The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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The Red Chris copper-gold mine in northwestern British Columbia has received final approvals necessary for commercial operation, marking the sixth new mine to open in the western province since 2011. “This is a significant achievement made possible through a tremendous amount of collaboration between Imperial Metals Corp., the Tahltan Central Council and this government,” B.C. Minister of Energy and Mines Bill Bennett said June 19 while announcing full production at Red Chr...
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...
NG: TSX / NG: NYSE-MKT Chairman: Thomas Kaplan President and CEO: Gregory Lang Executive Vice President: David Deisley Supporting the permitting process for the Donlin Gold project in Alaska continued to be the primary focus of Novagold Resources Inc. in 2015. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the lead agency for the Donlin Gold Environmental Impact Statement, plans to issue a draft EIS for public comment toward year's end 2015 and the final EIS is expected to be completed by early 2017. This puts Donlin Gold LLC - an...
Novagold Resources Inc. Oct. 6 reported that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to publish the Donlin Gold draft Environmental Impacts Statement for public comment near year's end. Donlin Gold LLC, the operating company equally owned by subsidiaries of Novagold and Barrick Gold Corp., advanced a number of other major permit applications, including working toward finalizing an air quality permit; completing approaches to water management, treatment, and discharge to facilit...
British Columbia Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett spent the week of Aug. 23 working to build bonds with Southeast Alaskans worried about potential downstream effects of mining copper- and gold-rich deposits located in northwestern B.C. Bennett's visit comes one year after a tailings dam burst at the Mount Polley Mine in central British Columbia, sending a deluge of mining waste and untreated water into the surrounding watershed. While the spill did not affect Alaska...
The 40-million-ounce Donlin Gold project is more than midway through a roughly five-year permitting process, but gold prices are dipping to lows not seen in nearly five and a half years and trending downward. Will project owners Barrick Gold Corp. and Novagold Resources Inc. be willing to pull the trigger on development once the hard-earned permits are in hand? The Donlin Gold partners say it depends on where gold prices are headed and what the equity costs are for raising...
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...
Novagold Resources Inc. July 8 reported that the permitting process for its 50-percent-owned Donlin Gold project continues to move ahead with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers planning to issue the draft Environmental Impact Statement for public comment towards the end of 2015. "Reminiscent of 'The Tortoise and the Hare'," Donlin Gold continues to advance at a steady pace, as originally envisioned. In less than two-year's time, subject to market conditions, the co-owners will...
Novagold Resources Inc. May 4 reported the payment of the remaining US$15.8 million principal balance of its 5.5 percent convertible notes and US$400,000 in interest. With US$135.5 million in cash and term deposits after the May 1 pay-off of the convertible notes principal and interest, Novagold said it has sufficient capital to complete the permitting of the Donlin Gold project in western Alaska, conduct planned studies on its 50-percent-owned Galore Creek project in northwes...
Alaska Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott spent this week getting a firsthand look at trans-boundary water issues from the British Columbia side of the border, where a number of mines are being proposed on water systems that feed rivers that run through Southeast Alaska. "These rivers are key to Southeast Alaska's way of life, including Native cultures, community economies, recreation and subsistence, and, of course, its profitable seafood and tourism industries that employ thousands of...
In a move that provides the cash needed to advance a feasibility study for the Arctic project in Northwest Alaska, NovaCopper has agreed to purchase Sunward Resources Ltd., a Vancouver, B.C.-based mining exploration company with a copper-gold asset in Columbia and roughly US$20 million in the bank. Over the several weeks leading up to the April 23 announcement of the potential merger, the value of Sunward's stock has hovered at roughly US$13 million, substantially less than...
With a mild winter for most of Alaska behind us and an early spring in progress over much of the state, spring fever has once again laid its grip on the mining industry. A number of exploration and development programs are slated for the summer season, suggesting the mining industry has finally started to rise from the three-year miasma that has gripped it worldwide. A couple of macro-scale items also are pointing toward a more robust industry. The U. S. Geological Survey's...
From Washington D.C. and Ottawa to Juneau and Victoria, Alaska officials are engaging their Canadian counterparts about new generation of northwestern British Columbia mines that could potentially be built upstream of Southeast Alaska. This possible development of a number of copper, gold and other metal mines in Canada's westernmost province has troubled conservationists, fisherman and others in Southeast Alaska for years. The August 2014 tailings dam collapse at the Mount Po...
American billionaires John Paulson, Seth Klarman and Thomas Kaplan have taken a keen interest in Alaska's next generation of gold and copper mines. While it is natural for hedge fund managers such as Paulson and Klarman, and resource investors such as Kaplan, to hold mining stocks in their portfolios, this trio holds major positions in three of the top Alaska-focused mineral exploration and development companies. In fact, the companies founded and managed by these...
The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority is asking state lawmakers whether it should move ahead with the Ambler Mining District Industrial Access Road, a proposed 200-mile transportation corridor that would link the Ambler Mining District in Northwest Alaska, with the Dalton Highway to the east. This question comes under the auspice of Administrative Order No. 271, a temporary suspension of all "mega-projects" being funded by the state, signed by Gov. Bill...
Amid the volatile metals markets that have become the norm in the past year, miners, developers, explorers, prospectors and investors met in Vancouver at the end of January for the annual Cordilleran Roundup mining convention. The mood was decidely positive, and having seen a lot of "whistling in the cemetary" at this convention in the past, I know the difference between false bravado and contagious optimism. Perhaps it was the stabilization of copper prices after a nine month...
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...
A design flaw resulting from an inadequate understanding of the glacial lake sediments that formed a portion of the foundation on which the tailings dam at the Mount Polley mine located in south-central British Columbia was built caused the structure to collapse under its own weight, according to engineers tasked with finding out why the dam burst on Aug. 4. Mount Polley is an open pit copper-gold mine with a developing underground project. "The design did not take into...
With roughly US$150 million of working capital, Novagold Resources Inc. is among a rare few non-producing mining companies that has no need to squeeze money out of a market reluctant to dole funds to the mining sector. This has allowed management to focus on the task at hand - moving the 39-million-ounce Donlin Gold project through permitting to a development decision. "Our healthy financial position, with more than US$165 million in cash and term deposits, gives us...
To further strengthen neighborly bonds, British Columbia Minister of Mines Bill Bennett met with miners, fishermen, legislators and state regulators during an early November trip to Alaska. "I hope, and I believe, that we will be able to continue to work closely with Alaska on all of the issues that we share," Bennett said during a Nov. 5 presentation at the Alaska Miners Association 2014 Convention. These shared issues are part and parcel of a common border that stretches...
Mineral and coal exploration in British Columbia, which peaked at C$680 million in 2012, retreated to roughly C$476 million in 2013. This drop is on par with the roughly 30 percent decrease in exploration expenditures worldwide. The dynamics that led to the decrease - tight capital markets that continue to challenge the ability of junior explorers to raise money, senior miners keeping tight reins on exploration spending and softer gold prices - have remained in play during...
NG: TSX / NG: NYSE-MKT Chairman: Thomas Kaplan President and CEO: Gregory Lang Senior Advisor to President: Gil Leathley With its attention focused primarily on advancing Donlin Gold through the permitting process, Novagold Resources Ltd. dialed back its exploration in 2014. In January, the company released results from a 2013 drill program focused on assessing the extent of the recently discovered Legacy zone at its 50 percent owned Galore Creek copper-gold project in northwestern British Columbia. This program included 22...
TCK: NYSE / TCK.B: TSX Chairman: Norman Keevil President and CEO: Don Lindsay Vice President, Exploration: Alex Christopher Teck Resources Ltd. continued robust zinc exploration in Alaska and British Columbia, while dialing back expenditures at many of its copper exploration and development projects during 2014. The discovery and delineation of high-grade deposits near its Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska continues to be a primary focus of Teck's zinc exploration. Going into 2014, Red Dog had 45.4 million metric tons of ore...
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....
Results from water sampling show that the immediate environmental impacts of an estimated 14.5 million cubic meters of tailings and water released from a facility at Imperial Metals Corp.'s Mount Polley Mine in central British Columbia are isolated primarily to the area immediately below the breached dam. But the extent of the spill's longer term damage to the reputation of the mining sector in B.C. and beyond rests largely on the response of industry and regulators. Leading...
