The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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The problem of bringing power to NovaGold's remote Donlin Creek project in southwest Alaska is one of the main bones of contention in the Vancouver-based junior's never-ending battle with its joint venture partner, Barrick Gold. Toronto-based Barrick, the operator at Donlin Creek, envisions a combination of diesel and wind power for the proposed gold mine. NovaGold's management believes the logistics of transporting huge quantities of diesel fuel upriver are too challenging and expensive, and wants to put in a power line...
The trials and tribulations of Alaska's mining industry continued in the last month with one challenged mine given the green light to proceed, the other halted in midstride by the same legal system. In the background, exploration programs quietly began at several locations across the state as the busy 2007 mining season started in earnest. Alaska's global rank dropped from 13th to 24th position in the most recent Fraser Institute survey of mining jurisdictions worldwide. At...
Vancouver-based NovaGold Resources got some encouraging news on all three of its major projects recently. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reissued its permit for Rock Creek; Galore Creek received its British Columbia Environmental Assessment Certificate; and Donlin Creek expanded its resources by an impressive amount. But progress has come at a cost: the company had a net loss of $30.5 million in 2006, compared with a net loss of $5.8 million in 2005. Most of the additional expenditures - $21 million - went to fighting off...
Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. of Cranbrook, B.C., has both breadth and depth when it comes to mineral exploration in western Canada. The aggressive junior has acquired more than 36 properties in a dozen years, including 22 in British Columbia; nine in the Yukon Territory; two in Northwest Territories (one project is 5,500 square kilometers); and three in Saskatchewan. Properties controlled by Eagle Plains offer exploration opportunities for gold, uranium, silver, copper, molybdenum, zinc, lead, rare earth minerals including...
Ever since prospectors rushed to the Yukon seeking gold more than a century ago, miners have been guilty of extracting the mineral riches in the North and doing a vanishing act when the veins petered out or prices fell. These miners often left behind environmental messes that occasionally became regulatory nightmares. Now that modern-day prospectors are again venturing to the far North, many of them are seeking out old mining claims. But before new exploration can occur, the old mine sites often must be cleaned up. That's...
Alaska's Donlin Creek gold project is still several years from becoming an operating mine, but it has already made a huge impact on the lives of people in the surrounding rural communities. Since making a commitment in 1996 to employ as many Native corporation shareholders as possible, operator Barrick Gold achieved a shareholder hire rate of 92 percent in 2005, with a turnover rate of just 10 percent, down from 318 percent at the start of the project. Donlin Creek is a joint venture between NovaGold Resources and Barrick, wi...
As 2006 comes rapidly to a close, a glance backward in time seems appropriate. The Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys recently released its annual summary of mining in Alaska for 2005 (yes, 2005). This report reveals that the gross value of Alaska's mineral industry in 2005 was $1.8 billion. This was the 10th straight year the value exceeded $1 billion and was the highest value ever recorded for the industry. Zinc accounted for 61.5 percent of the total mineral production, followed by gold (13.6 percent),...
Mining companies spent an all-time record $103.9 million on exploration in Alaska in 2005, a big jump from the $70.8 million that was spent the previous year, and a long way from the relatively modest $27.6 million in 2003. At least 16 projects had exploration expenditures of $1 million or more. The companies employed 303 people in exploration projects in 2005, up from 184 in 2004 and 88 in 2003, according to the state's Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys. These impressive figures in Alaska reflected the story...
NovaGold Resources took on Barrick, the world's largest gold producer, and won, but equally tenacious opposition from some residents of Nome has cast a shadow over the Vancouver-based junior's first mine construction project. Just after Barrick withdrew from its hostile takeover bid with just 14.8 percent of NovaGold's shares tendered, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that it was suspending its 404 permit for Rock Creek mine in the wake of a lawsuit. The permit authorized the placement of approximately 13.7 million...
Two Canadian mining companies traded accusations in November as they hurtled toward the latest deadline in Barrick's hostile takeover bid for NovaGold. The world's largest gold producer upped its offer from $14.50 per share to $16 per share and announced it would take up all shares tendered by Nov. 21, regardless of whether it obtained the minimum 50.1 percent of NovaGold that it originally hoped for. NovaGold would have liked to see a "white knight" ride in and rescue it from Barrick's advances with a shinier offer. That...
Normally at this time of year the mining industry's seasonal peak of activity is over and the paucity of news coming from the bush is a function of the dwindling volume of work going on out there. While there has been the anticipated lull in mining results released to the public in the last month, I can almost hear the deep, slow collective inhalation of breath being taken by the industry as it catches its second wind and launches an unusually diverse series of fall and winter programs. These efforts span the gamut from...
By most years' standards, the last month has been a barn burner for mining news. By 2006 standards it hardly measures on the Mining Industry Care-O-Meter, a highly subjective, totally unscientific measurement of what is happening in Alaska's mineral industry. In the last month we have seen the state's largest primary gold deposit resources increase to a mind-boggling 32 million ounces, we've seen one new mine begin commercial construction, we've seen one mine under construction receive a partial injunction against part of...
If there are any NovaGold shareholders left who aren't aware that the Vancouver-based junior is in a dispute with Barrick, the world's number one gold producer, they must be living on the moon. Facing a hostile takeover bid from Toronto-based Barrick, the management of NovaGold filed lawsuits against the major recently in Alaska and British Columbia, alleging that Barrick is misrepresenting the facts about NovaGold's properties to its shareholders. Even if NovaGold doesn't win either of the cases, their existence will almost...
NovaGold Resources Inc. has cleared several important permitting hurdles in its quest to develop the Rock Creek and Big Hurrah gold mines near Nome. The Alaska departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation issued construction permits for the project Aug. 9. NovaGold, owner and operator of the mines, envisions the project becoming its first development-stage venture to begin significant gold production. First gold production at a rate of roughly 100,000 ounces per year at Rock Creek could begin by late 2006...
The board of directors of Vancouver-based NovaGold Resources has unanimously recommended that shareholders reject the unsolicited takeover bid by Toronto-based Barrick Gold. At the same time, in mid-August, NovaGold filed a lawsuit against Barrick in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. The lawsuit claims that in making a competing bid for Pioneer Metals, Barrick misused confidential information belonging to NovaGold. NovaGold was already entangled in a lawsuit brought by Vancouver-based Pioneer over the Grace property adja...
Hang on to your hat, the data is beginning to roll in from Alaskan field programs and there are some hum dingers in this month's data and several others will be showing up next month. What's a "hum dinger"? How about an Alaska gold project at the center of a $1.5 billion corporate takeover by the world's largest gold producer? Or how about 75 feet grading more than 2 ounces of gold per ton? Or maybe silver production costs of a negative $2.28 per ounce? But wait, there's more...
The British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office is seeking public comment on an application for an environmental assessment certificate filed by NovaGold Canada Inc. in May. The Vancouver, B.C.-based junior mining company proposes to construct and operate a $1.1 billion open-pit mine operation at its Galore Creek Project in northwestern British Columbia east of the Alaska Panhandle. NovaGold Canada is 100 percent owned by NovaGold Resources Inc, which is also developing the Donlin Creek and Rock Creek mining projects in...
In a significant, but not altogether surprising move, Toronto-based Barrick Gold has made a hostile takeover bid for Vancouver-based NovaGold Resources, the owner of several assets in Alaska and British Columbia. At the same time, Barrick and Vancouver-based Pioneer Metals announced an agreement for Barrick, the world's largest gold producer, to acquire Pioneer. The deals are all related because NovaGold was in the midst of a hostile takeover bid for Pioneer. Pioneer owns claims that could be crucial to the development of Nov...
Vancouver-based NovaGold Resources has upped the ante in its battle against a lawsuit from another Vancouver junior mining company, Pioneer Metals. NovaGold announced a takeover bid for Pioneer in mid-June, offering to purchase 100 percent of Pioneer's shares for C$0.57 per share in cash. The dispute centers around NovaGold's Galore Creek project in northwestern British Columbia, where the company is considering locating a tailings facility on Pioneer's Grace property. Pioneer filed a lawsuit against NovaGold last October,...
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the State of Alaska released a public notice and draft project authorizations June 1, relating to the NovaGold Resources Rock Creek mine project located eight miles outside Nome. A 30-day public review and comment period ends June 30. The Rock Creek project includes two locations, the Rock Creek mine and mill complex north of Nome in the Snake River watershed, and the Big Hurrah Mine east of Nome in the Solomon River watershed. According to its public notice, the Alaska Department of...
Vancouver-based NovaGold Resources has been waiting a while now for Coast Mountain Power to develop the Forest Kerr hydroelectric project. Nothing has happened, and NovaGold needs the power for its planned Galore Creek gold-copper-silver mine in northwestern British Columbia. So the mining company decided to make an offer for Coast Mountain Power and build the hydroelectric power plant itself. The value of the transaction is approximately C$40 million, representing a 42 percent premium to the one-month weighted average...
As Barrick Gold Corp. announced completion of its multibillion-dollar acquisition of Placer Dome in mid-March, managers of the Donlin Creek project charged forward with work on several fronts at the southwestern Alaska gold deposit. Toronto-based Barrick launched a hostile takeover of Placer Dome on Halloween, but later won approval from Placer Dome's board for a $10.4 billion deal that created the world's biggest gold miner. The combined company owns 26 active mines and is the world's largest gold producer. It expects to...
NovaGold Resources is heading towards the Center of the Universe this year. No, the Vancouver-based junior won't be mining in outer space; it turns out that the Center of the Universe is in Alaska - which will come as no surprise to some residents of the 49th state. Astronomers may disagree about the accuracy of the name, but geologists believe that the Center of the Universe deposit could contain healthy reserves of copper, lead and zinc. NovaGold plans a 3,000-meter drill campaign at the deposit this year, as part of its...
Preparations for exploration and development activities ramped up again in the last month as budgets were approved and committed on projects extending from Southeast Alaska to the Seward Peninsula to Interior Alaska. Commodity and equity markets for the metals mining industry have remained strong in anticipation of continued high demand and restricted supplies. To put things into a global perspective, the Worldwatch Institute (www.worldwatch.org) recently published information about the growing demand for goods and services i...
In the last month the Alaska mining industry has seen start-up of its first major gold mine in five years (Pogo) and approval of permits for the Nixon Fork copper-gold mine. We also saw announcement of substantial increases in copper, gold and molybdenum resources at two advanced exploration/development projects (Donlin Creek and Pebble). New development plans were offered for heap leaching at the Fort Knox gold mine and initial funding was approved for evaluation of a coal to liquids facility at the Beluga coal deposits....
