The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 1 - 11 of 11
Here's to hoping that the Department of Government Efficiency finds a way to put some new wine into 4 million old bottles. Every once in a while, someone wakes up to the fact that, as Ronald Reagan so eloquently put it, "government is not the solution to the problem, government is the problem." Reagan's awakening was nothing new. Civil Service reform has been a topic of conversation for at least 100 years. Initially, it was intended to obviate the "spoils system," which...
With the price of gold through the roof, now is a good time to be a gold miner in Alaska, but then again, it always has been. I have been ambling around Western Europe for the past few weeks. Wherever I go, I run into the same issue – there are a lot of people-watchers who fret about the pending Presidential election in the United States. My reaction is to urge them not to dismay; America has hosted bulls in the china shop before, and if that is what comes, so be it. My a...
The federal district court has come to the rescue of the state with regard to unwarranted closure of millions of acres of arctic waters. On April 1, 2022, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) issued a final rule designating in excess of 160 million acres of the Bering, Chukchi, Beaufort and East Siberian seas critical habitat for the Beringia distinct population segments of the bearded seal and the Arctic ringed seal. In February 2023, the state of Alaska initiated...
Now is the time to be optimistic about the future because the 2024 version of the Hatfields and the McCoys has run out of steam. I have long felt that mining will be the workhorse industry for Alaska. The state is vast, and the deposits are remote. Furthermore, they tend to be large. Unhappily, the political environment has, for about 75 years, been antagonistic toward mining based on a series of specious issues. Mines are unsafe, so they say. But a worker in a government...
Although it seems to be a song without end, it is election time again, and that means we can, once again, have hope for Alaska's future. As a general rule, national politics are pretty much irrelevant to Alaskans, if only because the results of the quadrennial Presidential election are usually called before the polls in Alaska close. This year, going into July, the race between Biden and Trump was nip and tuck. From my cynical bench, it appeared to be a question of whom you...
Secretary of the Interior Haaland is fighting a Congressional Review deadline to ensure that the Ambler Road is blocked now. For those who haven't been paying attention lately, Senator Murkowski has weighed in strongly on behalf of the Alaska mining industry several times in the past few months. First, at a meeting of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, she used her time to sternly admonish Interior Secretary Haaland about the BLM's decision to block the Ambler...
The Bureau of Land Management has struck again, this time in the form of a land management plan for the Central Yukon Resource Management Area or the "CYRMP" (pronounced crimp). The CYRMP and the associated Final Environmental Impact Statement, dated April 2024, will have significant adverse effects on the future of mining in Alaska because of the intent to adopt hybrid Alternative E that will effectively foreclose vast acreage in the state to mineral exploration and...
Curt's rock hammer, pen, wit, and charm have all contributed to Alaska mining sector success ! It is no surprise that longtime Alaska geologist Curt Freeman would at some point be presented the Charles C. (Chuck) Hawley Lifetime Achievement Award, an Alaska Miners Association honor reserved for those who devoted their professional life to ensuring a successful mining industry in Alaska. After all, Alaska's mining and mineral exploration landscape would only be a shadow of...
After four years of intensive work and an appeal, a placer mining company finally secures a keystone permit from the Army Corps. I am not in the custom of speaking about matters that I have worked on; however, in this case, I thought it desirable to make note of a recent development with regard to placer mining in Alaska's coastal wetlands. IPOP, LLC, sought permission to mine on State of Alaska mining claims in Bonanza Channel, approximately 25 miles east of Nome. The area is...
No matter how the 2024 Presidential election may unfold, our Congressional delegation must resuscitate the Ambler Access Project. On August 19, 1980, then-Senator Joseph Biden, along with 77 other Senators, cast a vote in support of HR 39, as amended, now known as the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). Senator Ted Stevens had invested nearly a decade of his life in bringing this vital piece of legislation to the Senate floor. ANILCA's roots were in the...
In accordance with the Tenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution and state rights, Congress promised Alaskans that, upon voting for statehood in 1959, Alaska would control resource development decisions on state land and have access to state resources. Those promises are under attack from within the federal government (Biden Administration) and its' left-wing political supporters. A battle is going on right now over control of resource development decisions and the ability...
