The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 26
With demand outstripping supply, price for Alaska's highest-valued mined product sets up bright 2025 for 49th State and Red Dog. Rising demand and a three-year-long slide in supply are pushing up the price of zinc, which is good news for zinc-producing jurisdictions like Alaska but not so much for the buyers of this galvanizing metal widely used for renewable energy and transportation infrastructure, automobiles, and a wide array of other applications. Potential supply...
Zinc contributed most to state's mine production value during 2023; gold is poised to take the crown and make run toward 1 million ounces per year. At a value of $1.5 billion, zinc held onto its throne as the most valuable metal produced in Alaska during 2023. With production forecasts and price trends headed in opposite directions for zinc and gold, however, the gleaming precious metal that drew fortune-seekers North at the turn of the 20th century could soon regain the...
Zinc production is expected to trend downward as ore grades decline over the coming four years. Teck Resources Ltd. Feb. 21 reported that its Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska produced 1.19 billion pounds of zinc in 2023 and forecasts similar output this year. Starting in 2025, however, zinc production from this operation, which accounts for more than 4% of the world's supply of this galvanizing metal, is expected to begin dwindling. The company attributes the coming decrease i...
Teck Resources Ltd. went into 2023 with a strategy to better position for the energy transition by spinning its steelmaking coal unit into the newly formed Elk Valley Resources, and advancing its copper- and zinc-forward metals assets under a rebranded Teck Metals Ltd. This proposed reorganization, however, was stymied by an aggressive takeover bid by Glencore that wanted to incorporate Teck's coal and metals assets into its own reorganization plans. While Teck fended off...
The global transition to renewable energy is demanding enormous quantities of copper and zinc, two metals that are a specialty of Teck Resources Ltd. To help leverage its global portfolio to help fill the growing demand for copper, Teck launched Project Satellite in 2017. This initiative focused primarily on five copper assets in the Americas, including the Galore Creek and Schaft Creek projects in Northern British Columbia. According to a 2018 calculation, Galore Creek hosts...
With global zinc demand outpacing supply and the transition to renewable energy creating even more need for the galvanizing metal, Teck Resources Ltd. has launched an initiative to realize value from its portfolio of world-class zinc development assets – most of which are in Alaska and Northern British Columbia. "The market outlook for zinc is strong, due to declining production from existing primary zinc mines, underinvestment in global exploration for zinc, and long-term d...
While much of Teck Resources Ltd.'s investment and focus during 2021 was on the implementation of its long-term sustainability strategy, the British Columbia-based miner continued to carry out exploration behind the scenes. In Alaska, Teck operates the Red Dog zinc mine on lands owned by NANA Corp., the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) regional corporation for the Northwest Arctic region where the world-class operation is located. This operation, which produces...
While copper may be the new oil of the green energy revolution, a wide variety of industrial minerals and metals found in abundance in Alaska will be needed to build the envisioned low-carbon future. In a 2021 report on the minerals and metals critical to low-carbon energy and transportation, the International Energy Agency estimates that a typical passenger electric vehicle requires six times the mineral inputs of a conventional internal combustion engine car and an onshore...
Solitario Zinc Corp. July 8 reported that an exploration program led by Teck Resources Ltd. is now underway at Lik, a high-grade zinc project about 14 miles northwest of Teck's Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska. Solitario acquired a 50% interest in Lik through the buyout of Zazu Metals Corp. in 2017. Teck owns the other half of the joint venture property. The jointly funded 2021 program at Lik is slated to include geochemical sampling, induced polarization geophysics, and at...
Solitario Zinc Corp. Jan. 27 said it is excited about the preliminary results from Teck Resources Ltd.'s 2019 exploration at Lik, a high-grade zinc project about six miles (10 kilometers) west of the Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska. Solitario acquired a 50 percent interest in Lik through the buyout of Zazu Metals Corp. in 2017. Teck owns the other half of the joint venture property. Prior to Solitario's purchase, 17.3 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 8.1...
Those of you that attended the recent Cordilleran Roundup Convention in Vancouver can attest to the exuberant, upbeat atmosphere that pervaded the conference and was very much in evidence at the standing-room only festivities at our annual self-hosted Alaska Night meet and greet. But digging down under this veneer of optimism, many of the junior explorers and most of the producers admitted to their expectations of challenging times in 2019. Putting words to this apparent...
Solitario Zinc Corp. Feb. 19 announced that Teck American Inc., a subsidiary of Teck Resources Ltd., will manage a 2019 exploration program at Lik, a high-grade zinc project near the Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska. Solitario acquired a 50 percent interest in Lik through the buyout of Zazu Metals Corp. in 2017. Teck owns the other half of the joint venture property. Prior to Solitario's purchase, 17.3 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 8.1 percent zinc, 2.7...
Underscoring the interconnected nature of the global mining market, not 48 hours after the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act was signed into law, the mining industry began wondering out loud how they were going to produce rare earth element, tungsten, tantalum and molybdenum in the near future. Why these metals and why the worry now? Because one of the many impacts the Defense Authorization Act will have on the U.S. economy is its ban on the U.S. Department of...
Solitario Zinc Corp. July 23 reported that Teck Resources Ltd. has begun a field program at Lik, a high-grade zinc project near the Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska. Solitario gained a 50 percent ownership of Lik when it bought Zazu Metals Corp. in 2017. Prior to this buy-out, Zazu had been funding and operating the exploration at Lik under an arrangement that provided it the opportunity to earn 80 percent interest in the property by meeting spending requirements. While Zazu...
An early spring coupled with low snow fall in many parts of Alaska have combined to enable companies large and small to start their summer field programs early this year. As expected, competition is stiff for people, drills, helicopters, heavy equipment and related services, awarding those who committed budgets early and penalizing those who did not or could not commit early. For the first time in half a decade, projects with money at hand may not be able to get the services t...
Solitario Zinc Corp. April 3 announced that Teck Resources Ltd. will be co-funding the 2018 exploration program at Lik, marking the first time Teck has been directly involved in advancing the zinc project in Northwest Alaska. Teck has long held a 50 percent interest in Lik, a promising zinc-lead-silver project about 14 miles northwest of Red Dog, a world-class zinc mine operated by the Vancouver, B.C.-based miner. Zazu Metals, which owned the remaining 50 percent of Lik until...
Teck Resources Ltd.'s northern exploration had two major focal points – ensuring the Red Dog District in Northwest Alaska continues as a significant source of global zinc supply well into the 21st century and a rekindled interest in advancing the Galore Creek copper-gold-silver project in British Columbia's Golden Triangle closer to production. The renewed and increased activities at Galore Creek follows Newmont Mining's 2018 acquisition of Novagold Resources Inc.'s 50 p...
Thanks largely to increased investments from Aussie mining explorers, mineral exploration spending across Alaska topped US$100 million in 2018. This is well above the roughly US$95 million invested last year and nearly double the US$58 million spent at the bottom of the market in 2015. "Canadian and Australian companies continue to be the source for the bulk of funds spent in Alaska in 2018, together comprising well over 80 percent of the exploration expenditures earmarked...
Teck Resources Ltd. is investing roughly US$110 million on mill upgrades at its Red Dog Mine that will help ensure strong zinc production from this Northwest Alaska zinc operation until at least 2031. This current life expectancy for Red Dog is based on 57.6 million metric tons of reserves averaging 13.6 percent (13.9 billion pounds) zinc and 3.9 percent (2.5 billion lb) lead. Aktigiruq, a large and high-grade zinc target roughly five miles northwest of the current...
Zinc, copper and gold are the top metals sought by Teck Resources Ltd. In Alaska, this work is dedicated to extending the life of the Red Dog Mine by upgrading high-grade zinc resources near the current mine area and seeking out new deposits across 224,000 acres of highly prospective lands surrounding the Northwest Alaska operation. Going into 2017, Red Dog had 50.9 million metric tons of probable reserves, averaging 15 percent zinc, 4.2 percent lead and 76 grams per metric ton silver. Anarraaq-Aktigiruq, situated roughly...
Alaska's minerals exploration sector is on an upswing, thanks to Australian mining explorers looking north and mining majors upping their activities in the state. South32 Ltd., a Perth, Australia-based miner spun out of BHP Billiton Plc, is the largest mining company from Down Under to express an interest in Alaska's mineral potential this year. South32, which has eight operating mines in the Southern Hemisphere, secured an option to acquire a 50 percent interest in Trilogy...
The Lik zinc-lead-silver project in Northwest Alaska is under new ownership. Solitario Zinc Corp., the company that will now push Lik towards development, is the result of Solitario Exploration & Royalty Corp., a Colorado-based company, buying out Zazu Metals Corp., the company that has been advancing Lik over the past decade. Located some 14 miles from Red Dog, a mine that singlehandedly accounts for nearly 5 percent of the world's zinc production, Lik is situated in a...
Solitario Zinc Corp. Aug. 31 said it is undertaking metallurgical testing to determine the potential of improved silver recoveries from the zinc deposits at its recently acquired Lik project in Northwest Alaska. Lik hosts two deposits separated by a fault - the near-surface Lik South and the deeper Lik North. Lik South has an indicated resource of 16.85 million metric tons grading 8.1 percent zinc, 2.6 percent lead and 52.8 grams per metric ton silver; plus an inferred resource of 1.23 million metric tons grading 6.8 percent...
At a recent mining industry panel discussion at the Western States Land Commissioners Association meeting in Anchorage, I was asked if the recent upturn in activity in the Alaska mining industry was a function of commodities prices or a growing worldwide recognition of Alaska's enormous mineral potential. I answered that I thought neither factor was driving the Alaska mineral industry revival: commodities prices have been steady or rising slowly over the last year and...
As the first snows of the coming winter began to fall at high elevations across Alaska, results of summer programs likewise began to trickle in from far-flung areas of the state. Meanwhile, second- and third-quarter production data began to show up and mining industry analysts released a series of reports covering a wide range of industry-wide trends. For example, SNL Metals and Mining Research released information on how long it takes to move a new discovery to production....
