The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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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... Full story
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...
Novagold Resources Inc. Oct. 6 reported that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to publish the Donlin Gold draft Environmental Impacts Statement for public comment near year's end. Donlin Gold LLC, the operating company equally owned by subsidiaries of Novagold and Barrick Gold Corp., advanced a number of other major permit applications, including working toward finalizing an air quality permit; completing approaches to water management, treatment, and discharge to facilit... Full story
Novagold Resources Inc. July 8 reported that the permitting process for its 50-percent-owned Donlin Gold project continues to move ahead with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers planning to issue the draft Environmental Impact Statement for public comment towards the end of 2015. "Reminiscent of 'The Tortoise and the Hare'," Donlin Gold continues to advance at a steady pace, as originally envisioned. In less than two-year's time, subject to market conditions, the co-owners will...
In an industry eager for even a scintilla of good news, a recent report from industry analyst SNL Metals & Mining recently gave the good-news-starved industry a bit of hope. SNL's article, titled, "Too early to start celebrating a recovery in the sector," indicated that although the downward trend in mineral exploration has not broken yet, the market has stopped down-grading mining equities, with a modest gain in market capitalization since its most recent low in mid-2013....
The annual Cordilleran Roundup Mining Convention is held in Vancouver at the end of January each year, and this year's convention was unlike any of the nearly 20 such conventions I have attended. The norm for this convention is a sort of anticipatory excitement that permeates every facet of the event. Mineral exploration is the focus of this gathering, and explorationists are by and large optimistic people. While there was no lack of optimism at the 2013 convention, if you...
An employment forecast published by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development in October pegged the state's mining sector job growth from 2010 to 2020 at 19 percent. That is second only to health care, at 31 percent, and outpacing the 12 percent average growth across all Alaska industries. Expansion of current operations coupled with prospects of building mines at the world-class Livengood and Donlin gold deposits were cited as drivers behind adding new miners t...
In a long overdue step to bring Alaska into the 21st Century, state and federal agencies met in late June to discuss collaborative funding strategies for Alaska's Statewide Digital Mapping Initiative, an enterprise designed to create Alaska's first high-quality digital topographic map. The roundtable was convened by Alaska Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell and the Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, U.S. Department of Interior. Alaska remains the only state in the United States... Full story
Donlin Creek LLC, the 50-50 joint venture between NovaGold Resources Inc. and Barrick Gold Corp., has renegotiated its lease on the Donlin Creek gold project in southwestern Alaska. The Calista Regional Native Corp., owners of the property that holds the 40-million-ounce gold deposit, said the renewed lease provides the miners the additional time and land to mine the gold-rich ore, while maximizing benefits for its more than 13,000 shareholders. Calista Corp. owns 6.5 million...
Although commodities prices have improved for the mining industry over the past year, 2009 has been the kind of year most of us hope not to repeat. The best analogy I can come up with is the one that says "All boats rise and fall with the tide." Under this scenario, company fortunes fell as the general market declined. Unfortunately, not all boats (companies) rise when the tide goes back up. Some get holed on the rocks of economic misfortune and remain on the bottom....
Full Metal Mineral Ltd., like many juniors, battened down the hatches in 2009 to ride out the financial storm that sank many explorers and caused others to climb aboard ships better suited to the turbulent weather. The explorer emerged in January to raise money and test the financial winds with assay results from its 2008 drilling at the Nadaleen silver-lead-zinc project in the Yukon Territory, and again in March with results of from the OG project, another silver-lead-zinc... Full story
Reclamation is a critical element of modern mining and mine planning. In Alaska, companies who wish to extract minerals from the earth must first present a plan on how they propose to return the disturbed land to a reusable state and post financial assurances that they will complete the job. Planning for what the site will look like and be used for begins before any mining is started. The information needed to design a successful reclamation plan is gathered from the...
Full Metal Minerals Ltd. and Kinross Gold Corp. struck a deal with Calista Corp., an Alaska Native regional corporation, to acquire 100 percent of mineral rights to the Russian and Horn Mountain complexes in the Kuskokwim region of Southwest Alaska. The Russian and Horn Mountain gold-silver targets are located about 25 miles, or 40 kilometers, southwest of the 29-million-ounce Donlin Creek gold deposit being developed by joint venture partners Barrick Gold Corp. and NovaGold...
They say when it rains, it pours, and that is just what is happening with news from field programs all over Alaska. Results from summer 2009 programs are pouring in from the Brooks Range to Prince of Wales Island, from Eastern Interior Alaska to Southwestern Alaska. Commodities of interest range from the expected gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc to the nearly unpronounceable, including praseodymium, dysprosium, terbium, thulium, lutetium and yttrium. Go ahead, drop a...
While many people are familiar with the 30-million-ounce-plus gold deposit discovered at Donlin Creek in Southwest Alaska, the world-class gold resource boasts another less known but equally impressive statistic. Nearly 90 percent of the 200-plus people working at the Donlin Project are shareholders of the Calista Corporation, the Native regional corporation that owns the land where the deposit is located. "Calista Corp. has had great success with Barrick (Gold Corp.) and...
The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada is set to recognize Richard Garnett and NovaGold Resources Inc. for their role in the discovery and exploration of the multimillion-ounce Donlin Creek gold deposit in Southwest Alaska. The Thayer Lindsley Award for an international mineral discovery will be presented to the explorers March 2 at the organization's 2009 International Convention, Trade Show and Investors Exchange. This annual award, which honors the memory of...
The discovery story of the multimillion-ounce gold deposit at Donlin Creek began in 1909 when prospectors rushed through the region following news that gold had been discovered on the George River about 50 miles to the southwest. For the next 25 years, hand and hydraulic placer mining continued on Donlin Creek in Southwest Alaska. In 1941 Robert Lyman started the modern era of placer mining on Donlin Creek. Signing away his entire winter salary, the hardworking miner put a... Full story
As 2008 winds inexorably to a close, I found myself looking for words adequate to describe what will go down in history as one of the most memorable years in many a moon. Words like tumultuous, unpredictable, singular, turbulent, chaotic, confusing, and unsettling hardly do justice to the past year's events. As usual, the mining industry played its small but vital role in the scheme of world events. The first half of the year brought stratospheric commodity prices, while the...
In a July 3 decision, the Alaska Supreme Court confirmed that the ballot initiative 07WTR3 is not an appropriation and can be placed on the ballot for the August 26 Alaska primary election. Ballot Measure 4 is currently listed in the Division of Elections 2008 primary election media packet. According to that listing, the ballot measure facing Alaska voters will read: Ballot Measure 4 - Bill Providing For Regulation of Water Quality (07WTR3) This bill imposes two water quality...
Everyone who is planning to work on Alaska mineral projects in 2008 is busy doing just that as the longest day of summer quickly approaches. Programs ranging from grass-roots prospecting to multimillion-dollar feasibility studies are spread over the entire state with the most active areas being Western and Interior Alaska. With the new resources for Donlin Creek now out, my unofficial records show Alaska's total gold resources at more than 169 million ounces, with gold discovery rates during the past 10 years averaging more... Full story
Rosie Barr, spokeswoman for NANA's "Voices of Reason Campaign," told Mining News that anti-mining initiatives expected to come before Alaska voters on this fall's ballot would shut down existing mines like the huge Red Dog zinc-lead mine in Northwest Alaska and prevent the permitting of future mines, many of which would be developed on Alaska Native corporation lands. In undertaking this campaign, NANA is fighting to retain the land ownership and mineral rights granted to all Alaska Natives under the Alaska Native Claims...
Pacific North West Capital and Stillwater Mining Co. have begun the 2008 drilling program at the Goodnews Bay Platinum Project in Southwest Alaska. The $1 million program has two primary targets, Last Chance and Susie West prospects, defined with rock and soil sampling programs in 2006 and 2007. In addition to about 3,000 meters of core drilling planned at Last Chance and Susie West, the companies will also continue an auger soil sampling program on Susie Mountain which will... Full story
Tonogold Resources Inc., in hopes of drawing attention to its search for an Alaska partner, released a geology, geochemistry and drilling report April 17 that covers exploration from 2005 to 2007 of its Nyac Porphyry Gold Project in southwestern Alaska. The Nyac property consists of 57,600 acres and is located at the western end of the Alaska-Yukon Tintina Gold Belt on lands owned by Calista Corp, the Alaska Native regional corporation for the Yukon-Kuskokwim region. Tonogold leases the Nyac property from Calista. During 2007... Full story
NovaGold Resources Inc. and Barrick Gold Corp. have incorporated more drilling results into their estimate of recoverable gold at the Donlin Creek deposit and boosted that number by 77 percent to 29.4 million ounces. Donlin Creek is situated on Calista Corp. lands in the northern part of the Yukon-Kuskokwim region in western Alaska. The estimate of measured and indicated resources was prepared by Barrick geologists, and compares favorably with an October 2006 projection of...
The Alaska mining industry issued a report Jan. 21 that outlines in graphic detail the considerable and growing impact that mining activities are having on the state. Mining companies spent an estimated $1.25 billion in Alaska in 2007 on everything from drilling rigs to rents and royalties. "Mining companies strengthen Alaska communities by employing Alaska residents from more than 100 Alaska communities and purchasing supplies and services from hundreds of Alaska companies," the report said. A banner year for the industry,... Full story
