The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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It is high summer in Alaska and the mining industry is busy breaking rocks, drilling holes, collecting baseline data, making upgrades to mine facilities and producing metal and coal across the state. The effects of declining prices for metals are starting to be felt at the operating metal mines and except for a few projects, the exploration sector continues to wallow in the doldrums, which have plagued the industry since 2013. That said, the tire-kicking of earlier this...
Recently, an interesting question about AS 38.05.275 came to my attention, and it seems to have implications for a number of holders of federal claims situated within State of Alaska-selected land. The statute allows an Alaska mining location to be placed on top of an unconveyed valid federal mining claim situated within a selection. Until the federal claim is abandoned or declared invalid, the overstaked Alaska claim is "at risk" and conveys no rights to the locator, except...
Over the past month, the world has been awash in year-end 2013 mining news, ranging from exploration and production statistics to economic impact numbers and mining favorability polls. The Alaska highlights from this wad of info include the results from the annual Fraser Institute political jurisdiction favorability survey where Alaska placed first in the world out of 112 jurisdictions for mineral potential. However, Alaska plummeted to 21st place on the survey's Policy Percep...
Nunavut's landmass, including the internal waters and offshore lands as legislated by the Nunavut Act, occupies about the size of Greenland or Saudi Arabia. As a proportion of Canada it accounts for roughly one-fifth of the land mass and the territory could contain an equal share of its natural resources. At least half of Nunavut is not properly mapped at a detailed scale in comparison to the rest of the country. However, the federal and territorial government is investing in geological mapping. This allows Nunavut to compete...
In 2015, junior exploration companies working in Yukon continued to weather the storm of depressed metal prices and cautious markets. Despite the lack of market enthusiasm, exploration spending maintained historically high levels at C$100 million; although one project, the Selwyn-Chihong Selwyn lead-zinc project in eastern Yukon, accounted for 40 percent of the spending. More than 80 exploration programs were undertaken in the territory, ranging from small grassroots projects to multimillion-dollar programs on advanced...
Although not strictly a mining case, John Sturgeon's challenge to the National Park Service's regulation banning private hovercraft on the rivers in the Yukon-Charley Preserve goes to the heart of the perpetual question Alaskans have concerning access across federal lands. On Oct. 1, the Supreme Court of the United States granted Sturgeon's petition for certiorari. The grant of "cert" is noteworthy in and of itself because the high court grants certiorari to only a small...
"Do you hear the people sing? Singing a song of angry men? It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again! When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums There is a life about to start when tomorrow comes!" - The People's Song, Les Misérables Perhaps it is premature to foster hope for revolution; however, it has long been my view that, in the wonderful world of political "science" (as if there is a science to politics), left and right are not a...
The famous quotation by Rahm Emanuel: "You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that, it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before" is entirely fitting for Alaskans, and perhaps the nation, to ponder this week. At last check, the price of sweet crude was in the $44 per barrel range, gold was about $1,108 per ounce and copper was $2.32 per pound, more or less. For Alaska, as dependent as it is on revenue from resource development,...
A brief survey of the history of mankind suggests that most communities were organized around the successful exploitation of nearby natural resources. More "civilized" city-states were able to collectively develop the available resources with efficiencies that generated surpluses. Such efficiencies required a class of leaders, which, in many instances, favored the ambitious. Ambitious leaders, when they gained control of metals, were able to expand their aegis by conquest. As...
On May 29, 2015 the Alaska Supreme Court handed down two opinions relating to the Pebble Project: The first reversed the Superior Court's holding in Nunamta Aulukesti, et al, v. State, et al, regarding the revocability of Miscellaneous Land Use Permits, or MLUPs, and the second reversed the lower court's award of costs and attorney's fees against the plaintiffs in the Nunamta case. If obfuscation is integral to the stereotype of the legal profession, certainly the Nunamta and...
After six years of lackluster performance under the leadership of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Congress now appears poised to seize the initiative and rein in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ambitious assertion of jurisdiction over the waters of the United States. The EPA has long used the Clean Water Act as a federal zoning tool and implicitly asserted jurisdiction over virtually everything that is wet, ever has been wet or ever will be wet. In Alaska, because...
Environmentalists are often perceived as watermelons (Green on the outside and Red on the inside) by the business community because of their total disregard of the social costs associated with their advocacy. Certainly, it seems fundamental that they freely embrace fiscal impact in their guerilla attacks; however, implying that they are committed Communists overstates the motivation of all but the most extreme individuals. For me, the definition of a Communist is someone...
For some time I have been musing about the global warming/climate change conundrum because, as is often the case, the proselytizers are so strident in their conviction. To question their rhetoric is tantamount to heresy. Unfortunately, there are more than a few problems in my mind with the thesis. In the first instance, it must be conceded, I think, that there have been ice ages on Earth for eons, and they have been interrupted by sequential warming trends. Within the most...
The Governor has stripped the state's Public Access Assertion and Defense Unit from the fiscal 2015 budget, potentially jeopardizing several programs critical to resources development in Alaska. Access to remote locations has long been a critical issue, first due to a lack of infrastructure, then due to the manpower demands of two World Wars in the Twentieth Century. Ultimately, as metals prices began to build, and funding for exploration became available, vast treasures were...
Recently, in litigation pending before the federal district court in Anchorage, the Pebble Project withstood an attack seeking to defeat the project's opposition to what may be called the Massacre of 2012. When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency promulgated its Bristol Bay Watershed study under the theoretical authority of Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act, it was immediately criticized on the grounds that the report was generated on the basis of advice from certain...
The increasing crush of complex issues and decisions facing state land managers has a silver lining for Alaskans and our mining industry. It means things are happening. The busier we are at the Department of Natural Resources, the better Alaska is doing, in terms of jobs, revenue and overall economic health. Much already has been said in this publication about the difficulties facing large mining projects in Alaska. On many fronts, the State is engaged in a continual battle to maintain and protect a state and federal permitti...
The mining industry has built and sustained communities in British Columbia for more than 150 years and today B.C. is considered a global leader in mining and mineral production. Mining contributes nearly C$7 billion to B.C.'s economy and supports jobs for more than 30,000 people. Well over C$470 million was spent on mineral exploration in 2013, and British Columbia now accounts for almost 20 percent of the total exploration in Canada. Since 2011, five new major mines have opened in B.C.: Copper Mountain near Princeton, New...
The mining industry has been a pillar of the Northwest Territories' economy for more than 80 years. A strategic approach to manage resources in the territory is creating a new investment climate and opportunities for responsible resource development. In addition to being the largest private sector contributor to the NWT economy, the mining industry is also the largest private sector employer. As new mining and exploration projects emerge, it is essential to keep environmental sustainability and social responsibility top of...
In 2014, many junior exploration companies work to preserve capital by undertaking modest exploration programs. The injection of funding into the Yukon Mineral Exploration Program continues to be a valuable source of seed money for prospectors and juniors. The Government of Yukon increased its 2014 program funding to C$1.4 million from C$1.17 million in 2013. Forty-eight placer and hardrock exploration projects received funding in 2014. The program also has increased its limits from C$35,000 to C$50,000 matching dollars per...
The recent dam breach at the Mount Polley Mine in British Columbia has precipitated a bit of consternation among the Pebble Project watchers on both sides of the issue. Predictably, the naysayers have adopted an "I told you so" response, as if there are relevant similarities between what was constructed at Mount Polley, on the one hand, and anything that might be installed at a future mine at Pebble on the other; while the supporters of Pebble although mourning the event,...
I have long mused over the difference in how people solve problems. Every time we are confronted with an election, the debate resurfaces. One would suppose that individuals trained in analytical thinking would be inclined to reach conclusions lineally, consistent with the Socratic syllogism in which conclusions are based upon facts. In the course of my career, I have long dealt with individuals who are trained in the "hard" sciences, such as geologists and engineers. They tend to base their judgments on the thesis that "if...
I have often mused about why the mining industry is held in such disdain in the United States today. It wasn't always that way. When I was a child, the mining industry was the subject of song and saga, and before that, there was the day when the incessant stamp mills of mines like the A.J. in Juneau were the sound of a full lunch pail. People respected hard work and knew intuitively that basic industries were from whence our raw materials evolved into consumer goods that made...
The Spring Conference of the Alaska Miners Association was held in Fairbanks last week at a new location. The fact that the conference was held in a larger facility and was very well-attended verifies that despite the ongoing assaults the industry is experiencing, there is no shortage of optimism in the field. The trade show boasted over 130 vendor booths and the overall registration well-exceeded 300. A significant part of the discussions related to the future of the Pebble...
On March 13, 2014, Gov. Parnell released a report of Special Counsel Brent Cole on the federal Criminal Compliance Investigation conducted in the Fortymile mining district between Aug. 19 and Aug. 23 last year. The report is not lengthy and is available on the Internet for all to review. To be clear, the report found no evidence of criminal misconduct on the part of the investigators. But the report does underscore and lay bare a significant problem with the way the...
Although in my judgment it is premature for little green people to write the obituary of the Pebble Project, undoubtedly it is high-centered for the nonce, (however long a nonce may be); but that shouldn't prevent us from reflecting on some of the silly arguments that have been made against the project. Undoubtedly, the greatest success in that regard was the implication that somehow the project, if it evolved into a mine, would somehow make fish in Bristol Bay die. The outspoken proponents of that point of view, generally sp...
