The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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North of 60 Mining News recently spoke with Ramzi Fawaz, president and CEO of Ambler Metals LLC, a 50-50 joint venture between South32 Ltd. and Trilogy Metals Inc. to develop the rich mineral resources at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Alaska. In a candid conversation, Fawaz talks about what attracted him to Ambler Metals; the company's Alaska-based team and partnerships; the strategy for developing Arctic Mine and the other rich metals deposits at the Upper Kobuk Mineral...
U.S. Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority have signed documents that provide a 50-year right-of-way across federal lands for the Ambler Mining District Industrial Access Road. "This right-of-way is the culmination of years of research, planning, and collaboration," said AIDEA Executive Director Alan Weitzner. "The signing of this permit is a major milestone. It's the first step in a multi-year phase of...
Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority Feb. 10 announced that its board has approved a long-term agreement with Ambler Metals LLC to share up to $70 million of the predevelopment costs for a proposed road to the Ambler Mining District in Northwest Alaska. "This is another example of AIDEA's role in establishing public-private partnerships supporting responsible development of Alaska's natural resources," said AIDEA Chairman Dana Pruhs. Such partnerships are the...
Strong metal prices and an infusion of cash from notable resource investors helped to salvage much of a 2020 mineral exploration season in Alaska that became lethargic with disruptions, delays, and shelving of field programs infected by the COVID-19 pandemic early in the year. At its onset, 2020 was looking like it would be the best year for Alaska's mining sector in a decade. Australia-based mining companies were slated to invest nearly US$100 million in mineral exploration...
Whether it is the exponential growth in electric vehicles traveling global highways, the massive need for storing energy at solar and wind electrical generating facilities, or cutting the cords on our electronic devices, the world is becoming increasingly dependent on lithium-ion batteries. And this is driving up the demand for cobalt, a critical safety ingredient in the cathodes of these energy storage cells. "Globally, the leading use is in the manufacture of cathode materia...
Considering the global shift to low-carbon energy and electric mobility, copper is the most vital metal not on the United States Geological Survey's list of 35 minerals and metals considered critical to America's economic wellbeing and security. Copper's importance is due to the rapidly emerging electric vehicle, wind turbines and photovoltaic (PV) solar technologies need a lot more copper than the combustion cars and power plants they are replacing. It is estimated that the...
A semiconductor that will melt in the palm of your hand and has the ability to convert electricity directly into laser light, gallium is a cool critical metal that is an important ingredient in light emitting diodes (LEDs), new generation smartphones, thin-film solar cells, and medical devices. "The development of gallium arsenide as a direct band-gap semiconductor in the 1960s led to what are now some of the most well-known uses of gallium – in feature-rich, a...
While Alaska is regarded as a geological storehouse of minerals critical to the United States, it is less renowned as a current globally significant supplier of germanium, a zinc byproduct metalloid with optical qualities that make it an important ingredient in infrared and fiber-optics, and semiconducting properties being applied to quantum computing, and solar energy systems. "The extensive use of germanium for military and commercial applications has made it a critical...
Ambler Metals LLC plans to invest US$27 million to advance the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska during 2021. The budget and program approved by equal partners in Ambler Metals – Trilogy Metals Inc. and South32 Ltd. – will primarily focus on the work required to ready the Arctic Mine project to enter permitting during the second half of 2021. According to a feasibility study finalized earlier this year, the Arctic deposit in Alaska's Ambler Mining District det...
Trilogy Metals Inc. and South32 Ltd. Aug. 25 announced that former Newmont Corp. senior executive Ramzi Fawaz has been appointed as president and CEO of Ambler Metals LLC, the 50-50 joint venture company formed by South32 and Trilogy to explore and develop the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (UKMP) in Northwest Alaska. Fawaz served as senior vice president of projects at Newmont from 2011 until 2019, with responsibility for the development and execution of Newmont's major gold...
A feasibility study for developing a mine at the world-class Arctic deposit in Alaska's Ambler Mining District details a financially robust operation that would produce 1.9 billion pounds of copper, 2.3 billion lb of zinc, 388 million lb of lead, 386,000 ounces of gold, and 40.6 million oz of silver over an initial 12-year mine life. While high-grade volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits such as Arctic are typically mined from underground, the Arctic feasibility study details...
The COVID-19 pandemic has led NANA Corp. and its mining partners, Teck Resources Ltd. and Ambler Metals LLC, to adjust their mineral exploration and mine development plans in order to meet the ever-evolving health and safety mandates to keep shareholders, employees and residents of Northwest Alaska as safe as possible. "Although the pandemic was unexpected, learning to adapt is nothing new for the region and Iñupiaq people. For 40 years, NANA shareholders have supported...
Trilogy Metals Inc. July 8 confirmed that the 2020 field programs at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska has been deferred due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ambler Metals LLC, a joint venture operating company equally owned by Trilogy Metals and South32 Ltd., had budgeted US$22.8 million for the 2020 program. Following the novel coronavirus outbreak, Ambler Metals met with NANA Corp., the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) regional corporation for...
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. said its Pebble project could provide another source of jobs and revenue to an Alaska economy challenged by an interrelated combination of COVID-19 and low oil prices. Though fewer than 400 cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed in Alaska, placing it among the lowest states in the country on an absolute and per capita basis, the economic impact of the global pandemic on the largest of the United States is both severe and ongoing. As a result of...
NANA Corp. and Ambler Metals LLC April 29 said they are working together to determine how a summer field season at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska can progress while protecting communities and balancing job opportunities for residents of the region. Earlier this year, Ambler Metals, a joint venture operating company equally owned by Trilogy Metals Inc. and South32 Ltd., approved a US$22.8 million budget for the 2020 program at UKMP, which is a large land...
Trilogy Metals Inc. April 8 said Ambler Metals LLC still plans to carry out the US$22.8 million program at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska, but COVID-19-related health concerns and restrictions could delay or even prevent the planned 2020 work. This year's work program at UKMP was announced following the February formation of Ambler Metals, a 50-50 joint venture partnership between Trilogy Metals and South32 Ltd. The largest part of this program will...
Trilogy Metals Inc. Feb. 26 announced that Ambler Metals LLC, a joint venture operating company equally owned by Trilogy and South32 Ltd., has approved a US$22.8 million budget for the 2020 program aimed at advancing the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (UKMP) in Northwestern Alaska. The largest part of this program will focus on advancing studies to prepare the Arctic mine project for permitting. A 2018 prefeasibility study for Arctic detailed plans for an open-pit mine and...
South32 Ltd. and Trilogy Metals Inc. Feb. 11 announced the finalization of a joint venture to advance exploration and development of the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in the Ambler Mining District of Northwest Alaska. Australia-based South32 has contributed US$145 million to fund this new JV named Ambler Metals LLC and Canada-based Trilogy provided the 426,690-acre Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (UKMP) to the new JV owned equally by the two companies. The funds contributed by...
North of 60 Mining News is proud to introduce 20 questions for 2020. Over the course of this series, Mining News will interview mining and political leaders from Alaska, British Columbia, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon. Each interview will include 20 questions on mining, markets and doing business across Alaska and Canada's North. For the inaugural 20 questions for 2020, Mining News talks with Contango ORE Inc. CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse, a longtime mining executive...
Trilogy Metals Inc. Jan. 16 reported that its geotechnical and hydrological drill program at the Arctic mine project continued to show the consistency and high grades of the copper-zinc-lead-gold-silver mineralization within this volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposit in Northwest Alaska. The 2019 field program at Arctic involved advanced engineering and environmental work in support of Trilogy Metals' feasibility study for the Arctic Project and permitting. In December,...
Contango ORE Inc. Jan. 6 announced that Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse has taken over as President and CEO of the Texas-based mineral exploration company advancing the Peak Gold project in eastern Alaska. Former President and CEO Brad Juneau has transitioned to executive chairman of Contango ORE, a company he co-founded and lead for the past decade. "I have known Rick for several years and followed his success with admiration," said Juneau. "We are extremely pleased that he has agreed...
In November 1996, a little over 23 years ago, I began writing quarterly mining news summaries for the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG). Shortly after that, I began writing monthly summaries for this publication's ancestor, Mining News Alaska, and have continued both monthly, quarterly and annual mining news summaries ever since. With this summary, I have written my last Alaska update for North of 60 Mining News. When I wrote my first summary, Greens Creek was milling only...
With two Australian companies making major investments and several exploration companies from Down Under chomping at the bit to get into the field, 2020 is shaping up to be the best year for Alaska's mining sector in a decade. When you add up the investments South32 Ltd. plans to make in the Ambler Mining District and other exploration projects; Northern Star Resources Ltd.'s spending at the Pogo gold mine; and the exploration dollars at least five other Aussie companies are...
Development of the rich mineral resource in Alaska's Ambler Mining District took another major leap forward with the Dec. 19 announcement that Australia-based South32 Ltd. is investing US$145 million to become a 50 percent joint venture partner in Trilogy Metals Inc.'s Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (UKMP). This Northwest Alaska project covers a more than 70-mile (115 kilometers) stretch of Earth's crust that is uncommonly rich in a variety of precious, base and critical...
In the current environment, it is difficult to avoid discussing the elephant in the room. Essentially, we need to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect mining activities in Alaska in the near and long term. While misinformation and speculation about the disease is rampant, some basic facts seem indisputable – the disease is highly contagious, infected people are often asymptomatic, and there does not appear to be any approved anti-viral available yet. The control m...
