The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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President-elect vows to maximize Alaska's mining potential; an aligned Congress swings political pendulum in industry's favor. With an incoming president that favors "reshoring" over "friendshoring" the nation's critical mineral supply chains and a Congress positioned to pass permitting reform and other mining-related legislation that has stalled in one chamber or the other for more than a decade, America's mining sector is poised for growth following the outcome of the Nov....
An all-of-government strategy is beginning to unfold in the US. Over the first two years following the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, the U.S. Department of Energy has invested billions of dollars into establishing a clean energy supply chain in the United States. These heavy investments, however, have neglected one vital link – the domestic mines needed to supply the processing facilities, battery plants, and other energy t...
Import-reliance a top concern for national security officials. America's heavy reliance on China and others for the minerals and metals critical to the nation's economic competitiveness, military strength, and clean energy future is high on the list of strategic concerns for top brass at the U.S. departments of Defense and Homeland Security. While much of this concern is rooted in the fact that the United States' ability to defend its strategic interests at home and abroad...
Trade groups are incensed; many Alaska Natives feel ignored; DC delegation and governor vow to fight what is seen as a "politically motivated" ruling. Politically motivated, Illegal, hypocritical, irresponsible, unacceptable, and disgusting; this is how Alaska business leaders, policymakers, and Natives are characterizing the Biden administration's denial of permits to build a road that would link the critical mineral-rich Ambler Mining District to North American markets. "To...
Gov. Dunleavy urges BLM to consider recent Alaska Native support as it finalizes its reassessment of the Ambler Access Project. "I strongly believe that the road will greatly benefit my community and I'm not alone. Many of my neighbors also support the road, as do other villages in the region," Native Village of Ambler President Miles Cleveland said of the proposed Ambler Access Project that would extend to within 30 miles of his community. This support is reflected in...
"What happens to our communities and Tribal members if a road is not built, and no jobs or opportunity exists for our children and future generations?" Trilogy Metals Inc. March 26 announced that yet another rural Alaska Native community has passed a resolution in support of the Ambler Access Project – a proposed 211-mile, industrial-use-only road that would connect the mineral-rich Ambler Mining District in Northwest Alaska to the Dalton Highway and global markets. Hughes Vil...
Tribal council unanimously passes resolution in support of the Ambler Access Project. Trilogy Metals Inc. March 21 announced that the Ruby Tribal Council has passed a resolution in support of the Ambler Access Project – a proposed 211-mile, industrial-use-only road that would connect the mineral-rich Ambler Mining District in Northwest Alaska to the Dalton Highway and global markets. Ruby is an Alaska Native community that lies about 150 miles south of the Ambler Mining D...
Ambler Access Project Subsistence Advisory Committee passes resolution for policies to protect fish and wildlife, and keep road private. Leveraging nearly four decades of success when it comes to protecting and managing subsistence resources along the 50-mile road that connects the Red Dog Mine to a port on Alaska's west coast, the Ambler Access Project Subsistence Advisory Committee (SAC) passed a resolution to establish policies that will protect subsistence resources along...
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...
With Donlin Gold reentering the feasibility study stage, Ambler Metals waiting on the reevaluation of the permit needed for a road to the Ambler Mining District, and an overall lack of investment capital, mineral exploration spending in Alaska dropped during 2023. While the overall sector was down, there continued to be some bright spots – most notably, a growing interest in Alaska's critical minerals potential. In July, the U.S. Department of Defense awarded Graphite One I...
With its sights set on establishing a large volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit with the potential to outshine its contemporaries in Alaska's Ambler Mining District, Valhalla Metals Inc. launched its inaugural drill program at the Sun copper-zinc-silver-gold project in 2023. After working behind the scenes to secure Sun and Smucker – VMS projects at opposite ends of the highly mineralized Ambler District in Northwest Alaska – Valhalla raised C$10.2 million (US$7.5 mil...
Ambler Metals LLC, a joint venture equally owned by Trilogy Metals Inc. and South32 Ltd., dialed back 2023 exploration at its Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects as it waited for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to reevaluate previously issued federal permits for a proposed 211-mile industrial access road to the metal-rich Ambler Mining District in Northwest Alaska. Covering 448,217 acres of the famed Ambler District, UKMP hosts the advanced staged Arctic Mine project and more...
Trilogy Metals Inc. Sept. 27 reported that stream sediment and rock sampling has identified two zinc-enriched volcanogenic massive sulfide targets on the Helpmejack project toward the eastern end of the Ambler schist belt in Alaska. Lying about 110 miles southeast of the world-class Arctic VMS deposit being advanced by Ambler Metals LLC, a joint venture owned equally by Trilogy and South32 Ltd., Helpmejack is an area first identified as prospective for zinc and copper in the...
Trilogy Metals Inc. Sept. 11 reported that 2023 summer field activities at the Upper Kobuk Minerals Project were subdued as the U.S. Bureau of Land Management reevaluates the permits for the proposed 211-mile road to the Ambler Mining District in Northwest Alaska. An expected release of the draft supplemental environmental impact statement for the Ambler Access Project in the coming two weeks, however, provides some hope that a decision on the re-issuance of the road permits c...
Colorado School of Mines thesis confirms that the germanium values at Bornite deposit have long been underreported. In addition to hosting 6.3 billion pounds of copper and 88 million lb of cobalt critical to the energy transition, the Bornite deposit in Alaska's Ambler Mining District may also be a significant source of the germanium essential to both clean energy and high-tech. "Germanium is an important metal with numerous applications, particularly in the manufacture of sem...
The United States has rich deposits of copper, cobalt, graphite, lithium, nickel, rare earths, and other mined commodities needed to build the clean energy future. The often decade-long mine permitting timeline in the U.S., however, means that many of these domestic critical mineral sources will be hard-pressed to get developed in time to help meet the climate goals laid out by the White House. This extraordinarily long federal permitting process for large projects has global...
Despite the growing calls by Alaska Native tribal and municipal leaders for an expedited review of the Ambler Access Project, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced that it will take six extra months for it to complete a supplemental environmental impact statement for the proposed 211-mile road to the Ambler Mining District in Northwest Alaska. "This unnecessary delay threatens a project that will provide much-needed jobs and economic growth for Alaskans, while also stre...
The North of 60 Mining area hosts billions of pounds of copper ready to be delivered to a world craving this metal in sky-high demand for wiring the electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure that would enable the envisioned low-carbon future. Whether enough of these copper-rich projects are developed in time to circumvent a short circuit of the clean energy transition remains to be seen. Global Market analysts such as S&P Global have predicted that copper...
North Slope and Northwest Arctic boroughs ink joint resolution in favor of Ambler access. The Northwest Arctic and North Slope boroughs have put their combined political weight behind an effort to push the U.S. Department of Interior to expediently reapprove a road to the copper- and zinc-rich Ambler Mining District in Northwest Alaska. Located about 200 miles west of the Dalton Highway, a lone transportation artery that connects Alaska's North Slope with the rest of the...
Trilogy Metals Inc. April 4 reported that the final set of assay results from the 2022 drilling at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects includes the best hole ever drilled at Arctic when it comes to the grade of the metals encountered times the length of the intercept. "We are pleased to close out the reporting of our 2022 drilling campaign with additional high-grade results that reaffirm Arctic as one of the highest grade, open pitable copper deposits in the world," said Trilogy...
Trilogy Metals Inc. Feb. 27 reported another batch of high-grade assays from infill drilling the world-class Arctic copper-zinc-lead-gold-silver deposit in the Ambler Mining District of Northwest Alaska. "The latest infill and geotechnical holes continue to demonstrate very high grades of polymetallic metals over impressive widths in the shallowest parts of the deposit," said Trilogy Metals President and CEO Tony Giardini. The high-grade volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit at...
Trilogy Metals Inc. Feb. 14 reports that while rising costs and challenging supply chains have weighed on the economics of building and operating a mine at Arctic, an updated feasibility study shows that an open-pit copper-zinc-lead-silver-gold mine at this Northwest Alaska project continues to produce healthy financial returns. Arctic is a high-grade volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit that is part of the district-scale Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects being advanced by Ambler...
The success of Freegold Ventures Ltd.'s 2022 program at Golden Summit was all about connections. Thanks to a paved highway that connects the multi-million-ounce gold project to the nearby city of Fairbanks, the mineral exploration company was able to efficiently carry out drilling from February through December, and that expansive drill campaign was able to link the bulk-tonnage Dolphin deposit with the high-grade Cleary Hill Mine area to the east. According to a 2016...
Ambler Metals LLC, a joint venture company equally owned by Trilogy and South32 Ltd., invested roughly US$28.5 million into a 2022 exploration program that included 10,738 meters of drilling targeting resource upgrades within the Arctic deposit and testing earlier-stage copper-rich prospects across the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska. Covering 448,217 acres of the famed Ambler Mining District, UKMP hosts the advanced staged Arctic Mine project and more than a...
Gold dominates Alaska mineral exploration, but a critical shift arises. Since the discovery of gold in what is now the Alaska capital city of Juneau, prospectors, geologists, and fortune seekers have spent more than 140 consecutive summer seasons exploring The Last Frontier's golden potential. With these endeavors turning up rich aurum lodes in every corner of the state, except for the oil-rich North Slope, the nearly century-and-a-half tradition of seeking and discovering wor...
