The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 1 - 17 of 17
Are there diamonds buried in Minnesota? The head of the University of Minnesota's geological survey says the science of diamond exploration has improved dramatically in recent years - and Minnesota is favorable ground. University geologists and an Australian mining company last fall quietly crisscrossed Minnesota, searching the soil for clues that might lead them to stores of precious minerals - including diamonds. But whether the precious stones are anywhere to be found won't be known for awhile. The university signed a...
B.C. based Metalex Ventures Ltd. said in mid-March that it has two samples, collected 430 meters apart, that contain "exceptional concentrations" of fresh diamond indicator minerals in glacial till at its West Greenland project. The company said in a press release that the "G10 garnets from both samples plot in the same part of the Cr(2)O(3)-CaO diamond stability field as some G10 garnets that occur as inclusions within diamonds at the Finsch, Bultfontein, Roberts Victor, and several other African mines, as well as from G10...
The chief of the mining section within the Alaska's Department of Natural Resources, Stan Foo, has taken a senior position with Placer Dome. Foo, 48, left DNR in mid-March, having worked there since 2001. He will now be Placer Dome's project manager for Alaska, representing the Vancouver-based company in the state and heading the Donlin Creek project, a joint venture with NovaGold. Foo spent 15 years of his career with Placer Dome and was an independent resource consultant for two years before moving to DNR. He started...
John Felderhof is unyielding in his belief that the Busang mining lease in Indonesia - the core of history's biggest mining fraud - holds a "substantial gold resource." Emerging from his home in the Cayman Islands, the Dutch-born geologist is attending Ontario Securities Commission hearings in Toronto into eight charges against him - four of insider trading involving the sale of C$84 million in shares of Bre-X Minerals before it collapsed in 1997 and four of issuing false press releases. "Basically I'm here to clear my name...
Follow-up studies of its 2004 drill program in the Canwell area of its MAN Alaska project look much better than originally thought, Nevada Star said March 23. As a result, the Vancouver-based junior mining company is moving forward with a more extensive geophysical and drill program on the nickel, copper and PGE property on the south flank of the Alaska Range 160 miles south of Fairbanks in 2005. (See Curt Freeman's column this issue.) "The results are much better than we initially thought," stated Robert Angrisano,...
For the first time since the Fraser Institute began its investment survey in 1997, British Columbia did not score in the bottom 10 of the "policy potential index," although it remained in the bottom third. Alaska, although it rated high for potential investment, dropped from 29th place last year to 55th place this year in investment attractiveness. The Fraser Institute describes the index as a report card to governments on the attractiveness of their mining policies. A total of 259 company exploration managers from around the...
Max Baucus, the five-term Democratic U.S. senator from Montana, has found another issue to reinforce his reputation as the biggest American burr under British Columbia's saddle. Already well known for his advocacy of bans on U.S. imports of beef and softwood lumber, he has added coal to the list. He says the British Columbia government, operating in the "dead of night," issued approval for coal exploration in the southeast corner of the province by Cline Mining Corp. The permit allows Cline to spend about C$1.8 million on 51...
Many Alaska state legislators have a personal connection with mining, and perhaps none more so than Richard Foster, Nome's Democratic representative. Foster, 58, grew up on his father's mine, 100 miles north of Nome. Today he is glad to see Vancouver-based NovaGold developing its Rock Creek project in his district, but he also regrets the disappearance of "mom and pop" mining operations like the one where he worked as a child. "NovaGold has been very aggressive in trying to develop their gold and also their boundless...
No one shows up late to work at Greens Creek mine. That's because all the employees are in the same boat, from underground miners to top managers - literally. The ferry leaves Juneau's Auke Bay at 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. every day for the 35-minute trip to Admiralty Island, taking the day and night crews back and forth. That doesn't leave a lot of time between shifts before you're back on the boat again, no matter what the weather. "We don't consider the ride rough until the seats begin folding up underneath you," Ron Plantz,...
Current market conditions favor the three metals uncovered in the Pebble project operated by Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. in southwestern Alaska. Not only are gold and copper fetching good prices, but a recent run-up in molybdenum prices could deliver a nice bonus for the project. Little known metal makes big contributions Molybdenum, pronounced "meh-LIB-deh-nem," is mainly a byproduct of copper mining but some standalone molybdenum mines do exist. The element was discovered by Carl Welhelm Scheele, a Swedish chemist, in...
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., owner and operator of the Pebble project in southwestern Alaska, is gearing up for a new season with a larger ownership stake in the gold-copper-molybdenum deposit and a C$36 million work program for 2005. The company announced results March 4 of a recent independent analysis that indicated the world-class mineral system at Pebble is significantly larger than previously envisioned. Northern Dynasty also said March 14 it agreed to acquire the remaining 20 percent ownership interest in Pebble in...
The proposed Kensington gold mine near Juneau would disrupt Steller sea lion populations but wouldn't jeopardize the species, federal regulators said in a late March finding. The decision by the National Marine Fisheries Service bodes well for Coeur Alaska's proposed Kensington gold mining operation, which wants to use Berners Bay as a transportation corridor for its workers and materials. The finding allows other agencies to complete their permits for the mine. The finding that the mine won't threaten the existence of...
The Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys and the Department of Commerce and Economic Development have released their annual preliminary report on Alaska's mining industry for 2004. As expected, investment in all categories was up significantly over previous years. Exploration spending in 2004 was estimated at $63.7 million, up from $27.6 million in 2003. The 2004 expenditures were the highest in the state since 1981. Development expenditures jumped to $105.6 million vs. $39.2 million in 2003, thanks largely t...
Linux Gold Corp. and Teryl Resources Corp. said March 22 that they had agreed to extend the term of their original Fish Creek claims agreement until March 5, 2007, giving Teryl a 50 percent interest in 30 Fish Creek claims, which are within six miles of Kinross Gold Corp.'s Fort Knox mill. The Fish Creek claims are also adjacent to the Teryl/Kinross joint venture Gil claims. Other than this extension, all other terms of the original agreement remain the same, the companies said in a joint release from their Vancouver offices....
The adventures of an intrepid judge at the height of Alaska's gold rush have been published online, thanks to the Alaska State Library. Judge James Wickersham was appointed district judge in 1900, and came up from Washington, initially to Eagle City, but soon afterwards cleaned up scandal-ridden Nome. On his death in 1939, Wickersham left behind 47 diaries containing a detailed account of Alaska's formative years as a territory of the United States. The first 13 diaries, up to 1908, were transcribed by Mary Anne Slemmons at...
Foreign companies will no longer be allowed to bid for exploration and development licenses in Russia, the country's natural resources minister said Feb. 10. Only companies that are at least 51 percent Russian owned may participate in the auctions, according to Yuri Trutnev. This will exclude mining companies like Canadian major Barrick Gold and Britain's Highland Gold Mining, which are already active in Russia. The decision by Russia brings it more in line with other countries' policies. Now foreign companies will have to fo...
Northern Dynasty is taking an innovative approach to the permitting process, the company's environmental project manager for Pebble, Ella Ede, told the Alaska Association of Environmental Professionals March 18. Unlike other mining companies, Northern Dynasty took the unusual step of submitting its 2004 environmental study plan to all the relevant agencies so that they could comment before the permit application process even started. Pre-application meetings are a common practice in Alaska's oil and gas industry and have...
