The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Articles from the May 25, 2008 edition


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  • When you find yourself mining lemons

    J. P. Tangen, For Mining News|Updated Jan 28, 2018

    Looking at the world through the wrong end of the binoculars, as I often do, induces me to conclude that Alaska's mining industry is in a major state of disarray. Consider the evidence: There is a huge investment into the country for the purpose of developing our vast resource base; one-third of Alaska, an area approximately the size of California, is owned by the state and is generally open to resource development; our mineral resources are diverse, accessible, and by most...

  • Full Metal goes all out for Granite Creek

    Mining News|Updated May 25, 2008

    Full Metal Minerals Corp. May 15 said it signed an exploration agreement with an option to purchase 100 percent interest in the Granite Creek Gold Property in southwestern Alaska. The Vancouver, B.C.-based junior said it can earn 100 percent interest in the Granite Creek property from a third-party Alaska resident by paying $375,000 in cash ($50,000 first year), and incurring $3.25 million in exploration expenditures ($200,000 first year). After exercising the option, Full Metal said it will make annual $150,000 advance royal...

  • Teck Cominco first-quarter profits dip

    Rose Ragsdale, For Mining News|Updated May 25, 2008

    Teck Cominco Ltd. reported a 4.3 percent dip in profits in the first quarter of 2008 due mainly to a higher Canadian dollar and lower coal and zinc prices. Earnings fell to C$345 million, or C78 cents a share, compared with C$360 million, or C83 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2007. Teck Cominco President and CEO Don Lindsay said significant income from three copper mines that the Vancouver, B.C.-based major acquired from Aur Resources in 2007 along with a 32 percent increase in the copper price helped the outcome....

  • Fort Knox expansion jumps to fast track

    Rose Ragsdale, For Mining News|Updated May 25, 2008

    Kinross Gold Corp., owner of the Fort Knox Gold Mine near Fairbanks, is accelerating work on an expansion project now under way at the mine to boost gold production at Fort Knox as much as six months sooner than originally planned. Based on the revised schedule, production from the project is now expected to begin in mid-2009 instead of at the end of 2009, as reported in its fourth-quarter 2007 and year-end reports. The accelerated schedule will result in the advancing about $35 million of capital spending from 2009 to 2008....

  • Drills turn on projects across Alaska

    Curt J. Freeman, For Mining News|Updated May 25, 2008

    The game is afoot all across Alaska with the drills turning to the right on projects all across the state. The operating mines turned in strong first-quarter results and several new acquisitions, joint ventures and new players were announced in the last month. Western Alaska Teck Cominco American announced first quarter results from its Red Dog Mine. In the first quarter, the mine produced 138,500 metric tons of zinc in concentrate. Zinc ore grade increased to 21.3 percent while mill recoveries remained steady at 83.8...

  • Parties settle Red Dog discharge lawsuit

    Shane Lasley, Mining News|Updated May 25, 2008

    A federal judge has canceled a trial scheduled for May 19 concerning a lawsuit filed in 2004 by six Kivalina residents asking for more than $20 million in damages from Teck Cominco Alaska Inc. for alleged violations of the U.S. Clean Water Act at the Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska. Plaintiffs claimed that Teck Cominco, the mine's operator, discharged illegal amounts of total dissolved solids into the Wulik River - the same river Kivalina residents use for drinking water and...

  • Little Squaw shareholders adopt new name

    Rose Ragsdale, For Mining News|Updated May 25, 2008

    After decades of doggedly chasing the legendary allure of the gold-rich Chandalar District northern Alaska, Little Squaw Gold Mining Co. is showing signs of closing in on its recent goals. The Spokane, Wash.-based junior changed its name in May to Goldrich Mining Co. It also released findings April 30 from an independent, conceptual economic scoping study of its alluvial gold deposit discovery in the Little Squaw Creek drainage on the property. Goldrich controls key acreage in the Chandalar district, which is about 190 air...

  • Review set for Kensington tailings plan

    Mining News|Updated May 25, 2008

    Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. May 8 said the U.S. Forest Service said an Environmental Assessment is the preferred level of review for permitting the proposed alternative tailings facility for its Kensington Gold Mine near Juneau, which could allow for a conclusion of the permitting later this year. Construction of the mine and mill is essentially completed except for the tailings facility. Coeur said the Forest Service evaluated public and agency comments submitted in a draft supplemental information report for the Kensington...

  • Junior Goldmark backs away from Iliamna deal

    Mining News|Updated May 25, 2008

    Goldmark Minerals Ltd. of Calgary, Alberta has opted not to pursue an acquisition agreement with Geocom Resources Inc. to acquire all of Geocom's interest in the Iliamna property in Alaska, and 49 percent of Geocom's complete ownership of the Santa Rosa and Marcelita properties in Central Chile. The transaction was subject to a review of the properties, and earlier this year after completing that review, Goldmark elected not to complete the transaction. The junior said its business plan has been to capitalize on cyclically...

  • Zazu Metals Corp. wins permit for drilling at Lik deposit

    Mining News|Updated May 25, 2008

    Zazu Metals Corp. May 13 said it has received a Title 9 Permit from the Northwest Arctic Borough for an exploration and development program this year on the 26.7-million-metric-ton Lik zinc-lead-silver deposit, 22 kilometers, or about13.5 miles, from the Red Dog zinc-lead mine in northwestern Alaska. Zazu is pursuing the project with 50:50 joint venture partner and Red Dog owner Teck Cominco Ltd. The companies have applied for a miscellaneous land use permit from the State of Alaska, which Zazu said is expected...

  • Pebble owners pledge to share research

    Shane Lasley, Mining News|Updated May 25, 2008

    The Pebble Partnership, vowing to share its research with the public as it becomes available, has launched a series of reports based on its pre-permitting environmental and socio-economic reports. In May, the partnership of Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. and Anglo American plc., the two companies working to develop the massive Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project in Southwest Alaska, published Report Series A: Meteorology and Report Series B: Surface Water Hydrology-the...

  • Gold Crest teams with gold giants

    Shane Lasley, Mining News|Updated May 25, 2008

    After years of exploring Southwest Alaska on its own, Gold Crest Mines Inc. has teamed up with Newmont North America Exploration Ltd., a subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corp. in three separate ventures and with Cougar Gold LLC, a wholly-owned affiliate of Electrum Ltd., on five other gold properties in the region. Gold Crest May 12 said its subsidiary, Kisa Gold Mining Inc., signed joint venture agreements for the three gold properties. Three weeks before on April 24, the...

  • Redcorp abandons amphitrac vehicle

    Rose Ragsdale, For Mining News|Updated May 25, 2008

    Redcorp Ventures Ltd., parent of Redfern Resources Ltd. which operates the Tulsequah Chief Mine Project near Southeast Alaska, has abandoned plans for developing an unusual tow vehicle in favor of more conventional vessels for moving shipments of zinc, copper, silver, gold and lead concentrates from the mine down the Taku River to Juneau. Redcorp President and CEO Terence Chandler May 15 said the company is completing an amendment to its existing environmental assessment certificate to permit the air cushion barge...

  • Study endorses power line proposal

    Rose Ragsdale, For Mining News|Updated May 25, 2008

    Building a power line into northern British Columbia could attract C$3.5 billion in mining investment to the area, according to preliminary findings of an independent study. The Northwest Power Line Coalition, an industry group that took up the idea when B.C. government officials dropped plans for the power line last fall, released the findings in April. They showed that not only would an electricity conduit along Highway 37 in northwest British Columbia help bring at least eight new mining projects to the region, it also...

  • Junior wants to take closer look at BMP

    Mining News|Updated May 25, 2008

    International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. May 13 said the results from a recent high resolution airborne magnetic and EM survey completed over 30 square kilometers of mineralized areas of the company's BMP project in central Alaska show huge anomalies that warrant aggressive follow-up exploration. A day earlier the Vancouver, B.C.-based junior announced the start of resource expansion drilling at the Livengood Gold Project 100 kilometers, or 60 miles, north of Fairbanks. The company plans to drill about 42,000 meters, 136,500...

  • For sale: Turnkey gold mine

    Shane Lasley, Mining News|Updated May 25, 2008

    Seven months after putting the Nixon Fork Mine on the block, St Andrew Goldfields Ltd., an Ontario-based exploration and mining company, may be weighing competing purchase offers for the property. Potential purchasers have expressed interest in the project, according to Mining News sources. But St Andrew has signed no agreement so far to sell the asset. Located in the Interior near McGrath, the Nixon Fork Mine came on line in January 2007. During nine months of production...

  • Junior tunnels into VMS deposit

    Shane Lasley, Mining News|Updated May 25, 2008

    Nearly eight months into a concentrated digging program in Southeast Alaska, Niblack Mining Corp. has bored more than 2,200 feet into a mountain on Prince of Wales Island in a plan to create a 3,000-foot main access tunnel to the underground Niblack gold-silver-copper-zinc volcanic massive sulfide deposit. The tunneling program has been the primary focus of the Vancouver, B.C.-based junior since it began digging in September. The portal is located just above the Mammoth Zone...

  • Expansion initiatives gel for Sherwood

    Rose Ragsdale, For Mining News|Updated May 25, 2008

    Sherwood Copper Corp., less than a year after commissioning its copper-rich Minto Mine in central Yukon, appears to be firing on all cylinders with production, expansion and exploration initiatives. The Vancouver, B.C.-based miner May 14 reported discovery of new areas of copper-gold mineralization in the first holes drilled in its 2008 exploration program in previously unexplored terrain west of the Minto and Area 2 reserves. Sherwood expects to spend C$4.4 million on exploration at Minto this year, including about 20,000...