The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 26 - 35 of 35
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...
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...
Mining companies spent an all-time record $103.9 million on exploration in Alaska in 2005, a big jump from the $70.8 million that was spent the previous year, and a long way from the relatively modest $27.6 million in 2003. At least 16 projects had exploration expenditures of $1 million or more. The companies employed 303 people in exploration projects in 2005, up from 184 in 2004 and 88 in 2003, according to the state's Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys. These impressive figures in Alaska reflected the story...
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...
Hang on to your hat, the data is beginning to roll in from Alaskan field programs and there are some hum dingers in this month's data and several others will be showing up next month. What's a "hum dinger"? How about an Alaska gold project at the center of a $1.5 billion corporate takeover by the world's largest gold producer? Or how about 75 feet grading more than 2 ounces of gold per ton? Or maybe silver production costs of a negative $2.28 per ounce? But wait, there's more...
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...
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...
In case you hadn't noticed, one of the busiest but quietest Augusts in the last 10 years just slipped into the pages of history. Mineral exploration, development and production maintained a low profile in just about every region of the state during August. Drills continued to turn and samples continued to stream in from programs searching for gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, nickel, platinum and palladium. The hot spots continued to be the Iliamna District, the Goodpaster...
Hunting hard in remote elephant country, NovaGold Resources can claim a lion's share of kills. Now the aggressive junior has to prove whether it's found any trophies that will make the company a metals producer. NovaGold announced March 26 an agreement with Kennecott Exploration and Kennecott Arctic to acquire a 51 percent interest in the Ambler gold, silver, copper and base metals property in remote northwestern Alaska. Previous exploration on Arctic, the most advanced target on the Ambler property, identified an inferred...
Spring is in everyone's step in the Alaska mining industry even if spring is not quite yet in the air here in Alaska. Buoyant spirits are related to surprisingly buoyant metals prices and positive economic news from the U.S. economy. Plans for 2002 are in progress and fieldwork on some projects already is under way. Exploration activities for gold in 2002 appear to be on the rise compared to 2001 as is exploration for base metals. The professional begging (money raising) season is in full swing for junior and intermediate siz...