The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Alaska Gov. Bill Walker Nov. 27 approved the release of funds to complete the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process for the Ambler Mining District Access Project, a proposed 211-mile industrial access road that would link one of the richest known undeveloped mineral regions on Earth to Alaska's highway system. "The Ambler Mining District provides an immense opportunity for economic development in northern Alaska and moving through the EIS process is an important step to...
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...
Novagold Resources Inc. Oct. 2 reported that it is well-funded to see the Donlin Gold project in Southwest Alaska to a construction decision but provided very few clues as to when to expect this decision on developing a mine at one of the world's largest gold deposits. Novagold owns a 50 percent interest in the 39-million-ounce Donlin Gold project, Barrick Gold Corp. owns the other half. The Donlin Gold partners now have the key federal permits needed to develop the mine and...
Underscoring the interconnected nature of the global mining market, not 48 hours after the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act was signed into law, the mining industry began wondering out loud how they were going to produce rare earth element, tungsten, tantalum and molybdenum in the near future. Why these metals and why the worry now? Because one of the many impacts the Defense Authorization Act will have on the U.S. economy is its ban on the U.S. Department of...
Roughly six years after applications to federal authorities, Barrick Gold Corp. and Novagold Resources Inc. have crossed the finish line on gaining the key federal permits needed to build a mine at their 39-million-ounce Donlin Gold Mine project in Southwest Alaska. This major permitting milestone was reached on Aug. 13, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Land Management issued a joint record of decision for Donlin Gold, marking the completion of a...
Novagold Resources Inc. July 27 announced it has closed the deal to sell Newmont Mining Corp. its 50 percent interest in the Galore Creek copper-gold project in northwestern British Columbia for US$275 million. "I'm very pleased that Novagold is receiving fair value for its interest in Galore Creek and believe that Newmont is the right organization to carry forward the track record of excellence that we have achieved with our partners over the years," said Novagold President...
Although the Alaska mineral industry is in better health in the middle of 2018 than it has been in the last five years, the spirited recovery that was in progress in the first quarter of the year is now looking more like a dead-cat bounce – a minor recovery after a long down trend. This is particularly true of the exploration sector. Reviewing the Alaska minerals industry, you will note that several exploration projects are only now commencing their 2018 exploration p...
Kutcho Copper Corp. July 4 named Sue Craig as vice president of community and environment, replacing Allison Armstrong who will be moving into an advisory role for the company. As a highly-respected professional geoscientist, Craig has worked in British Columbia and Yukon for more than 25 years on projects from the exploration and development stage to construction, production and mine closure. She successfully led the environmental assessment process for Novagold Resources'...
Novagold Resources Inc. June 27 reported that the permitting to develop a mine at Donlin Gold project is nearly complete but the timing of the final go-ahead decision on whether to develop a world-class mine at this 39-million-ounce gold deposit in Southwest Alaska remains open. Novagold owns a 50 percent interest in Donlin Gold LLC, the company created to permit and eventually develop this enormous gold deposit, global gold miner Barrick Gold Corp. owns the other half. Since...
Golden Predator Mining Corp. June 21 named globally recognized geological experts Richard Goldfarb, Lance Miller, Craig Hart and Bill Threlkeld to the company's newly formed exploration management council. These founding members bring vast experience in the geology of the Northern Cordillera – a metals rich volcanic province that extends through British Columbia, Yukon and Alaska – to the council. This council will assist Golden Predator management and field staff in rev...
One of the most common complaints I hear from companies and individuals working in the mineral industry in Alaska is our deplorable lack of modern, usable-scale digital geophysical and geologic maps. How bad is it? Consider this: the U.S. Geological Survey has estimated that less than 2 percent of Alaska has acceptable geophysical data coverage, and less than 20 percent has been geologically mapped at a scale useful to evaluate the state's mineral resources. Nobody will deny...
Cobalt is an essential ingredient to optimizing the performance of batteries in the growing number of electric vehicles on global highways, yet essentially none of this battery metal is mined in the United States. With at least one advanced stage exploration project in Alaska looking into the potential of producing cobalt alongside its copper, America's 49th State could provide a domestic source for this critical metal. In its annual report, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2018,...
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. May 1 said it intends to raise C$10 million through a non-brokered private placement that will include a major strategic investment from Electrum Strategic Opportunities Fund II L.P., an investment fund managed by The Electrum Group LLC. Altius Minerals Corp. and John Tognetti, a major shareholder and Constantine Metal insider, are also slated to participate in the financing. "We welcome the Electrum 'family' as a major shareholder, who we...
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' April 27 filing of the final Environmental Impact Statement for Donlin Gold is a major milestone along the roughly six-year journey to obtain the permits needed to develop a world-class mine at the 39-million-ounce gold project in the heart of the Kuskokwim Gold Belt in Southwest Alaska. "The filing of the Donlin Gold EIS is a major step forward in unlocking the enormous value of our uniquely attractive gold asset," said Novagold Resources Inc....
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...
A US$28.7 million financing that closed today provides Trilogy Metals Inc.the funds to take major strides in achieving its goal of beginning to develop the vast mineral potential that the world-class Ambler Mining District in Northwest Alaska has to offer. In a deal announced on April 16, a syndicate of underwriters led by Cantor Fitzgerald Canada Corp. –including Cormark Securities Inc., BMO Capital Markets and Roth Capital Partners – has agreed to buy on a bought deal, und...
Governments around the world are collaborating to focus on addressing Climate Change and Global Warming. The Paris Climate Accord adopted numerous measures to "limit a global temperature rise this century below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels". Although there are many things that can be done to address climate change, the most meaningful and obvious is to use cleaner forms of energy and transportation. Alaska has shown the world how energy resources can be...
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...
Welcome to the 10th anniversary of Mining Explorers! While there have been tectonic shifts in the mineral exploration markets over the past decade, two things have remained rock solid – mining explorers continue to uncover the vast mineral resources across Alaska and Canada's North and North of 60 Mining News has been here to tell their story. With the price for an ounce of gold pushing above US$1,300 to ring in the new year – along with zinc and copper selling at mul...
Since investing roughly US$70 million to acquire a 28 percent stake in Novagold Resources Inc. in 2009, American billionaire Thomas Kaplan and his Electrum Group of companies have taken a keen interest in some of the more intriguing mineral exploration companies and projects in Alaska and across Canada's North. Kaplan, an Oxford-educated historian that began investing in natural resources in the 1980s, knows that gold has served as a currency throughout mankind's written histo...
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...
In 1918, the Premier gold mine opened a few miles north of Stewart, a mining town that is the southern gateway to British Columbia's famed Golden Triangle. Over the ensuing 34 years, this underground operation churned out some 2 million ounces of gold and 45 million oz of silver, making it the largest gold producer in North America during that era. A century later, Premier continues to be in play and modern exploration is unveiling the vast mineral potential that northern...
Novagold Resources Inc. took several giant steps this year toward its ultimate goal – developing a world-class mine at its 50-percent-owned Donlin Gold project in Southwest Alaska. The 39 million ounces of gold in measured and indicated resource that average 2.24 grams per metric ton gold put this project in the realm of world-class by anyone's standards, even global gold miner Barrick Gold Corp., which owns the other half of Donlin. A major permitting milestone for Donlin was...
Teck Resources Ltd. is investing roughly US$110 million on mill upgrades at its Red Dog Mine that will help ensure strong zinc production from this Northwest Alaska zinc operation until at least 2031. This current life expectancy for Red Dog is based on 57.6 million metric tons of reserves averaging 13.6 percent (13.9 billion pounds) zinc and 3.9 percent (2.5 billion lb) lead. Aktigiruq, a large and high-grade zinc target roughly five miles northwest of the current...
The Donlin Project took one step closer to becoming the next major mine in Alaska when on Aug. 13, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of the Interior signed off on a record of decision regarding the discharge of dredged material and a pipeline right of way as part of the development of the project. In today's political environment, the development of any resource project requires a bevy of permits from diverse agencies and entities, and that entails a mountain of...
