The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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As the year winds down, mineral industry evaluations for 2019 are being published at a rapid rate. One of the most interesting such global reviews is EY Global Mining and Metals' annual "risk radar" for mining and metals, outlining what mining companies perceive as the top ten risks facing them in the near future. This publication stated that, for the second straight year, "social license to operate" remains the number one risk facing mining companies in 2020. This was...
Valhalla Metals Inc. is excited about new targets identified by airborne geophysics flown over Sun, a volcanogenic massive sulfide exploration project in Alaska's Ambler Mining District that is rich in zinc, lead, copper and silver. Valhalla is a private Alaskan mineral exploration company formed in 2018 by a team of geologists and industry professionals to acquire and explore Sun and potentially other projects in the Ambler district and across the state. According to a...
Trilogy Metals Inc. Nov. 7 reported copper- and zinc-rich volcanogenic massive sulfide intersections in all six holes drilled at the Sunshine prospect on its Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (UKMP) in Northwest Alaska. UKMP is a roughly 353,000-square-acre land package that covers most of the Ambler Mining District. This massive land package covers two world-class deposits – Arctic and Bornite –and numerous other prospects and targets across a roughly 60-mile-long stretch of the...
An abnormally long fall has allowed the Alaska mining industry to extend seasonal work well into mid-October, creating a lot of new information about project work conducted around the state. Exploration efforts, in particular, benefitted from this additional field time. Based on information available to date, 2019 exploration expenditures are expected to be in the $135-140 million range, well ahead of the $120-125 million exploration spending tracked for 2018. In addition,...
Trilogy Metals Inc. Oct. 28 reported the final set of assay results from the 2019 drill program at Bornite, part of the company's Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (UKMP) in the Ambler mining district of Northwest Alaska. The open-pit portion of Bornite hosts 40.5 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 1.02 percent (913 million pounds) copper; and 84.1 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.95 percent (1.77 billion lb) copper. The underground portion of...
The Ambler Mining District in Northwest Alaska covers a more than 70-mile (115 kilometers) stretch of Earth's crust that is rich in a variety of precious, base and critical minerals. So rich, that nearly 40 years ago U.S. Congress wrote road access to Ambler into the laws of the land. Today, much of the Ambler District is covered by the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (UKMP), a partnership that brought Bornite and a number of other copper-rich prospects on Alaska Native lands...
If you have watched the metals markets over the last month, you know why Alaska's mineral industry has surged, stalled, swerved, swooped, slowed, shelved and stuttered, sometimes all at the same time! Gold has gone above US$1,500 per ounce; copper pundits are predicting an increasingly dour future; zinc markets are looking to dive below $1.00 per pound; tin markets have marched strongly upward due to supply disruptions; and silver bulls are calling for annual worldwide...
The initial results from 2019 drilling at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska has the Trilogy Metals team excited, especially the first hole from the Sunshine exploration target about eight miles (13 kilometers) west of the Arctic Mine project. The US$18.2 million carried out this year at UKMP included six holes (1,357 meters) of exploration drilling at the Sunshine prospect, 10 holes (7,610 meters) of resource upgrade and expansion drilling at the Bornite...
After 15 years of leading the effort to unlock the vast mineral potential of the Ambler Mining District, Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse has turned in his resignation as president, CEO and director of Trilogy Metals Inc. Van Nieuwenhuyse, who told Mining News that he needed some time to handle personal matters, will remain as a consultant to the company and will assist with transitional matters and with advancing the company’s interests in Alaska. Jim Gowans – former president and CEO...
United States Bureau of Land Management Aug. 30 published the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Ambler Mining District Industrial Access Road to the Federal Register, marking the official start of a 45-day public comment period for this proposed 211-mile transportation corridor to one of the richest undeveloped minerals districts in Alaska. Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, which is expected to build and maintain the Ambler road and be...
Trilogy Metals Inc. July 3 provided an update on the US$18.2 million of activities being carried out this year across its roughly 353,400-acre Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in the Ambler Mining District of Northwest Alaska. The largest portion of this program, in terms of dollars spent during 2019, is an 8,000-meter drill program aimed at upgrading and expanding the copper-cobalt resource at Bornite. At a cut-off grade of 0.5 percent, the open-pit portion of Bornite hosts 40.5...
In the famous words of Sherlock Holmes, the game is afoot! After seasonally slower news from Alaska's mining industry in March and April, the dam has broken with over two dozen Alaska mining project news releases issued in the last month. Including those projects moving forward that have not released their 2019 plans, Alaska has become a very busy place under the sun. All of our major metal mines reported strong performances in the first quarter, several of Alaska's most...
Trilogy Metals Inc. May 20 reported that permitting for the proposed road to provide surface access to the Ambler Mining District is slated for completion this year. The 211-mile Ambler Mining District Industrial Access Project (AMDIAP), the official name of this transportation corridor, would connect the Ambler Mining District to Alaska's contiguous highway system. This surface access is a key piece of infrastructure needed to begin realizing the vast potential of this...
Trilogy Metals Inc. May 23 named Janice Stairs as the new chair of its board of directors. Stairs, who has been a director of Trilogy Metals since 2011, graduated from Dalhousie Law School and holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Queen's University. "Janice is well suited to chair the Trilogy board. With her strong legal background, her many years working in the mining sector and the fact that she has been an active director of Trilogy Metals since its...
As is usually the case this time of year, the mining industry is awash in backward-looking statements designed to allow for more accurate forward-looking statements. Prime among them is one of my favorites, S&P Global's annual "World Exploration Trends 2019", a summary of what happened industry-wide in 2018 and what it may portend for the mining industry in 2019. The study predicts that global exploration budgets will increase again in 2019, although by a smaller amount, with...
Trilogy Metals Inc. March 19 reported that much of the step-out drilling completed over the past two years is still too widely spaced to result in a significant increase in resources at this large copper deposit on the company's Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska. At a cut-off grade of 0.5 percent, the open-pit portion of Bornite hosts 40.5 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 1.02 percent (913 million pounds) copper; and 84.1 million metric tons...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. March 5 reported that the potentially large porphyry copper-gold-silver-tungsten deposits it has been exploring on the Shorty Creek project in Interior Alaska has drawn the interest of Australia-based South32 Ltd. Under an option agreement with Freegold Ventures, a South32 subsidiary has agreed to fund up to US$10 million of exploration over the next four years, including US$2 million this year. This exploration spending keeps an option open for South32...
When it comes to attracting mining investment, Alaska, British Columbia and all three Canadian territories rank among the top 20 jurisdictions in the world on the Fraser Institute Survey of Mining Companies 2018. This report asks industry professionals from around the globe to score mining jurisdictions based on their mineral endowment and various policy topics important to mining. "The mining survey-now in its 21st year-is the most comprehensive report card on government...
The Red Dog Mine has been a gamechanger for the more than 14,000 Iñupiat shareholders of NANA Corp., the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) regional corporation that owns the world-class Red Dog deposits in Northwest Alaska that are the source of around 5 percent of the world's new zinc supply each year. The revenues from shipping out more than 1 billion pounds of zinc annually, along with healthy portions of lead, silver and minor amounts of germanium, has served...
He who controls battery metals and the evolving energy storage technology controls the world of industrial power in the 21st century auto and energy storage industries. This is the message Benchmark Mineral Intelligence Managing Director Simon Moores delivered to the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Moores, a global authority on lithium-ion batteries and the metals that go into them, was invited to testify by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Lisa...
When it comes to mineral exploration incentives, currency exchange and infrastructure, Alaska is at a disadvantage in the realm of attracting exploration investments from Canada and Australia, countries that are home to the majority of mining companies. The Far North State's vast and underexplored mineral potential, however, trumps these handicaps in the minds of a growing number of miners and mineral explorers. Mining executives from around the globe perennially rank Alaska...
South32, an Australia-based major base metal and coal producer spun out of BHP Billiton in 2015, is expanding its presence in Alaska. This company went into business with an impressive portfolio of base and precious metals mining assets in Australia, South Africa and Brazil. While all of South32's initial portfolio was south of the Equator, the Perth-based major is interested in high-quality exploration and mining projects around the globe. "Our exploration activities are...
Trilogy Metals Inc. is closing in on the completion of a feasibility study for Arctic, the first of a series of mines the company envisions being developed across the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska's Ambler Mining District. Arctic, the most advanced of the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects, hosts 43.04 million metric tons of probable reserves averaging 2.32 percent copper, 3.24 percent zinc, 0.57 percent lead, 0.49 grams per metric ton gold and 36 g/t silver. A...
While copper is not on the United States Geological Survey's list of 35 minerals and metals critical to America, there is no doubt of this metal's importance to both the everyday and avant-garde technologies vital to America's economy and security. "None of the other critical minerals work without copper," Trilogy Metals President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse told Mining News. Automobiles are a prime example of how emerging technologies and green energy will drive the demand...
In addition to being a past producer and a future source of most of the 35 minerals and metals considered critical to the United States, Alaska currently contributes a globally significant amount of one of these vital metals – germanium. While not a widely known metal, germanium has optical qualities that make it an important ingredient in fiber-optics, infrared optics, electronics and solar energy systems. "The extensive use of germanium for military and commercial a...
