The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 101 - 125 of 167
Contango Ore Inc. Aug. 25 reported second-quarter financial results along with assays from seven additional holes drilled at its Tetlin gold project in eastern Alaska. The company reported a net loss of US$1.2 million, or US31 cents per share, for the year ended June 30, compared with a loss of US$3.6 million, or US94 cents per share, for the same period last year. This substantial reduction in net loss is due to all exploration expenses this year being incurred by Peak Gold LLC, a joint venture under which Royal Alaska,...
Reuters recently reported that the 10 largest gold-producing companies worldwide have steadily increased their near-mine exploration budgets over the past few years to 56 percent in 2015 from 45 percent in 2013. They also reduced their higher-risk greenfields exploration budgets to 21 percent from 25 percent in the same time period. This retrenchment of exploration by the larger producers is occurring, while global gold output is declining with an expected reduction of 9...
Peak Gold is raising the bar for high-grade gold deposits in Alaska. In fact, the gold grades this joint venture has reported from summer drilling at its Tetlin project in eastern Interior Alaska are so remarkable that near-surface, minable widths of quarter-ounce-per-metric-ton-gold cut at the project's Peak zones are overshadowed by numerous 13-meter-plus intercepts of more than 1.5 oz./t gold. One such example of this eclipsing effect can be found in TET16272, one of 19...
Over the last month the inevitable termination dust has begun to show up across Alaska, bringing with it completion of mineral exploration programs and transition of development and production projects to winter operational modes. Explorers, developers and miners will soon be gathering to compare notes at the annual Alaska Miners Association Convention in Anchorage, an event that always overlaps national and local election night. Alaska's mineral industry outlook brightened...
Mineral exploration spending in Alaska hit an apex of US$365 million in 2011, but as venture capital for mining explorers dried these expenditures plummeted 78 percent to US$80 million in 2015. However, rising gold prices and a loosening of venture capital in 2016 seems to have marked an end to a painfully long bear market for mining explorers in Alaska. “After taking head shots for the past four years, the industry suddenly came to life over the past month, with new budgets,...
While many of Alaska's mining explorers were riding the brakes on their promising projects going into 2016, Royal Gold and Contango Ore put their figurative foot to the accelerator at the high-grade Tetlin gold project near Tok, an eastern Alaska community at a junction of highways that lead from Canada to Fairbanks and Anchorage. Neither of these companies are your prototypical mineral explorer. Texas-based Contango Ore came to Alaska seeking natural gas and discovered...
As tangible buoyancy returns to the mining industry, I began to wonder if any of the multitude of forecasters had actually predicted the recent return of stronger metals prices. Since most "forecasters" are actually "hindsighters," I was drawn to a November 2013 summary of gold mines by Roy Sebag of Natural Resource Holdings. The summary, entitled "Global Gold Mines & Deposits 2013 Ranking," indicated that we were nearing peak gold production because the total in-situ ounces...
Earlier in November, the Alaska Miners Association held its annual convention and trade show in Anchorage and as always, the well-attended convention overlapped with election Tuesday. While the lead up to, and results of, the national and state elections were hot topics throughout the week, one comment I heard from a colleague on the morning after the elections distilled the feelings of a lot of people at the conference. When asked what he thought of the election results, he...
With metal prices stabilizing, physical stockpiles dwindling and demand again on the rise, things are beginning to look up for the beleagered mining industry. Gold's performance over the past several months is a case in point. The World Gold Council reported that during the first quarter, buying of exchange-traded gold funds rose to its highest level since early 2009, wiping out the deep sell-offs of 2014 and 2015 for this instrument. Uncertainties in the fiscal stability of...
Contango Ore Inc. Feb. 2 said the first phase of 2017 drilling at the Tetlin gold project in Interior Alaska was underway. Peak Gold LLC, a joint venture between Contango Ore and a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Gold Inc., invested roughly US$10.6 million on exploration at Tetlin in 2016, which included the first winter drill program at this project located just south of the Alaska Highway near Tok. Royal Gold, which is the operator of the JV, can earn up to a 40 percent...
Contango ORE Inc. Jan. 19 reported results from the final 11 holes completed during the third phase of 2016 drilling at the Tetlin gold project in Interior Alaska. Overall, the 2016 program at Tetlin - conducted by Peak Gold, LLC, a joint venture between Contango Ore and a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Gold Inc. - included 20,523 meters of drilling in 118 holes. The phase-3 drill program, which included 37 holes, focused on the North Peak zone at Tetlin. Highlights from...
With the opening late last month of a public comment period for the environmental impact statement on the proposed Ambler Mining District Industrial Access Project, I am cautiously optimistic that this time, Sisyphus will get the boulder up the hill. As a lowly graduate student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks back in 1979, I helped a crew from Anaconda Minerals color township-size blocks on a huge paper map of the Brooks Range. At the time, Anaconda and numerous other...
The year just past was many things for the mining industry, but one of the bright spots came from the Mine Safety and Health Administration, an agency not known for awarding happy faces or gold stars. In 2016, the mining industry experienced only 25 deaths in U.S. mines, the lowest level ever recorded. This, despite the industry having more than 330,000 miners working in 13,000 mines across the country. The leading cause of death in both coal and metal/nonmetal mines was...
Contango Ore Inc. May 9 reported that 5,236 meters of drilling was completed in 47 holes during the initial phase of drilling at the Tetlin gold project near Tok, Alaska. Carried out by Peak Gold LLC, a joint venture between Contango Ore and an Alaska subsidiary of Royal Gold Inc., this program tested the boundaries of the North Peak deposit and an outlying prospect known as Blue Moon. "The phase 1 2017 drilling program finished up in early April 2017, consisting primarily of...
If there is anyone still on the fence wondering if the minerals industry has started a recovery from the doldrums of the past four years, this month’s mineral industry activity in Alaska should settle the question with authority. During the past month, we have seen two merger/acquisitions occur, one by Solitario Exploration & Royalty Corp., which acquired Zazu Metals Corp. and its interest in the Lik lead-zinc-silver deposit. Then we also had Coventry Resources acquire V...
While the mineral exploration season in Interior Alaska typically runs from the time the ground dries in the spring, usually mid-May, until snow and cold weather make logistics too cumbersome and expensive in October, an increasing number of explorers are carrying out successful winter programs in this especially frigid region of the Far North State. Without a doubt, mounting a successful exploration program in temperatures cold enough to make metal brittle and with only...
Contango Ore Inc. Nov. 17 said it has raised US$5.3 million through the exercise of 587,500 warrants. The holders of these warrants were offered a 10 percent discount to early exercise the warrants for cash to provide the company with financial flexibility. In an unrelated transaction, 62,500 warrants were exercised in a cashless exercise at their original US$10 exercise price. "We are pleased with the large number of warrants recently exercised, which dramatically changed the company's cash position, which now exceeds US$6...
Contango Ore Inc. Aug. 16 provided another round of drill results from the second phase of 2016 drilling at the Tetlin project near the crossroads town of Tok in eastern Alaska. The results, from 13 holes drilled in the North Peak and Connector zones, include the best intercept ever encountered at Tetlin when you consider the very high gold grade encountered over long lengths. TET16210, the last hole of the 2016 phase-1 program, carried out during the winter months, tested an...
From a Texas oilman discovering rich mineral prospects at Tetlin while investigating the natural gas potential of these Native owned lands to a royalty company setting aside its business model to get in on the ground floor of what is shaping up to be a multimillion-ounce deposit of high-grade gold lying alongside the Alaska Highway, Contango Ore Inc. is adding some intriguing new entries to the annals of Alaska geology. The latest chapter of the Tetlin story includes a US$11...
Contango ORE Inc. May 5 posted results from the first-ever winter drill program carried out on the Tetlin properties near Tok, Alaska. Peak Gold, a limited liability joint venture managed by a subsidiary of Royal Gold Inc., invested roughly US$1.9 million in this initial 2016 program focused on exploring at and around the Peak Zone gold deposit at Tetlin. A 2014 resource for the Peak Zone outlines 6 million metric tons averaging 3.46 grams-per-metric-ton gold, 11 g/t silver...
Although there is plenty of Alaska mining industry news this month, the big dog in the pen is the dramatic and unexpected run-up in the price of gold, which moved from a low of $1,078 per ounce to a high of $1,246/oz., most of which occurred after Feb. 1. Although profit-taking and other factors have caused the price to back off a bit, the move was both dramatic and unexpected. As you might guess, the ether is full of talking heads telling us why it went up, why it either won'...
While many mining companies continue to scale back programs on their promising mineral exploration projects, Royal Gold and Contango Ore are expanding the extent of their work at Tetlin. This year, the partners have launched the first-ever winter drill program at this high-grade gold-copper project located near Tok, an eastern Alaska community at a junction of highways that lead to Fairbanks and Anchorage. Neither of these companies are your prototypical mineral explorer -...
As the curtain rings down on 2015, the sound of clapping and cheering can already be heard from the mining industry as it anticipates the end of a largely depressing year which started out looking like the long-awaited industry recovery was going to happen but in the end, did not. The uncertainty brought on by this year's unsettling events was front and center in a recent round-table discussion hosted by Northern Miner, sponsored by PearTree Securities and entitled "New...
Earlier this month, the Alaska Miners Association held its annual convention in Anchorage amid plummeting metals prices and an over-all atmosphere of economic uncertainty now stretching into its fourth year. Individuals from around North America and beyond were present and conversations outside of the technical sessions seemed to gravitate toward how best to climb out of the doldrums that seem to grip the mining industry on a global scale. One individual was heard to say that...
Contango ORE Inc. Nov. 16 posted results from 19 of 32 holes drilled during the second phase of 2015 exploration at the Tetlin project near Tok, Alaska. This exploration was carried out by Peak Gold, a limited liability joint venture company formed to further the exploration and development of the Tetlin project. Royal Gold Inc. has the option to earn up to a 40 percent interest economic interest in Peak Gold by investing up to US$30 million prior to October 2018. "We are...
