The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 376 - 400 of 451
Flying high on strong commodity prices, Teck Cominco Ltd.'s profits soared to record levels in the second quarter. Despite the strong results, the Vancouver, B.C.-based mining company decided Aug. 16 not to pursue an outstanding hostile purchase offer for Inco Ltd., the world's second largest nickel producer. Teck Cominco disclosed the reversal one day after announcing plans to sweeten its original buyout offer to about C$89 a share. The move came less than 24 hours before its bid was due to expire. Meanwhile, the company...
As coal mine safety leaped into the national spotlight this year, miners in Alaska and Canada thankfully have been left out of the loop. That's because Canada has only two underground coal mines and Alaska has none. The only underground coal mine in Western Canada is on Vancouver Island and is a mostly mechanized operation with just 17 employees. Canada's other mine that fits the profile is located in Nova Scotia. "It's primarily underground coal mining at issue, and we don't have any, right now," said Steve Borell,...
Afeasibility study published in July has confirmed that Vancouver-based Sherwood Copper's Minto copper-gold-silver project in the Yukon could be economic for at least six years. That is the initial projected mine life, but Sherwood is continuing its exploration program to expand the current resources. A key component of the project is the plan to retrofit Alaska's Skagway Ore Terminal to receive shipments of concentrate. Sherwood acquired Minto from ASARCO last year and gave the open pit project a new lease of life,...
Alaska's placer mining industry has been almost wiped out by the Clean Water Act. In addition, every surface and subsurface lode mining operation has been forced to go through the dreaded process of getting a "404" dredge and fill permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. From Kensington to Pogo, access roads have been engineered and redesigned at great cost to minimize the impact on Alaska's "wetlands," even where the road is miles away from any water body. Since 1972, when...
The last month has seen the 2006 summer season's first offering of new discoveries, new drilling results and new companies in Alaska. While a number of programs were delayed due to an unseasonably cold spring (bring on the global warming!), most programs have moved to Plan B, C or D and are now fully engaged under the midnight sun. Western Alaska Triex Minerals and Full Metal Minerals reported their planned diamond drilling program has begun on the Boulder Creek uranium project on the Seward Peninsula. The $1.1 million progra...
South Africa's AngloGold Ashanti has signed a letter of intent with Vancouver-based International Tower Hill Mines for the sale and option of all of AngloGold's Alaska mineral exploration properties and associated databases to the Canadian company. Under the terms of the agreement, AngloGold will sell ITH a 100 percent interest in six Alaska properties (Livengood, West Pogo, Coffee Dome, Gilles, Caribou and Blackshell) covering a total of 246 square kilometers. In consideration for the sale, ITH will issue to AngloGold 19.99...
The game is afoot! The last month has seen the start of a number of field programs in Alaska, marking the beginning of the traditional "field season" in the Great Land. With demand for metals remaining extraordinarily high, Alaska's mining industry is operating at capacity but well below demand. An acute shortage of drills and drillers, geologists and engineers and helicopters to move them all around is affecting exploration, development and production plans around the state. For the first time in my career, money is not in...
Teck Cominco's experience operating northern mines like Red Dog and Pogo in Alaska could serve it well if the Vancouver-based company's C$17.8 billion attempt to take over Inco is successful. Toronto-based Inco is the world's second-largest nickel producer and its properties include Voisey's Bay mine in Labrador. Inco is currently trying to acquire another Toronto-based mining company, Falconbridge, and the Teck Cominco offer for Inco is contingent on the bid for Falconbridge failing. Touting its offer as "A Better Deal,"...
"Ready, aim, fire" is the traditional litany of any marksman hoping to hit his target. But critics of the Pebble mineral development have confused that sequence, firing aimless broadsides at the project even before a clear target has emerged. Recent efforts to inflame public opinion against the Pebble copper-gold deposit as an inevitable environmental catastrophe ignore two fundamental truths. First, Pebble is not a working mine, nor even a mine under construction. It's a mineral deposit whose owners, though certainly busy...
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has reinstated two permits for the Kensington gold project that the agency suspended last November following the filing of a lawsuit by the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council and other environmental groups. The permits authorize the discharge of fill material and the construction of a dock by Goldbelt in waters 25 miles north of Juneau. Specifically, mine tailings will be disposed of in Lower Slate Lake, which is the main point of contention in the lawsuit. "The decision to reinstate the...
In the early days of exploration at a property near the small town of Delta Junction in Interior Alaska, a bunch of geologists who'd had a few too many beers began jumping up and down. They may have been jumping for joy, imagining a rich gold vein beneath their feet, or more likely they were jumping to keep warm, as this region is one of the coldest on the planet in winter. Someone nicknamed the strange dance the Pogo dance, and the name stuck. Today in the same spot, Pogo mine is producing its first gold bars, a joint ventur...
I was reminded of the famous quotation by Friedrich Nietzsche last week when I had occasion to visit the recently completed Pogo mine near Delta. This impressively huge, modern facility will mine gold and pour bars for the next decade without spilling a drop of wastewater, while providing 230 or more quality jobs for the people of eastern Alaska. It is a tribute to how technology has combined with public policy to advance Alaska's economy without adversely impacting the...
A bill in the Alaska Legislature introducing a mining production tax would ensure that the people of the state derive the maximum benefit from the use of resources, as guaranteed in the constitution, according to the bill's sponsor. Rep. Paul Seaton, R-Homer, a commercial fisherman, believes that the mining industry is not contributing enough to the state compared with the fishing industry and the oil and gas industry. His bill would impose a tax of 0.6 percent of the gross value of the resource at the point of production in...
The Pogo Gold Mine Project near Delta Junction began gold production Feb. 12, nearly a month ahead of schedule, Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. Ltd. and Sumitomo Corp. jointly announced Feb. 13. The companies said construction at Pogo progressed well enough to enable the project to advance production from an originally scheduled start in March. Pogo is estimated to contain 7.7 million tons of gold ore that should yield just under a half-ounce of gold per ton. The mine employs about 240 permanent workers. Sumitomo Metal is the...
Capitalism is good; its excesses are to be tolerated. Freedom of expression is good; and its excesses are likewise to be tolerated. When a successful capitalist uses his financial power to express himself, it truly represents the confluence of two very American very positive forces. When those forces are marshaled to achieve an evil objective, it is to be tolerated. As Thomas Jefferson observed, "error should be tolerated where truth is free to combat it." Environmentalism...
The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was not the ideal time to be scouring the country for three 3,500-gallon-per-minute pumps, but that's exactly what Anchorage-based Precision Power needed last fall to complete a rush job for a gold mine in the Russian Far East. Fortunately, manufacturer Gorman-Rupp happened to have three such pumps on the shelf and Precision Power met the deadline to provide the mine with customized equipment for building ice roads. "I got a phone call while I was having lunch and took the numbers down on a...
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....
A report on the economic impact of Alaska's mining industry published in February provides a comprehensive look at the varied benefits mining brings to the state. The Alaska Miners Association commissioned the McDowell Group to prepare the report and distributed it to state legislators. Presentations to the Legislature by the AMA and the Alaska Minerals Commission in the same week emphasized the positive aspects of Alaska's mining resurgence and the importance of a stable tax regime. Much of the information in the McDowell...
Metals high: Gold up 77% from January 2002, silver 94%, platinum 87%, copper 206%, nickel 429%, lead 174%, zinc 141% - exploration and development plans for Alaska focused on all of these metals in projects stretching from the Brooks Range to far southeastern Alaska, from the Alaska-Yukon border to the Seward Peninsula n a welcome respite from the madness of most of 2005, the last month has seen a slowing of information from companies and individuals exploring and developing A...
Northern Dynasty may only be a junior mining company, but it has marshaled an army of contractors to conduct baseline environmental studies for its Pebble project in southwest Alaska. Companies that competed against each other to win the contracts are now working as a team taking samples, monitoring conditions and analyzing data that will eventually be used in the permit applications for the proposed copper-gold mine. In 2005 the Pebble project employed 45 consulting firms, with a total Alaska workforce of 457, plus another...
Permitting, legislation, taxation and education are some of the key issues discussed by the Alaska Minerals Commission in its 2006 report, published in January. The report praises the state's continuing efforts to improve the climate for the mining industry, but also gives a number of recommendations on what else could be done in this period of unusually high activity. The commission has advised Alaska's leaders since its creation in 1986. "A cloud of uncertainty has been cast over the industry by the U.S. Army Corps of...
Teck-Pogo Alaska is back on track to achieve first production this quarter at the Pogo gold mine project near Delta Junction after clearing up a dispute that erupted last year with Golden Valley Electric Association over electricity rates. Teck-Pogo complained to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska in October that GVEA planned to renege on a contract the two companies entered in January 2005 in which GVEA agreed to provide up to 13 megawatts of power to Pogo during its operating life and binding the mine's owner to a yearly...
When I heard that Barrick Gold Corp. had made an unsolicited offer on Oct. 31, 2005, to purchase Placer Dome Inc. my first move was to purchase 100 Barrick shares. Although the acquisition was initially rejected, on Dec. 22 a follow-up offer was greeted more favorably. This appears to be a fortuitous marriage. In the 60 days I have held the stock it has gone from $25.05 per share to $29.48, an increase in value of 17.68 percent (106 percent annualized). I like that kind of...
Aerial surveys released by the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys could help identify areas worth exploring for minerals. Four surveys released Jan. 23 fall short of offering a bull's eye for exploration companies, but help pinpoint promising sites, according to state geologist Melanie Werdon. Werdon said a "pretty hot mineral target area" borders a previously studied section that includes the Pogo gold mine northeast of Delta Junction. The Black Mountain area contains rock formations and gold-related...
Alaska's newest large mines, such as Pogo, will benefit from some of the most advanced equipment on the market, including drill rigs with computer consoles and rock bolts that expand to the right strength whether they are in an ore body or waste rock. Much of this equipment is being provided by a distributor with branches across the state, Construction Machinery International. Ken and Chad Gerondale of CMI gave details at a presentation to the Alaska Miners Association in Anchorage Dec. 14. CMI represents major manufacturers...
