The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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As a busy year in the Alaska and global mining industry starts to slide closer to its end, I figured now was a good time to gaze into my crystal ball (rutilated quartz, of course) to see what next year might bring. While strong metals prices promise another busy year for Alaska, a dose of global reality was provided by the financial giant Ernst & Young, who recently published a list of the top 10 business risks for the mining and metals industry for the coming year. Resource n... Full story
Is the "Yukon Gold Rush" about to spill into Alaska? Since the 1896 discovery of gold on the aptly named Bonanza Creek sparked a stampede of fortune seekers to the rivers and streams of the Klondike, these world-class mining jurisdictions that share a common geological and mineralization history have been engaged in a cross-border rivalry of drawing prospectors and miners to their mineral-rich deposits. While 19th Century miners seeking their fortunes in Alaska's Fortymile...
Despite the abundance of good news from the Alaska mining industry this month, there is an unusual black cloud hanging over the industry that threatens to rain on our parade of projects. Domestic and international markets got a severe case of the jitters during the recent United States debt crisis. The resulting economic uncertainty contributed to significant metal price volatility. For example, the London gold price jumped 20 percent, from about US$1,480 to US$1,770 during the month prior to the debt deferral and has since d...
Some months ago I was talking to a senior exploration manager regarding the lack of new discoveries worldwide in the last few years. The subject came up of just how rare a +1-million-ounce gold deposit really was. Then last week one of our project geologists lays a publication in front of me entitled "How Rare are One Million Ounce Gold Deposits?" by Natural Resources Holdings, Ltd. Although this publication comes at the question from the standpoint of which new deposits are...
From college students seeking their first job in the minerals industry to executives of the world's leading mining companies, a record-setting 7,003 people packed the Westin Bayshore Hotel in Vancouver, B.C., Jan. 24-27 to attend the Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia's 2011 Mineral Exploration Roundup. "The theme this year is 'Exploring Today for Tomorrow's Resources' - it couldn't be more important a theme, and it couldn't be more important an activity,"...
Alaska's mining industry is entering the final lap for what has turned out to be a more robust than expected year for exploration, development and production. Strong worldwide demand for mined products has certainly helped push metallic and energy minerals prices up, but all is not rosy for Alaska's mineral industry. A recent CNBC report placed Alaska dead last of all the states in terms of overall business attractiveness. We were a dismal 46th of 50 in terms of cost of doing...
Under the leadership of Gov. Sean Parnell, the Alaska Department of Law has not hesitated in taking up cases important to the responsible development of the state's natural resources. Parnell, who assumed Alaska's top position when former Gov. Sarah Palin stepped down from the position in July 2009, recently won election to his first full term as governor with landslide margins during the 2010 general elections. "Alaskans have just overwhelmingly elected a governor who, I can... Full story
Mining is becoming increasingly important to Alaskans looking for good-paying jobs. Not only does the industry provide high wages, the geographical diversity of the mines provides employment opportunities to oftentimes economically challenged rural regions of the vast state. According to the Alaska Department of Labor & Workforce Development, the number of mining jobs in Alaska has jumped 40.3 percent since 2000, almost triple the statewide average employment growth of 14.1... Full story
A highlight for 2010 has been the startup of the Kensington gold mine in June. I first testified at a hearing on the Kensington project in Haines in 1990. Gold price fluctuations, environmental group attacks, financial markets, etc. all played a role in the saga. Coeur Chairman and CEO Dennis Wheeler should be commended for his diligence and determination to make Kensington into a mine. However, I am disappointed about one item at Kensington, and it does not involve the quality of the orebody, the work of the company or the...
CDE: NYSE and CDM: TSX President and CEO: Dennis Wheeler Senior Vice President and CFO: Mitchell Krebs Senior Vice President, Exploration: Donald Birak Thanks to the outcome of a four-year legal battle ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. retained a disputed tailings disposal permit for the Kensington gold mine in Southeast Alaska. One year and two days after the landmark ruling, the Idaho-based miner fired up mills at the high-grade gold mine about 45 miles, or 73 kilometers, northeast of...
HL: NYSE President and CEO: Phillips Baker Jr. Senior Vice President and General Counsel: David Sienko Vice President, Exploration: Dean McDonald The US$750 million purchase of Rio Tinto's 70.27 percent ownership stake in Greens Creek Mine near Juneau, Alaska, nearly proved to be the undoing of Hecla Mining Co. Instead, the audacious move catapulted Hecla to rank as the No. 1 silver producer in the United States. Surviving the tumultuous financial markets and low metals prices of the latter half of 2008 and the first half of... Full story
As we near the end of September and the metals market remains robust, the mining industry is breathing a sigh of relief as we remember the market meltdown of early September 2008. Although nobody is suggesting that the larger economy is in any way out of the woods yet, the worldwide demand for metals and metal products continues to expand. For example, the gold price hit US$1,274.95 earlier this month, well above the previous record of US$1,261 hit on June 28. Some believe...
NIXON FORK - Flying more than 200 miles, or 320 kilometers, northwest from Anchorage, on a route that roughly parallels the legendary Iditarod trail, Fire River Gold Corp.'s Nixon Fork Mine looms on the horizon. The 4,000-foot airstrip and array of buildings resting atop a gold-veined ridge is an island of productivity in this vast expanse of Interior Alaska. "You might look at the site and say, 'It would never be built today.' If this was just a hillside and trees and we were...
In the last month, several of Alaska's major metal mines reported strong operating numbers; one company released a preliminary economic assessment and three new mineral exploration companies acquired exploration interests in Alaska. While the functions of explorers and producers are quite different, the symbiotic relationship between the two ends of the mining cycle is unequivocal: exploration would not exist without production and production would eventually cease without...
Two seminal events related to the Alaska mining industry occurred in the past month. First, in late June, Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. reported the commencement of production at it Kensington gold mine near Juneau. The mine has now joined the ranks of large-scale producers here in Alaska but only after lots of years and lots of dollars, capped by a trip to the U.S. Supreme Court! Hat's off to Coeur for its commitment to Alaska and for its desire to do this job right. Secondly,...
In June 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a 6-3 ruling that upheld a tailings disposal permit for the Kensington gold mine near Juneau. Owner Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. fired up Kensington's mill June 24, one year and two days after the high court made its decision. "The startup of production at Kensington represents the culmination of a communitywide effort by the Juneau community, which has supported the project from the beginning and who will participate in the...
The annual Fraser Institute "Report on Mining Companies, 2009-2010" was recently released to a thundering silence. Several oddball items may help explain the lackluster response, but Alaska fared well in the survey of 333 companies working in 72 jurisdictions worldwide. Alaska ranked 18th out of 72 under the policy potential index, which measures the regulatory attractiveness of a jurisdiction. Not unreasonably, Alaska was beaten by some mining heavyweights like Chile, Quebec,... Full story
The Alaska Miners Association recently released an economic benefits summary of the Alaska mining industry. This summary indicated that in 2009 the Alaska mining industry provided 3,300 direct jobs along with 5,200 indirect jobs in 120 communities in Alaska with a combined payroll of US$320 million. Average industry jobs came in at US$83,000 per year, which is 85 percent higher than the average Alaska wage and second only to wages in the oil and gas industry. The industry...
Geologically, Alaska is a terrane wreck, with multiple tectonic plates dumping their mineral payloads over the landscape. Geologists are still sifting through the wreckage in many places across the state to determine which mineral deposits were dumped by which terranes and when - a task not always easily accomplished as pileups have resulted, in many cases, from multiple mineralization events happening in the same geographical regions over time. A terrane is a series of...
Although there are innumerable differences between any point in the past and the present, modern political activists of all political stripes routinely draw on one half-recalled and poorly understood event or another from the past to "prove" a point. Strict constructionists of the U. S. Constitution gladly leap over 230 years of history to bemoan the way that the President, or Congress or the Judiciary are misconstruing the framers' "intent," while the progressive opposition hastily condemns them as being Nazis. One group cel...
Hailed as a landmark ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 to uphold Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp.'s tailings disposal permit at the Kensington gold mine located about 45 miles, or 73 kilometers northwest of Juneau. The June decision came in response to a challenge to a permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that allows Coeur d'Alene Mines' Alaska subsidiary, Coeur Alaska, to dispose of mine tailings into Lower Slate Lake. The Southeast Alaska Conservation Council... Full story
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...
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Aug. 14 re-issued a long-disputed tailings permit to Coeur Alaska for the Kensington Mine. Modifications to the permit extend its expiration to 2014, offsetting the four years it was tied up in litigation. A letter from the Region 10 acting deputy regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in July advising the Corps to "re-evaluate the circumstances and conditions of the permit in view of new information," raised many qu... Full story
The Alaska summer is in full swing but news is slow in arriving from new field programs and mining operations around the state. The biggest news in the past month was the U.S. Supreme Court's affirmation of Coeur d'Alene Mines' tailing disposal permits at its Kensington deposit north of Juneau. The longstanding stalemate, dating back to late 2006, clears the way (hopefully) for completion of the construction at the Slate Lake tailings facility and commencement of mining... Full story
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take another look at the tailings disposal permit it issued for the Kensington gold project near Juneau. In a July 14 letter written by Region 10 Acting Deputy Regional Administrator Michael Gearheard, the EPA advised the Corps to "reevaluate the circumstances and conditions of the permit in view of new information related to the Kensington Mine and Lower Slate Lake disposal site." The EPA...
