The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
From South32 and Northern Star to Australian explorers new to the Alaska scene, Down Under dollars continue to flow north North of 60 Mining News – July 30, 2021
Australian mining companies are investing more than US$100 million this year into Alaska mines and exploration projects.
Alaska's vast and wide-open mineral opportunities are attracting Australian mining companies to invest in unlocking Last Frontier's rich potential.
Northern Star Resource poured 61,000 ounces of gold at its Pogo Mine in Alaska last quarter.
Accounting for at least US$100 million invested in mineral exploration and mine development in Alaska during 2021, Australian companies continue to work along the entire breadth of the Last Frontier's mining industry – from discovery to doré.
Following a year in which COVID-19 protocols and travel restrictions made exploring Alaska challenging, especially for companies headquartered half a world away, this impressive investment in Alaska's mining sector demonstrates that Down Under interest in the vast and underexplored mineral potential the Far North State has to offer can be expected for a long time.
In addition to quality mineral assets, Alaska offers Aussie mining companies quality people, something that Northern Star Resources Ltd. commended during its July 22 Investor Day presentation.
"I would like to extend a massive thank you and recognize the efforts of our workforce and business partners over in Alaska," said Luke Creagh, Northern Star Resources' chief operating officer of the Pogo Mine and Yandal operation in Australia. "Like so many others around the world, they worked diligently and responsibly through the coronavirus pandemic to continue operations and have set Pogo up for continued success going forward."
This success includes the pouring of nearly 61,000 ounces of gold last quarter.
More information on Pogo and Northern Star's expansion of operations can be read at Northern Star sets golden records at Pogo in this edition of North of 60 Mining News.
As Northern Star bolsters production at Pogo, another Australia-based major is investing heavily toward advancing the next generation of Alaska mines.
After shelving 2020 Alaska field work due to COVID, South32 is funding one of the biggest programs in the history of the world-class Ambler Mining District, as well as drilling at the earlier staged Shorty copper project.
Find out more about South32's $37 million of 2021 funding for Alaska mineral programs at South32 ups 2021 investments in Alaska in this edition of North of 60 Mining News.
Adding to the major investments by South32 and Northern Star, junior explorer Nova Minerals Ltd. is briskly expanding upon a 4.7-million-oz gold resource outlined so far at the Korbel deposit on its Estelle gold property in the state's Southcentral region in this edition of North of 60 Mining News.
Nova's 2021 drill program is being carried out at the scale needed to expand and upgrade the enormous Korbel resource, while also testing another of the intriguing gold targets across the 125-square-mile (324 square kilometers) Estelle property.
"In time, we expect to define multiple new shallow gold resources that will further support our goal of aggressively growing the resource inventory as we continue to move towards gold production at the Estelle gold project," said Nova Minerals CEO Christopher Gerteisen.
Further details of this aggressive program can be found at Matching enormous Estelle gold potential in this edition of North of 60 Mining News.
One of the reasons so many Australian mineral exploration companies are migrating north to Alaska is an enormous amount of unclaimed mineral potential that remains open to mineral entry across The Great Land in this edition of North of 60 Mining News.
This is something White Rock Minerals Ltd. continues to find out at its Red Mountain project. Starting off as a zinc-lead-silver project centered on two historical volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits, the company continues to find not only additional VMS prospects but also gold targets across a property that has been expanded to 323 square miles (836 square kilometers) as the Aussie junior continues to stake mining claims to cover new prospects identified around its original Alaska land position.
"The dual opportunity to explore an exciting new large orogenic-intrusion-related gold system and a potentially world-class volcanogenic massive sulfide district at a time when all metals are heading into a resounding bull market puts White Rock in a league all by itself," said Quinton Hennigh, a technical advisor to White Rock Minerals.
Find out more about the newest VMS discoveries and the claims staked to cover them at White Rock expands Red Mountain again in this edition of North of 60 Mining News
Alaska's widely unclaimed mineral potential has drawn the interest of two Australian minerals explorers – Discovery Africa Ltd. and Ragusa Minerals Ltd. – that picked up prospective mining claims open to staking.
Discovery Africa entered the Alaska mining scene with the February announcement it had staked Chulitna, a project in Southcentral Alaska that covers gold-copper and tin-silver prospects only about five miles (nine kilometers) away from the paved highway connecting Alaska's two largest cities.
Ragusa, which has directors in common with Discovery Africa, staked up the Monte Cristo gold-copper project next to fellow Aussie explorer Nova Minerals' Estelle.
"The Monte Cristo gold project will target areas near the multi-million-ounce gold deposits discovered by Nova Minerals Ltd and Gold Mining Inc.," said Ragusa Minerals Chair Jerko Zuvela.
Further information on Discovery Africa and Ragusa's Alaska projects can be read at Two Aussie mineral explorers enter Alaska in this edition of North of 60 Mining News.
Discovery Africa and Ragusa, however, are not the only Australian mineral exploration companies to nab Alaska mining claims during 2021. Earlier this year, Millrock Resources Inc. announced it had formed a strategic partnership with the newly formed Felix Gold Ltd. to explore a large collection of Alaska gold exploration properties, mostly in the Fairbanks Mining District.
"The new company, Felix Gold, of which Millrock will become a significant shareholder, is named after Felix Pedroni, the prospector credited with the initial discovery of gold in Fairbanks in 1902," Millrock Resources CEO Greg Beischer said of its new Australian partner.
Millrock, which has long attracted Down Under companies to explore Far North properties, is also partnered with Resolution Minerals Ltd. to explore an enormous land package surrounding Northern Star's Pogo mine in the Goodpaster Mining District.
"The exploration season is in full swing in Alaska," Beischer said earlier this month. "Our funding partners are mounting very significant campaigns that could result in new gold discoveries in the emerging Fairbanks and Goodpaster gold districts."
Find out more about the work being funded by Millrock's Aussie partners at Millrock draws Aussie explorers to Alaska in this edition of North of 60 Mining News.
Another Aussie explorer, PolarX Ltd., first entered the Alaska mining scene through a partnership with Millrock.
As a result of this partnership and a deal to acquire an adjoining copper property, PolarX has accumulated a large land package that covers 22 miles (35 kilometers) of copper- and gold-rich ground along the southern slopes of the Alaska Range.
PolarX' 2021 program is focused on two high-grade copper deposits already identified on the aptly named Alaska Range property – Zackly, a high-grade gold-copper-silver skarn deposit, and Caribou Dome, a high-grade volcanic sediment-hosted copper deposit.
Much of this year's work at Alaska Range will focus on collecting information for a scoping-level study that investigates the potential of a centralized recovery plant that processes ore mined from both deposits.
Further details on the 2021 work planned for Zackly and Caribou can be found at Exploring larger Alaska Range potential in this edition of North of 60 Mining News.
While arctic weather, rugged terrain, and lack of infrastructure are challenging, these Last Frontier conditions have left Alaska's fantastic geology greatly underexplored. It is this interplay of challenges and wide-open mineral opportunities that are attracting so many Down Under mining companies to invest in unlocking Alaska's rich mineral potential again.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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