The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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With permits in-hand, Alexco Resource Corp. is moving ahead with the restart of production at its Keno Hill Silver District mine in the Yukon. Alexco operated a mine and mill at Keno from 2011 to 2013 but idled down operations due to weak silver prices and uncertain markets. Over the ensuing years, the company has steadily expanded silver resources with continued exploration. Crews have also completed additional underground development and upgrades to the mill in anticipation...
Like working a giant jigsaw puzzle, Western Copper and Gold Corp. has gradually pieced together components of the Casino Mine project in Yukon Territory, hoping to usher the project into production within the next few years. For 14 years, the industrious junior has chased the dream of producing copper, gold, molybdenum, and silver from the Casino deposit, known as one of the most prospective mineral concentrations of its type in the world. But with the turn of a drill a year a...
Pebble Partnership has announced the creation of the Pebble Performance Dividend to distribute a percentage of the revenue generated from the operation of a mine at Pebble to year-round residents of Bristol Bay. "When we rolled out our new, smaller mine plan in 2017, I made a commitment to find a way to share the opportunity Pebble represents with the residents of Bristol Bay. While not everyone will want to work at the mine, this ensures a direct way for everyone to...
After 13 years as the top executive at Ucore Rare Metals Inc., Jim McKenzie is stepping down from his role as president and CEO of the rare earth exploration and technology company to pursue other business interests. Under McKenzie's leadership, Ucore established a rare earths deposit at its Bokan Mountain project in Southeast Alaska and has pursued new technologies to separate the rare earths, a technology that is key to establishing a REE sector in North America. "Building a...
Reestablishing a mine at Osisko Metals Inc.'s Pine Point zinc-lead project in Northwest Territories could be profitable, according to the preliminary economic assessment released on June 15. The PEA outlines a mine that would produce an average of 327 million pounds of zinc and 143 million lb of lead annually over an initial 10-year mine life. At an average zinc price of US$1.15/lb and lead averaging US95 cents/lb, this operation has been calculated to produce an after-tax...
National Mining Association President and CEO Rich Nolan says the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the risks associated with America's overreliance on foreign supply chains for nearly every sector of the economy, especially when it comes to minerals. "As states continue to open across the country, we must focus on investing in and establishing domestic supply chains to help speed our economic recovery and make us more resilient to future crises," he penned in a June 9 letter....
There are signs of renewed life for the Niblack copper-gold-zinc-silver project on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. Heatherdale Resources Ltd., the company that owns Niblack, advanced the potential underground mine nearly to the permitting stage but became hampered by financial liabilities. A deal announced on June 3 cleans up Heatherdale's balance sheet and puts Rob McLeod at the helm of the restructured company. According to a resource calculated in 2011, Niblack...
Until novel coronavirus ignited a global pandemic that plunged the world economy into recession, foreign investors, except for a lucky few, have salivated from afar over the bountiful mineral riches that others are mining in the vast reaches of Canada's northern territories. But with COVID-19 on the march and no cure or proven vaccine for the deadly malady in sight, traditional sources of capital markets have dried up, leaving many mining companies, especially those with...
As the largest shareholder and chairman of Novagold Resources Inc., a company that owns 50% of the 39-million-ounce Donlin Gold project in Alaska, it is natural for New York billionaire Thomas Kaplan to elucidate potential investors on his predictions of coming rises in the price for an ounce of gold. The truth, however, is the renowned entrepreneur and natural resources investor is not bullish on gold because he has skin in the game. Instead, he is a major owner of the...
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has determined that a road and pipelines around the north shore of Iliamna Lake is the most environmentally sound route to access the proposed Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum-silver mine in Southwest Alaska. Referred to as Alternative 3 in the draft Environmental Impact Statement for Pebble, this roughly 85-mile northern land-based transportation route would connect the Pebble mine site to Cook Inlet without the need for a ferry to transport...
White Gold Corp. is gearing up for another season of systematically advancing the dozens of exploration targets identified across its more than 1-million-acre (422,730 hectares) land package in Yukon's White Gold District. On May 15, the Yukon-focused gold exploration company announced that longtime strategic partners and new institutional investors are participating in a C$6 million financing that involves the issuance of 6.67 million flow-through shares at C90 cents each. Go...
Alaska Department of Natural Resources has finalized COVID-19 guidance for placer gold miners planning to carry out operations on their claims in the state during the 2020 field season. Placer and lode mining are both considered "critical infrastructure" under Alaska's essential services and critical workforce infrastructure order, which means that miners are considered essential workers in the state. These workers, however, must comply with Alaska's existing mandates aimed...
In another example of mining companies across the North stepping up to help their local communities during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Victoria Gold Corp. donated C$100,000 to the Food Bank Society of Whitehorse, which provides emergency food to Yukoners. "We're so pleased to be able to support Yukoners in need as COVID-19 continues and our food banks face the front lines of the pandemic," said Victoria Gold President and CEO John McConnell. "The health, safety and...
Northern Star Resources Ltd., owner of the Pogo gold mine, has donated more than US$1.5 million of medical personal protective equipment to communities throughout Alaska, with a focus on the greater Fairbanks and Delta regions. "This is the largest donation we've received from private industry," said Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy. "We are extremely grateful to businesses such as Northern Star which have stepped up, provided procurement and logistics expertise, and donated $1.5...
After years of quietly and efficiently optimizing a plan for Livengood, International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. is now moving ahead with new pre-feasibility study for developing a mine at the 11.5-million-ounce gold project about 70 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska. A previous PFS completed for Livengood in 2017 outlined plans for a 52,600-metric-ton-per-day mill that would produce 6.8 million ounces of gold over a 23-year mine life, or roughly 294,100 oz annually. The all-in...
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. said its Pebble project could provide another source of jobs and revenue to an Alaska economy challenged by an interrelated combination of COVID-19 and low oil prices. Though fewer than 400 cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed in Alaska, placing it among the lowest states in the country on an absolute and per capita basis, the economic impact of the global pandemic on the largest of the United States is both severe and ongoing. As a result of...
In addition to a potential source for anode material in the lithium-ion batteries powering electric vehicles and storing renewable energy, the graphitic carbon contained in the enormous Graphite Creek deposit in western Alaska may also work well in high-purity coatings, synthetic semiconductor diamonds, fire suppressing foams and other applications. Graphite One Inc., the company advancing the Graphite Creek project, is working with an unnamed industrial partner to identify...
The Hope Bay gold mine will come under Chinese ownership with the finalization of a deal that would see Shandong Gold Mining Co. Ltd. buy full ownership of TMAC Resources Inc., the current owner and operator of the gold operation in the Kitikmeot region of northwest Nunavut. Under a definitive agreement announced on May 8, Shandong Gold Mining (HongKong) Co., an overseas subsidiary of the state-owned Chinese gold mining company, will pay roughly US$149 million (C$208 million)...
COVID-19 has not affected gold output at Kinross Gold Corp.'s Fort Knox Mine but did contribute to higher production costs at the open-pit operation in Alaska during the first quarter of this year. During the first three months of 2020, Fort Knox produced 51,667 ounces of gold, which is slightly less than the 53,183 oz of produced during the previous quarter but a roughly 37% jump over the 37,613 oz of gold produced at the Interior Alaska mine during the first quarter of...
Margaux Resources Ltd. plans to utilize GoldSpot Discoveries Corp.'s expertise in machine learning to leverage extensive geoscience data that has been collected through decades of exploration and production at Margaux' Cassiar gold project in northern British Columbia. Ultimately, the collaboration with GoldSpot announced by Margaux on May 4 is intended to identify and assess high-quality near-mine and regional gold exploration targets that minimize exploration risk. The...
One of the most prospective, if not the potentially richest, recent gold discoveries in Yukon Territory is changing owners. Seabridge Gold has agreed to purchase the 3 Aces Project in southeastern Yukon from Golden Predator Mining Corp. for 300,000 Seabridge common shares, contingent future cash payments totaling C$2.25 million and a 0.5% net smelter return royalty on the entire 3 Aces project, the companies reported March 30. The deal also includes an immediate cash payment...
Global metal production has been severely disrupted due to government mandated suspension of mining operations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to figures released by GlobalData, 32 countries have passed partial or complete lockdown orders that by April 3 had led to the temporary suspension of activities at over 1,600 mines. Silver is the hardest hit by global government lockdowns, with the equivalent of 65.8% of annual global production of this industrious...
The price of oil and gold heading in opposite directions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic could mark a tipping point that steers Alaska's economy on a new trajectory more rapidly than policymakers and prognosticators previously envisioned. As lawmakers focus their attention on slowing the spread of novel coronavirus in Alaska and re-opening the state for business as quickly and safely possible, the largest revenue stream to state coffers plummeted to subzero territory....
4 is shaping up to be the best year for Alaska's mineral exploration sector in a decade – that was the message delivered by North of 60 Mining News in January. Now, just four months and one COVID-19 pandemic later, the aspirations of a banner year for the companies unlocking the Last Frontier's vast mineral potential are distant and likely unachievable. While some mineral exploration companies will be able to carry out their 2020 programs as anticipated, restrictions to "...
An attempt to legally force the U.S. Environmental Protection to keep a pre-emptive veto of the Pebble copper mine project active was thwarted in federal court on Friday. On April 17, Alaska District Federal Judge Sharon Gleason dismissed a case brought by Pebble opposition groups that contested EPA's 2019 decision to withdraw the preemptive veto of the proposed copper-gold-molybdenum mine in Southwest Alaska. Based on Section 404c of the U.S. Clean Water Act, which is the...
