The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Seven days of near-continuous rain did nothing to dampen the mood at the recently concluded Cordilleran Roundup Convention in Vancouver. The event was buoyed by a realistic optimism we have not seen in over five years. This change from half-empty to half-full glasses is due to a number of things including strong commodities prices, increasing global demand for metals and current or looming supply shortfalls in many of the metals produced by this industry. The event was...
Novagold Resources Inc. Feb. 20 said the 16-hole drill program carried out last year at Donlin Gold, a world-class gold mine project in Yukon-Kuskokwim region of western Alaska, encountered long sections of high-grade gold within the reserve pit and in areas outside of the currently proposed mine area. "Donlin Gold's latest drill results are better than expected, further demonstrating the incredibly robust quality of this exceptional project," said Novagold President and CEO...
TNR Gold Corp. Feb. 2 said it is seeking a major gold mining company to become a joint venture partner on its Shotgun gold project in Alaska. Located about 110 miles of Donlin Gold and about the same distance northeast of Pebble, this property lies at the intersection of two trends known to host big deposits. TNR optioned Shotgun from Novagold Resources Inc. in 2002 and gained full ownership of the property in 2010. The company subsequently granted 10 percent ownership of the...
Novagold Resources Inc. Jan. 25 said the federal permitting process for Donlin Gold is expected to be finalized in the third quarter of this year. In the meantime, the company and its equal partner in the project, Barrick Gold Corp., are completing optimization studies for this 39-million-ounce gold project in western Alaska. "All of us have been motivated not only to make sure we successfully complete the permitting process for Donlin Gold, but to lay a solid foundation from...
With the price for an ounce of gold pushing back above US$1,300 to ring in the new year – along with zinc and copper selling at multi-year highs and trending higher – 2018 is shaping up to be a good year 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. While there is currently no significant copper production in Alaska, the Far North state hosts signi...
Novagold Resources Inc. April 3 reported that it ended the first quarter on pace to achieve its 2017 goals at the Donlin Gold project in Southwest Alaska and the Galore Creek copper-gold-silver project in northwestern British Columbia. "With more than US$98 million in our treasury as of Feb. 28, 2017, we are able to concentrate on activities related to permitting Donlin Gold, maintaining strong ties with all of our stakeholders and delivering on our stated objectives," said...
Over the last month the inevitable termination dust has begun to show up across Alaska, bringing with it completion of mineral exploration programs and transition of development and production projects to winter operational modes. Explorers, developers and miners will soon be gathering to compare notes at the annual Alaska Miners Association Convention in Anchorage, an event that always overlaps national and local election night. Alaska's mineral industry outlook brightened...
When judging the health of global mineral exploration, British Columbia seems to be the perfect model. In 2015, roughly C$272 million was invested in discovering and delineating mineral deposits in B.C., down some C$66 million from 2014. This 19.5 percent drop is in lockstep with the decline in global mineral exploration budgets for the same period, according SNL Metals & Mining's World Exploration Trends report. Likewise, B.C. exploration decreased about 60 percent from the...
Mining's contribution to Alaska's economy starts with the hefty paychecks being issued to the some 4,350 miners that work in the state, according to recent study completed by the Alaska Miners Association and McDowell Group. The report, "The economic benefits of Alaska's mining industry," found that the average miner working in Alaska during 2016 received a whopping US$108,000 for the year, about double the average income across all sectors in the state. That is nearly US$470...
Barrick Gold Corp. and Novagold Resources Inc., equal owners of Donlin Gold LLC, Nov. 14 announced the appointment of Andy Cole as general manager of the Donlin Gold project in Alaska. "Advancing through permitting and preparing for the development of a unique asset like Donlin Gold is a rare opportunity and I'm excited to take on this role," said Cole. "We believe Donlin Gold can be a model of responsible mine development with the potential to generate meaningful benefits for our Native corporation partners, Calista...
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...
Novagold Resources Inc. is focused on the permitting and development of its 50 percent-owned Donlin Gold project in Southwest Alaska. This year, Novagold and Barrick Gold Corp., which owns the other half of Donlin, budgeted US$8 million for a drill program aimed at collecting geologic and geotechnical data to support ongoing optimization efforts for the 40-million-ounce gold project. This is the first significant field program since Donlin Gold LLC - equally owned by...
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...
With world-class mineral deposits, paved roads and commercial power, northern British Columbia is considered by many as a great place to achieve a mining explorer's ultimate goal – find a mine. "The geology has been great up there for 100 million years, but it has only been the last five that we have had run-of-river (hydro-electric) projects, dams – literally billions of dollars of new infrastructure," said Colorado Resources Ltd. President and CEO Adam Travis. The start of...
Zinc, copper and gold are the top metals sought by Teck Resources Ltd. In Alaska, this work is dedicated to extending the life of the Red Dog Mine by upgrading high-grade zinc resources near the current mine area and seeking out new deposits across 224,000 acres of highly prospective lands surrounding the Northwest Alaska operation. Going into 2017, Red Dog had 50.9 million metric tons of probable reserves, averaging 15 percent zinc, 4.2 percent lead and 76 grams per metric ton silver. Anarraaq-Aktigiruq, situated roughly...
Novagold Resources Inc. Nov. 25 said it is anticipating the environmental impact statement for the Donlin Gold project to be finalized around this time next year. The Donlin Gold Mine being considered in the EIS includes a 53,500-metric-ton-per-day mill that is expected to produce an average of 1.1 million ounces of gold annually for 27 years. During its first five years of operation, this annual average will be closer to 1.5 million oz. Donlin Gold LLC - equally owned by subsidiaries of Novagold Resources Inc. and Barrick...
Alaska fell from favor with the 350 mining executives who responded to the Fraser Institute’s Survey of Mining Companies 2016, published on Feb. 28. This group of miners, explorers and consultants ranked the Far North State as the 14th best jurisdiction on Earth to seek and develop a mine. To gather information for its report, the Fraser Institute asks mining executives to rank the mineral potential and mining policies of mining jurisdictions around the globe. The C...
South32 Ltd., a coal and base metals miner spun out of BHP Billiton in 2015, has cut a US$150 million deal with Trilogy Metals Inc. to earn up to a 50 percent interest in the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects, UKMP, a large land package that blankets most of the Ambler Mining District in Northwest Alaska. South32, which up to this point was focused on the Southern Hemisphere, has eight mines in Australia, Africa and South America that produce aluminum, coal, manganese, nickel and...
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...
If this year's US$8 million drill program is any indication, Barrick Gold Corp. and Novagold Resources Inc. are getting serious about building "the largest pure gold mine in the world" at their Donlin Gold project in Southwest Alaska. "Donlin Gold's size, grade, production profile, exploration potential, mine life, community support and jurisdictional safety render it a unique asset in the gold industry," said Novagold President and CEO Greg Lang. "Both partners envision...
The summer solstice has come and gone, but the Alaska mining industry has paid little attention to the decreased amount of daylight because it is high summer in the high latitudes, time to be out completing work programs that have been in the planning since last fall. Exploration drilling programs have sprouted in the Brooks Range, Interior, Alaska Range, Southeast, Southwest and the Alaska Peninsula. In addition, the sounds of tire-kicking are being heard over a wide area of...
Golden Predator Mining Corp. Nov. 30 announced that it has cut deals with Alexco Exploration Canada Corp. and Newmont Canada Corp. to buy full ownership of Sprogge, a large gold property adjacent to the company's 3 Aces project in southeastern Yukon. The gold potential at Sprogge was first identified during a 1996 regional exploration program carried out by Hemlo Gold Mines. Over the next four years, early stage exploration was carried out on the property by Viceroy Exploration, Novagold Resources and Newmont Canada. In 2011,...
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...
Alaska is rich in mineral potential but poor in the critical infrastructure needed to fully realize this potential, that was the message Alaska Division of Geological and Geological Surveys Director Steve Masterman delivered to lawmakers on Capitol Hill. During a March 30 hearing, Masterman informed member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources that Alaska could be the answer to the United States growing dependence on foreign suppliers for minerals....
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...
