The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Lists on the TSX Venture Exchange with flagship Red Mountain VMS project. Backed by big names in mineral exploration investment, Silver47 Exploration Corp. has emerged on the Alaska scene with a mission to significantly expand upon the 168.6 million ounces of silver-equivalent outlined so far at Red Mountain, a polymetallic volcanogenic massive sulfide project about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Fairbanks. "The objective of the company is to rapidly grow its resource...
Recent resampling of historical drill core reveals grades up to 34.9% graphite. StrategX Elements Corp. March 21 announced the potential expansion of its Nagvaak critical minerals project in Nunavut, Canada, as one interval drilled roughly 4,000 meters from the initial discovery drill hole returned significant high-grade graphite – much higher than typically observed in other graphite deposits in North America. Featuring a 6,000- by 400-meter zone of strong vanadium, n...
World's top miner proposes merger, demerger to form world's top metals and coal mining companies. Merger and acquisition activity continues in the North of 60 Mining News area with Glencore's unsolicited US$22.5 billion (C$30.3 billion) all shares offer to merge with Teck Resources Ltd., which owns the Red Dog zinc mine in Alaska and interest in several advanced copper exploration projects in Northern British Columbia. On April 3, Teck announced that the world's largest...
While a small group of dedicated explorers returned in 2022 to advance production and development projects in Nunavut, a growing number of newcomers fanned out across the northern territory in search of a variety of minerals. Some came seeking gold deposits like those being explored and mined by Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd., while others chased historical occurrences of newly designated critical metals, especially copper and certain base metals, now in high demand for...
With mineral exploration expenditures nearly doubling over the past year, Nunavut has dethroned Yukon as the most popular Canadian territory to discover and expand deposits of industrial, precious, and critical minerals. According to preliminary estimates published by Natural Resources Canada, roughly C$232.4 million (US$173.7 million) will be spent on exploration and deposit evaluation in Nunavut this year, a 95% leap from over the C$119.2 million (US$89.1 million) invested...
From antimony historically mined near the Interior Alaska city of Fairbanks to the zinc and germanium produced at the Red Dog Mine, America's 49th State is a past producer, and a potential future source of the minerals and metals deemed critical to the United States. Earlier this year U.S. Geological Survey updated and expanded its list of critical minerals to include 50 minerals and metals essential to the economic or national security of the U.S. and which has a supply...
Lack of domestic critical mineral supplies weakens US clean energy ambitions The White House and lawmakers on Capitol Hill are becoming increasingly aware that a lack of secure supplies of critical minerals and metals may be the kryptonite that weakens America's economy, national security, and clean energy ambitions. "The more we dive into this topic of critical minerals, the more I'm certain Superman isn't the only one who can be brought to his knees by rare minerals,"...
Russia's invasion of Ukraine, America's tenuous relationship with China, and global competition for the enormous volume of mined materials needed to build the envisioned clean energy future has elevated the urgency for the United States to bolster domestic critical mineral supply chains. For many, these geopolitical and economic realities have elevated the development of Alaska's incredible critical mineral resources to a national imperative. The urgency of this matter is why...
From flashlights to supercomputers, tin is the glue for an electronic age Lost in the clamor for lithium, nickel and other metals needed for the batteries powering electric vehicles and modern electronics, or the rare earth elements that turn stored energy into motion, is the enormous need for a much more modest metal that is so fundamental to the advancement of technology that it almost goes unseen – tin. While other technology metals are critical to certain products and s...
Alaska is known to be a trove of the minerals and metals critical to every segment of the American economy. This critical mineral richness is despite the fact that Alaska is a vast state that remains largely underexplored. To help gain a better understanding of the Last Frontier State's potential to provide domestic supplies of the 50 critical minerals, the U.S. Geological Survey has allotted $6.75 million to explore specific regions of the state for 29 critical minerals. The...
Rare earths from the Nechalacho Mine being delivered into the supply chain marks the opening of a new critical minerals chapter in the story of mining in Northwest Territories – a saga that includes a 1930s gold rush to the territory's capital, a whole new town to support the Pine Point zinc mine, and the unlikely discovery of world-class diamond deposits in the famed Lac de Gras region. "We have an opportunity to add to our rich and long-standing mining story," Northwest Terr...
With renewed interest in nuclear to generate zero-carbon electricity for the clean energy future, coupled with Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine, the past-producing Ross-Adams uranium mine on Ucore Rare Metals Inc.'s Bokan Mountain project in Southeast Alaska has caught the attention of unnamed parties interested in this potential domestic source of nuclear fuel. While Ucore says it is entertaining the unsolicited offers to investigate Bokan's uranium potential, any efforts on t...
A hardener of the steels that have been helping to make Fords tough for more than a century and an element with unique properties that make it the key ingredient in enormous batteries to store intermittent wind- and solar-generated electricity, vanadium is a critical metal with many valences. It is vanadium's chemical valences that make this alloying metal an ideal ingredient in the redox flow batteries that scientists and governments see as the ideal large-scale storage...
Seeking economic and cultural prosperity for its more than 23,000 Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian shareholders while also looking to provide even greater benefits for future generations, Sealaska takes a balanced approach to developing the resources growing above and stored beneath its lands in Southeast Alaska. This does not mean the Southeast Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) corporation shuns mining or other resource development in its region, a nearly 600-mile...
A recent agreement between Vital Metals Ltd. and Ucore Rare Metals Inc. marks a major milestone in establishing a complete North American rare earths supply chain with links in Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, and Alaska. Vital has already established Canada's only rare earths mine at its Nechalacho project in Northwest Territories and is building a processing facility in Saskatchewan to upgrade the high-grade ore into a midstream carbonated product with a mix of rare...
The global transition to electric vehicles plugged into renewable energy sources is powering enormous demand for graphite, the single largest ingredient in lithium-ion batteries. "Graphite demand increases in both absolute and percentage terms since graphite is needed to build the anodes found in the most commonly deployed automotive, grid, and decentralized batteries," the World Bank penned in a 2020 report, "The Mineral Intensity of the Clean Energy Transition." According...
Lightweight, strong, and resistant to corrosion, titanium is best known for the properties it lends to rockets, aircraft, and high-performance sports equipment. Only about 3% of the more than 8 million metric tons of titanium minerals mined each year globally, however, go into high strength-to-weight ratio and corrosion-resistant alloys. What does drive the mass majority of the demand for this critical mineral is "enwhitening." According to the United States Geological...
Roughly 38,000 metric tons of rare earth concentrates were produced from American soil during 2020, yet the United States remains 100% reliant on foreign countries for its supply of these 17 elements critical to our modern high-tech society – an apparent paradox that speaks to the complexities of these enigmatic metals. The irony of rare earth elements (REEs) begins with their name, which is at the same time a misnomer and accurate descriptor. "All the REEs except p...
A heavy reliance on imports for a long list of minerals and metals critical to American supply chains could be a stumbling block for the Biden administration's ambitious "Build Back Better" agenda. "From the largest infrastructure plan since the Eisenhower interstate highway system, to an aggressive plan for a national energy transition, the Biden administration's agenda will require an immense amount of minerals," National Mining Association President and CEO Rich Nolan...
Alaska contains minerals essential to the national defense, renewable energy and electronics industries. Finding those minerals, however, can be difficult in such a vast and geologically challenging state. Hyperspectral imagery can help as Alaska's summer exploration season approaches. The University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute has the only hyperspectral imaging facility in the state at its Hyperspectral Imaging Laboratory created in 2014 as the brainchild of...
From a world-class graphite deposit in the Northwest to rare earths on the Southeast Panhandle, Alaska has the potential to offer a sustainable and secure supply to meet the coming explosive demand for the minerals and metals crucial to the renewable energy and electric vehicle sectors in North America and around the globe. International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank Group, estimates that this shift to low-carbon energy and electric mobility will create nearly...
Cans, cups, roofs, and foil hats are likely the first things that come to mind when thinking about tin – none of which conjure images of a metal that should be considered critical to a modern country like the United States. According to a study carried out by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, however, tin is the metal expected that be most impacted by new technologies. Commissioned by Rio Tinto, the MIT study found that tin beat out more likely technology metals candidate...
Niobium and tantalum are nearly identical critical mineral twins with unique personalities that takes them on separate career paths in the defense, energy, high-tech and medical sectors. "The leading use of niobium is in the production of high-strength steel alloys used in pipelines, transportation infrastructure, and structural applications," the United State Geological Survey penned in a 2018 report on the indispensable twins. "Electronic capacitors are the leading use of...
The United States imported more than 90% of the 1.4 million metric tons of titanium minerals it consumed during 2019. What the mass majority of this critical mineral was used for, however, may come as a surprise. While titanium's lightweight and extreme durability make it an excellent material for aircraft and high-performance sporting equipment, more than 90% of this mineral mined each year is used to impart a stark whiteness to a surprisingly wide variety of consumer goods w...
Though mineral exploration in Yukon Territory this year lagged the pace seen in 2018, mine development projects advanced at a steady clip in 2019, while several past-producing mines moved toward resuming output. Yukon ranked fourth in Canada for projected spending on mineral exploration and deposit evaluation for 2018, according to statistics distributed by Natural Resources Canada. Spending for mineral exploration and deposit evaluations totaled C$249.4 million, made up of C$...
