The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 76 - 100 of 156
After two seasons of exploration, Prophecy Platinum Corp. envisioned building a conventional, diesel truck-shovel open pit mine at its 64.5-square-kilometer (25 square miles) Wellgreen Project in southwestern Yukon Territory. The junior released a preliminary economic assessment in 2012 that happily outlined plans for a 32,000-metric-tons-per-day operation with a 37-year of mine life. With initial capital expenditures of C$863 million and an average strip ratio of 2.57:1, the company anticipated producing a suite of highly...
Miners in Alaska make good money! How good? Well, a report recently published by the McDowell Group found that the 329 direct employees at the Pogo gold mine averaged a whopping US$116,916 before benefits during 2012. Roughly 217 of these six-figure paychecks were brought home by Alaskans, including about 167 going to employees living in the Interior region of the state where the high-grade underground mine is located. "Mining is good for Alaska and Pogo, specifically, is an...
The ongoing scarcity of venture capital available to junior companies coupled with a retreat in metals prices has landed a one-two blow that sent mineral exploration spending in Alaska plunging for the second straight year. A handful of big-budget projects scattered across Alaska, though, is softening the hit to exploration spending across the Far North State during 2013. Mineral exploration expenditures in Alaska, which were a meager US$23.8 million in 2001, topped US$365...
President, Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo: Katsuya Tanaka Pogo General Manager: Chris Kennedy Pogo Geology Manager: Ken Puchlik Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo LLC - a joint venture between Japanese firms Sumitomo Metal Mining Company (85 percent) and Sumitomo Corp. (15 percent) - is preparing to mine East Deep, a new zone of high-grade gold discovered in the shadow of the mill at the Pogo Mine in Interior Alaska. Since 2008, this high-grade underground mine, situated some 85 miles (137 kilometers) southeast of Fairbanks, has...
A US$22 million option and joint venture agreement forged with Dowa Metals & Mining Co., Ltd. earlier this year is providing Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. with the ability to resume the expansion of a high-grade volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit at its Palmer project in Southeast Alaska. In addition to a cash infusion during tight financial markets, Dowa brings 130 years of experience in the mining and smelting of VMS ores to its newly forged partnership at Palmer....
Following a rising chorus of junior companies touting impressive exploration programs on mineral prospects across Alaska that reached its crescendo in 2011, a deafening silence is resonating across the Far North expanse in 2013. And in the junior mining sector, no news is bad news. Mineral exploration expenditures in Alaska, which were a meager US$23.8 million in 2001, climbed to US$347 million by 2008. The "Great Recession of 2008" tightened the equity markets, resulting in...
Alaska miners are on the cusp of topping 1 million ounces of gold produced, an annual milestone that has not been achieved since Gold Rush pioneers recovered copious amounts of alluvial aurum at the turn of the 20th Century. "When you think about what a million ounces of production means, it is all the more amazing that it was first accomplished by placer miners and a few lode miners, a few shovelfuls at a time, more than a century ago!" Curt Freeman, a well-known Alaska...
FAIRBANKS - In contrast to the geology, geochemistry and geophysics that dominates discussions at most mining conventions, geopolitics grabbed the limelight at the 2012 Alaska Strategic and Critical Minerals Summit held in Fairbanks Nov. 30. "Countries that control a given element have a way to leverage businesses to come to those countries. They have a way of demanding there are technology transfers," American Elements President Michael Silver informed the more than 200...
Ending a streak of robust growth, mineral exploration spending in Alaska during 2012 took a downward turn from the record US$300 million spent a year earlier. "More advanced-stage projects that added ounces or pounds to their resource base had a better go of it than early-stage exploration projects which have taken a hard right cross to the jaw!" Curt Freeman, a well-known Alaska geologist and president of Fairbanks-based Avalon Development, observed in September. This blow de...
With the mercury frozen at 40 degrees below zero, Freegold Ventures Ltd. lit a fire at Golden Summit, launching an aggressive 15,000-meter drill campaign at the Interior Alaska gold project in January. Despite being located some 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Fairbanks, a place that vies for the coldest spot in the United States, Golden Summit has the distinct advantage of being connected to a paved highway, grid power and cell phone service. "Winter drilling is possible...
Millrock Resources Inc.'s skillful execution of the project generator model is allowing it to flourish in an equity market that has not been kind to junior exploration companies. Capitalizing on its exploration expertise and first-hand geological knowledge of Alaska and southeastern Arizona, Millrock pulled together some C$11 million for exploration in 2012. Some 93 percent of this spending was funded by global miners Teck Resources Ltd., Kinross Gold Corp., Vale S.A. and Inme...
The best place to find a new mine is in the shadow of a headframe" is an adage that has served geologists well in their search for new deposits of metals that the world needs and desires. This proverb has once again proven its worth at Pogo, Alaska's highest producing gold mine. Though Pogo does not boast an iconic headframe towering over its underground operations, new gold-rich zones discovered "within eyesight of the mill" are rapidly adding high-grade ore to the reserves...
KOR: TSX/CORVF: OTCQX CEO: Jeffrey Pontius President: Russell Myers Exploration Manager, Alaska: Chris Brown Formed in 2010 to explore International Tower Hill Mines Ltd.'s non-Livengood assets, Corvus Gold Inc. has set out on a path to become a gold producer with significant interest and royalty exposure. While Corvus focuses its in-house efforts on advancing a preliminary economic assessment for North Bullfrog - a southern Nevada bulk tonnage gold project the company plans to put into production by 2015 - the junior has...
An employment forecast published by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development in October pegged the state's mining sector job growth from 2010 to 2020 at 19 percent. That is second only to health care, at 31 percent, and outpacing the 12 percent average growth across all Alaska industries. Expansion of current operations coupled with prospects of building mines at the world-class Livengood and Donlin gold deposits were cited as drivers behind adding new miners t...
Over a year ago, Natural Resource Holdings published a report entitled "How Rare are One Million Ounce Gold Deposits?" At that time, the publisher ranked 296 gold deposits that have more than 1 million ounces of gold in all resources categories. The same firm recently published a follow-up report titled, "Global Gold Mines & Deposits 2012 Ranking." The report ranks gold deposits above 1 million ounces, whose numbers have increased to 439 deposits with total resources of...
Having poured 2 million ounces of gold July 31, the Pogo Mine appears to be living up to its new mantra, "mining done right." Pogo General Manager Chris Kennedy is quick to attribute the continuing success at Alaska's most prolific gold mine to the efforts of the more than 330 employees and 150 contractors that work there. "Milestones like this are only achieved when safety and environmental performance remain at the forefront of everyone's minds. No ounce of gold is worth...
While most juniors are cinching their belts and scaling back programs, Millrock Resources Inc. has C$7.5 million of exploration slated for its array of gold and copper-gold properties in Alaska in 2012, not to mention a healthy C$4.5 million budget for its copper-gold prospects in Arizona. Millrock President and CEO Greg Beischer said the scarcity of venture capital available to the junior exploration sector was palpable at the Cambridge House World Resource Investment...
The winds of change are once again blowing across Alaska's mineral industry, not only because the industry is gearing up for another busy summer season, but also because the mining investment climate has turned from cautiously optimistic to decidedly undecided. The sea change occurred steadily and without a lot of fanfare between mid-January and mid-March. As is always the case, good projects continue to advance with those that are drilling and adding resources or moving throu...
The best place to find a new mine is in the shadow of a headframe" is an adage that has served geologists well in their search for new deposits of metals that the world needs and desires. This proverb has once again proven its worth at Alaska's largest producing gold mine. Though Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. Pogo Mine does not boast an iconic headframe towering over its underground operations, new gold-rich zones discovered in the shade of the modern mill and mine facilities may...
While most companies exploring the mineral potential of Alaska and other Far North locales have stacked their drills, winterized camps and are poring over data from their 2011 programs in preparation for the upcoming exploration season, Freegold Ventures Ltd. continues its field program with drills turning at its Golden Summit project in the heart of Interior Alaska. "We just resumed drilling this week with one rig and expect to add the second one early next week," Freegold...
While geological and engineering savvy have always been important components of advancing a promising prospect into viable operation, building a modern mine also requires a working knowledge of the complex social, biological and economic systems surrounding a project. "There is only one entity in Alaska that has any depth in all the broad technical areas that span mineral resource extraction - the University of Alaska," said Rajive Ganguli, chairman of the Department of Mining...
With a 20-million-ounce gold discovery embellishing their résumés, International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. co-founders Jeff Pontius and Russell Myers have taken the helm of Corvus Gold Inc., a junior formed in 2010 to explore Tower Hill's non-Livengood assets. During the initial year after the spin-out, Pontius continued to guide Tower Hill and its Livengood project into the transition from advanced exploration to early development and Myers turned his attention to getting C...
Millrock Resources Inc. is artfully implementing the science of making grassroots gold and copper discoveries, proving the promise of these new finds and vending the prospects to other companies to do the heavy lifting of defining a deposit. This business model is paying off for the project generator. Some US$11 million is being spent on exploring its Alaska copper and gold prospects in 2011, with nearly US$10 million funded by its project partners. Senior miners Teck...
TSX-V: FVL President and CEO: Kristina Walcott Chief Financial Officer: Gordon Steblin Vice President, Exploration and Development: Alvin Jackson Freegold Ventures Ltd. - a junior focused on gold exploration in Alaska - got a jump on the 2011 exploration season with the February start of a 6,166-meter phase-1 drill program at its Golden Summit project in the Fairbanks Mining District. The project is host to a number of gold occurrences that are similar in age and style to the multimillion-ounce intrusion found at Kinross...
President: Nori Ushirone Pogo General Manager: Chris Kennedy Pogo Chief Geologist: Paul Jensen Looking beyond just replacing the more than 1,000 ounces of gold per day that it is recovering at its Pogo Mine, Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo LLC - a partnership held 85 percent Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. Ltd. and 15 percent by Sumitomo Corp. - is seeking out other gold and silver deposits in Interior Alaska. This regional exploration was underscored by the gold-silver-antimony mineralization cut by the Japanese firms at their Stone...
