The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Late summer rains and cooler temperatures, usually the norm for Interior Alaska, did not materialize this year, allowing wildlands fires to continue burning and spreading throughout the region in August. According to state and federal fire reports posted Sept. 3, a total of 6,378,692 acres of land in Alaska has burned during this summer's wildlands fires, reportedly the most ever in a single season. Statewide, 648 fires were reported and more than 80 fires remain active, even in early September when fire crews typically...
Vancouver, British Columbia-based War Eagle Mining Co. Inc. has partnered with Strategic Metals Ltd. to drill for the first time the Antimony Mountain copper-silver-gold porphyry prospect, 65 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of Dawson City, Yukon Territory. Reconnaissance field work started in late June, with core drilling beginning in August. A total of 1,000 meters (3,275 feet) is planned for this year's five-hole program, according to an Aug. 26 press release. "This summer's work program budget is $400,000, of which roughly...
After years of contentious debate, lawsuits and sporadic negotiations, the two major players involved in the Healy Clean Coal Project, an experimental coal-fired power plant built with $300 million in state and federal funds and shuttered since 2000, have terminated their relationship. During a July 23 meeting in Anchorage involving the project's players as well as state politicians and Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski, power plant owner Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority formally announced that the state agency...
Heavy rains in late July and early August have dampened the number of wildlands fires that burned through Interior and the eastern part of Alaska, adversely affecting placer miners and metals prospectors attempting to complete field work this summer. Large fires in the eastern Interior, covering the Fortymile mining district, continue to smolder and creep, according to the Aug. 2 report from the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center, which is monitoring about 100 active fires in the state. So far, 520 fires in Alaska have...
Two Fairbanks-based exploration geologists trapped in a remote camp threatened by a huge wild-lands fire burning out of control in Alaska's Interior were rescued by a helicopter pilot dispatched from the Pogo construction camp. Shortly after their air extraction, the fire burned through the ridge-top camp, destroying eight camp structures and some equipment, Sam Dashevsky, head of Northern Associates Inc., told Mining News on July 8. His Fairbanks-based geological consulting firm was working out of the camp, first set up and...
As anyone can tell you who has tried recently to locate geologists, drill rigs and helicopters, Alaska is not the place to search for any of these commodities. Mineral exploration and development in Alaska is clipping along at a pace not seen in more than five years and in the process, these activities have sucked up just about all of the people, rigs and aircraft in the state. Exploration and development projects are spread from Nome to Ketchikan, the Brooks Range to...
The partnership between Vancouver, British Columbia, junior Rimfire Minerals and global mining giant AngloGold (U.S.A.) Exploration continues to grow, as the two companies announced in late June their third property option agreement for a prospect near the Pogo area. Now optioned by AngloGold, the Beverly claim group is on the eastern boundary of the Pogo project in the upper Goodpaster River Valley in Interior Alaska, a high-grade gold deposit being developed by Teck Cominco and Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. "From a geological...
Partners in the Pogo gold project northeast of Delta Junction, Alaska, have officially approved the final feasibility study and production program, announcing plans on June 4 to complete construction and begin initial gold production in March 2006. Production will ramp up to commercial rates by the end of August, 2006, the three partners said in a joint press release. Development partners in the Pogo project, 40 miles northeast of Delta Junction in the upper Goodpaster River valley, include Teck Cominco Ltd., Sumitomo Metal...
Placer mining and lode exploration activity in Alaska is picking up this year, according to applications filed with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. A total of 299 permit applications have been filed with the department's Division of Mining, Land and Water in 2004, an increase of 43 applications compared to the number filed in 2003, according to geologist Brent Martellaro, in the department's Northern Regional office in Fairbanks. "We're projecting (the number of permits filed) it will be 17 percent higher. We're...
The first miners arriving in Alaska 100 years ago focused on enduring the challenging environment, building some basic infrastructure and finding enough gold to survive. Long term environmental consequences were not a high priority. Mining techniques have since changed with awareness, technology and with guidance from evolving regulations designed to ensure adequate protection of the nation's lands while allowing development of natural resources. Since August 2000, developers of the Pogo gold project have been working with...
The Delta Mine Training Center, a non-profit organization based in Delta Junction, Alaska, has finalized a lease with the state for its training property. The 40-acre site about 30 miles east of Delta Junction near the Alaska Highway has been used by the training center under a land use permit, according to Executive Director Whit Hicks. The former rock quarry, first used by the Alaska Department of Transportation for an industrial minerals site, was closed by the state when an archeological site was discovered nearby. Mine...
Metals prices remain strong and funding for projects large and small is already in place or nearly so as Alaska prepares for the annual summer exploration dance. Exploration drilling on several winter drilling targets has been completed and summer drilling projects are beginning on several others. Mine permitting issues at Pogo have cast a shadow over the otherwise bright picture of Alaska's mining industry but resolution of this problem is expected sooner rather than later...
Although the traditional Alaska field season has not really arrived yet, three significant developments occurred in March: Teck Cominco and Sumitomo Metal Mining received final permits for the Pogo gold project from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allowing construction to move ahead at flank speed, Anglo American acquired its first U.S. mineral property in years by signing a joint venture option on Nevada Star's MAN nickel-copper-platinum group element project and Nov...
Describing Alaska as "a good place to do business," AngloGold (U.S.A.) Exploration's president of North America said the company's focus is shifting away from projects in Nevada and parts of Canada. The company increased its landholdings through a sizeable claim staking effort in recent months in the area surrounding the Pogo gold deposit, and is negotiating a land lease in the Livengood area. Total exploration spending in Alaska is planned for $2 million, which is more than two-thirds of the company's North America green-fie...
Contractors hired by developers of the Pogo gold deposit northeast of Delta Junction completed construction of a 50-mile temporary ice road in early February and transportation of fuel and equipment into the remote site should be complete by the later part of March. "Things are moving along well," Karl Hanneman, Teck-Pogo's manager of public and environmental affairs and special projects, told Mining News on March 8. "We have about half of the necessary fuel and equipment mobilized over the road." The freight hauling work,...
In a 16-page report released in January, the Alaska Minerals Commission made 12 recommendations to the state Legislature and Governor on ways to mitigate constraints on mineral development in Alaska. In addition, the commission identified seven federal issues of concern and made suggestions that the state and/or the governor should pursue to rectify those issues. Recommendations include suggestions involving government regulatory reform, access and infrastructure development, state's rights issues, data acquisition, regional...
As in past years, Canada's Fraser Institute (www.fraserinstitute.ca) has released the results of its annual mining investment attractiveness survey for 2003-2004. The survey represents responses from 132 junior mining companies and 27 senior mining companies who rated policy potential issues (regulatory and infrastructure), mineral potential and overall investment attractiveness in 53 political jurisdictions around the globe. The companies participating in the survey accounted for exploration budgets totaling US$642.4...
As 2002 draws rapidly to a close, news of this year's mineral exploration, development and production efforts in Alaska continues to come out while plans for next year are being formulated in board rooms across North America. The political landscape at both the national and state levels changed drastically as a result of the Nov. 5 elections; however, the effects of these changes will not become evident for some time. Metals prices remain depressed for lead, zinc and...
Information continues to trickle in from 2002 exploration programs around the state with the final tally suggesting exploration expenditures for 2002 will come in at about the same or slightly higher levels as in 2001. As is most years, a few major projects expend the majority of the funds while many smaller projects move either forward toward increased funding or backward to the project bone yard. The big spenders in 2002 will be Donlin Creek, Pebble and Pogo while properties...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that mining is one of the nation's safest occupations with a lower rate of illness and injury per 100 employees, 4.7, than manufacturing, 9, and construction, 8.3, and grocery stores, 8, hotels, 6.9, and retail sales, 5.9 As is usually the case, the Alaska summer season reached its peak in activity in August. As is always the case, some properties show promise of turning into Alaska's next operating mine while others have their names quietly scribed on the scroll of the dead. Several...
Drilling, trenching and prospecting results are pouring in from all over the state as the 2002 summer season hits its annual mid-point. The most active place in the states continues to be the Seward Peninsula although a number of other areas are seeing increased levels of interest and expenditure for the first time in five years. Tire kicking has increased across the board and new property acquisitions are expected to make their way to the public domain in August. Gold exploration has resurfaced after a long hiatus but base...
Is it my rose colored glasses or has the mining industry brightened considerably in the past month? The bump in the gold prices along with the slow but steady increase in the abysmal prices for other metals seems to have infused the mining industry with, dare I say it, optimism! Quite frankly I'm not sure how to react since we have not seen an industry-wide "smile" since the heady days at the end of the last millennium before the Busang scam devastated the industry and helped hasten the plunge of the already declining gold...
The snows are rapidly retreating and the Alaska mining industry is busy sharpening picks and pencils as it prepares for the summer season. Metals prices are on the rebound and a surprisingly vigorous economic recovery is under way in the United States. Although budgets for major companies for Alaska are not likely to change drastically in 2002, junior equity markets are surprisingly buoyant and should provide more immediate capital for investment in Alaska this year. Western Alaska NovaGold Resources announced the results...
As is always the case this time of year, many of the season's exploration and development programs are completed or nearing completion and the results of those programs are trickling in. In addition, second quarter 2001 operating results are in for Alaska's major mines, all of which are doing well despite depressed prices for all of the metals they produce. The state's most active areas include the Seward Peninsula, Interior Alaska and southeast Alaska. Here is what's going on. Western Alaska Cominco American's Red Dog mine...
While the noisy debate continues over ANWR, the gas pipeline possibilities and the ever-increasing cost of gasoline, the Alaska mining industry has quietly made the seasonal transition from winter to summer. The sound of drills and rock picks on outcrops is beginning to echo across the state. By all accounts the number of feet drilled, the number of geologists and engineers employed and the number of dollars spent around the state this year will be down significantly compared to the last several years. That said, several area...
