The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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As we move into 2020 there are still no definitive indications of when joint venture partners Novagold Resources Inc. and Barrick Gold Corp. will make the final decision on development of the 39-million-ounce Donlin Gold project in Southwest Alaska. Donlin Gold LLC – a 50-50 JV formed between Novagold and Barrick to advance the world-class gold mine project – has already received most of the state and federal permits to develop and operate the mine. This includes recent iss...
Contango ORE Inc. Jan. 6 announced that Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse has taken over as President and CEO of the Texas-based mineral exploration company advancing the Peak Gold project in eastern Alaska. Former President and CEO Brad Juneau has transitioned to executive chairman of Contango ORE, a company he co-founded and lead for the past decade. "I have known Rick for several years and followed his success with admiration," said Juneau. "We are extremely pleased that he has agreed... Full story
SPARKS, Nev. – The notoriously long timeline for permitting a mine in the United States may soon be shortened. This reprieve is not from the various renditions of mine permit reform that has been introduced to Congress over the past decade but from an agency in Washington D.C. that most people have never heard of – the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (FPISC). Alexander Herrgott, executive director of FPISC, drew the nervous laughter he was expecting when he... Full story
An abnormally long fall has allowed the Alaska mining industry to extend seasonal work well into mid-October, creating a lot of new information about project work conducted around the state. Exploration efforts, in particular, benefitted from this additional field time. Based on information available to date, 2019 exploration expenditures are expected to be in the $135-140 million range, well ahead of the $120-125 million exploration spending tracked for 2018. In addition,...
Calista Corp., the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) regional corporation for the Yukon-Kuskokwim region of Southwest Alaska endeavors to set "the standard for economic success and corporate responsibility." This corporate vision is passed down to Calista's subsidiaries, a group of 30 companies that provide a broad range of services that include heavy equipment sales, rental and service; construction, including pilings and crane services; transportation and... Full story
Race Family Mining Operation, a father and son team of placer gold miners on Jack Wade Creek in Alaska's legendary Fortymile Mining District, is being watched closely by federal regulators, world-renowned jewelers and global tech companies. Capturing the attention of federal regulators typically is not high on the priority list of placer gold miners in Alaska. However, if you are working on U.S. Bureau of Land Management mining claims in a road accessible area of the state...
Calista Corp. and its 31,400 Yup'ik, Cup'ik and Athabascan shareholders are on the cusp of realizing the benefits that will come with the sustainable development of a mine at the 45-million-ounce Donlin Gold project on their land in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region of Southwest Alaska. With 39 million oz of gold in measured and indicated resources that average 2.24 grams per metric ton, and another 6 million oz in the inferred category averaging 2.02 g/t gold, Donlin Gold is truly a... Full story
Novagold Resources Inc. Oct. 1 reported that field work will continue throughout the winter months at the 39-million-ounce Donlin Gold project in Southwest Alaska. This field program, which got underway in the spring, includes site investigation to collect additional geotechnical information needed for the requisite state permits for the dams to be built when a mine is developed at Donlin. "This program consists of geotechnical drilling (core and direct push) and field...
Earlier this month Reuters reported that several agencies within the U.S. Federal government were "rapidly assessing" our domestic ability to mine and refine rare earth elements and utilize those 17 super cool elements in value-added products needed for a wide and ever-growing array of consumer and national defense products. Not surprisingly, mining industry officials demurred when quizzed about supplying information on where rare elements might be mined in the U.S. and how... Full story
Trilogy Metals Inc. May 23 named Janice Stairs as the new chair of its board of directors. Stairs, who has been a director of Trilogy Metals since 2011, graduated from Dalhousie Law School and holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Queen's University. "Janice is well suited to chair the Trilogy board. With her strong legal background, her many years working in the mining sector and the fact that she has been an active director of Trilogy Metals since its...
Tectonic Metals Inc. plans to leverage Alaska's underexplored gold potential to create "the number one mineral exploration company in the world." While this is a lofty goal, Tectonic Metals is led by an executive team that is renowned for the mineral exploration, mining and business skills required to achieve the company's vision. Tony Reda, former vice president of corporate development of Kaminak Gold Corp., is the president and CEO of Tectonic Metals. He is joined by Eira T...
With 12.5 million acres of land spanning Alaska's Interior, Doyon Ltd. is the largest private landholder in the state and one of the largest in the nation. For mining and mineral exploration companies, the rich mineral potential of these lands may be more impressive than the sheer size of the estate. This is because the Doyon region is a nearly Texas-sized swath of Interior Alaska that is renowned for its gold and a host of other metals, providing the regional corporation,... Full story
Alaska Miners Association April 10 released "The economic benefits of Alaska's mining industry," a report put together by the McDowell Group that details roughly $1.26 billion in direct economic benefits from Alaska's mining sector during 2018. Healthy paychecks being brought home to more than 60 communities across Alaska is mining's biggest single economic contributor to the state. Alaska's mines, development and mineral exploration projects paid roughly $459 million to some...
While neither Barrick Gold Corp. or Novagold Resources Inc. have officially announced plans to proceed with the development of Donlin Gold, there are indications that partners are leaning toward a positive decision on this 39-million-ounce gold mine project in Southwest Alaska. "With permitting largely complete, we are shifting more focus on integrating scoping-level optimization work into a study that will serve as the basis for an updated project development plan," Novagold...
TNR Gold Corp. Feb. 25 said it is continuing to seek a major gold mining company to become a joint venture partner on its Shotgun Gold project in Alaska. Located about 110 miles south of the 39-million-ounce Donlin Gold mine project and about the same distance northeast of the Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project, this property lies at the intersection of two trends known to host big deposits. TNR optioned Shotgun from Novagold Resources Inc. in 2002 and gained full...
When it comes to mineral exploration incentives, currency exchange and infrastructure, Alaska is at a disadvantage in the realm of attracting exploration investments from Canada and Australia, countries that are home to the majority of mining companies. The Far North State's vast and underexplored mineral potential, however, trumps these handicaps in the minds of a growing number of miners and mineral explorers. Mining executives from around the globe perennially rank Alaska... Full story
The two mega-mergers that hit the gold mining sector early in 2019 – Barrick Gold Corp. combining with Randgold Resources Ltd. and Newmont Mining Corp. acquiring Goldcorp Inc. – is forever changing the gold mining landscape around the world. While the two largest gold mining companies Newmont Goldcorp (No. 1) and Barrick (No. 2) are still in the process of shedding assets following the mega-mergers, it seems that Newmont Goldcorp will emerge with a much stronger foothold in... Full story
Western Alaska Copper & Gold is a private exploration company focused on the rich gold, silver, copper and zinc potential of the Illinois Creek Mining District located near the lower Yukon River about 65 miles southwest of the Galena and 120 miles north of the Donlin Gold Mine project. This more than 26,000-acre land package blankets the past producing Illinois Creek gold-silver mine; Round Top, a porphyry copper-molybdenum-silver target; and Honker, a high-grade gold target.... Full story
With the 2018 sale of its 50 percent interest in the Galore Creek copper-gold project in British Columbia, Novagold Resources Inc. is singularly focused on advancing the Donlin Gold Mine project in Alaska toward production. In dichotomy, Barrick Gold Corp., Novagold's equal co-owner of Donlin Gold, significantly expanded its gold project portfolio with the finalization of a merger with Randgold Resources Ltd. at the onset of 2019. The Barrick-Randgold merger have caused... Full story
Emerging on Alaska's exploration scene in 2018, Tectonic Metals Inc. is a new junior mining company that applies a business-first strategy to managing the risks inherent to advancing grassroots gold discoveries to a multi-million-ounce gold reserve that global mining companies want to buy and the local people want to see developed into a mine. "Junior mining is 99 percent risk, the failure rate is huge, yet nobody has any protocols in place for managing the risks," Tectonic... Full story
Since the stampedes of prospectors trekked North in the latter half of the 19th Century, the lure of Alaska's rich gold lodes has drawn dreamers and miners North. Today, four hardrock mines and hundreds of family-run placer operations across the Last Frontier churn out roughly 1 million ounces of this alluring precious metal each year – and the largest stores of aurum discovered here have yet to be realized. Despite being a relatively rare metal that has served as a c... Full story
Extremely rare, yet a vital ingredient to emerging solar panel technologies, tellurium is the epitome of what it means to be a critical metalloid, an element that possesses the properties of both a metal and non-metal. "Most rocks contain an average of about 3 parts per billion tellurium, making it rarer than the rare earth elements and eight times less abundant than gold," the United States Geological Survey wrote in a 2015 report on this critical metalloid. "Grains of... Full story
This author, in this column and elsewhere, has often taken the position that Alaska, especially in remote locations, is the safest, most environmentally-sound and worker-friendly mining location in the world. Alaska is endowed with world-class resources from one end of the state to the other. The associated jobs are well paid, and the industry is stable. Notwithstanding the view that some have of heavy industry as an eyesore, the remoteness of most operations puts them beyond... Full story
One of the highlights of my July each year is attending the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute because mining lawyers and landmen from across the continent gather to hear presentations of interest to those of us who closely follow changes in resource development law. Each topical session of the presentations typically begins with a survey of new statutes, regulations and cases that affect mining law, oil and gas law, water law, public land law and environmental law.... Full story
It is difficult not to be optimistic about the future of the mining industry in Alaska these days. Although the industry is still No. 2 – as compared to oil and gas – it remains lucrative, safe and healthy. Predictably, that will remain the case for eons to come as new projects are brought online. Economically, from Kotzebue to Juneau, mining's direct impact is significant. Nearly 14 thousand direct and indirect jobs can be attributable to the industry and those jobs can pay... Full story
