The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Given the fluidity of the presidential contest, it may not be premature to dust off our hip pocket copy of the U.S. Constitution and worry about what happens if neither of the contenders gets the requisite 270 electoral votes to become the forty-fifth president. The road to 270 votes, at the moment, depends upon whether Mrs. Clinton can hold on to all the solidly blue states, plus most of the left-leaners. Today, Florida (with 29 electoral votes) is a tie. Six others, Ohio (18...
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...
I'll be the first to concede that the upcoming election is probably a done deal, and that for Alaskans, it is probably far more important that we do our best to ensure that Republican majorities continue in both houses of Congress; however, I have to share a certain feeling of sadness for the future if we are saddled with four (or more) years of business as usual in the White House. For most Alaskan-Americans, I believe that the incumbency has been an economic disaster....
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...
As the summer’s midnight sun gives way to aurora-filled winter night skies, seasons are once again changing in Canada’s Northwest Territories. And, much like the seasons, our resource industries are also in a time of transition. The NWT celebrates 25 years of diamonds this year with the opening of De Beers and Mountain Province’s Gahcho Kué, the world’s largest new diamond mine, which is expected to pour more than C$6 billion into our economy over its lifetime. Projects...
Mineral exploration in Yukon began 2016 much like it finished 2015... Challenging equity market conditions and cautious investors meant junior exploration companies started the season conservatively. The industry got a boost early in the season with the mid-May announcement of Goldcorp’s (www.goldcorp.com) interest in Kaminak Gold’s (http://kaminak.com) Coffee property. By the time Kaminak shareholders approved the C$520 million deal in July, companies were raising money, expanding field programs and making deals across the...
British Columbia is internationally recognized as a center of expertise in mineral exploration and mining, and is home to the world's largest concentration of professional geoscientists – hosting more than 700 mineral exploration and mine development companies. But it's no secret that the past few years have been tough for the mineral exploration and mining industry, not only in B.C. or Canada, but across the world. The recent global downturn has put operations at a number o...
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...
It has been a long time since I took high school civics, so it is easy to understand how things may have changed. However, one of its precepts that has served me to this day is the idea that there was a significant difference of opinion among our founding fathers as to whether the newly-formed nation should be a democratic or a republican form of government. (Please note the absence of capital letters.) Democracy was advanced as a way to allow the people to rule through a...
Northern British Columbia accounts for two-thirds of the province's landmass and plays an important role in our provincial economy. In 2014, an estimated $338 million was spent on mining exploration projects across B. C.; nearly half of which took place in northern B. C. Proposed mine developments in northern B. C. have the potential to create billions of dollars in capital investment as well as thousands of family-sustaining jobs throughout B. C., adding to the more than 30,000 people currently employed in mining, mineral...
The State of Alaska and its mining industry continue to benefit from a world-class natural resource base while being buffeted by significant challenges, mostly related to downward market trends for minerals and energy. The wide array of complex resource development issues and decisions facing Alaska resource managers, policy makers and the private sector is unabated - in fact it has grown - and the Alaska Department of Natural Resources is determined to address them as best we can despite adverse fiscal conditions. Some good...
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...
According to legend, in 333 BC, while on his way to conquer the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great stopped at Gordion, where he learned about a special wagon that had its pole tied to the wagon body with an intricate knot. A prophecy had foretold that whoever could unfasten the knot would go on to rule over Asia. Alexander tried to unfasten the knot, but when he was unable to do so, he drew his sword and cut right through it. As a bit of a political junkie, I track the pundit...
Steven C. Levi's new mystery, "Dead Men Do Come Back," not only provides a rollicking glimpse of the new Old West, it takes a discerning leap into the world of Alaska mining during the little-discussed early years of the last century. Narrated in the first person by the likable but fictitious U.S. Marshal Gordon Whitford, the story is a slick and entertaining "who dun-it." Yet it is also a detailed portrait of life in and out of the fabled gold mines that operated near Juneau in Southeast Alaska in the early 1900s. In this...
In 1831, 26 year-old French lawyer Alexis de Tocqueville visited the United State [sic] of America for about 10 months and returned to his homeland to write the seminal "Democracy in America" wherein he described the experimental democratic republic for the benefit of his European peers. His masterpiece is a fountainhead of observations and concerns and it advances prescience reminiscent of Michel de Nostradame (a/k/a Nostradamus). On the one hand, Tocqueville seemingly...
On March 28, 2016, six days after the U. S. Supreme Court rendered its unanimous opinion in the matter of "Sturgeon v. Frost," I offered testimony before the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on behalf of the Alaska Miners Association. My testimony concerned six specific statutory recommendations for resolving many of the ongoing issues Alaskans are laboring under as the result of wrong-headed interpretations by the four major federal land-managing agencies...
God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. [T]he tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. - Thomas Jefferson, 1787 For openers, it appears that neither of the leading contenders for the presidency of the United States has identified any significant positions on the development of natural resources on public lands. Sen. (Hillary) Clinton, D-NY, it may be presumed, will emulate her predecessor and casually...
I do love metaphors and aphorisms; there's one for every occasion. For instance, it is often noted that, on the one hand, it is always darkest before the dawn and, on the other, that the light at the end of the tunnel is another train. It would be folly to believe that in today's environment, things will be better, economically, in Alaska, any time soon; however, experience teaches that the current disaster will, like all others, one day pass. Here's the scenario: Alaska is a...
For many of us, Dec. 2, 1980 was one of the darkest days in Alaska's history, for that was the day that more than 100 million acres of public land in Alaska were ripped from the public domain and placed off limits to virtually all forms of development. Fortunately, Alaskans were promised two things by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act: First, that this statute satisfied the need of the Carter administration to bend to the will of his Green constituency; and...
I believe that the earth is warming; I believe that the sea level is rising; I believe that climate change is at least partially due to anthropomorphic activities such as burning wood around a campfire; I believe that the earth has been warming consistently since the last global maximum, about 12,000 years ago. I believe that cow flatulence and the melting of permafrost emit methane and probably other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere; I believe that if people who live...
