The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 351 - 375 of 451
Since agreeing to acquire the Alaska portfolio of South Africa major AngloGold Ashanti in August 2006, International Tower Hill Mines of Vancouver, B.C., has been exploring the state and expanding its claims as it goes. A total of nine properties were involved in the junior exploration company's agreement with AngloGold. In the 15 months since, International Tower Hill has purchased 100 percent interest in seven of the properties and entered into joint ventures with AngloGold...
The early indications are that this year's Alaska Miners Association convention will be the best attended in recent memory. The present economic climate of consistent high demand for commodities and the associated rise in the price of product has permitted the industry, which was in the doldrums for many years, to find firm footing in Alaska. Among many other positive factors is that we have a lot of land that is not owned by the federal government, so the machinations of...
Steve Borell, longtime executive director of the Alaska Miners Association, sat down to discuss the state of the industry recently. Borell expressed optimism and excitement about the industry's future in Alaska. But he raised several red flags that Alaska officials and others should consider in future policy making discussions. The following is excerpted from his remarks during an Oct. 3 interview. Mining News: What do you see as the future of the mining industry in Alaska in the short term and the long term? Steve Borell:...
The results from Alaska's summer field campaigns continue to pour in from all over the state, while field crews wind down their summer work and kick off their winter programs. If the results released this month are any indication of what is yet to come, 2008 is fixing to be one heck of a year! Western Alaska NovaGold Resources announced that initial testing of their crushing circuit had commenced at their commissioning Rock Creek gold mine near Nome. The operation is...
Even though the concept of global warming is a welcome idea to many companies working in Alaska, its effects are not being felt fast enough to allow companies to complete all of the work they had hoped to finish in 2007. Drills are still turning all over the state, but the first signs of "termination dust" are showing on the higher peaks and the smell of fermenting berries fills the air, giving us all a not-so gentle prod to get ready for winter. Western Alaska Teck Cominco...
Coeur D'Alene Mines Corp., owner and operator of the Kensington Gold Project near Juneau, has agreed to work with Southeast Alaska environmental groups on a new plan to dispose of the proposed mine's tailings. Coeur D'Alene CEO Dennis Wheeler told the Juneau Chamber of Commerce Aug. 30 that the company will accept an invitation from the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, Sierra Club Alaska Chapter, and Lynn Canal Conservation to work together to allow Kensington to begin production by developing temporary and permanent...
Vancouver-based Freegold Ventures is exploring claims in three Alaska locations this season - Golden Summit near Fairbanks, Rob in the Goodpaster Mining District, and Vinasale near McGrath, the company's latest venture in the state. At Golden Summit, Freegold has finished setting up a gravity-based processing plant, which will process 28,000 tons or more of material before winter sets in, Freegold President and CEO Steve Manz told Mining News in a recent interview. At Rob,...
Vancouver-based Teck Cominco has almost made enough money at Red Dog mine to start paying Alaska Native corporation NANA a 25 percent net proceeds of production royalty, the company announced in its second-quarter report July 30. Teck Cominco currently pays NANA an annual advance royalty equal to 4.5 percent of Red Dog's net smelter return. At a certain point specified in the royalty agreement, NANA must pay the 25 percent royalty, which increases in 5 percent increments every fifth year to a maximum of 50 percent. Advance...
Two Vancouver-based companies have announced a partnership to develop British Columbia's largest mining project, Galore Creek, just across the border from Alaska. NovaGold Resources, which has been developing the copper-gold project for the past four years, will go 50-50 with Teck Cominco, the operator of Red Dog and Pogo mines in Alaska, and Highland Valley and Elk Valley mines in British Columbia. To earn its 50 percent interest, Teck Cominco will fund approximately US$478 million in construction costs at Galore Creek,...
Alaska's newest mine has a new general manager, just a few months after shipping its first gold doré. Cliff Nelson, 51, replaces William Burnett at Nixon Fork, a historic underground mine near McGrath. Burnett first worked at Nixon Fork as a mine geologist from 1995 until it shut down in 1999. He returned a couple of years ago as general manager with Mystery Creek Resources, a subsidiary of Ontario-based St. Andrew Goldfields, hoping to see the refurbished mine through to commercial production. Neither Burnett nor Nelson...
Strong markets and solid production powered hardrock mining companies with large operations and investments in Alaska to outstanding performances in 2006. Teck Cominco, operator of the Red Dog zinc-lead mine near Kotzebue and the Pogo gold mine in the eastern Interior near Delta Junction; Kinross Gold Corp., owner of the Fort Knox gold mine near Fairbanks, Hecla Mining Co., part owner of the Greens Creek silver mine in Southeast Alaska; and Coeur D'Alene Corp., developer of the Kensington Gold Project near Juneau, reported...
Okay, the lull is over. It lasted about 25, maybe 30 minutes, after I wrote those prophetic but ill-considered words in late January! Shortly after that point I was in Vancouver for the annual Cordilleran Roundup mining conference, an annual barometer of mining activity in western North America if not the world. What I saw at the 2007 conference was a crowd well in excess of 5,000, populated by two types of people: those who were smiling from ear to ear and those whose terrified eyes reminded me of a whitetail deer in the...
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...
Ahhhh, the calm before the storm! Over the last month the industry slowed and took a collective breath to enjoy friends, family and the holidays in anticipation of another busy year in the Alaska mineral industry. The last month has already seen another new player enter the Alaska mining scene and behind closed doors drilling, helicopter and personnel contracts are being negotiated. The annual Cordilleran Roundup mining convention in Vancouver is right around the corner and promises to be the most exciting conference in over...
Copper Ridge Explorations Inc., owner of various precious and base metals-rich properties in the Yukon Territory, British Columbia and Alaska, is venturing into uranium exploration in the Yukon. The Vancouver, B.C.-based junior mining company reached an agreement with Dawson City prospector Shawn Ryan to acquire 100 percent interest in the Borealis uranium property about 30 miles northeast of that city. Under terms of the option, Copper Ridge will pay $5,000 in cash, spend a minimum of $600,000 on exploration at Borealis,...
Research prepared for mining industry critic Earthworks claims that faulty water quality predictions, and mitigation and regulatory failures are responsible for hard rock mining-related water pollution, primarily in the West. The purpose of the studies, by consultant Jim Kuipers of Butte, Mont., and Boulder, Colo.-based geochemist Ann Maest, was to review the history and accuracy of water quality predictions in environmental impact statements for major U.S. hardrock mines, according to Earthworks. Kuipers and Maest found...
A newly expanded company is making Alaska its exploration target, and it's backed by a mining heavyweight. Vancouver-based International Tower Hill Mines was barely a glimmer on anyone's radar screens until last summer, when South African major AngloGold Ashanti purchased 19.99 percent of ITH's shares and gave the junior its North American exploration manager, Jeff Pontius, as president and CEO. Pontius led the team that acquired a group of Alaska properties for AngloGold, which now belong to ITH. "AngloGold was highly...
An investor attending the Alaska Miners Association convention in Anchorage mentioned that he was listening intently to all the exploration talks because he was looking for the next Full Metal Minerals. In other words, a junior company that breaks out from the bottom of the stockpile, as it were, and builds a reputation for acquiring promising properties and working diligently on them. For Alaskans the rise of Vancouver-based Full Metal is doubly exciting, since all most all of the company's projects are located in the state....
In a week when lead and zinc hit record-breaking high prices, it was particularly appropriate for Vancouver-based Teck Cominco's president and CEO, Don Lindsay, to be visiting Alaska for the seventh time. The state is home to the world's largest lead-zinc mine, Red Dog, and the company has further demonstrated its commitment to Alaska with the recent opening of Pogo gold mine, a partnership with Japan's Sumitomo Metal Mining. The Alaska Miners Association presented Teck Cominco with its new mine award this year. Walter Sampso...
Over the last month the Alaska mineral industry continued to report results from 2006 exploration programs including new acquisitions of projects that have been on the back shelf for over 25 years. The industry watched as the American political scene was drastically changed at both the federal and state levels. And despite the fact that the end of the year is nearing, there is no end in sight yet for a number of exploration and development projects while at the same time contracts for work in 2007 already are being inked. If...
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...
Construction costs for Alaska's Pogo gold mine near Fairbanks have risen again to $378 million, Japan's Sumitomo Metal Mining said in a release Aug. 23. Sumitomo owns a 51 percent stake in Pogo and the operator is Vancouver-based Teck Cominco. The original construction cost estimate in May 2004 was $280 million. The latest estimate in October 2005 was $357 million. Some of the increases were due to rising material prices, including oil and steel. Additional investment of $21 million is now required to install a third filter...
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...
Alaska legislators didn't get much of a break this summer. After sitting through two special sessions in Juneau to debate a new oil tax and a proposed gas pipeline, followed by some hard-fought primary elections, members of the House and Senate Resources Committee convened again Aug. 31 for a hearing about Kensington mine. Several legislators participated in the Anchorage meeting by telephone, keen to find out what was going on after the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued an injunction in late August against work on...
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...
