The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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As is usually the case this time of year, news about Alaska mineral activities is a bit sparse this month as planning activities are at flank speed ahead of next month's surge in field activities. That said, there has been a blizzard of mineral industry data released recently that has both direct and indirect applications to the Alaska mineral industry. First off, some internally generated data. Current public and private budget announcements suggest Alaska's exploration...
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...
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...
Those of you that attended the recent Cordilleran Roundup Convention in Vancouver can attest to the exuberant, upbeat atmosphere that pervaded the conference and was very much in evidence at the standing-room only festivities at our annual self-hosted Alaska Night meet and greet. But digging down under this veneer of optimism, many of the junior explorers and most of the producers admitted to their expectations of challenging times in 2019. Putting words to this apparent...
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...
I, for one, feel vindicated, relieved and ready to face the New Year! How so, you ask? Please let me explain. For those of you who remember my column in November, I noted that EY Global Mining and Metals publishes an 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 was for the years 2017-2018 and stated that "Our number one risk this year is digital effectiveness." If you...
White Rock Minerals Ltd. Dec. 27 reported that Sandfire Resources NL has exercised its option to enter into a joint venture agreement with White Rock on the zinc-rich Red Mountain volcanogenic massive sulfide project in Interior Alaska. In July, White Rock entered into a strategic relationship with Sandfire, a mid-tier Australian mining company that operates the high-grade DeGrussa copper-gold mine in Western Australia. To formalize this strategic relationship between the two...
As the year waned, Alaska's mining industry reported some of the last of its 2018 seasonal field results while the University of Alaska and state of Alaska released some current and projected state-wide economics. At the same time, some macro-economic data was released for the global mining industry. Combined, these figures show a mix of encouraging and not so encouraging trends facing the Alaska mining industry. At the global scale, things for the mining industry are looking...
WESTERN ALASKA Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. announced that it had finalized a surface right of way agreement with Alaska Peninsula Corporation for use of that latter's lands for the construction and operation of transportation infrastructure associated with the Pebble copper-molybdenum-gold project. Alaska Peninsula Corporation is an Alaska Native village corporation with extensive land holdings proximal to the Pebble site and more than 900 shareholders, many of which live...
Trilogy Metals Inc. Nov. 19 reported additional copper-cobalt results from drilling beyond the deposit at Bornite, a part of the company's Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in the Ambler Mining District of Northwest Alaska. According to a 2016 calculation, the open-pit deposit at Bornite contains 40.5 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 1.02 percent (913 million pounds) copper; and 141.9 million metric tons of inferred resources averaging 1.74 percent (5.45 billion...
As Alaska's mining industry nears the end of another hectic year during which metals prices and investor sentiments rose and fell as precipitously as the world's major stock exchanges, the industry is naturally looking into its crystal ball trying to anticipate what the new year will bring. EY Global Mining and Metals does this sort of forecasting by putting out an annual "risk radar" for mining and metals. The idea is to find out what the industry perceives as the top ten...
Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys Oct. 30 published major-oxide and trace-element geochemical data from rocks collected from the Northeast Tanacross project in 2018. From June 19 through July 15, 2018, geologists from the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys (DGGS) carried out a geologic mapping and geochemical sampling project in the Northeast Tanacross map area – Tanacross D-1 and parts of C-1 and D-2 quadrangles – adjacent to the For...
While claim staking and mineral exploration has rocketed in Yukon's famed White Gold and Klondike districts, this prolific action nearly comes to a halt at the territory's western border with Alaska. This has given rise to a tongue-in-cheek theory that there must be a major fault separating the mineral rich lands in western Yukon from the barren lands west of the border. This "Border Fault" apparently does exist. It is not, however, a major geological structure separating...
Following a couple of quiet months where Alaska's mining industry focused on its work, the last month has seen an explosion of new info come out regarding that effort, some of it profound in its potential immediate, near-term and long-term implications. For example, one of Alaska's largest mines was sold to a new owner at a surprisingly low cost per ounce. The results of a robust new preliminary economic analysis were tabled by an advanced gold-silver exploration project...
Western Alaska Copper & Gold Company Sept. 11 reported that it completed 4,232 meters of drilling at Round Top, which is more than double the drilling completed last year at this porphyry copper-silver-molybdenum project in the Illinois Creek Mining District of western Alaska. With the goal of expanding known mineralization at Round Top, the 2018 program focused on: further testing of the mainstage porphyry mineralization discovered in RT-19, a 2017 hole that cut 166 meters...
Underscoring the interconnected nature of the global mining market, not 48 hours after the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act was signed into law, the mining industry began wondering out loud how they were going to produce rare earth element, tungsten, tantalum and molybdenum in the near future. Why these metals and why the worry now? Because one of the many impacts the Defense Authorization Act will have on the U.S. economy is its ban on the U.S. Department of...
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. Aug. 21 reported results from four holes from this year's 10,000-meter drill program that continue to expand the South Wall and AG zones at the Palmer project in Southeast Alaska. South Wall-RW, the primary volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit outlined so far at Palmer, contains 8.1 million metric tons of inferred resources averaging 5.25 percent (940.4 million pounds) zinc, 1.41 percent (252.6 million lb) copper, 0.32 g/t (83,600 ounces) gold...
White Rock Minerals Ltd. Aug. 20 reported high-grade zinc grades were encountered in a second hole at the Hunter discovery on the company's Red Mountain project in Alaska. Hunter was discovered during a reconnaissance exploration program seeking new volcanogenic massive sulfide prospects across White Rock's 35,300-acre Red Mountain property. While mapping and sampling an area about 5,200 meters southeast of Dry Creek, one of two zinc-lead-copper-gold-silver deposits on the...
UPPER KOBUK MINERAL PROJECTS: A two-hour flight northwest of Fairbanks, Alaska lies one of the richest known undeveloped mining districts on Earth. This claim is evidenced by the rich deposits of copper, zinc, lead, cobalt, gold and silver outcropping from the Brooks Range mountains where this district is found; the copper-rich ore extracted from an exploration shaft dug by Kennecott in the 1960s; and the copper and cobalt mineralization that is easy for a journalist to...
Although the Alaska mineral industry is in better health in the middle of 2018 than it has been in the last five years, the spirited recovery that was in progress in the first quarter of the year is now looking more like a dead-cat bounce – a minor recovery after a long down trend. This is particularly true of the exploration sector. Reviewing the Alaska minerals industry, you will note that several exploration projects are only now commencing their 2018 exploration p...
White Rock Minerals Ltd. July 10 announced that Sandfire Resources NL, a mid-tier Australian mining company that operates the high-grade DeGrussa copper-gold mine in Western Australia, plans to make a significant investment in White Rock's Red Mountain, a zinc enriched volcanogenic massive sulfide project about 60 miles south of Fairbanks, Alaska. "White Rock welcomes Sandfire as a strategic partner and cornerstone investor that shares White Rock's vision for the exploration...
Thanks to its own rich mineral endowment, Australia is a juggernaut in the world of mining, especially across the Southern Hemisphere. Over the past couple of years, however, a growing number of Aussie mining companies are looking north to Alaska, another minerals-rich land way north of the Equator. At least four Aussie juniors – White Rock Minerals Ltd., PolarX Ltd., Nova Minerals Ltd. and Riversgold Ltd. – and three Australia-based metals producers – South32 Ltd., North...
Thanks largely to increased investments from Aussie mining explorers, mineral exploration spending across Alaska topped US$100 million in 2018. This is well above the roughly US$95 million invested last year and nearly double the US$58 million spent at the bottom of the market in 2015. "Canadian and Australian companies continue to be the source for the bulk of funds spent in Alaska in 2018, together comprising well over 80 percent of the exploration expenditures earmarked...
PolarX Ltd. has put together an 85,750-acre (347 square miles) land package just off Alaska's road system that already hosts deposits rich in copper and gold yet remains vastly under-explored. This 22-mile- (35 kilometers) long property, known as Alaska Range, is made up of two adjacent projects – Stellar and Caribou Dome – the Australia-based exploration company brought together in 2017. Stellar, currently the primary focus of PolarX's exploration, already boasts 90.4 mil...
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. continues to advance its flagship property, the Palmer copper-zinc-silver-gold-barite project near the port-town of Haines in Southeast Alaska, as it looks to create a new vehicle to carry its gold properties in Alaska, Yukon Territory and Ontario. The roughly US$9 million exploration program at Palmer is being funded by a joint venture between Constantine Metal Resources (51 percent) and Dowa Metals & Mining Co. Ltd. (49 percent). A new resour...
