The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Reuters recently reported that the 10 largest gold-producing companies worldwide have steadily increased their near-mine exploration budgets over the past few years to 56 percent in 2015 from 45 percent in 2013. They also reduced their higher-risk greenfields exploration budgets to 21 percent from 25 percent in the same time period. This retrenchment of exploration by the larger producers is occurring, while global gold output is declining with an expected reduction of 9...
Western Alaska Copper & Gold Oct. 17 reported results from the 2016 drill program at its Round Top copper-molybdenum project in the Illinois Creek Mining District of western Alaska. The goal of this program, which included the first drilling since Anaconda Minerals Co. tested the property in 1981, was to verify historical holes drilled at the east lobe of the Round Top deposit and then step out to test targets identified by recent soil geochemistry and high resolution...
Over the last month the inevitable termination dust has begun to show up across Alaska, bringing with it completion of mineral exploration programs and transition of development and production projects to winter operational modes. Explorers, developers and miners will soon be gathering to compare notes at the annual Alaska Miners Association Convention in Anchorage, an event that always overlaps national and local election night. Alaska's mineral industry outlook brightened...
Like a gong proclaiming the end of the long and arduous bear market for North of 60 mining explorers, the May 12 news that Goldcorp Inc. would buy Kaminak Gold Corp. for roughly C$500 million reverberated from Yukon Territory throughout the North. While the rich lure of developing a mine at Kaminak's robust Coffee gold project lured Goldcorp to the Yukon, it was the exploration potential and the ability to permit and build a mine that convinced the producer to expand into the...
Mineral exploration spending in Alaska hit an apex of US$365 million in 2011, but as venture capital for mining explorers dried these expenditures plummeted 78 percent to US$80 million in 2015. However, rising gold prices and a loosening of venture capital in 2016 seems to have marked an end to a painfully long bear market for mining explorers in Alaska. “After taking head shots for the past four years, the industry suddenly came to life over the past month, with new budgets,...
ASX:CYY Chairman: Mark Bojanjac President and CEO: Michael Haynes Chief Financial Officer: Ian Cunningham Coventry Resources Inc. is an Australia-based explorer focused on expanding zones of high-grade copper at Caribou Dome, a road-accessible property located about 155 miles north of Anchorage, Alaska. Upon cutting a deal to acquire an 80 percent stake in Caribou Dome early in 2015, Coventry began poring over historical exploration data collected at the project, including results from 95 surface and underground drill holes...
As tangible buoyancy returns to the mining industry, I began to wonder if any of the multitude of forecasters had actually predicted the recent return of stronger metals prices. Since most "forecasters" are actually "hindsighters," I was drawn to a November 2013 summary of gold mines by Roy Sebag of Natural Resource Holdings. The summary, entitled "Global Gold Mines & Deposits 2013 Ranking," indicated that we were nearing peak gold production because the total in-situ ounces...
Although news from the mining industry is generally limited this time of year, several items of import over the past month bear discussion. Alaska suffered a tragedy with the recent passing of mineral industry giant Chuck Hawley, one of Alaska's most talented and respected geologists. Although Chuck loved the mineral exploration game, he was far more than a geologist to many of us and to the state. His plus-50-year love affair with Alaska spanned some of the state's most...
ILLINOIS CREEK CAMP: Maps spread out here on a pool table and laptops filled with geophysical and geochemical data collected at the Round Top copper project line up on a makeshift desk against the wall – an air of optimism and excitement fills the former recreation room for the past-producing Illinois Creek Mine that now serves as the headquarters for Western Alaska Copper & Gold Company. The source of the excitement is a drill tapping into a potentially large and robust p...
Earlier in November, the Alaska Miners Association held its annual convention and trade show in Anchorage and as always, the well-attended convention overlapped with election Tuesday. While the lead up to, and results of, the national and state elections were hot topics throughout the week, one comment I heard from a colleague on the morning after the elections distilled the feelings of a lot of people at the conference. When asked what he thought of the election results, he...
The Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia Jan. 27 awarded NovaCopper Inc. President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse and former NovaCopper Vice President of Exploration Joseph Piekenbrock the 2015 Colin Spence Award for Excellence in Global Mineral Exploration. Nieuwenhuyse and Piekenbrock are being recognized for their success in defining and significantly expanding the Donlin Gold deposit in western Alaska, the Arctic copper-zinc-silver massive sulfide deposit in northwestern Alaska and for exploration success a...
Over the past month, three of Alaska's large mines reported strong quarterly results; two projects in advanced permitting and pre-feasibility reported recent progress; and three exploration properties changed hands. The latter is a trend putting 2015 on course to be one of the most active years for new acquisitions in the past decade. Placer gold production has all but ceased for the year; however, output from Alaska's placer mines is not likely to be known with any certainty...
If you have ever played or followed sporting events, you are probably familiar with that bizarre and often game-changing event known as the "change of momentum". This is when the team that was on the ropes suddenly comes to life and often roars to victory, putting smiles on the faces of coaches, fans and bookies alike. Well, unless I am mistaken, the Alaska mining industry has been the beneficiary of just such a change of momentum over the past month. After taking head shots...
Most of Alaska is now enjoying a warm, early spring, allowing field programs to get off to an quicker start this year. While budgets are still tight, interest in Alaska projects has steadily increased as the mining and metals markets slowly recover from a four-year slowdown. Current estimates for 2016 exploration expenditures are looking like they will end up in the US$50 million to US$60 million range, down from the US$75 million range of last year but less precipitous than...
With metal prices stabilizing, physical stockpiles dwindling and demand again on the rise, things are beginning to look up for the beleagered mining industry. Gold's performance over the past several months is a case in point. The World Gold Council reported that during the first quarter, buying of exchange-traded gold funds rose to its highest level since early 2009, wiping out the deep sell-offs of 2014 and 2015 for this instrument. Uncertainties in the fiscal stability of...
As a follow-up to last month's realization that once again "the game is afoot" in the mining industry, major gold producer Goldcorp recently presented some arresting statistics at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Metals, Mining and Steel Conference. The presentation showed gold discovery and production information for the global mining industry that indicated that peak gold discovery occurred in 1995, this despite three periods between 1995 and 2015 when exploration...
KSM, an enormous gold-copper project in northwestern British Columbia, has received a federal license for water management facilities located on Mitchell and Sulphurets creeks, tributaries of the trans-boundary Unuk River system that flows through Southeast Alaska. "This important permit highlights the government of Canada's continued support for the environmental standards incorporated into our design of the KSM project," said Rudi Fronk, chairman and CEO, Seabridge Gold, the company that is advancing KSM. The issuance of...
Alaska and the Yukon Territory continue to be perceived as among the best places in the world to seek and develop a mine, according to 449 mining executives who responded to the Fraser Institute's Survey of Mining Companies 2015. This group of miners, explorers and consultants ranked these northern neighbors as two of the richest mineral jurisdictions on Earth, but found certain mining policies in each a cause for concern. As a result, the mining leaders ranked Alaska sixth...
Although there is plenty of Alaska mining industry news this month, the big dog in the pen is the dramatic and unexpected run-up in the price of gold, which moved from a low of $1,078 per ounce to a high of $1,246/oz., most of which occurred after Feb. 1. Although profit-taking and other factors have caused the price to back off a bit, the move was both dramatic and unexpected. As you might guess, the ether is full of talking heads telling us why it went up, why it either won'...
Novagold Resources Inc. Jan. 28 reported year-end 2015 financial results and provided project updates for its 50 percent-owned Donlin Gold and Galore Creek projects. Novagold's highlight for the year was the publishing of a draft environmental impact statement for the Donlin Gold project. "Our most important achievement in 2015 was the publication of the Donlin Gold draft EIS, a major milestone in the permitting process for the project," said Novagold President and CEO Greg...
As the curtain rings down on 2015, the sound of clapping and cheering can already be heard from the mining industry as it anticipates the end of a largely depressing year which started out looking like the long-awaited industry recovery was going to happen but in the end, did not. The uncertainty brought on by this year's unsettling events was front and center in a recent round-table discussion hosted by Northern Miner, sponsored by PearTree Securities and entitled "New...
Earlier this month, the Alaska Miners Association held its annual convention in Anchorage amid plummeting metals prices and an over-all atmosphere of economic uncertainty now stretching into its fourth year. Individuals from around North America and beyond were present and conversations outside of the technical sessions seemed to gravitate toward how best to climb out of the doldrums that seem to grip the mining industry on a global scale. One individual was heard to say that...
Mineral and coal exploration spending in British Columbia has dropped nearly 30 percent a year since reaching a pinnacle of C$680 million in 2012, mirroring the downward trend seen during the same period in global exploration expenditures. Mineral-rich B. C., however, is preparing to take advantage of the next upswing in metals markets. In June, British Columbia Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett said the province will provide Geoscience BC with C$5 million in additional...
Millrock Resources Inc. Ot. 13 said it entered into an option to purchase the Liberty Bell gold-copper project near the town of Healy, Alaska. The 15,200-acre property hosts the historical Liberty Bell Mine, which was operated in the 1930s by Eva Creek Mining. According to a U.S. Geological Survey bulletin, production records indicate that 8,400 ounces of gold were produced from 17,500 short tons of ore at Liberty Bell during 1932 and 1933. In 1987, NERCO reported a resource...
By the time this summary reaches your eyes, termination dust (aka "snow") will have started to cover mineral projects across Alaska. At a recent project site visit, one of the project owner's representatives was listening to local Alaskans talk about not being ready for winter, how many things planned for the summer remained un-done, etc. After some cogitation on this, he asked me "Does everyone in Alaska get surprised by winter every year?" My response was simple: When you...
