The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 201 - 225 of 615
StrikePoint Gold Inc. has expanded its drill program and land position at its recently acquired Porter Idaho property on Mount Rainey about 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) outside of Stewart, British Columbia. On Sept. 12, the Vancouver, B.C.-based exploration company announced the mobilization of a second drill rig to test the potential connection between the historic Silverado and Prosperity-Porter Idaho underground silver mines just above Stewart, British Columbia. Despite only...
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...
While not the flashiest of the 35 minerals on the United States Geological Survey's critical list, barite plays an essential role in America's energy sector. Barite got its name from the Ancient Greek word for heavy, barús, and it is the high specific gravity that earned this mineral its name that makes it a critical mineral. Added to drill mud, a solution that serves multiple purposes in bore drilling, barite's weight helps maintain the integrity of the drill hole and...
Osisko Metals Inc. Aug. 23 reported results from 18 holes completed in the Central Zone of its Pine Point zinc project in Northwest Territories. Highlights from this batch of results include 6.75 meters of 14.67 percent zinc and 1.94 percent lead in hole M6263-18-PP-014; and 15 meters of 6.34 percent zinc and 1.27 percent lead in M6263-18-PP-013. "The Central Zone drilling continues to confirm the extensive, near surface mineralization that potentially could be mined by open p...
Teck Resources Ltd. July 26 reported that the Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska produced 153,600 metric tons (338.6 million pounds) of zinc during the second quarter. This is 26 percent more zinc than was produced during the first quarter and a 20 percent increase over the same period last year. Teck Resources President and CEO Don Lindsay attributes the higher zinc output "to higher-grade ore and improved recoveries." The 25,700 metric tons (56.7 million lb) of lead produced...
Novagold Resources Inc. July 27 announced it has closed the deal to sell Newmont Mining Corp. its 50 percent interest in the Galore Creek copper-gold project in northwestern British Columbia for US$275 million. "I'm very pleased that Novagold is receiving fair value for its interest in Galore Creek and believe that Newmont is the right organization to carry forward the track record of excellence that we have achieved with our partners over the years," said Novagold President...
Osisko Metals Inc. July 24 announced plans to step up the pace of its already aggressive drill program at the Pine Point zinc project in Northwest Territories. "It's our intention to keep moving this project forward aggressively in order to capitalize on the current favorable zinc market fundamentals," said Osisko Metals President and CEO Jeff Hussey. Located about 42 kilometers (26 miles) east of Hay River, Pine Point is the site of a historical mine operated by Cominco (now...
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...
Golden Predator Mining Corp. June 21 named globally recognized geological experts Richard Goldfarb, Lance Miller, Craig Hart and Bill Threlkeld to the company's newly formed exploration management council. These founding members bring vast experience in the geology of the Northern Cordillera – a metals rich volcanic province that extends through British Columbia, Yukon and Alaska – to the council. This council will assist Golden Predator management and field staff in rev...
ZincX Resources Corp. (formerly Canada Zinc Metals) June 7 announced plans for a 2,500-meter drill program focused on exploration targets at Akie, one of 11 zinc-lead-silver properties owned by the company that blanket 79,870 hectares (197,359 acres) of the Kechika SEDEX (sedimentary exhalative) belt in northeastern British Columbia. ZincX has divided this land package into two projects – Akie, which hosts the Cardiac Creek deposit, and the Kechika regional, a series of p...
One of the most common complaints I hear from companies and individuals working in the mineral industry in Alaska is our deplorable lack of modern, usable-scale digital geophysical and geologic maps. How bad is it? Consider this: the U.S. Geological Survey has estimated that less than 2 percent of Alaska has acceptable geophysical data coverage, and less than 20 percent has been geologically mapped at a scale useful to evaluate the state's mineral resources. Nobody will deny...
Canada Zinc Metals Corp. May 7 announced that it has changed its name to ZincX Resources Corp., part of a rebranding initiative to highlight and distinguish the company in the expanding junior zinc space. ZincX owns zinc-lead-silver properties that blanket 79,870 hectares (197,359 acres) of the Kechika SEDEX (sedimentary exhalative) belt in northeastern British Columbia. The rebranded company has divided this land package into two projects – Akie, which hosts the Cardiac Creek...
Osisko Metals Inc. May 8 said its winter drilling continues to confirm historical zinc mineralization at its newly acquired Pine Point zinc-lead project in Northwest Territories. Located near the community of Hay River, the Pine Point project benefits from substantial infrastructure that includes road access, rail head in Hay River and hydro-electric power available on site. A preliminary economic assessment completed in 2015 examined several development scenarios and settled...
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...
Teck Resources Ltd. March 24 reported that mill throughput at the Red Dog zinc mine in Northwest Alaska was impacted by extreme winter weather that closed the Delong Mountain Transportation System road connecting the mine to the concentrate storage facility at the port for more than two weeks. This inability to haul concentrates forced numerous slowdowns and shutdowns of milling operations due to limited storage capacity at the mine site. "Red Dog production was negatively...
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...
Primarily associated with cans, cups and roofs, tin may not be the flashiest metal on the market, but it has been a strategic metal that has defined human progress since the onset of the Bronze Age around 5,500 years ago and is on the list of minerals critical to the security of the United States even today, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. "In a congressionally mandated U.S. Department of Defense study of strategic minerals published in 2013, tin was shown to have...
In 2017 Alaska’s mineral exploration industry saw its first up-tick in exploration spending since 2011, an increase that S&P Global Market Intelligence’s “World Exploration Trends” indicates was mirrored on the world-wide level. According to S&P’s data, the worldwide exploration industry spent $8.4 billion in 2017, the first such increase in spending since 2012. S&P also forecast a 15-20 percent increase in exploration spending for 2018 as well. The study also showed that dema...
Born from an idea to create a vehicle that could provide Alaska businesses lower interest rates offered by tax-exempt financing, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, or AIDEA, has been doing its part to create jobs and bolster Alaska's economy for five decades. "Fifty years ago, the Alaska State Legislature created the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, to develop, encourage, and improve the economic potential and welfare of the people of...
Seven days of near-continuous rain did nothing to dampen the mood at the recently concluded Cordilleran Roundup Convention in Vancouver. The event was buoyed by a realistic optimism we have not seen in over five years. This change from half-empty to half-full glasses is due to a number of things including strong commodities prices, increasing global demand for metals and current or looming supply shortfalls in many of the metals produced by this industry. The event was...
Teck Resources Ltd. Feb. 14 reported that the Red Dog zinc mine in Northwest Alaska produced 541,900 metric tons (1.19 billion pounds) of zinc and 111,300 metric tons (245.4 million lb) of lead during 2017. During the fourth quarter, Red Dog produced 141,200 metric tons (331.3 million lb) of zinc, which was 3 percent lower than the same period a year ago. Teck attributes this drop primarily to slightly lower mill throughput and grade. Fourth quarter lead production of 25,000...
Novagold Resources Inc. Jan. 25 said the federal permitting process for Donlin Gold is expected to be finalized in the third quarter of this year. In the meantime, the company and its equal partner in the project, Barrick Gold Corp., are completing optimization studies for this 39-million-ounce gold project in western Alaska. "All of us have been motivated not only to make sure we successfully complete the permitting process for Donlin Gold, but to lay a solid foundation from...
Osisko Metals Inc. Dec. 18 announced a friendly agreement to acquire full ownership of Pine Point Mining Ltd., a deal that will give Osisko Metals full ownership of the Pine Point zinc-lead project in Northwest Territories. "The addition of the Pine Point project to our exploration and development portfolio is exactly in keeping with our strategy of consolidating world class base metal mining districts," said Osisko Metals President and CEO Jeff Hussey. Located near the...
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...
In 1918, the Premier gold mine opened a few miles north of Stewart, a mining town that is the southern gateway to British Columbia's famed Golden Triangle. Over the ensuing 34 years, this underground operation churned out some 2 million ounces of gold and 45 million oz of silver, making it the largest gold producer in North America during that era. A century later, Premier continues to be in play and modern exploration is unveiling the vast mineral potential that northern...
