The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. June 6 reported the start of a 10,000-meter drill program to expand the resource and test new targets at the Palmer volcanogenic massive sulfide project in Southeast Alaska. Being carried out by a joint venture between Constantine (51 percent) and Dowa Metals & Mining Co. Ltd. (49 percent), this year's drilling will target the definition and expansion of the copper-zinc-silver-gold resource at the South Wall-RW deposit; expansion of the AG...
Trilogy Metals Inc. May 28 said it is gearing up for another busy field season at its Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in the Ambler Mining District of Northwest Alaska. The US$16.7 million of work programs budgeted for UKMP in 2018 will focus on gathering the data to advance the Arctic project towards feasibility and permitting, as well as drilling to expand and upgrade the large copper resource at Bornite. As crews continue to advance these large and high-grade metals deposits,...
One of the most common complaints I hear from companies and individuals working in the mineral industry in Alaska is our deplorable lack of modern, usable-scale digital geophysical and geologic maps. How bad is it? Consider this: the U.S. Geological Survey has estimated that less than 2 percent of Alaska has acceptable geophysical data coverage, and less than 20 percent has been geologically mapped at a scale useful to evaluate the state's mineral resources. Nobody will deny...
In a report published in December, the United States Geological Survey defined critical minerals as non-fuel minerals or mineral materials essential to the economic and national security of the United States; vulnerable to supply chain disruptions; and serve an essential function in the manufacturing of a product, the absence of which would have significant consequences for the U.S. economy or security. Using this definition, USGS has identified 35 minerals critical to the...
11 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for the Palmer copper-zinc-silver-gold project in Southeast Alaska. A roughly US$9 million exploration program outlined by Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. on May 10 proposes not only the annual tradition of resource expansion and new discoveries but also plans to provide the first peek into the economics of mining the copper- and zinc-rich volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits found there so far. Being carried out by a joint venture...
An early spring coupled with low snow fall in many parts of Alaska have combined to enable companies large and small to start their summer field programs early this year. As expected, competition is stiff for people, drills, helicopters, heavy equipment and related services, awarding those who committed budgets early and penalizing those who did not or could not commit early. For the first time in half a decade, projects with money at hand may not be able to get the services t...
The six platinum group elements – platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium, and osmium – are amongst the rarest metals on Earth. This scarcity, coupled with PGEs' uses in the automotive, petrochemical and electronics industries, has this group of metals firmly planted on the United States Geological Survey's critical minerals list. "PGEs are indispensable to many industrial applications but are mined in only a few places," USGS inked in a 2017 report on platinum gro...
Riversgold Ltd. April 18 said it is putting together plans to accelerate drilling at gold properties in Southwest Alaska and Australia in the coming months. "We have been working behind the scenes on advancing a number of our projects in WA (Western Australia) and South Australia, whilst also preparing ourselves for the upcoming Alaskan field season," said Allan Kelly, managing director, Riversgold. "We have also picked up some fantastic new projects in WA and Alaska and look...
A US$28.7 million financing that closed today provides Trilogy Metals Inc.the funds to take major strides in achieving its goal of beginning to develop the vast mineral potential that the world-class Ambler Mining District in Northwest Alaska has to offer. In a deal announced on April 16, a syndicate of underwriters led by Cantor Fitzgerald Canada Corp. –including Cormark Securities Inc., BMO Capital Markets and Roth Capital Partners – has agreed to buy on a bought deal, und...
Governments around the world are collaborating to focus on addressing Climate Change and Global Warming. The Paris Climate Accord adopted numerous measures to "limit a global temperature rise this century below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels". Although there are many things that can be done to address climate change, the most meaningful and obvious is to use cleaner forms of energy and transportation. Alaska has shown the world how energy resources can be...
Primarily associated with cans, cups and roofs, tin may not be the flashiest metal on the market, but it has been a strategic metal that has defined human progress since the onset of the Bronze Age around 5,500 years ago and is on the list of minerals critical to the security of the United States even today, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. "In a congressionally mandated U.S. Department of Defense study of strategic minerals published in 2013, tin was shown to have...
In 2017 Alaska’s mineral exploration industry saw its first up-tick in exploration spending since 2011, an increase that S&P Global Market Intelligence’s “World Exploration Trends” indicates was mirrored on the world-wide level. According to S&P’s data, the worldwide exploration industry spent $8.4 billion in 2017, the first such increase in spending since 2012. S&P also forecast a 15-20 percent increase in exploration spending for 2018 as well. The study also showed that dema...
After four years of declines, global minerals exploration spending rose roughly US$1 billion in 2017 and is expected to see further growth this year, according to a March 5 report by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The 1,535 companies that answered a survey put out by the research firm reported US$7.95 billion of investment in the search of nonferrous metals in 2017, a 14 percent increase from the US$6.95 billion spent in 2016. Taking into account data that could not be...
Seven days of near-continuous rain did nothing to dampen the mood at the recently concluded Cordilleran Roundup Convention in Vancouver. The event was buoyed by a realistic optimism we have not seen in over five years. This change from half-empty to half-full glasses is due to a number of things including strong commodities prices, increasing global demand for metals and current or looming supply shortfalls in many of the metals produced by this industry. The event was...
With 13 holes drilled in 2017, CopperBank Resources Corp. has added more than 160 million pounds of copper to its Pyramid project on the Alaska Peninsula. "For a small investment in 2017, our team was able to significantly increase the scale, confidence and quality of the project," CopperBank Executive Chairman Gianni Kovacevic said upon the Feb. 2 release of an updated resource for Pyramid. Kovacevic has been a strong advocate for copper as a "green metal" that will see...
Novagold Resources Inc. Jan. 25 said the federal permitting process for Donlin Gold is expected to be finalized in the third quarter of this year. In the meantime, the company and its equal partner in the project, Barrick Gold Corp., are completing optimization studies for this 39-million-ounce gold project in western Alaska. "All of us have been motivated not only to make sure we successfully complete the permitting process for Donlin Gold, but to lay a solid foundation from...
As we transition from 2017 into 2018, the weight of evidence pointing to a long-awaited mining industry up-tick is being trumpeted from every financial institution, brokerage house and mining pundit across the globe. For example, RBC Capital Markets' newly released "2018 New Year Preview" has this to say: "We are in the mid-stages of a stock market recovery and the early stages of an economic cycle recovery. Gold is already in a phase where it out-performs other financial...
Wellgreen Platinum Ltd. Jan. 8 announced that it is changing its name to Nickel Creek Platinum Corp., part of a rebranding aimed to reflect a new direction for the company and the uniqueness of its asset, which is one of the largest undeveloped nickel sulfide and Platinum Group Metals (PGM) deposits in North America. "We are thrilled to complete our corporate rebranding to Nickel Creek Platinum, a name which reflects our company's significant endowment of nickel and PGMs, part...
The Trump Administration's focus on securing domestic sources of critical minerals could help re-invigorate mineral exploration and mine development in Alaska. At least 15 of the 23 critical minerals identified by the U.S. Geological Survey – antimony, barite, beryllium, cobalt, fluorspar, gallium, germanium, graphite, indium, platinum group elements, rare earth elements, rhenium, tantalum, tellurium, tin and vanadium – are found across the Far North state. Working alo...
With rising metals prices helping to bolster the state's mining sector, Alaska mine leaders had good news to deliver to Alaska Senate and House resource committees during a Feb. 13 trip to Juneau. "I am happy to report that after four years of declining metals prices things started to improve in 2016, so we are able to report better economic numbers for 2017," Council of Alaska Producers Executive Director Karen Matthias informed members of the resource committees. The strong...
CopperBank Resources Corp. Nov. 28 said this year's rock and soil sampling program at San Diego Bay is a good first step in understanding the porphyry copper-gold potential of this project on the Alaska Peninsula. Geologists collected 37 grab rock samples and 173 soil samples during the summer program at San Diego Bay. The soil samples were collected over three areas: San Diego Bay in the southeast; Renshaw Point on the eastern side of the property, and an area near Balboa Bay on the western side of the property. The best...
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. is a metals exploration company focused primarily on its Palmer volcanogenic massive sulfide project in Southeast Alaska. Dowa Metals & Mining Co. Ltd., which joined Constantine in advancing exploration and potential development of Palmer in 2013, had invested US$20 million in advancing the VMS project through the end of 2016. This, along with US$2 million deposited into a joint venture account, earned the Tokyo-based smelting and mining company a 49 percent stake in the Palmer. Constantine...
PolarX Ltd. debuted this year as a new Australia-based exploration company focused on advancing Caribou Dome and Stellar, high-grade copper and copper-gold projects in Southcentral Alaska. This company is the product of a merger between Coventry Resources, a Perth-based junior that had been exploring Caribou Dome for the past two years, and Vista Minerals Pty Ltd., a privately owned "Down Under" explorer that holds the rights to the adjacent Stellar copper-gold project. The pr...
When When Steve Wackowski asked his superiors at the U.S. Department of Interior office in Washington D.C. for a message to deliver at the Alaska Miners Association's annual convention in Anchorage, their response put an exclamation point on a clear shift in federal policy since President Donald Trump took office – "The war on mining is over." This does not mean the United States' mining sector has a new federal ally, but it does indicate that the Bureau of Land Management, N...
For the first time in five long years, the mood at the recently held Alaska Miners Association Convention in Anchorage was buoyant, the result of a slow but steady turnaround on mineral investments in the state. Additional new corporate interest in the state emerged during the past 30 days, and sources of exploration funds coming to Alaska continue to shift, with estimates for 2017 suggesting that 62 percent of this financing comes from Canadian concerns, 18 percent from...
