The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 401 - 425 of 451
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys said the industry topped $1 billion in expenditures and earnings for the ninth straight year. The mining industry paid nearly $27 million to the State of Alaska and municipalities in 2004, an increase of $8 million from the previous year, the report said. Revenue from mining license taxes more than tripled from 2003, largely due to profitability of zinc extraction at Red Dog Mine near Kotzebue. The mining industry contributed more than...
South Africa-based AngloGold Ashanti is happy with its exploration results in Alaska so far, and it will be back for more in 2006, says Jeff Pontius, the company's exploration manager. "It's paid out pretty well for us, we have a lot of gold discoveries or occurrences that we've worked up and tested and are in various stages of what we call an evaluation," Pontius told the Alaska Miners Association annual convention at the Anchorage Sheraton Nov. 2. "There are a lot of new things going on (in Alaska), and AngloGold is trying...
Over the course of the last several months, a series of new gold and base metal discoveries have been made. Several of these new discoveries were reported in the last month and highlights of these and other activities were presented at the annual Alaska Miners Association convention in Anchorage in early November. The convention was one of the most exciting and up-beat events in nearly a decade. The new discoveries are a trend that, while long in coming, are an inevitable...
Alaska's Department of Natural Resources may not have seen the last of Bob Loeffler. When he resigned as director of the Division of Mining, Land and Water in November, it was the third time he had quit the department that he first joined in 1978. He kept returning because he likes the work, Loeffler told Mining News. This loyalty is much like his loyalty to Alaska: He came to the state in 1977 with the U.S. Geological Survey for one year and never left. The position of director has now been filled by the former deputy direct...
It's widely understood that Canada is Alaska's third-largest market with exports of $242 million in 2004. But our next-door neighbor is an even bigger source of goods and services imported to the state, $289 million last year. That's right. Canada accounted for 2,600 direct jobs in Alaska in 2004, while direct and indirect employment generated by Canadian enterprises totaled 7,500 positions in the state with a $330 million payroll. These are among findings of a new report, "Canada's Impact on Alaska," prepared for the...
A strike at Teck Cominco's Trail smelter that left zinc concentrate from Red Dog mine stockpiled in Vancouver has ended after almost three months. Trail, in southeast British Columbia, is one of the world's largest fully integrated zinc and lead smelting and refining complexes. It closed in mid-July because of the strike by United Steelworkers. Senior Teck Cominco managers discussed this and other issues at an investors and analysts' day in Vancouver Sept. 26. Two local unions of the United Steelworkers, representing 1,140 sm...
Competition for mining employees is intensifying in Alaska, with mines from the Lower 48 advertising their signing bonuses in Fairbanks, while the Pogo project tries to counter their offers with even bigger ones. State legislators heard about this and other mining issues at the "Gold and Gas in the Interior" meeting at the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly Chambers Aug. 22. Two Nevada companies advertised $2,000 signing bonuses in the Fairbanks newspaper in July, and a mine in Montana is offering a $4,000 signing bonus,...
KoryakGeoldobycha's reputation depends on making a success of Aginskoye mine. Bystrinsky Mining Co., headed by the ebullient Andrei Kozlov, is firing on all cylinders to achieve the first gold pour at the mine by the end of the year. KGD has built a 127-kilometer road northwest from the village of Milkovo to the mine. The contractors who are working at the mine live in the old Soviet exploration camp, but brand new, comfortable housing has been built on site and the old camp will be demolished. It was hoped that the mine...
There has recently been a great deal of talk about how the hard rock mining industry in Alaska "needs to pay its share." One proposal is that this industry should be singled out for the imposition of a severance tax. In discussing this matter with a friend who is not involved with the hard rock mining industry, I was somewhat amazed by her support for this type of taxation. When I suggested to her that major mines often take more than a decade to go from discovery to...
Coping with the unexpected is a challenge facing Teck Cominco in Alaska this summer, as both its Pogo Mine project near Delta Junction and the Red Dog Mine near Kotzebue encounter the unexpected. Construction of the Pogo gold mine is rapidly moving toward completion in time for an early 2006 startup. But workers are grappling with poor ground conditions in underground development at the project. The mine, 85 miles southeast of Fairbanks, is estimated to contain 7.7 million tons of ore that should yield just under a...
I have had numerous people ask me the same question over and over again for the last month - "What's going on in Alaska; everyone is so quiet?" My response has been and remains the same - everyone is too busy breaking rocks, drilling holes or crushing ore to be bothered with new releases and grandiose public announcements. After all, it is high summer in the high north, a time of seasonal frenetic activity that makes the lot of us look and feel like a mouse in a habitat wheel! Despite the fact that a dozen or so companies...
The good news from Teryl, Kinross, Geoinformatics, Midas, Geocom and others is tempered by the loss of Alaska's gentleman scientist Ernie Wolff, who passed away on May 3; Liberty Star Gold appoints Phil St. George as VP of exploration s I write this summary of recent activities in Alaska's mining industry I am attending a once-every-five-year symposium in Reno put on by the Geological Society of Nevada. Some 1,500 attendees, mostly exploration geologists, are eagerly lapping up hours of new and previously unheard ideas on...
Construction work at the $320 million Pogo Gold Project near Delta Junction slowed in late April when a gastrointestinal virus plowed through workers at the remote site. The 24-hour bug, which caused nausea, diarrhea, abdominal cramps and vomiting, is similar to noroviruses that have attacked cruise passengers in Alaska waters in recent years, according to state health officials. About 60 percent of Pogo's work force took sick just days after the first victim was reported April 27, said Karl Hanneman, vice president of...
Since the Pebble project began hitting the headlines, Bob Loeffler has been asked some strange questions. People accost the mild-mannered director of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Mining, Land and Water and demand to know why he issued permits for the Pebble project and when it is going to break ground. Loeffler is puzzled, because he hasn't issued any permits for the Pebble project. The developer, Northern Dynasty, won't even submit its permit applications until next year. Loeffler spoke to the Newh...
Alaska Native corporations have considerable experience partnering with mining companies and have seen economic benefits for their shareholders from the mining industry. They are also aware of people's concern about the effect of mining on the subsistence lifestyle, as became clear in a panel discussion on "Mining and the Native Perspective" at the Newhalen conference in April. Greg Beischer of Bristol Environmental and Engineering Services Corp. a subsidiary of Bristol Bay Native Corp., introduced the panel. Beischer, an...
The chief of the mining section within the Alaska's Department of Natural Resources, Stan Foo, has taken a senior position with Placer Dome. Foo, 48, left DNR in mid-March, having worked there since 2001. He will now be Placer Dome's project manager for Alaska, representing the Vancouver-based company in the state and heading the Donlin Creek project, a joint venture with NovaGold. Foo spent 15 years of his career with Placer Dome and was an independent resource consultant for two years before moving to DNR. He started...
Many Alaska state legislators have a personal connection with mining, and perhaps none more so than Richard Foster, Nome's Democratic representative. Foster, 58, grew up on his father's mine, 100 miles north of Nome. Today he is glad to see Vancouver-based NovaGold developing its Rock Creek project in his district, but he also regrets the disappearance of "mom and pop" mining operations like the one where he worked as a child. "NovaGold has been very aggressive in trying to develop their gold and also their boundless...
The Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys and the Department of Commerce and Economic Development have released their annual preliminary report on Alaska's mining industry for 2004. As expected, investment in all categories was up significantly over previous years. Exploration spending in 2004 was estimated at $63.7 million, up from $27.6 million in 2003. The 2004 expenditures were the highest in the state since 1981. Development expenditures jumped to $105.6 million vs. $39.2 million in 2003, thanks largely t...
The report of the 2005 Alaska Minerals Commission, published in January, stresses the urgent need to overcome the twin obstacles of permitting and lawsuits at a time when the mining industry is experiencing a dramatic upsurge in activity. Since its creation in 1986 the commission has made annual recommendations to the governor and Legislature on ways to mitigate constraints on the development of minerals, including coal, in the state. "Despite the improvements in 2004, the industry continued to be dogged by an array of...
Nearly half a decade after embarking on development of the huge Pogo gold resource in Interior Alaska, operator Teck-Pogo Inc. is eyeing light at the end of the tunnel - first production in early 2006. The company is also gearing up for additional exploration near the known deposit later this year. Pogo, 85 miles southeast of Fairbanks near the town of Delta Junction, is estimated to contain 7.7 million tons of ore that should yield just under a half-ounce of gold per ton. Karl Hanneman, the project's manager of public and...
December, January and February are normally a time when the mining industry can stop and catch its collective breath, look into its often cloudy but well-used crystal ball and prepare for the coming year. Not so the last December, January and February! While 2004 results continued to pour in from projects large and small, plans for 2005 are well advanced and in some cases, already in full swing. Metals prices remained strong and even the most pessimistic prognosticators...
What a difference a year makes ... along with a few things like rebounding metals prices, China's voracious appetite for minerals and investors' enduring love affair worldwide with gold. That's the assessment of Alaska officials after reviewing the state's annual report on mining industry activity in 2003, released in late October. The cumulative value of Alaska's mining industry in 2003 dipped slightly to $1.067 billion, down about $6 million from the $1.073 billion reported in 2002, according to the report, the 23rd in an...
After seeing his daughter Lisa elected to the U.S. Senate, the first place Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski headed to on Nov. 3 was the Alaska Miners Association convention in Anchorage. Perhaps because of his good mood, Gov. Murkowski promised to request a $700,000 addition to next year's budget for enhanced airborne geophysical surveys. In a speech to the convention two days later, Alaska Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin confirmed the state's enthusiasm for the mining industry. "Men and women of the Alaska...
Neither the heat and smoke from wildfires, nor excruciatingly low winter temperatures could deter miners from expanding their operations in Alaska this past season. Representatives of several companies described their achievements in the "Development and Mine Operations" session at the Alaska Miners Association convention on Nov. 5. NovaGold Resources' Rock Creek John Odden from NovaGold Resources began with a presentation on Rock Creek, which is located on the Seward Peninsula, seven miles north of Nome. Part of it is on...
The month of November started off with a bang with favorable results for the mining industry from both the state and federal elections standpoint. As it closes the price of gold is flirting with $450 per ounce, the highest price for this metal since mid-1988. The Alaska Miners Association convention was very well attended in early November and results were revealed there from many of Alaska's exploration, development and production properties. A quick tally of spending across...
