The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 151 - 175 of 209
The owners of Alaska’s five large metal mines – Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo, Hecla Mining Company, Kinross Gold Corp, Teck Resources Ltd. and Coeur Mining Inc. – accounted for nearly half the US$92 million of exploration spending in the state during 2014 and similar investments by these companies is providing solid footing for the Far North state’s mineral exploration sector this year. Avalon Development President Curt Freeman said he is seeing more mining majors shopping for d...
What does a name say about a company? Management of NovaCopper Inc. feels that its corporate moniker does not say enough about the diversity of metals present in the high-grade deposits encompassed by its Upper Kobuk Minerals Projects in the Ambler mining district of Northwest Alaska. Arctic, the most advanced UKMP deposit, actually hosts more zinc than it does copper. And, while copper remains the dominant metal in terms of value, zinc supply shortages are closing the price...
Necessity is the mother of innovative financing. While this is not the exact quote attributed Plato, it captures the wisdom of the philosopher as well as a message PricewaterhouseCoopers has for the junior mining sector. “Companies must take action – quickly and creatively – to find the cash to keep their projects alive and moving forward,” the global consultant recently penned in a brochure called Junior Mine 2015. While most prognosticators agree that we are at or near th...
Over the past month, three of Alaska's large mines reported strong quarterly results; two projects in advanced permitting and pre-feasibility reported recent progress; and three exploration properties changed hands. The latter is a trend putting 2015 on course to be one of the most active years for new acquisitions in the past decade. Placer gold production has all but ceased for the year; however, output from Alaska's placer mines is not likely to be known with any certainty...
Most of Alaska is now enjoying a warm, early spring, allowing field programs to get off to an quicker start this year. While budgets are still tight, interest in Alaska projects has steadily increased as the mining and metals markets slowly recover from a four-year slowdown. Current estimates for 2016 exploration expenditures are looking like they will end up in the US$50 million to US$60 million range, down from the US$75 million range of last year but less precipitous than...
With metal prices stabilizing, physical stockpiles dwindling and demand again on the rise, things are beginning to look up for the beleagered mining industry. Gold's performance over the past several months is a case in point. The World Gold Council reported that during the first quarter, buying of exchange-traded gold funds rose to its highest level since early 2009, wiping out the deep sell-offs of 2014 and 2015 for this instrument. Uncertainties in the fiscal stability of...
NovaCopper Inc. is exercising the discipline of a marathon runner as it paces towards the finish line - developing the high-grade copper deposits at its Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska into world-class mines. This year's US$5.5 million program for UKMP - a budget identical to 2015 - will continue to collect the data needed to complete a prefeasibility study for an open-pit mine at the Arctic deposit, while continuing to seek areas to expand upon the more than...
NovaCopper Inc. June 22 said the Bornite Camp is being prepared for the 2016 field program at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects located in Northwest Alaska. The majority of this year's project budget of US$5.5 million is planned to be spent on roughly 3,000 meters of drilling at the Arctic project. The program will include drilling for geotechnical, hydrological, waste rock characterization and metallurgical studies as well as further resource definition. The company is also planning a series of environmental studies that...
Although there is plenty of Alaska mining industry news this month, the big dog in the pen is the dramatic and unexpected run-up in the price of gold, which moved from a low of $1,078 per ounce to a high of $1,246/oz., most of which occurred after Feb. 1. Although profit-taking and other factors have caused the price to back off a bit, the move was both dramatic and unexpected. As you might guess, the ether is full of talking heads telling us why it went up, why it either won'...
NovaCopper Inc. Feb. 8 reported that it has budgeted US$5.5 million for its 2016 program at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in northwestern Alaska. Like the 2015 program, which was similar in size and scope, this year's work will focus primarily on collecting data to inform a prefeasibility study for Arctic, a volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit that is rich in copper, zinc, silver and gold. This year's program is expected to include additional drilling at Arctic;...
As the curtain rings down on 2015, the sound of clapping and cheering can already be heard from the mining industry as it anticipates the end of a largely depressing year which started out looking like the long-awaited industry recovery was going to happen but in the end, did not. The uncertainty brought on by this year's unsettling events was front and center in a recent round-table discussion hosted by Northern Miner, sponsored by PearTree Securities and entitled "New...
From an expanding ownership interest in one of the largest producing zinc mines on the planet to grassroots gold exploration, NANA Regional Corp. is delving into all phases of mining across the 24.3 million acres of extremely minerals-rich land in Northwest Alaska. During the past 26 years, this Alaska Native regional corporation and the more than 13,800 Iñupiat shareholders whose forebears settled the northwest corner of Alaska thousands of years ago have enjoyed some...
When NovaCopper Inc. needed additional funds to advance its copper-rich deposits in the Ambler Mining District of Northwest Alaska, the Vancouver B.C.-based junior bypassed typical financing vehicles for such ventures and seized the opportunity to buy Sunward Resources Ltd., a fellow exploration company with roughly US$20 million in the bank but a market cap hovering around US$13 million. "The market had basically discounted the cash they had in the bank, so that provided an...
NovaCopper Inc. Oct. 21 reported that drillers cut zones of high-grade mineralization in all 14 holes drilled during its 2015 summer field program at the Arctic volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit in Northwest Alaska. The Arctic project is part of the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects located in the Ambler mining district. Highlights from the 2015 program include: AR15-0145, which intersected four mineralized intervals - 22 meters of 3.86 percent copper, 0.86 grams per metric ton...
NovaCopper Inc. Oct. 8 announced the completion of its 2015 field program, which started the work necessary to advance a pre-feasibility study for Arctic, the most advanced of the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects, a partnership between NovaCopper and NANA Corp., the Alaska Native regional corporation that represents the Iñupiat of Northwest Alaska. This work included an in-fill drill program designed to evaluate vertical and lateral continuity of the high-grade polymetallic copper-zinc-lead-gold-silver mineralization in support...
Mining is a notoriously cyclical business that generally ebbs and flows with the overall state of the global economy, and these cycles are amplified for junior mining companies charged with scouring the globe for the next generation of mines. Following a bull market that reached a crescendo at the end of 2010, the current bear market has been especially deep and painful for even seasoned mining sector veterans. "This has been a particularly treacherous bear market," longtime...
Over the past month Alaska's mining industry has suffered a perfect storm of manmade and natural issues that read like something from a pulp fiction novel. On the man-made side of the ledger, gold, silver, copper, and lead prices have all hit 5-year lows and zinc prices continue to slide lower. Mining equity markets are still in severe decline, making it extremely challenging for junior exploration companies to raise the risk capital necessary to explore their Alaska...
NovaCopper Inc. July 10 reported the start of a work program focused on advancing a pre-feasibility study for the development of an open-pit mine at Arctic, the most advanced of the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects, a partnership between NovaCopper and NANA Corp., the Alaska Native regional corporation that represents the Iñupiat of Northwest Alaska. The Arctic pre-feasibility work is expected to be carried out over a two- to three-year period. NovaCopper has approved a US$5.5...
NovaCopper Inc. June 19 said it has completed acquisition of all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Sunward Resources Ltd. To complete the transaction, Sunward shareholders were issued 0.3 of a NovaCopper common share for each Sunward common share held. Sunward is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of NovaCopper. As a result of the buyout, NovaCopper has full ownership of the Titiribi gold-copper project in Colombia and more than US$20 million in cash. The company says...
In a move that provides the cash needed to advance a feasibility study for the Arctic project in Northwest Alaska, NovaCopper has agreed to purchase Sunward Resources Ltd., a Vancouver, B.C.-based mining exploration company with a copper-gold asset in Columbia and roughly US$20 million in the bank. Over the several weeks leading up to the April 23 announcement of the potential merger, the value of Sunward's stock has hovered at roughly US$13 million, substantially less than...
With a mild winter for most of Alaska behind us and an early spring in progress over much of the state, spring fever has once again laid its grip on the mining industry. A number of exploration and development programs are slated for the summer season, suggesting the mining industry has finally started to rise from the three-year miasma that has gripped it worldwide. A couple of macro-scale items also are pointing toward a more robust industry. The U. S. Geological Survey's...
NovaCopper Inc. April 9 provided an update on its projects and finances for the three months ended Feb. 28. For the quarter, NovaCopper reported a net loss of US$1.5 million, compared with a net loss of US$2.6 million for the corresponding period in 2014. The company said lower expenditures this year are primarily due to a decrease in professional fees, salaries and mineral property expenses offset by an increase in stock-based compensation expense. NovaCopper is currently...
Slipping metals prices and investors' ongoing reluctance to risk venture capital in the junior mining sector is hitting Alaska's mineral exploration sector hard; and the Far North state is not the only mining jurisdiction reeling from this one-two punch. "After another year of strong headwinds in 2014, and with lower demand and overproduction continuing to depress metals prices, the mining industry's outlook for 2015 is unpromising at best," SNL Metals & Mining wrote recently...
American billionaires John Paulson, Seth Klarman and Thomas Kaplan have taken a keen interest in Alaska's next generation of gold and copper mines. While it is natural for hedge fund managers such as Paulson and Klarman, and resource investors such as Kaplan, to hold mining stocks in their portfolios, this trio holds major positions in three of the top Alaska-focused mineral exploration and development companies. In fact, the companies founded and managed by these...
NovaCopper Inc. plans to invest roughly US$20 million over the next two to three years on finalizing a feasibility study for its Arctic deposit, the next step toward the exploration company's vision of developing mines at the world-class copper projects found in the Ambler Mining District of Northwest Alaska. Arctic is the most advanced of the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects, a venture formed by NovaCopper and NANA Corp., the Alaska Native regional corporation that represents the...
