The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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The languishing price of zinc has provided little incentive for investors to embrace companies seeking to explore and develop the next generation of mines that produce this essential metal. However, an expected 1.5 million metric tons of supply being lost to mine closures by 2016 is beginning to galvanize the zinc sector. "In the case of zinc, this is a metal that's been unloved for a long time. As a result there has been very little investment put into the industry. Due to th...
Zinc is at a supply-demand tipping point that has miners and investors looking to cash in on an imminent shortage of this essential metal which has been in oversupply for nearly a decade. "We believe the outlook for zinc is the most favorable of the base metals. With recent and expected closures of a number of zinc mines, we believe that approximately 1.5 million metric tons of current zinc mine production will be closed by the end of 2016 in a 13 million (tpa) market," Teck...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is drawing fire from lawmakers, business groups, project developers and the state of Alaska over its handling of the Bristol Bay Assessment and associated attempt to prevent the Pebble Mine project from getting the opportunity to have a fair hearing under established permitting regulations in the United States. Mounting pressure from various parties has persuaded the EPA Office of Inspector General to launch an investigation of the...
Led by a few key projects, mineral exploration activity held its own in Nunavut in 2013, despite a tough funding environment and stiff competition from other attractive mining jurisdictions around the world. Although the Far North territory has only one operating mine, at least eight mineral projects are currently hurtling through development and the permitting process on their way to production. Of these, two projects - one gold and one iron - have project certificates, and six projects are advancing through the...
All exploration in the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut in 2013 was carried out in search of gold and base metals. Mid-tier and major companies conducted most of the work, with mineral exploration and deposit appraisal expenditures totaling an estimated C$121 million in the northern territory's westernmost region. MMG Resources Inc. continued work at its Izok Corridor and Hood zinc-copper projects. The Izok Corridor project includes the High Lake and Izok Lake volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits. Exploration on the Izok Corridor...
WestMountain Gold Inc. has gained full ownership of the Terra project and now has its sights set on recovering 3,000 to 5,000 ounces of gold from this high-grade property over the coming summer season. "I am pleased to announce that we now have 100 percent ownership of the Terra mine project. With this milestone accomplished, WMTN (WestMountain Gold) is now focused on raising operating capital to continue gold production at our high-grade gold mine in Alaska," WestMountain...
Kivalliq, located northwest of Hudson Bay and sharing a border with the Northwest Territories and Manitoba, is the heart of Nunavut's gold country. This central region of the territory is also the home of Nunavut's sole operating mine, Meadowbank. The region's diverse geology hosts a number of mineral occurrences and deposits, particularly gold, uranium, nickel, platinum group elements, base metals, rare earth elements, and diamonds. In 2013, exploration activity in the Kivalliq Region primarily involved gold and uranium,...
FAIRBANKS - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency endeavor to use a presumed authority under Section 404(c) of the federal Clean Water Act to pre-emptively ban the permits required to develop the Pebble Mine cast a dark shadow over the Arctic International Mining Symposium, a mining convention held in Fairbanks every other year. "We have a federal government that, as far as I am concerned, contains people that are intent on shutting down our state's economy," Pebble Partner...
GFMS formerly known as Gold Fields Mineral Services) recently announced their outlook for gold prices in the coming months, estimating average 2014 gold prices in the US$1,225 per ounce range. The price forecast is 13 percent less than the 2013 average of US$1,411/oz. Physical demand, including official sector purchases, came in at an all-time high of 4,957 metric tons in 2013, a 15 percent increase over 2012 and some 703 metric tons higher than the supply of new gold and...
FAIRBANKS - The Arctic International Mining Symposium in Fairbanks afforded Interior Alaska mines the opportunity to provide an update on the latest developments at local operations. While the mines touted individual achievements in 2013 - record gold at Fort Knox, new discoveries at Pogo and a new deposit at Usibelli - a commitment to and appreciation of people was a common thread spun through messages from all three operations. "Without the people you might as well shut the...
Scotiabank's Commodity Price Index, having lost steam in late 2013, is expected to bottom out this spring and rally in the second half of 2014 on stronger global growth, Scotiabank Vice President, Economics Patricia M. Mohr told an overflow crowd attending the 2014 Nunavut Mining Symposium in April. Mohr, a commodities market specialist at the Toronto-based international bank, again opened the 17th annual gathering, held April 7-10 in Iqaluit, NU, the northern territory's capital. She said growth in the global manufacturing...
Alaska's venerable Institute of the North has organized a mining summit for developing effective strategies for mining success in the northernmost regions of the Western Hemisphere. The Northern Regions Mining Summit, to be held May 28-30 in Vancouver, B.C., will address the social, cultural and economic impact and opportunity of mineral resource development for northern peoples in Alaska, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Yukon Territory and Greenland. The Alaska-based think tank is co-sponsoring the summit in partnership...
The real-life scandal that helped shape modern gold mining and investment regulations for junior exploration companies has surfaced again. But this time, it comes to the fore in a new novel written by one of the peripheral players in the actual saga. Alfred Lenarciak, chairman of Minorca Resources Inc., recently released "Bre-X: Dead Man's Story," a largely autobiographical tale based on many actual events in the biggest Canadian stock scandal in the country's history. Lenarciak, a Poland-born emigrant to Montreal in 1975...
The Bokan Mountain and Niblack mineral projects are attracting substantial support from Alaska lawmakers. This vote of confidence may result in a financial boost needed to develop the Prince of Wales Island deposits into mines during an otherwise tight financial market. "In southern Southeast (Alaska), we are working on legislation right now to create hundreds of new jobs at Niblack and Bokan," Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell said during an April 10 keynote address at the Arctic Inte...
NovaCopper Inc.'s 2013 exploration program has added another 2.6 billion pounds of copper to the resource at the Bornite project in the Ambler mining district, swelling the size of this Northwest Alaska deposit to 6 billion lbs. of the red metal. Bornite is one of many deposits and prospects that make up the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects, a long-term partnership forged between NovaCopper and NANA Regional Corp. in 2011. The alliance combines Bornite and a number of other...
The startup of Cameco's Cigar Lake uranium mine in Saskatchewan is one more link in a recent chain of events that has observers predicting a significant comeback for the industry in 2014. Beginning last fall, industry analysts began to forecast rising uranium prices in 2014, citing a number of reasons, from the development of more nuclear reactors to a return to imminent shortages of reactor fuel. They also greeted news of the March 13 startup of the new Athabasca Basin uranium mine with further optimism. "The long-term...
The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada bestowed its prestigious "Viola R. MacMillan Award" on Capstone Mining Corp., owner and operator of the Minto Mine in central Yukon Territory at its annual convention in Toronto on March 3. The award is named in honor of the PDAC's longest-serving president and is given to a person or company demonstrating leadership in management and financing for the exploration and development of mineral resources. Capstone, a Vancouver-based base metals miner focused on copper, won the...
After more than five years of review, the Yukon Environmental and Economic Assessment Board has recommended approval of a proposed underground mine for development of the Mactung tungsten deposit in east-central Yukon Territory. Mactung, located near Yukon Territory's border with Northwest Territories to the east, is being advanced by North American Tungsten Corporation Ltd., one of the world's largest suppliers of tungsten concentrates outside China. The company, which submitted a project proposal for Mactung to the board's...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said its Bristol Bay assessment provides evidence that the Pebble copper project is too big and the Bristol Bay watershed is too special to risk the outcome of a state and federal permitting process. To circumvent permitting under the National Environmental Policy Act, a rigorous permitting regime over which EPA holds great sway, the environmental regulator Feb.28 initiated a review under Section 404(c) of the federal Clean Water Act...
Coal is an abundant and readily available solution to the high cost of energy, the bane of operating mines, minerals development projects and residents in Interior Alaska, according to the Alaska Minerals Commission. "We always hear about (natural) gas and we always hear about oil, but one of the things that has been taking the back seat is coal," Alaska Minerals Commission Chairman Bill Jeffries informed Alaska legislators during a Feb. 5 presentation. The minerals...
The over-all mood at the recent Cordilleran Roundup mining convention in Vancouver, B.C. was more restrained than in previous years, but also more realistic due in large part to the prolonged downturn in risk capital mining markets. It seems the industry has transitioned from the denial stage accompanying the declines of 2013 to an acceptance and determination stage that always precedes a return to market vitality. In a recent public release by financial giant Ernst and...
Due to its isolation in the far reaches of Western Alaska, Graphite Creek has long been regarded as an enormous deposit of an industrial mineral with little value. Today, however, graphite has been elevated to the status of a technology mineral and the once-secluded deposit sits on the threshold of the burgeoning Arctic shipping lanes that promise to dramatically reduce the transport time between Europe and Pacific ports. With demand on the rise and access to Graphite Creek...
The Government of Yukon released a final land use plan for the Peel River Watershed region Jan. 21, sparking sharp criticism in recent weeks from the major stakeholders in the agreement and at least one appeal. In unveiling the plan, Yukon Premier Darrell Pasloski touted the "balanced approach" the government took to protect the natural environment while respecting all sectors of the territory's economy. Roughly the size of Ireland, the Peel River Watershed sprawls over 77,000 square kilometers (30,000 square miles) of...
British Columbia Premier Christy Clark ordered a review of the Canadian province's environmental assessment process in January, saying the current system has become too cumbersome. Clark provided few details when she announced the initiative at the Mineral Exploration Roundup in Vancouver Jan. 27. She said environmental reviews of major projects are crucial, and while the current process is rigorous and transparent, the B.C. environmental assessment office can "do better." "In my view, it is better to do the hard and...
Despite a surge in economic activity in recent years, Nunavut still has considerable work to do for its residents to achieve prosperity. That's the conclusion of the 2013 Nunavut Economic Outlook, a report based on research conducted by Impact Economics on behalf of the Nunavut Economic Forum last summer and fall. The forum released the 98-page report at the North Lights Trade Show in Ottawa in January. Subtitled "Nunavut's Next Challenge: Turning Growth into Prosperity," it details recent socioeconomic developments in the...
