The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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The unseasonably, interminably, unspeakably cold spring that is delaying mineral exploration and development work in Alaska this year is being mimicked by a financial chill that is affecting Alaska exploration efforts just like it is the rest of the world. Not to put too fine a point on it, but from a mineral exploration standpoint, Alaska is shaping up to be as dead as a doornail this summer (ever wonder where that saying came from ... but I digress.). How dead? Try this statistic on for size: Of the 49 exploration projects...
Market-defying mineral exploration grabbed the spotlight in British Columbia throughout 2013, despite the doldrums that appeared to set in north of the 60th parallel. "British Columbia is blessed with an abundant supply of the resources the world needs and the most innovative mining and exploration sectors," British Columbia Premier Christy Clark touted the phenomenon at the 2013 Mineral Exploration Roundup in January. Still, Clark told the crowd that she doubted B.C. exploration could top the record C$462 million spent in...
With roughly C$216.6 million in the bank at the end of the third quarter, Novagold Resources Inc. is well-positioned to complete permitting at its Donlin Gold project in Alaska and continue exploration at its Galore Creek copper-gold project in British Columbia. "These are turbulent times in the business, but we have got the cash to see us through the permitting," Novagold President Greg Lang told attendees at the Denver Gold Forum. Ahead of the financial tempest that is battering most of the titanic gold producers and...
CEM: TSX.V Chairman: Wayne Livingstone President and CEO: Garfield MacVeigh Vice President, Exploration: Darwin Green After two seasons of focusing its exploration efforts on gold properties in the Yukon Territory and Ontario, Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. returned to Southeast Alaska to expand Glacier Creek, a high-grade volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit at its Palmer project. The renewed focus on its flagship property is largely attributable to US$22 million option and joint venture agreement that Constantine forged...
CUU: TSX-V Chairman, President and CEO: Elmer Stewart Chief Financial Officer: Catherine Henderson Senior Technical Advisor: Tom Schroeter In 2013, Copper Fox Metals culminated more than a decade of successful exploration of its Schaft Creek porphyry copper, gold, molybdenum and silver project in northwestern British Columbia by enticing Teck Resources Ltd. to enter a 75-25 joint venture with the junior and assume operatorship of the project. Schaft Creek is located due east-northeast of Petersburg, Alaska, about 61...
MRO: TSX-V President and CEO: Gregory Beischer Chief Exploration Officer: Philip St. George Chief Operating Officer: Sarah Whicker Millrock Resources Inc., which has become one of the one of the more prolific Alaska exploration companies since adopting the project generator model in 2009, is tightening its belt in 2013. As a project generator, Millrock relies on joint venture partners to do most of the heavy financial lifting on its portfolio of properties in Alaska and Arizona. This model diminishes the company's need to rai...
TCK: NYSE/ TCK.B: TSX Chairman: Norman Keevil President and CEO: Don Lindsay Vice President of Exploration: Alex Christopher From grassroots discoveries to brownfields expansions, Teck Resources Ltd. is involved in a broad spectrum of exploration across Alaska, British Columbia and Yukon Territory. The Vancouver, B.C.-based mining company had drills turning at three copper-gold exploration projects in northwestern British Columbia during 2013. Galore Creek Mining Company, a 50-50 partnership between Teck and NovaGold...
From Kotzebue to Ketchikan, Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority is using its financial muscle and its ability to build and operate large infrastructure projects to help mining companies overcome the challenges of developing the often remote mineral riches that the Last Frontier has to offer. "We are working with local communities and mine developers on infrastructure projects throughout Alaska, including port facilities and energy supply," said AIDEA external...
Global base metals consumption is divided into two sectors - China and the rest of the world. By 2017 China will consume more than half of the world's supply of base metals, the remaining 200 countries will make up the remaining 48 percent of the market, according to an October report published by Woods MacKenzie. "Today, the Rest of the World, excluding China, accounts for 54 percent of the global base metals market. However, as we're seeing with many other commodities,...
Young people working on mining projects in Yukon Territory are nothing new. But young people in charge, running the show at some of the most exciting mining projects in Canada's Far North? That's different and was noticeable in several camps during the 2013 field season. Whether in grassroots exploration, at advanced projects or in producing mines, a new generation of 30-something and even younger professionals, appears to be taking the lead in the Yukon. The trend even extends beyond mining to government, where Currie...
A new preliminary economic assessment has stripped away the idea of underground mining as the only means to recover the copper, zinc, lead, silver and gold from the volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit at the Arctic deposit. Instead, the scoping study has encouraged NovaCopper Inc. to favor an open-pit mine scenario as it advances the Northwest Alaska project towards a pre-feasibility study. "We think this (PEA) demonstrates that the open-pit is a viable alternative; and I...
This month's mining news is a smorgasbord to delight the appetites of explorers, developers and miners alike. We had quarterly reports out from Teck, Kinross, Hecla and Coeur d'Alene discussing their respective results from operating mines around the state. We had one preliminary economic analysis by NovaCopper on its Arctic massive sulfide project and one feasibility study announced by International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. on its Livengood gold project. We had Freegold and...
In the best of times, a government-sponsored mining incentives program could be a wise investment of public revenue to stimulate economic development in a mining-intensive jurisdiction like Yukon Territory. In a sustained capital drought like the one currently scorching the industry, funds awarded through the Yukon Mining Incentives Program can be the deciding factor in whether boots even hit the ground on many mineral exploration projects across the territory. Designed to promote and enhance mineral prospecting and explorati...
Novagold Resources Inc. is well-equipped, not only to ride out the financial tempest that is battering most of the titanic gold producers and junior exploration companies, but to take advantage of the inclement market conditions that are forcing others to take shelter. "Notwithstanding the share price and the continued market conditions challenging mining equities, we find ourselves in a better position as a company than we had hoped," Novagold President Greg Lang informed...
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...
Copper Fox Metals Corp. recently completed a positive feasibility study of its Schaft Creek porphyry copper, gold, molybdenum and silver project in northwestern British Columbia that could mark an important turning point for the project. The Calgary, Alberta-based company holds title and a 100 percent working interest in Schaft Creek, which is located due east-northeast of Petersburg, Alaska, about 61 kilometers (38 miles) south of the village of Telegraph Creek. The feasibility study prepared by Tetra Tech in late December...
The annual Cordilleran Roundup Mining Convention is held in Vancouver at the end of January each year, and this year's convention was unlike any of the nearly 20 such conventions I have attended. The norm for this convention is a sort of anticipatory excitement that permeates every facet of the event. Mineral exploration is the focus of this gathering, and explorationists are by and large optimistic people. While there was no lack of optimism at the 2013 convention, if you...
NovaCopper Inc. is 2.4 billion pounds closer to reaching its goal of defining a 10-billion-pound copper camp in the Ambler Mining District of Northwest Alaska. "In our first season of drilling at South Reef, we have defined 2.4 billion pounds of high-grade copper and the mineralized system is wide open for expansion," NovaCopper CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse said. South Reef, with an inferred resource of 43.1 million metric tons of material averaging 2.54 percent copper, is the...
Trepidation over scarce venture capital tempered the inherent ability of mineral explorers to envision the prospectivity of what lies over the horizon, resulting in an aura of guarded optimism during the 2013 Mineral Exploration Roundup, held Jan. 28-31 in Vancouver, B.C. Teck Resources Ltd. President and CEO Don Lindsay addressed the anxiety and resilience of the explorers and miners attending the annual gathering. "The mining industry is all about a license to dream," Lindsa...
VANCOUVER, B.C. - British Columbia, Alaska and Yukon Territory - the headliners of the Association for Mining Exploration British Columbia's 2013 Mineral Exploration Roundup - tallied more than C$1 billion of mineral exploration spending in 2012. This marks the second year running that these neighboring jurisdictions at the northwestern extent of the North American Cordillera topped the C$1 billion mark. But unlike the 2012 Roundup, a year in which explosive exploration...
In today's difficult financing climate, Homestake Resources Corp. is living the dream of most junior mining companies. Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd., an aggressive intermediate gold producer, has signed on to pay the bills at the Homestake Ridge project located in northwestern British Columbia in a deal where the gold producer could spending up to C$25.3 million and earn up to a 70 percent interest in the exploration and development venture. Formerly Bravo Gold Corp., the junior changes its name to Homestake Resources in April....
A recent letter distributed to the minerals industry by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys and the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development's Division of Economic Development is seeking faster and more efficient ways to gather, collate and publish Alaska's Annual Minerals Industry Report. The agencies are looking for feedback regarding what items the industry thinks is important to retain in the report, what items are not in the report that should be...
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...
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...
From investigating grassroots gold prospects in the Yukon Territory to ensuring the Red Dog Mine has sufficient stores of high-grade ore to remain a top global zinc producer for decades to come, Teck Resources Ltd. 2012 is continuing a century of discovery in Alaska and Canada's Northwest. This broad spectrum of exploration across Alaska, British Columbia and Yukon Territory exemplifies the Vancouver, B.C.-based major's objective of accessing "high-quality, sustainable growth...
