing" our domestic ability to mine and refine rare earth elements and utilize those 17 super cool elements in value-added products needed for a wide and ever-growing array of consumer and national defense products. Not surprisingly, mining industry officials demurred when quizzed about supplying information on where rare elements might be mined in the U.S. and how...
Earlier this month S&P Global put out a summary indicating that during the first quarter of 2019 metals like copper, zinc and nickel were up quarter over quarter by 11 percent, 22 percent and 25 percent, respectively. More recently gold has skyrocketed beyond the $1,400-per-ounce mark for the first time in many months. Correspondingly, the mining industry's aggregate market cap also rebounded strongly in the period after four bearish quarters, rising 12 percent to $1.43...
Nova Minerals Ltd. June 21 announced the start of drilling at the Oxide gold prospect on the Estelle project about 100 miles northwest of Anchorage, Alaska. The Australia-based explorer plans to complete 5,000 meters of drilling in two phases. The second phase will be decided by the 2,500-meter phase-1 results. "It's great to be back drilling at the district-scale Estelle gold project," said Nova Minerals Managing Director Avi Kimelman. "A great deal of work has gone into...
Nova Minerals Ltd. June 3 said it is looking into the potential of selling or bringing on a partner to advance exploration of its Windy Fork rare earth elements (REE) project in Southwest Alaska. During recent meeting in New York City, Nova directors received strong interest in Windy Creek and the placer REE occurrences identified on the property. Bulk sampling at Windy Fork in the 1990s indicates that the placer deposit there contains roughly 17 million cubic meters of...
As is usually the case this time of year, news about Alaska mineral activities is a bit sparse this month as planning activities are at flank speed ahead of next month's surge in field activities. That said, there has been a blizzard of mineral industry data released recently that has both direct and indirect applications to the Alaska mineral industry. First off, some internally generated data. Current public and private budget announcements suggest Alaska's exploration...
When it comes to attracting mining investment, Alaska, British Columbia and all three Canadian territories rank among the top 20 jurisdictions in the world on the Fraser Institute Survey of Mining Companies 2018. This report asks industry professionals from around the globe to score mining jurisdictions based on their mineral endowment and various policy topics important to mining. "The mining survey-now in its 21st year-is the most comprehensive report card on government...
Those of you that attended the recent Cordilleran Roundup Convention in Vancouver can attest to the exuberant, upbeat atmosphere that pervaded the conference and was very much in evidence at the standing-room only festivities at our annual self-hosted Alaska Night meet and greet. But digging down under this veneer of optimism, many of the junior explorers and most of the producers admitted to their expectations of challenging times in 2019. Putting words to this apparent...
As the year waned, Alaska's mining industry reported some of the last of its 2018 seasonal field results while the University of Alaska and state of Alaska released some current and projected state-wide economics. At the same time, some macro-economic data was released for the global mining industry. Combined, these figures show a mix of encouraging and not so encouraging trends facing the Alaska mining industry. At the global scale, things for the mining industry are looking...
As Alaska's mining industry nears the end of another hectic year during which metals prices and investor sentiments rose and fell as precipitously as the world's major stock exchanges, the industry is naturally looking into its crystal ball trying to anticipate what the new year will bring. EY Global Mining and Metals does this sort of forecasting by putting out an annual "risk radar" for mining and metals. The idea is to find out what the industry perceives as the top ten...
Following a couple of quiet months where Alaska's mining industry focused on its work, the last month has seen an explosion of new info come out regarding that effort, some of it profound in its potential immediate, near-term and long-term implications. For example, one of Alaska's largest mines was sold to a new owner at a surprisingly low cost per ounce. The results of a robust new preliminary economic analysis were tabled by an advanced gold-silver exploration project...
Nova Minerals Ltd. (formerly Quantum Resources Ltd.) July 31 said it plans to complete at least 8,000 meters of drilling over the next six to eight weeks at the Estelle gold-copper-silver project about 100 miles northwest of Anchorage. The Australia-based explorer optioned Estelle late in 2017 as part of a larger deal that included four other Southwest Alaska properties – Chip-Loy, a nickel-copper-cobalt-gold-silver-platinum group element project; Bowser Creek silver-zinc-lead...
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...
Thanks to its own rich mineral endowment, Australia is a juggernaut in the world of mining, especially across the Southern Hemisphere. Over the past couple of years, however, a growing number of Aussie mining companies are looking north to Alaska, another minerals-rich land way north of the Equator. At least four Aussie juniors – White Rock Minerals Ltd., PolarX Ltd., Nova Minerals Ltd. and Riversgold Ltd. – and three Australia-based metals producers – South32 Ltd., North...
Thanks largely to increased investments from Aussie mining explorers, mineral exploration spending across Alaska topped US$100 million in 2018. This is well above the roughly US$95 million invested last year and nearly double the US$58 million spent at the bottom of the market in 2015. "Canadian and Australian companies continue to be the source for the bulk of funds spent in Alaska in 2018, together comprising well over 80 percent of the exploration expenditures earmarked...
Nova Minerals Ltd. (formerly Quantum Resources Ltd.) completed an inaugural drill program in 2018 at its newly acquired Estelle gold-copper-silver project about 100 miles northwest of Anchorage, Alaska. The Australia-based explorer optioned Estelle late in 2017 as part of a larger deal that included four other Southwest Alaska properties – Chip-Loy, a nickel-copper-cobalt-gold-silver-platinum group element project; Bowser Creek silver-zinc-lead project; Windy Fork, a rare e...
UCU: TSX.V President and CEO: Jim McKenzie Chief Operating Officer: Ken Collison Vice President, Business Development: Mark MacDonald Ucore Rare Metals Inc. carried out 2014 exploration programs at both its Bokan-Dotson Ridge rare earth elements project in Southeast Alaska and Ray Mountain REE-tin project in the Interior region of the state. A C$7.8-million private placement completed in April, along with C$2.8 million of working capital Ucore had on the books at the end of March, is anticipated to provide ample funds to meet...
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...
