The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 76 - 93 of 93
Mineral exploration spending in Alaska will likely struggle to top US$80 million for 2014, a dramatic fall from the US$365.1 million pinnacle reached in 2011. "The din of mineral industry activity that is normally a part of the summer months in Alaska is decidedly muted this year as the global mining industry attempts to lift itself off the bottom of a plus-18-month-long slump," Avalon Development President Curt Freeman opined in a June column written for Mining News. Unlike 2...
Contango ORE Inc. May 15 reported that US$5 million has been budgeted for an initial phase of exploration at the Tetlin gold project in eastern Interior Alaska. This will mark the first exploration at Tetlin under Peak Gold LLC, a joint venture between Contango ORE and Royal Gold Inc. The first phase of the 2015 program at Tetlin will test outlying exploration targets at Tars, Saddle, North Saddle and Saddle Skarn targets. The drilling also will test expansion targets at the...
Royal Gold Inc. April 17 reported that its wholly owned subsidiary, RGLD Gold AG, received about 26,200 ounces of gold from the Mount Milligan copper-gold mine in British Columbia for the quarter ended March 31. As part of its purchase and sale agreement with Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc., Royal Gold can purchase 52.25 percent of the payable gold produced at Mount Milligan for US$435 per ounce, or the prevailing gold price, whichever is less. Royal Gold currently sells...
Slipping metals prices and investors' ongoing reluctance to risk venture capital in the junior mining sector is hitting Alaska's mineral exploration sector hard; and the Far North state is not the only mining jurisdiction reeling from this one-two punch. "After another year of strong headwinds in 2014, and with lower demand and overproduction continuing to depress metals prices, the mining industry's outlook for 2015 is unpromising at best," SNL Metals & Mining wrote recently... Full story
Several events have dramatically affected Alaska's mining industry in recent weeks, underscoring critical links between Alaska and the global economy. First came bad news for newly-elected Gov. Bill Walker: The plunge in world oil prices pushed Alaska's coming-year budget projections about $3.5 billion into the red. The ripple effect of this was a slashing of everything not required and one of the cuts, temporarily at least, was state funding of the Ambler District Road.... Full story
In an industry eager for even a scintilla of good news, a recent report from industry analyst SNL Metals & Mining recently gave the good-news-starved industry a bit of hope. SNL's article, titled, "Too early to start celebrating a recovery in the sector," indicated that although the downward trend in mineral exploration has not broken yet, the market has stopped down-grading mining equities, with a modest gain in market capitalization since its most recent low in mid-2013....
Two companies that trace their roots to the oil and gas sector have agreed to form an alliance to continue exploration at the Tetlin gold-copper-silver property in Alaska's eastern Interior. In early October, Contango Ore Inc. announced that it inked a deal with Royal Gold Inc. that provides the Colorado-based royalty company the opportunity to earn up to a 40 percent interest in Tetlin. The agreement, which awaits final approval from Contango Ore shareholders, calls for the f...
The Government of British Columbia's push in recent years for mine exploration and development in the northern region of the province is slowly bearing fruit. An early plum is Thompson Creek Metals Co. Inc.'s Mount Milligan copper-gold mine in north-central B.C., which is rolling toward startup in August and commercial production in the fourth quarter. Terrane Metals Corp., a subsidiary of Thompson Creek, reports that construction of the 60,000-metric-tons-per-day open pit mine, which is located 155 kilometers (about 96...
Copper Fox Metals Corp. recently completed a positive feasibility study of its Schaft Creek porphyry copper, gold, molybdenum and silver project in northwestern British Columbia that could mark an important turning point for the project. The Calgary, Alberta-based company holds title and a 100 percent working interest in Schaft Creek, which is located due east-northeast of Petersburg, Alaska, about 61 kilometers (38 miles) south of the village of Telegraph Creek. The feasibility study prepared by Tetra Tech in late December...
More than 30,000 people attended the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada Convention held in Toronto March 4 - 7, breaking last year's attendance record of 27,714 participants from 120 countries. The annual convention, currently in its 80th year, attracts investors, analysts, mining executives, geologists, prospectors and international government delegations from all over the world and represents a tremendous networking and educational opportunity for the industry. The gathering's Trade Show and Investors...
One year after going public, Chieftain Metals Inc. is blazing a trail through roadblocks that impeded past efforts to re-open the historical Tulsequah Chief Mine, a precious metals-rich volcanogenic massive sulfide project on British Columbia's western border about 65 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of Alaska's capital city of Juneau. A C$20 million initial public offering that closed in December 2010 provided Chieftain with the funds needed to put the project back on the... Full story
NovaGold Resource Inc. has made tectonic shifts in its leadership and corporate structure. Shedding all of its assets except for the Donlin Gold project in Southwest Alaska, the restructured company is singularly focused on bringing this 40-million-ounce gold deposit into production by the end of the decade. Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse - who founded NovaGold and guided the exploration company through 15 years of trials and triumphs - is relinquishing NovaGold's top executive office...
While most fortune-seeking juniors and investors joining the recent stampeded to Yukon Territory are scrambling to acquire properties in the highly prospective White Gold area located in the central Dawson Range and the eastern Selwyn Basin districts, a few canny explorers are quietly staking claims far from the heavy traffic in the southwestern corner of the territory. Solomon Resources Ltd. is one such explorer who has reported making a recent play in the region in a big way. Solomon July 18 reported the acquisition of a...
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd.'s 7,500-meter drill program continues to unravel the complex geology of Glacier Creek Prospect at the Palmer copper-zinc-gold-silver project in Southeast Alaska. The South Wall and RW zones at Glacier Creek has been the focus of Constantine's drilling since the junior began exploring Palmer in 2006. With 32 holes drilled into the prospect through 2009, the junior released an initial inferred resource of 4.12 million metric tons grading 2.01...
Thompson Creek Metals Co. Inc. and Terrane Metals Corp. said they have completed a definitive agreement for the Denver-based molybdenum producer to purchase Terrane Metals with cash and stock valued at about C$650 million. The deal, which won approval of both Thompson Creek and Terrane's boards of directors, will be proceed under a court-approved plan of arrangement under British Columbia law. Thompson Creek, meanwhile, signed over to Royal Gold Inc. one-quarter of life-of-mine gold production from Terrane's most advanced...
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Aug. 14 re-issued a long-disputed tailings permit to Coeur Alaska for the Kensington Mine. Modifications to the permit extend its expiration to 2014, offsetting the four years it was tied up in litigation. A letter from the Region 10 acting deputy regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in July advising the Corps to "re-evaluate the circumstances and conditions of the permit in view of new information," raised many qu... Full story
The sound of boots, hammers, drills and helicopters is starting to drown out the sounds of "we are planning," "we hope to" and "later this year" that we've been hearing for the last few months. Despite a late spring through most of Alaska, a number of projects kicked off recently and more are gathering steam as the short, hectic Alaska summer season approaches. Companies counting on an early spring due to Global Warming have been disappointed and Plan B options are being formulated however, the end result will be the same:...
Northern Dynasty Ltd., would-be developer of the Pebble project, is convinced that the huge copper-gold mineralization in southwestern Alaska can be accessed and brought to market in an environmentally benign manner that promises economic prosperity for the region. Part of its confidence stems from Hunter Dickinson Inc., the management team that guides the Canadian junior mining company. Hunter Dickinson has a track record of working to develop successful, modern copper-gold deposits. One such venture is the Kemess South Mine...
