The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Pebble copper-gold mine in Alaska's Bristol Bay region is still on the drawing board, but a debate is already raging in the state Legislature over the best way to oversee the project. Although Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty has said it won't submit permit applications for Pebble for another year, while it assesses new drill results, mine opponents have launched a multimedia advertising campaign in an effort to drown out the voices of supporters and those who prefer a wait-and-see approach. The House Resources Committee...
In the last month the Alaska mining industry has seen start-up of its first major gold mine in five years (Pogo) and approval of permits for the Nixon Fork copper-gold mine. We also saw announcement of substantial increases in copper, gold and molybdenum resources at two advanced exploration/development projects (Donlin Creek and Pebble). New development plans were offered for heap leaching at the Fort Knox gold mine and initial funding was approved for evaluation of a coal to liquids facility at the Beluga coal deposits....
A report on the economic impact of Alaska's mining industry published in February provides a comprehensive look at the varied benefits mining brings to the state. The Alaska Miners Association commissioned the McDowell Group to prepare the report and distributed it to state legislators. Presentations to the Legislature by the AMA and the Alaska Minerals Commission in the same week emphasized the positive aspects of Alaska's mining resurgence and the importance of a stable tax regime. Much of the information in the McDowell...
Northern Dynasty may only be a junior mining company, but it has marshaled an army of contractors to conduct baseline environmental studies for its Pebble project in southwest Alaska. Companies that competed against each other to win the contracts are now working as a team taking samples, monitoring conditions and analyzing data that will eventually be used in the permit applications for the proposed copper-gold mine. In 2005 the Pebble project employed 45 consulting firms, with a total Alaska workforce of 457, plus another...
Aerial surveys released by the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys could help identify areas worth exploring for minerals. Four surveys released Jan. 23 fall short of offering a bull's eye for exploration companies, but help pinpoint promising sites, according to state geologist Melanie Werdon. Werdon said a "pretty hot mineral target area" borders a previously studied section that includes the Pogo gold mine northeast of Delta Junction. The Black Mountain area contains rock formations and gold-related...
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has published a draft Environmental Impact Statement for navigation improvements to the DeLong Mountain Terminal, the port that serves the Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska. The public review period continues until Dec. 27. The corps' "tentatively recommended" plan is to construct a 1,450-foot-long trestle from shore to a new off-shore loading platform and a 3.5-mile channel from the loading platform to allow navigation by bulk freighters and tanker ships. Management of the project from the sta...
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys said the industry topped $1 billion in expenditures and earnings for the ninth straight year. The mining industry paid nearly $27 million to the State of Alaska and municipalities in 2004, an increase of $8 million from the previous year, the report said. Revenue from mining license taxes more than tripled from 2003, largely due to profitability of zinc extraction at Red Dog Mine near Kotzebue. The mining industry contributed more than...
What do you get when you mix a known, high-grade copper deposit near the Yukon River plus millions of dollars of mining equipment on site with an aggressive junior mining company bent on making things happen? Excitement, that's what. "Minto will be the Yukon's next mine," said Stephen Quin, president and chief executive of Sherwood Copper Corp. "We've got all the permits or they are due to be extended, and we just need to update costs in the feasibility study." Yukon Premier Dennis Fentie signed a 10-year extension of a Type...
Over the course of the last several months, a series of new gold and base metal discoveries have been made. Several of these new discoveries were reported in the last month and highlights of these and other activities were presented at the annual Alaska Miners Association convention in Anchorage in early November. The convention was one of the most exciting and up-beat events in nearly a decade. The new discoveries are a trend that, while long in coming, are an inevitable...
Toronto-based Metallica Resources Inc. has identified targets for its 2006 exploratory drilling program on the Alaska Peninsula, according to Mark Petersen, Metallica geologist and exploration manager. Petersen said Metallica is moving forward under a joint venture agreement with Full Metal Minerals Ltd. regarding Aleutian Islands and Alaska Peninsula properties covering a 150 mile section of the Alaskan Peninsula, which are held by Full Metal under an exclusive option agreement with Bristol Bay Native Corp. and Aleut Corp....
Higher prices for precious and base metals, gemstones, coal and other minerals are luring explorers back to the Yukon Territory, and this resurgence in mining activity has government officials grappling with ways to encourage the miners to stay. The number and variety of mining exploration projects under way this year bodes wells for the territory's future and for government's chances of re-awakening what many call a sleeping giant - Yukon's mining industry. "Yukon is coming back," says Ivan Jacobsen, a stockbroker at Canacco...
The Grace property in British Columbia appears so far not to contain any significant gold or copper, but its surface could still be extremely valuable to Vancouver-based NovaGold Resources. In a pre-feasibility level study for the Galore Creek mine that NovaGold expected to make public in late October, part of the 2,400-hectare Grace property may be a potential location for tailings disposal facilities. Another Vancouver company, Pioneer Metals, which owns the sub-surface rights, has upped the ante by commencing legal action...
Competition for mining employees is intensifying in Alaska, with mines from the Lower 48 advertising their signing bonuses in Fairbanks, while the Pogo project tries to counter their offers with even bigger ones. State legislators heard about this and other mining issues at the "Gold and Gas in the Interior" meeting at the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly Chambers Aug. 22. Two Nevada companies advertised $2,000 signing bonuses in the Fairbanks newspaper in July, and a mine in Montana is offering a $4,000 signing bonus,...
I have had numerous people ask me the same question over and over again for the last month - "What's going on in Alaska; everyone is so quiet?" My response has been and remains the same - everyone is too busy breaking rocks, drilling holes or crushing ore to be bothered with new releases and grandiose public announcements. After all, it is high summer in the high north, a time of seasonal frenetic activity that makes the lot of us look and feel like a mouse in a habitat wheel! Despite the fact that a dozen or so companies...
One of British Columbia's largest advanced exploration projects has taken a leap forward this summer, with the camp at Galore Creek expanding from 75 people to 175 people. Vancouver-based NovaGold Resources, well-known in Alaska with its Donlin Creek and Rock Creek projects, now has seven core drillings rigs and two geotechnical rigs in operation at Galore Creek. The 74,000-acre property is located within the historic Sitkine Gold Belt of northwest British Columbia, about 90 miles east of Wrangell, Alaska. "The program has...
Other mining projects may be jumping on the bandwagon, but Teck Cominco still leads the race to find local gas reserves to feed the voracious appetite of a large-mine power plant in Alaska. Seven years after discovering gas deposits in shale near the Red Dog lead/zinc mine, the owner of the huge Northwest Alaska mine is ready to drill a two-well exploration program in hopes of replacing costly diesel fuel it must barge in every year. Though oil companies have developed gas reserves to power production facilities on the North...
Vancouver-based Abacus Mining and Exploration Corp. said May 17 that it has signed a letter of intent with Teck Cominco Ltd. for the purchase of Afton Operating Corp.'s milling and processing facilities, tailings storage areas, associated permits, and other infrastructure at the shut-in Afton Mine near Kamloops, B.C. The company also agreed to purchase Teck Cominco's back-in rights on the Abacus' Afton properties. Abacus also said Giroux Consultants has completed the preliminary resource calculations on the DM/Audra and...
The good news from Teryl, Kinross, Geoinformatics, Midas, Geocom and others is tempered by the loss of Alaska's gentleman scientist Ernie Wolff, who passed away on May 3; Liberty Star Gold appoints Phil St. George as VP of exploration s I write this summary of recent activities in Alaska's mining industry I am attending a once-every-five-year symposium in Reno put on by the Geological Society of Nevada. Some 1,500 attendees, mostly exploration geologists, are eagerly lapping up hours of new and previously unheard ideas on...
Since the Pebble project began hitting the headlines, Bob Loeffler has been asked some strange questions. People accost the mild-mannered director of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Mining, Land and Water and demand to know why he issued permits for the Pebble project and when it is going to break ground. Loeffler is puzzled, because he hasn't issued any permits for the Pebble project. The developer, Northern Dynasty, won't even submit its permit applications until next year. Loeffler spoke to the Newh...
Alaska Native corporations have considerable experience partnering with mining companies and have seen economic benefits for their shareholders from the mining industry. They are also aware of people's concern about the effect of mining on the subsistence lifestyle, as became clear in a panel discussion on "Mining and the Native Perspective" at the Newhalen conference in April. Greg Beischer of Bristol Environmental and Engineering Services Corp. a subsidiary of Bristol Bay Native Corp., introduced the panel. Beischer, an...
Residents of Southwest Alaska - including a former state governor - expressed passionate opinions about the proposed Pebble open-pit mine at a conference in the village of Newhalen April 7-9, demonstrating that there will be a host of social issues to deal with even if mine developer Northern Dynasty can overcome the project's daunting environmental and economic hurdles. Local Natives are worried about the threat to their subsistence lifestyle, lodge owners and guides fear tourism could change and anti-mining NGOs are making...
Many Alaska state legislators have a personal connection with mining, and perhaps none more so than Richard Foster, Nome's Democratic representative. Foster, 58, grew up on his father's mine, 100 miles north of Nome. Today he is glad to see Vancouver-based NovaGold developing its Rock Creek project in his district, but he also regrets the disappearance of "mom and pop" mining operations like the one where he worked as a child. "NovaGold has been very aggressive in trying to develop their gold and also their boundless...
Current market conditions favor the three metals uncovered in the Pebble project operated by Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. in southwestern Alaska. Not only are gold and copper fetching good prices, but a recent run-up in molybdenum prices could deliver a nice bonus for the project. Little known metal makes big contributions Molybdenum, pronounced "meh-LIB-deh-nem," is mainly a byproduct of copper mining but some standalone molybdenum mines do exist. The element was discovered by Carl Welhelm Scheele, a Swedish chemist, in...
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., owner and operator of the Pebble project in southwestern Alaska, is gearing up for a new season with a larger ownership stake in the gold-copper-molybdenum deposit and a C$36 million work program for 2005. The company announced results March 4 of a recent independent analysis that indicated the world-class mineral system at Pebble is significantly larger than previously envisioned. Northern Dynasty also said March 14 it agreed to acquire the remaining 20 percent ownership interest in Pebble in...
The Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys and the Department of Commerce and Economic Development have released their annual preliminary report on Alaska's mining industry for 2004. As expected, investment in all categories was up significantly over previous years. Exploration spending in 2004 was estimated at $63.7 million, up from $27.6 million in 2003. The 2004 expenditures were the highest in the state since 1981. Development expenditures jumped to $105.6 million vs. $39.2 million in 2003, thanks largely t...
