The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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When Greg Beischer and Phil St. George teamed up to form Millrock Resources Inc. early in 2007, they set out to make big discoveries that would attract the interest of the world's mining giants. The Millrock team has the background to know what global mining companies are looking for and the geological expertise to find it. Beischer, the Vancouver B.C.-based junior's president and CEO, spent two decades working for Inco Ltd., now a subsidiary of global mining giant Companhia...
As the active exploration season winds down in Alaska, both good news and bad is afoot and both sets of news turn out to be the same data. Double speak you say? Read on and judge for yourself. Halifax-based Metals Economics Group announced some preliminary numbers relating to worldwide mineral industry exploration for 2009. The group estimates that worldwide exploration spending will drop to US$8.4 billion in 2009, a 40 percent decrease from the US$14 billion spent in 2008....
Reclamation is a critical element of modern mining and mine planning. In Alaska, companies who wish to extract minerals from the earth must first present a plan on how they propose to return the disturbed land to a reusable state and post financial assurances that they will complete the job. Planning for what the site will look like and be used for begins before any mining is started. The information needed to design a successful reclamation plan is gathered from the...
Gold shone brightly through the financial tempest that caused base metal prices to plummet and sent stock markets tumbling during the past year. Neither the global financial meltdown of 2008, nor the market stabilization of 2009 has impeded the upward trend of gold prices as they have steadily climbed to new all-time highs. Gold has been running with the bulls since 2001 when the average ounce of the yellow metal sold for a mere US$271. The value of the precious metal has made...
Although Alaska's summer field season is quickly coming to an end, the mineral industry continues to gain momentum thanks to rapidly increasing metals prices, fueled in part by growing industrial demand and an astonishing increase in investment demand for metals like gold and silver. Goldfields Mineral Service reported that for the period 1993 to 2000, world gold investment averaged about 383 metric tons of metal per year, while annual gold investment for the period 2001 throu...
Built on a project generator model, Millrock Resources Inc. has teamed up with Kinross Gold Corp., Altius Resources Inc. and Vale Exploration Canada to seek out and explore new large gold and copper projects in Alaska and Arizona during a tough financial market. "Millrock continues to march steadily forward, meeting corporate milestones in a timely manner despite challenging market conditions," Millrock President and CEO Gregory Beischer said. "The company has acquired an...
Mantra Mining Inc. reported several major developments recently, including plans to spin off properties with significant zinc mineralization, changing its name and completion of planned 2009 work programs on its exploration properties in Alaska. The Vancouver, B.C.-based junior said it would hold a special meeting Sept. 25 to seek approval from shareholders to pass a special resolution that will spin out the properties in a company called AsiaBaseMetals Inc. The transaction would involve each existing Mantra shareholder...
Full Metal Minerals Ltd. and Kinross Gold Corp. struck a deal with Calista Corp., an Alaska Native regional corporation, to acquire 100 percent of mineral rights to the Russian and Horn Mountain complexes in the Kuskokwim region of Southwest Alaska. The Russian and Horn Mountain gold-silver targets are located about 25 miles, or 40 kilometers, southwest of the 29-million-ounce Donlin Creek gold deposit being developed by joint venture partners Barrick Gold Corp. and NovaGold...
The Alaska summer is in full swing but news is slow in arriving from new field programs and mining operations around the state. The biggest news in the past month was the U.S. Supreme Court's affirmation of Coeur d'Alene Mines' tailing disposal permits at its Kensington deposit north of Juneau. The longstanding stalemate, dating back to late 2006, clears the way (hopefully) for completion of the construction at the Slate Lake tailings facility and commencement of mining...
Kinross Gold Corp. - operator of the largest gold mine in the Tintina Gold Belt - has embarked on a treasure hunt in hopes of identifying another Fort Knox-like deposit in this gold-rich province. The Tintina belt is a boomerang-shaped swath of land that spans the breadth of Alaska, through the Yukon Territory and into northern British Columbia. While Kinross works to extend the mine life of Fort Knox after 13 years of production through drilling, the Toronto-based miner is...
A gold mining group looking north from Nevada where it has been focused in recent years is seeing what many other explorers have noticed before them - the Tintina Gold Belt that stretches across Interior Alaska and Yukon Territory offers the handsome prospect of a major gold discovery. But the difference for Golden Predator Royalty & Development Corp. is that it is prepared to back up its conclusions with the hard work and financial capital necessary to not only find the gold but bring it into production in short order....
Spring has arrived in Alaska and the mining industry is heading to the hills to do its work. Compared to last year, the state is a quiet place in the sun due to drastically reduced exploration and development budgets. Alaska's mines continue to benefit from the sharply reduced costs of power, diesel fuel, labor and other goods and services, but worldwide economic uncertainties have dried up the availability of venture capital for smaller exploration companies and have made...
Since Mantra Mining Inc. emerged in September as the vehicle in which NovaGold Resources Inc. would spinoff its non-core assets, the Vancouver B.C.-based junior has positioned itself to become a major player on the Alaska mining scene. Over the past eight months, Mantra has acquired whole or part interest in more than 417,000 acres of mining properties in western Alaska, assembled an impressive management team and board of directors (including two Thayer Lindsley award winners...
NovaGold Resources Inc. not only survived 2008 - a year marked by skyrocketing development costs, an unstable financial market as well as environmental and mechanical setbacks at its projects - the embattled miner rocketed into 2009 with its core assets intact and cash in its pocket. In NovaGold's 2008 year-end report, the company described the previous 12 months as challenging for precious metals stocks, including its own. Setbacks at NovaGold's Rock Creek Mine near Nome and...
Last month we talked about economic impacts of the Alaska mining industry. This month, the world mineral exploration industry is in our crosshairs. Halifax-based Metals Economics Group reported that 2008 worldwide nonferrous mineral exploration reached $13.2 billion, more than 2.5 times the previous peak exploration spending level reached in 1997. Add uranium exploration expenditures, and the total expands to $14.4 billion. Exploration spending would have been even higher...
While many people are familiar with the 30-million-ounce-plus gold deposit discovered at Donlin Creek in Southwest Alaska, the world-class gold resource boasts another less known but equally impressive statistic. Nearly 90 percent of the 200-plus people working at the Donlin Project are shareholders of the Calista Corporation, the Native regional corporation that owns the land where the deposit is located. "Calista Corp. has had great success with Barrick (Gold Corp.) and...
There are some new stats out from the State of Alaska that I thought you might like to see. For 2008, the Alaska mining industry accounted for 3,500 direct jobs and 5,500 indirect jobs. The industry doled out US$350 million in payroll with the average salary totaling US$82,600 per year, which is 90 percent higher than the statewide average for all sectors. Mining salaries were higher than all other sectors, except for the oil and gas sector. The industry paid US$105 million in...
The Alaska mining industry was relatively quiet over the last month with most of the news coming from programs completed in 2008. In addition, some programs have already started in 2009 but details are not ready for prime time gossip. A couple items that did catch my eye from the bigger world markets underscore the fact that opportunities still exist in this depressed economic climate and serve to magnify the pitfalls of government intervention in the private sector. The...
Producing mines Thompson Creek Metals Co. operates the Endako Mine, a molybdenum producer for more than 40 years. Located near Fraser Lake in northern British Columbia, Endako includes three open pits, a mill and a roasting facility, and is operated as a joint venture, with Thompson Creek holding a 75 percent interest and Japan-based Sojitz Corp. having the remaining 25 percent. The miner produced 25 million to 26 million pounds of moly in 2008. Due to a sharp drop in molybdenum prices last year, Thompson Creek decided...
The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada is set to recognize Richard Garnett and NovaGold Resources Inc. for their role in the discovery and exploration of the multimillion-ounce Donlin Creek gold deposit in Southwest Alaska. The Thayer Lindsley Award for an international mineral discovery will be presented to the explorers March 2 at the organization's 2009 International Convention, Trade Show and Investors Exchange. This annual award, which honors the memory of...
Despite the strong price and increasing investment surge for gold, Gold Fields Mineral Services reported in it's Gold Survey 2008 summary that global gold mine production dropped 4 percent in 2008 to reach its lowest level since 1995. Australia, Indonesia and South Africa experienced the most significant declines in production with Mexico and Russia seeing increases in production. South African production plummeted by an estimated 14 percent, the sharpest percentage fall...
Alaska is rich with minerals and considered a safe place to do business. As a result, investment has flowed into the state. Today, a variety of mines and mining projects are scattered across the vast Alaska landscape, from the Greens Creek silver mine and Bokan Mountain uranium project in Southeast Alaska to the world-class Red Dog zinc-lead mine and Northwest Arctic Coal Project in Northwest Alaska; and from the giant Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project and the Donlin...
Alaska saw robust mining activity in 2008 across the full spectrum of the industry, from small placer operations to major producers, and from exploration programs to advanced development projects. Here is a look at companies reporting significant progress during the year. Placer mining Silverado Gold Mines Ltd. has recovered 26,879 ounces of placer gold from channel and bench deposits in the Nolan Valley through 2007. The largest nugget recovered from the property, located about 280 miles north of Fairbanks, weighed 41.35...
NovaGold Resources Inc. is beginning 2009 with an infusion of cash. In two separate deals, the Vancouver B.C.-based miner sold enough of its equity to raise $75 million, funds it will use to pay debt and to advance three projects. During a Jan. 12 interview, NovaGold President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse told Mining News that moving its huge gold project at Donlin Creek in southwestern Alaska into permitting will be the company's focus in 2009. NovaGold is a 50-50 partner wi...
When Greg Beischer and Phil St. George teamed up to form Millrock Resources Inc. nearly two years ago, they set out to make big discoveries that would attract the interest of the world's mining giants. These two exploration geologists now think the Estelle high-grade gold property in Alaska's Rainy Pass district, about 160 kilometers, or 100 miles, northwest of Anchorage could be one such property. The Millrock team has the background to know what global mining companies are...
