The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 104
Alaska's mining industry captured the attention, not only of Alaskans but also the country during the past year when a controversy over the proposed Pebble Project in Southwest Alaska bubbled to the surface. Supporters and opponents of a ballot initiative aimed at blocking the mining venture squared off in a vocal and often strident campaign that made headlines nationwide. Alaska Miners Association director Steve Borell cited the contest over development the world-class...
Usibelli Coal Mine Inc. completed a property wide reassessment of all available geologic data of its leases in the Nenana Coal Field in Interior Alaska, increasing its surface mineable coal reserves to around 700 million tons. The fourth-generation, family-owned company said future exploration and analysis is expected to push its reserves up to nearly 1 billion tons. The coal company has been collecting information about the Nenana Coal Field since 1943, when Emil Usibelli...
Reclamation is a critical element of modern mining and mine planning. In Alaska, companies who wish to extract minerals from the earth must first present a plan on how they propose to return the disturbed land to a reusable state and post financial assurances that they will complete the job. Planning for what the site will look like and be used for begins before any mining is started. The information needed to design a successful reclamation plan is gathered from the...
The Alaska summer is in full swing but news is slow in arriving from new field programs and mining operations around the state. The biggest news in the past month was the U.S. Supreme Court's affirmation of Coeur d'Alene Mines' tailing disposal permits at its Kensington deposit north of Juneau. The longstanding stalemate, dating back to late 2006, clears the way (hopefully) for completion of the construction at the Slate Lake tailings facility and commencement of mining...
Alaska saw robust mining activity in 2008 across the full spectrum of the industry, from small placer operations to major producers, and from exploration programs to advanced development projects. Here is a look at companies reporting significant progress during the year. Placer mining Silverado Gold Mines Ltd. has recovered 26,879 ounces of placer gold from channel and bench deposits in the Nolan Valley through 2007. The largest nugget recovered from the property, located about 280 miles north of Fairbanks, weighed 41.35...
Alaska's mineral industry set a new spending record of about $4 billion in 2007, up 13.3 percent from the value of the industry's expenditures in 2006, according to an 89-page report released Nov. 5 by the Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys and the Office of Economic Development. The industry's reported value, according to DGGS, is calculated by combining the amount spent on exploration and development with the production value of mines in Alaska. While 2007 was a...
Environmental stewardship is "old hat" for the Usibelli Coal Mine near Healy, Alaska, Bartly Coiley told attendees at the Alaska Miners Association 2008 Annual Convention in Anchorage Nov. 7. The family-owned company began reclamation at the mine in 1970, several years before it was subject to the rigorous requirements of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. Being the operator of a coal mine as well as owner of the Aurora Energy coal-fired power plant in...
NovaGold Resources Inc.'s Rock Creek gold mine began production Sept. 19. Crews began feeding the 6,500-metric-ton-per-day-mill at 25 percent capacity with a ramp-up to full production targeted for year's end. Once in full production, the operation is expected to turn out 100,000 ounces of gold per year. The main pit at Rock Creek has a resource of 500,000 ounces. The company's objective is to increase the resource to 1 million ounces over the next year. The Usibelli Coal Mine is a fourth-generation family-owned business...
With termination dust settling ever lower throughout Alaska, the bulk of the 2008 exploration season has been completed, but lots of results are still pending from projects around the state. As the exploration industry winds down, the Rock Creek gold mine started production bringing owner and operator NovaGold Resources Inc. its first operating mine and bringing Nome its first modern lode gold mine. While this was going on in our backyard, the financial markets were starting...
CARMACKS - Western Copper Corporation said its Casino copper-gold-molybdenum deposit in central Yukon Territory has the potential to be developed economically as a sizable open-pit mine. The porphyry deposit at Casino is the latest in a long line of precious- and base-metal zones of mineralization in the area to be considered for extraction. It is considered unique among Canadian porphyry deposits, with a substantially preserved oxide gold leach cap, a well-developed supergene or near-surface, copper-enriched zone, and a...
When Anglo American plc. CEO Cynthia Carroll spoke to Alaska business leaders during a visit to Anchorage in October she vowed that the partnership between her company and Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. would recruit first in Alaska before looking elsewhere to find professionals to manage, run and work their massive Pebble Project. The Pebble Partnership didn't have to look far. John Wood fits the bill perfectly. Not only does Wood offer more than 35 years in civil and mining...
Even though the concept of global warming is a welcome idea to many companies working in Alaska, its effects are not being felt fast enough to allow companies to complete all of the work they had hoped to finish in 2007. Drills are still turning all over the state, but the first signs of "termination dust" are showing on the higher peaks and the smell of fermenting berries fills the air, giving us all a not-so gentle prod to get ready for winter. Western Alaska Teck Cominco...
Not all parents are sure that their kids appreciate them. But when they follow you into the family business and one of them writes an article describing you as a role model and all-around great guy, you can relax with a beer, put your feet up and think, "I've done OK." This is precisely the case for 43-year-old John Usibelli, father of Elizabeth and Vincent, all of whom are currently working at the coal mine in Healy that was founded by John's great-uncle, Emil. "He is a very talented, low-key man; a working man's man; a...
After several years of revision, Alaska is closing in on the goal of bringing its surface coal mining regulations in line with federal rules governing the same activities. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources says changes are necessary to the Alaska Surface Coal Mining and Reclamation Act to make it consistent with corresponding federal regulations administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. DNR proposes revisions and additions to Alaska regulations,...
The trials and tribulations of Alaska's mining industry continued in the last month with one challenged mine given the green light to proceed, the other halted in midstride by the same legal system. In the background, exploration programs quietly began at several locations across the state as the busy 2007 mining season started in earnest. Alaska's global rank dropped from 13th to 24th position in the most recent Fraser Institute survey of mining jurisdictions worldwide. At...
Should the mining industry's tax rate in Alaska be compared with that of the much larger oil and gas industry, because they both deal with non-renewable resources, or is it fairer to align mining with industries like fishing and tourism, which generate comparable amounts of revenue? That's one of the questions raised by Rep. Paul Seaton's bill in the Legislature, House Bill 156, which would reform mining taxes for the first time in decades. Significantly, the bill changes the calculation of the royalty for mineral mining on...
During the first full week in December approximately 1,800 miners and members of support industries met in Reno for the Northwest Mining Association's annual convention. The convention was characterized by a large number of smiles as the industry emerges from a decades-long period of depressed metals prices. The convention featured presentations concerning the status of projects as well as developments in the industry ranging from mine cleanup to safety and health issues. Amon...
Q. Where is Usibelli Coal Mine located? A. It is located in Healy, Alaska, at mile 249 of the Parks Highway in the Alaska Mountain Range. The headquarters and maintenance shop complex is a three-story building on mine property situated east of the Nenana River at the mouth of Hoseanna Creek. Poker Flats Mine is to the south and Two Bull Ridge is to the north at Hoseanna Creek. The entrance to Denali National Park is about 10 miles south of Healy on the Parks Highway. The company also maintains an office in Fairbanks. Q. What...
Alaska's governor-elect, Republican Sarah Palin, made the annual miners' convention in Anchorage the venue for her first official engagement after the election, promising to listen to the industry as she selects her advisors. Palin's predecessor, Frank Murkowski, gave strong support to the mining industry, including initiating the Roads to Resources program, but lost valuable employees at the Department of Natural Resources when they resigned in protest at his handling of gas pipeline negotiations. "It's my pleasure to...
By most years' standards, the last month has been a barn burner for mining news. By 2006 standards it hardly measures on the Mining Industry Care-O-Meter, a highly subjective, totally unscientific measurement of what is happening in Alaska's mineral industry. In the last month we have seen the state's largest primary gold deposit resources increase to a mind-boggling 32 million ounces, we've seen one new mine begin commercial construction, we've seen one mine under construction receive a partial injunction against part of...
The Usibelli coal mine in Healy, Alaska, is shipping coal to a power plant in Mejillones, Chile. The panamax vessel MV Coral Sapphire departed Seward Aug. 18 loaded with 73,000 metric tons of Alaska coal. There is an option for the customer to order a second shipment of the same size during the last quarter of 2006. Since 1985, Usibelli has exported more than 13 million tons of coal to several Pacific Rim customers - primarily South Korea. Test shipments to Chile began in 2004 and since then Usibelli has exported more than 25...
City officials in Seward are entertaining the idea of using coal to fuel an electricity generation plant in the Southcentral Alaska coastal town. But Seward's city council is also investigating the merits of tidal waves and wind and other possible sources of power to replace all or part of the electricity Seward currently purchases from Chugach Electric Association, an Anchorage utility. Chugach's power has proven to be unreliable when winter avalanches knock down power lines and cause blackouts. To address the problem, city...
A worldwide shortage of industrial tires is pushing up costs for Alaska's mining industry, just as soaring metal prices are fueling the sector's resurgence. The fast-growing economies of China and India combined with demand from the U.S. military and mining companies has led to a shortage of big tires, which costs tens of thousands of dollars. The shortage will likely continue for several years, vendors and mining executives said. Fort Knox, the state's largest gold mine, is wrapping chains around the giant tires its...
Usibelli Coal Mine Inc. has seen the future, and the future - its Jumbo Dome project - is bigger and better than anything the company has mined in the past, says Steve Denton, Usibelli vice president of business development. Jumbo Dome promises to be an improvement over Two Bull Ridge, the mine that currently produces 90 percent of Usibelli's coal production, Denton told an audience at the Pac Com meeting Feb. 22 in Anchorage. Based on initial samples, the company thinks the moisture content of the Jumbo Dome coal is higher,...
Alaska's main rival in the international coal market is Indonesia, developer and rocket scientist Bob Stiles told an Anchorage audience at a myth-busting session Feb. 3. Stiles' goal in speaking to the World Affairs Council was to put to rest common misconceptions about coal, which is too often lumped in with other energy resources by economists and the general public. As development manager for PacRim Coal, Stiles hopes to build a mine at the Beluga coal field in Southcentral Alaska. There are two main types of coal:...
