The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 156
Northern Star Resources Ltd. Sept. 3 raised AU$175 million to help fund its acquisition of the Pogo gold mine in Alaska. In a deal announced on Aug. 30, the Australia-based miner has agreed to pay US$260 million to buy out Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo, a joint venture between Japanese firms Sumitomo Metal Mining Company (85 percent) and Sumitomo Corp. (15 percent) that owns and operates the mine. Pogo currently has roughly 4.1 million ounces of gold in resources and reserves,...
Australian gold miner Northern Star Resources Ltd. is adding the Pogo Mine in Alaska to its growing portfolio of low-cost, high-grade underground gold mines. In a deal announced on Aug. 30, the Perth-based miner has agreed to pay US$260 million to buy out Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo, a joint venture between Japanese firms Sumitomo Metal Mining Company (85 percent) and Sumitomo Corp. (15 percent) that owns and operates the mine. Pogo currently has roughly 4.1 million ounces of...
Millrock Resources Inc. July 18 said roughly US$5 million of partner-funded exploration is being carried out across its portfolio of mineral properties, including 10,000 meters of drilling at three projects in Alaska and Mexico. "We have plenty of potential catalysts to improve the Millrock share price through the discovery of valuable resources," said Millrock President and CEO Greg Beischer. Millrock Resources is a project generating mineral exploration company with five...
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... Full story
While Pogo has surpassed its original life expectancy of 10 years and 3 million ounces of gold, the air of excitement emanating from the miners, geologists and management indicates that mining is just getting started at this high-grade underground gold mine in the heart of Alaska's Interior. Churning out 271,273 oz of gold from roughly 950,000 tons of ore in 2017, Pogo is on pace to pour its 4-millionth ounce of gold early in 2019 and based on current estimates would have enou...
With the price for an ounce of gold pushing back above US$1,300 to ring in the new year – along with zinc and copper selling at multi-year highs and trending higher – 2018 is shaping up to be a good year for Alaska's mining sector. Together, zinc and gold account for more than 80 percent of the value of metals mined in Alaska – silver and lead account for most of the balance. While there is currently no significant copper production in Alaska, the Far North state hosts signi... Full story
As gold exploration cools globally, the search for the precious metal is once again heating up in the larger Pogo Mine region of Interior Alaska. One of the reasons this region continues to be a hotbed of gold exploration is Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo LLC’s success in finding and expanding new deposits of high-grade gold on its Pogo Mine property, which anchors the Goodpaster Mining District. Another dozen promising prospects found beyond the borders of the Pogo Mine claims a...
Great American Minerals Exploration Inc. has closed a landmark option agreement with Sumitomo Metal Mining that consolidates the Monte Cristo and Uncle Sam gold properties into a single 55,465-acre project about 40 miles west of the Pogo Mine in Interior Alaska. GAME, as the company is commonly known, is no stranger to the Pogo region. In fact, the privately held Nevada corporation staked its first claims there in 1997 and has held onto a position in the area ever since. This... Full story
Anniversary celebrations, golden milestones and rising metals prices are providing Alaska's metal miners with plenty to cheer about in 2016. Roughly 1 million ounces of gold will be mined in Alaska this year, when you tally the amount of the precious metal produced at four of Alaska's large metal mines – Fort Knox, Pogo, Kensington and Greens Creek – and the placer aurum produced at the family-scale operations across the state. Fortunately for all these miners, gold shot up... Full story
Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo LLC - a joint venture between Japanese firms Sumitomo Metal Mining Company (85 percent) and Sumitomo Corp. (15 percent) -budgeted roughly US$10 million to continue to expand upon the high-grade gold zones at and around its Pogo Mine in Interior Alaska in 2016. This follows a US$15 million program in 2015 that further defined and expanded East Deep, North and South Pogo, three zones of high-grade gold mineralization adjacent to the current underground workings at the high-grade underground mine.... Full story
As a project generator, Millrock Resources Inc. is leveraging the notoriously cyclical mining markets to its advantage by acquiring promising mineral properties at rock bottom prices when the bears reign and ready them for robust exploration when the bulls run. "This is the exact time Millrock has been waiting for all along," Millrock President and CEO Gregory Beischer told Mining News. "We have stuck rigorously to our model, and here we are now taking advantage of the tremendous opportunities that are in front of us." Among...
Mineral exploration spending in Alaska hit an apex of US$365 million in 2011, but as venture capital for mining explorers dried these expenditures plummeted 78 percent to US$80 million in 2015. However, rising gold prices and a loosening of venture capital in 2016 seems to have marked an end to a painfully long bear market for mining explorers in Alaska. “After taking head shots for the past four years, the industry suddenly came to life over the past month, with new budgets,...
The owners of Alaska’s five large metal mines – Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo, Hecla Mining Company, Kinross Gold Corp, Teck Resources Ltd. and Coeur Mining Inc. – accounted for nearly half the US$92 million of exploration spending in the state during 2014 and similar investments by these companies is providing solid footing for the Far North state’s mineral exploration sector this year. Avalon Development President Curt Freeman said he is seeing more mining majors shopping for d... Full story
Although news from the mining industry is generally limited this time of year, several items of import over the past month bear discussion. Alaska suffered a tragedy with the recent passing of mineral industry giant Chuck Hawley, one of Alaska's most talented and respected geologists. Although Chuck loved the mineral exploration game, he was far more than a geologist to many of us and to the state. His plus-50-year love affair with Alaska spanned some of the state's most...
Mining's contribution to Alaska's economy starts with the hefty paychecks being issued to the some 4,350 miners that work in the state, according to recent study completed by the Alaska Miners Association and McDowell Group. The report, "The economic benefits of Alaska's mining industry," found that the average miner working in Alaska during 2016 received a whopping US$108,000 for the year, about double the average income across all sectors in the state. That is nearly US$470... Full story
Millrock Resources Inc. is a project generating mineral exploration company with seven projects in Alaska, three in British Columbia, 15 in Mexico and one in New Mexico. In Alaska, Millrock struck a deal with Kinross Gold Corp. that provides the major the option to earn a 70 percent joint venture interest in Liberty Bell, a road-accessible project about 70 miles southwest of Fairbanks that is prospective for copper-gold porphyry and associated gold deposits. Previous work at...
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... Full story
With C$2.5 million in the bank and roughly two dozen mineral exploration projects it has generated in Alaska, British Columbia, New Mexico and Mexico, Millrock Resources Inc. is prepared for a stellar 2017 as metals prices rise and a bullish sentiment returns to mining markets. "While we will not under-estimate the work ahead, we continue to carry forward into 2017 with a spirit of optimism," Millrock President and CEO Greg Beischer said. "The cycle seems to have changed, and...
Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo June 19 reported that a contract employee was fatally attacked by a bear while carrying out geological field work on the Interior Alaska gold property. A second contract employee that was attacked was transported to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, where he was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and released the same day. The victims were working at an exploration site about five miles away from the main camp at the Pogo Mine when the bear attacked. A mayday was called and in accordance with...
While the mineral exploration season in Interior Alaska typically runs from the time the ground dries in the spring, usually mid-May, until snow and cold weather make logistics too cumbersome and expensive in October, an increasing number of explorers are carrying out successful winter programs in this especially frigid region of the Far North State. Without a doubt, mounting a successful exploration program in temperatures cold enough to make metal brittle and with only...
Millrock Resources Inc. Oct. 5 said it has assembled a large land position covering high-potential gold targets near Sumitomo Metal Mining Company's Pogo gold mine in the Goodpaster Mining District of Interior Alaska. As a result of a series of purchase and option agreements and claim staking, Millrock now holds six discrete claim blocks in the district covering an area of 15,847 hectares (39,158 acres). The claims cover soil geochemical anomalies, many of which are untested....
A group of the world's largest mining companies have taken the lead in protecting World Heritage sites and are pushing for global governments to follow suit. "The conservation of World Heritage sites is a collective responsibility we all share, and ICMM wants to see more movement from governments to protect them," said Tom Butler, CEO, International Council on Mining and Metals. ICMM is a coalition of 23 global mining companies that include names familiar to Alaska's mining...
Long, grueling, arduous, treacherous and painful are among the many adjectives, and sometimes expletives, used to describe the mining sector's nearly four-year bear market that is showing signs it is ready to hibernate. While Alaska's metal mines have not emerged from this enduring downturn unscathed, the sector remains largely intact and ready to ride metals prices higher. Together, Alaska's mines produced roughly US$2.76 billion of precious and base metals during 2015, down... Full story
On Jan. 12, 2006, the first ore from high-grade underground gold reserves was fed into the mill at the Pogo Mine located near the community of Delta Junction in Alaska's Interior region. Ten years, four floods, two fires and some 3.1 million ounces of gold later, the operation is seen as an example of mining done right. Pogo General Manager Chris Kennedy shared a decade of travails and triumphs, and the lessons learned, during a presentation at the Jan. 21 Resource...
A four-year rout in metals, coal and oil prices left Alaska's mining community digging deep for reasons to be optimistic during their annual gathering at the Alaska Miners Association convention in Anchorage. While depressed metals prices naturally cut into the bottom lines of those companies mining gold, silver, zinc, lead and coal in Alaska, the effects reverberate across the entire mining community. In order to adjust to lower metals prices, the producers have cut back on...
