The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 101 - 115 of 115
The last week of May was no ordinary week in Yukon, Canada's most westerly territory. It was Mining and Geology week, and the historic wooden buildings in downtown Dawson City were plastered with brand new white and gold banners. "This Business Supports Placer Mining. Placer Mining Supports This Business," they proclaimed. But the geologists, engineers and biologists spending their days listening to talks at the Palace Grand Theatre and their evenings living it up at Diamond Tooth Gertie's music hall and casino were not in...
As researchers around the world strive to shrink the level of greenhouse gases pouring into the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion and other sources, one aspect of the challenge is taking on new dimensions. Coal has long been recognized as a dirty and deadly fuel. Researchers conducting autopsies in the 1800s found the lungs of infants to be black, sparking early fears that coal emissions were toxic. Yet it took more than 170 years for scientists to develop methods to remove toxic gases from coal combustion emissions that...
In my simple world of cause and effect, when I see things happen I always leap to the conclusion that there will be a related subsequent development. When I see the United States borrow untold billions of dollars from the People's Republic of China (for whatever wonderful reason), I assume that the People's Republic will want to be repaid - and not in deflated dollars. When I see millions of people out of work, I assume they will try very hard to find a way to feed their...
Attendees of the Alaska Miners Association Fairbanks Biennial Mining Conference had the honor of hearing the views of three heavyweights on many issues facing Alaska's mining industry. Tom Albanese, CEO of Rio Tinto plc, says he is worried about the current political environment in Alaska. Albanese, a featured speaker at the Mining Conference March 19, cited a recent mining industry survey by Canada's Fraser Institute lowered Alaska's rank to 34 in 2007 from 13 in 2005 among...
The U.S. Supreme Court Jan. 7 declined to accept Teck Cominco Metals Ltd.'s petition for review and reversal of a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Pakootas, et al. v. Teck Cominco Metals Ltd. The Government of Canada, the Province of British Columbia, and the Chambers of Commerce of both Canada and the United States had all joined Teck Cominco in arguing that diplomatic processes, and not the courts of the United States, are the forum in which to resolve cross-border issues of this nature. Several U.S. organizations,...
Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty, whose sole asset is the Pebble project in southwest Alaska, is the only junior mining company to remain in the top five on the TSX Venture Exchange or TSX-V by market capitalization for two years straight. The company's market capitalization was C$326.5 million in 2005, making it the fourth-largest in its sector, and C$657.4 million in 2006, making it the third-largest. These and other achievements by Canadian companies are highlighted in a report called Junior Mine by Pri...
A broad spectrum of Alaskans who support the proposed Pebble mine have formed a non-profit organization to inform the public about Northern Dynasty's copper-gold project in the Bristol Bay region. Truth About Pebble was officially launched at a meeting of the Resource Development Council in Anchorage Jan. 18 with speeches by three of the new organization's board members. Truth About Pebble's chairman, Dick Cattanach, who is executive director of the Associated General Contractors of Alaska, told the RDC that the opposition...
Nothing's been built yet, but Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty has already opened the floodgates to a torrent of discussion of the enormous dams the company proposes for the Pebble project. One of the tailings dams would reach an ultimate height of 740 feet and would be at least 4.3 miles long. The largest dam in North America, the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington, is 550 feet tall and almost a mile long. Northern Dynasty had already come under fire before it submitted the proposal for five dams to Alaska's Department of...
The people, the technology and the regulations have changed dramatically in the past 100 years or so since the Klondike Gold Rush, but placer mining in Canada's Yukon is still thriving. Mike McDougall, president of the Klondike Placer Miners Association, and Bill Lebarge from Yukon Geological Survey provided some insights into the state of the industry during a joint presentation to the Arctic International Mining Symposium in Fairbanks March 14. A total of 70,322 crude ounces of gold (2.2 million grams) was produced by...
Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski appointed Bartly Coiley, Usibelli Coal Mine's environmental affairs manager, to the Alaska Minerals Commission in August. Coiley fills the seat vacated by another Usibelli employee, Charles Boddy. The commission makes recommendation to the governor and Legislature on ways to mitigate the constraints on development of minerals, including coal, in the state. There are 11 members of the commission, five of whom are appointed by the governor, three by the president of the Senate and three by the...
Anyone who owns mining claims - from grizzled old prospectors to multinational companies - struggles to make a profit. So one particular kind of prospect may be particularly attractive to them: having people pay for the privilege of mining on the claims, with the search itself often turning out to be more rewarding than the discovery of a tiny gold nugget or a pinch of fines. Recreational miners come in all shapes and sizes, and they're bringing new life to land that might otherwise have been abandoned. To make the most of...
The last week of May was no ordinary week in Yukon, Canada's most westerly territory. It was Mining and Geology week, and the historic wooden buildings in downtown Dawson City were plastered with brand new white and gold banners. "This Business Supports Placer Mining. Placer Mining Supports This Business," they proclaimed. But the geologists, engineers and biologists spending their days listening to talks at the Palace Grand Theatre and their evenings living it up at Diamond Tooth Gertie's music hall and casino were not in...
By suing the U.S. Department of Interior for quiet title to the state's rights of way for the Coldfoot-Chandalar Lake, Caro-to-Coldfoot and Wiseman-to-Chandalar trails, the state of Alaska may breathe new life into a century-old gold mining region. The lawsuit, filed April 11 in federal district court in Washington, D.C., also named Alaska Northwest Natural Gas Transportation Co., Yukon Pacific Co., Petro Star Inc., Doyon Ltd. and several other non-federal stakeholders with claims to land adjoining or surrounding the trails...
The state of Alaska's attempts to export coal to Taiwan have become bogged down in a political scandal, with a prosecutor investigating Attorney General Gregg Renkes' role in the negotiations. The Anchorage Daily News alleged that Renkes owned stock and traded shares in KFx, the Denver-based company that is developing technology to remove moisture from sub-bituminous coal. Documents show that Renkes and Gov. Frank Murkowski pushed the participation of KFx to the Taiwanese government. Murkowski has appointed former federal...
What a difference a year makes ... along with a few things like rebounding metals prices, China's voracious appetite for minerals and investors' enduring love affair worldwide with gold. That's the assessment of Alaska officials after reviewing the state's annual report on mining industry activity in 2003, released in late October. The cumulative value of Alaska's mining industry in 2003 dipped slightly to $1.067 billion, down about $6 million from the $1.073 billion reported in 2002, according to the report, the 23rd in an...
