The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Full Metal Minerals Ltd. currently has two drills turning at its Fortymile property in eastern Alaska near the Yukon Territory border and a drill program slated for August at its recently acquired Grizzly Butte copper-gold property in Alaska's Wrangellia Terrane. In addition to drilling these core assets, the Vancouver B.C.-based junior anticipates partner-funded exploration at several of its other properties spanning the state. "It is our objective to get pretty much all of...
Corvus Gold Inc., a Vancouver B.C.-based junior company being formed to explore International Tower Hill Ltd.'s early stage properties, will initially hold four projects in Alaska and the North Bullfrog project in Nevada. Under the terms of the proposed transaction, Tower Hill will retain all assets relating to the Livengood gold project in Alaska and about C$41 million in working capital. Corvus will get the five properties and about C$3 million in cash. The spin-out...
Former Redfern Resources Ltd. CEO Terrence Chandlar is taking another shot at reopening the Tulsequah Chief Mine on British Columbia's western border, about 45 miles, or 70 kilometers, east of Juneau. Under Chandlar's leadership, Redfern Resources had gained the regulatory approval needed from Canadian agencies to reopen the copper-gold-silver-zinc-lead mine and was working with Alaska officials to obtain permits required to transport metals concentrates through Alaska on the...
The annual Fraser Institute "Report on Mining Companies, 2009-2010" was recently released to a thundering silence. Several oddball items may help explain the lackluster response, but Alaska fared well in the survey of 333 companies working in 72 jurisdictions worldwide. Alaska ranked 18th out of 72 under the policy potential index, which measures the regulatory attractiveness of a jurisdiction. Not unreasonably, Alaska was beaten by some mining heavyweights like Chile, Quebec,...
Just as it entered the last lap of its race to develop an oxide copper deposit near Carmacks, Yukon Territory, Western Copper hit a bump in the road that could prove insurmountable for the Vancouver, B.C.-based junior mining company. In a decision released May 10, the Yukon Water Board refused to license the copper project, saying the company's proposed heap leach method for extracting the copper is unproven, not adequately explained and poses too many risks to the Yukon environment. But Western Copper, which has faced other...
As Alaska's mining industry moves into the frenetic summer exploration and development season, the rest of the world is being buffeted by wild financial and commodity "mood swings" that are affecting the metals markets. The big markets shake the little markets and the little markets shake Alaska. Perfect example: the World Gold Council recently reported that China's growing middle class is expected to double its demand for gold for jewelry and investment purposes over the...
The expansion of North America's infrastructure ended about 500 miles short of reaching the westernmost shores of the United States, leaving more than 350,000 square miles of Alaska without surface transportation or affordable energy. A vast amount of mineral wealth is locked up in this Texas-sized expanse of western Alaska. In its 2010 report, the Alaska Minerals Commission informed state lawmakers that, "Mining is one of few Alaska industries with near-term growth...
I recently attended the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention in Toronto where a buoyant, project-hungry crowd of 22,000 created enough of its own hot air to start the Greenland Icecap melting. In a clear case of anthropogenic global warming, representatives of companies, governments and agencies rolled out their projects in efforts to see and be seen. Alaska was well represented at the conference and should see some new investment interest coming from...
The Alaska Miners Association recently released an economic benefits summary of the Alaska mining industry. This summary indicated that in 2009 the Alaska mining industry provided 3,300 direct jobs along with 5,200 indirect jobs in 120 communities in Alaska with a combined payroll of US$320 million. Average industry jobs came in at US$83,000 per year, which is 85 percent higher than the average Alaska wage and second only to wages in the oil and gas industry. The industry...
Bankers, miners and scientists are predicting a shortage of copper in the coming decade as developing countries, particularly China and India, urbanize and industrialize. This growing need has spurred Barclays Capital, the investment division of the London-based Barclays Bank plc, to back a team of top-level copper miners who are scouring the globe for large, undeveloped copper assets. Barclays Natural Resource Investments and five former top executives from Phelps Dodge, Free...
Geologically, Alaska is a terrane wreck, with multiple tectonic plates dumping their mineral payloads over the landscape. Geologists are still sifting through the wreckage in many places across the state to determine which mineral deposits were dumped by which terranes and when - a task not always easily accomplished as pileups have resulted, in many cases, from multiple mineralization events happening in the same geographical regions over time. A terrane is a series of...
As we plunge headlong into a new year and a new decade, the broad economic indicators for the mining industry suggest continued strong prices for most commodities in 2010 followed by slightly lower average prices in 2011 and beyond as supplies catch up to demand. Not surprisingly, the source of much of the commodities demand will be Asia with China and India being the two leading economic engines driving commodity prices. Where Alaska's mining industry fits into this global...
NovaGold Resources Inc. has cut a deal with Rio Tinto subsidiary Kennecott Exploration Co. to purchase 100 percent interest in the precious-metal-rich Ambler copper-zinc property in Northwest Alaska. The outright purchase overrides a 2004 joint venture agreement in which NovaGold would have earned a 51 percent stake in the property by spending US$20 million and delivering a positive prefeasibility study on the project by 2016. The junior agreed to pay US$29 million to...
NovaGold Resources Inc. tapped a wealth of mining experience recently when it appointed Gil Leathley as senior advisor to the junior's president and CEO, Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse. "Mr. Leathley is one of the best mine builders in our industry," Nieuwenhuyse said. "He has an unparalleled record of building and operating mines around the world, including Golden Giant in Ontario, Eskay Creek in British Columbia and Ruby Hill in Nevada. Mr. Leathley's pragmatic advice and expertise...
Although commodities prices have improved for the mining industry over the past year, 2009 has been the kind of year most of us hope not to repeat. The best analogy I can come up with is the one that says "All boats rise and fall with the tide." Under this scenario, company fortunes fell as the general market declined. Unfortunately, not all boats (companies) rise when the tide goes back up. Some get holed on the rocks of economic misfortune and remain on the bottom....
Metals markets continue to climb out of the basement as the world demand for metals resumes its upward trend. Fueled by this growing demand, numerous Alaska precious, base and rare metal projects reported results of their 2009 exploration, development and production programs. The recent Alaska Miners Association Convention in Anchorage felt this surge of interest with the highest attendance in more than a decade. The atmosphere at the conference was charged with optimism, a co...
The arrival of 2009 was a milestone for NovaGold Resources Inc. Emerging from a tumultuous 2008, the Vancouver, B.C.-based explorer raised badly needed capital and positioned itself to move its three advanced projects toward production. "NovaGold weathered the considerable challenges of 2008 and has emerged well-positioned to take advantage of a rising gold market and build a premier growth-focused precious metals company," NovaGold President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse...
Recession, what recession? That could have been the cry of some gold exploration companies in Yukon Territory in 2009. Thanks to several very impressive gold discoveries in 2008 at a time of unprecedented highs in gold prices, momentum lost in other sectors of Canadian mineral exploration seemed to hardly touch the gold-rich hills of this mining-friendly jurisdiction. Some 63 companies started 2009 with planned exploration programs in Yukon, but before all was said and done, a horde of additional gold seekers poured into the...
In a few short months in 2009, Fire River Gold Corp. , the newest member of the International Metals Group, transitioned from a new junior with one grassroots gold property to a near-term producer of high-grade gold in Alaska. Raising about C$500,000 during its initial public offering that closed in May, Fire River began an early phase exploration program at its Draken gold property, located in the Fortymile District of eastern Alaska. By September the newly formed junior had...
Mineral-rich Nunavut Territory celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2009 and mining explorers seeking diamonds and precious and base metals brought their drills to the party. The territory, home to only 31,000 people living in 25 small, scattered communities, covers 1.9 million square kilometers, or one fifth the land mass of Canada and dwarfs Alaska by nearly 200,000 square miles. Of the young territory's economic prospects, mineral resource development offers perhaps the most long-term potential. "When I started work in...
Since Mantra Mining Inc. emerged as the vehicle in which NovaGold Resources Inc. would spin off its noncore assets, the Vancouver B.C.-based junior has positioned itself to become a major player on the Alaska mining scene. In 2009 Mantra acquired whole or part interest in more than 417,000 acres of mining properties in western Alaska, assembled an impressive management team and board of directors (including two Thayer Lindsley award winners) and raised C$5 million to...
MXR: TSX-V; MXROF: OTCBB; M1D:FSE President: Stuart Rogers Vice President, Exploration: Clarence J. (Clancy) Wendt Max Resource Corp., incorporated in Alberta in 1994, is a mineral exploration company focused on gold, molybdenum and uranium in North America. Max has properties scattered across the West, including gold and molybdenum claims in Alaska and uranium assets in Northwest Territories. The Gold Hill property located about 212 miles, or 342 kilometers, north-northeast of Anchorage, Alaska, encompasses an...
As the active exploration season winds down in Alaska, both good news and bad is afoot and both sets of news turn out to be the same data. Double speak you say? Read on and judge for yourself. Halifax-based Metals Economics Group announced some preliminary numbers relating to worldwide mineral industry exploration for 2009. The group estimates that worldwide exploration spending will drop to US$8.4 billion in 2009, a 40 percent decrease from the US$14 billion spent in 2008....
Although Alaska's summer field season is quickly coming to an end, the mineral industry continues to gain momentum thanks to rapidly increasing metals prices, fueled in part by growing industrial demand and an astonishing increase in investment demand for metals like gold and silver. Goldfields Mineral Service reported that for the period 1993 to 2000, world gold investment averaged about 383 metric tons of metal per year, while annual gold investment for the period 2001 throu...
NIXON FORK - After purchasing the Nixon Fork Mine for C$3 million, Fire River Gold Corp., the newest member of the International Metals Group, is on track to start producing gold at the high-grade gold mine in western Interior Alaska as early as 2010. Fire River Gold acquired the turnkey gold project from Pacific North West Capital Corp., another International Metals Group company, by paying US$500,000 in cash and issuing 6.415 million, or about 43 percent, of Fire River...
