The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 64
Blind Creek Resources Ltd. June 1 completed an arrangement to spin its Engineer gold mine project into Engineer Gold Mines Ltd., a Toronto Venture Exchange listed subsidiary that will advance exploration and development of the high-grade gold mine project in northwestern British Columbia. Located about 32 kilometers (20 miles) southwest of Atlin, the historic Engineer Mine produced 18,000 ounces gold and 9,000 oz silver from ore averaging 39 grams per metric ton gold and 18...
With the addition of Mark Hamilton as executive vice president of external affairs, the Pebble Limited Partnership continues to build upon an impressive team of Alaska-based leaders as it prepares to advance the world-class Pebble copper mine project towards permitting. "I'm delighted to join the Pebble team as we begin the long and rigorous journey toward permitting a mine engineered to protect the environment and the world-class fisheries of Bristol Bay," Hamilton said....
Miranda Gold Corp. and Gold Torrent Inc. have their sights set on opening a high-grade gold mine at the historic Willow Creek property in the Hatcher Pass region of Southcentral Alaska by the end of 2018. Only about 75 miles north of Anchorage, this 8,700-acre property blankets a large portion of the Willow Creek mining district, including the pre-World War II Lucky Shot and War Baby mines. It is estimated that from 1918 until being shut down by the federal War Production Boar...
TMAC Resources Inc. Aug. 14 said its first drill program at the Boston deposit, located in the southern portion of its Hope Bay project in Nunavut, has cut high-grade gold mineralization over wide widths. "Since acquiring the Hope Bay Project in 2013, we have focused on Doris and patiently waited to initiate a major exploration campaign at Boston until we had the Doris mine in commercial production. Having achieved that effective June 1, we recommissioned the Boston camp located about 60 kilometers south of the Doris complex...
International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. Feb. 1 said it has paid the U$14.7 million payment due on certain claims associated with its Livengood gold project in Interior Alaska. Following the completion of the land payment, Tower Hill had US$7.5 million in cash, most of which the company will use to carry out a US$6.3 million work program focused largely on improving the economics of developing a mine at Livengood. In September, Tower Hill released results of an initial phase of... Full story
Steven C. Levi's new mystery, "Dead Men Do Come Back," not only provides a rollicking glimpse of the new Old West, it takes a discerning leap into the world of Alaska mining during the little-discussed early years of the last century. Narrated in the first person by the likable but fictitious U.S. Marshal Gordon Whitford, the story is a slick and entertaining "who dun-it." Yet it is also a detailed portrait of life in and out of the fabled gold mines that operated near Juneau in Southeast Alaska in the early 1900s. In this...
Rockhaven Resources Ltd. June 30 reported the appointment of Marc Blythe as vice president, project development. Blythe holds a master of business administration degree from La Trobe University in Melbourne and a bachelor of mining engineering degree from the Western Australian School of Mines. He has managed mines for both Placer Dome Inc. and WMC Resources (formerly Western Mining Corp.) during his 22-year mining career. He has a strong understanding of mine feasibility and...
There's been an awakening. Have you felt it? "Crowdfunding" is emerging as a revolutionary new force in the way mining and mineral exploration companies will raise the cash needed to discover and develop the next generation of mines. "I am not aware of any mining activity in Alaska that has been financed by crowdfunding, although I suspect that methodology will be utilized in the near future," observed Fairbanks-based geologist Curt Freeman. "Unfortunately, its alter-ego, what... Full story
A design flaw resulting from an inadequate understanding of the glacial lake sediments that formed a portion of the foundation on which the tailings dam at the Mount Polley mine located in south-central British Columbia was built caused the structure to collapse under its own weight, according to engineers tasked with finding out why the dam burst on Aug. 4. Mount Polley is an open pit copper-gold mine with a developing underground project. "The design did not take into... Full story
British Columbia Premier Christy Clark Jan. 26 unveiled C$9 million in new funding to support mining in the province. Clark said the funds will establish a Major Mines Permitting Office to improve coordination of major mine permits across government, add staff to conduct more inspections and permit reviews, and maintain improved turnaround times for notice of work permits. The base budget of the ministry will be increased by about C$6 million, including a portion to make... Full story
To further strengthen neighborly bonds, British Columbia Minister of Mines Bill Bennett met with miners, fishermen, legislators and state regulators during an early November trip to Alaska. "I hope, and I believe, that we will be able to continue to work closely with Alaska on all of the issues that we share," Bennett said during a Nov. 5 presentation at the Alaska Miners Association 2014 Convention. These shared issues are part and parcel of a common border that stretches...
The Dene First Nations of Northwest Territories has created what is likely Canada's first 100 percent aboriginal-owned exploration and mining company. Named DemCo Limited Partnership, the startup will celebrate one year in business in October, and is already making its mark in the industry. DemCo's mission is to enable the Dene to become owners of hardrock mines operating on their own lands. The new company is owned by Denendeh Investments Limited Partnership, which has a membership comprised of First Nations from the five...
Results from water sampling show that the immediate environmental impacts of an estimated 14.5 million cubic meters of tailings and water released from a facility at Imperial Metals Corp.'s Mount Polley Mine in central British Columbia are isolated primarily to the area immediately below the breached dam. But the extent of the spill's longer term damage to the reputation of the mining sector in B.C. and beyond rests largely on the response of industry and regulators. Leading... Full story
International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. rang in 2014 with a new chief executive leading a streamlined Alaska-centric company focused on optimizing and safeguarding Livengood until a partner steps up to continue the advancement of the 20-million-ounce gold deposit. Tom Irwin, who ascended to the role of president and CEO of International Tower Hill Mines on Jan. 1, will lead the company's efforts to develop a mine at the world-class Livengood gold project that would contribute to...
With nearly five exploration seasons under its belt, Kaminak Gold Corp.'s Coffee Gold Project appears to be on the road to delivering on its potential as an emerging district-scale mining opportunity. Located in the White Gold district of west-central Yukon Territory, Coffee was optioned by Kaminak in 2009 from Yukon prospector Shawn Ryan. The company has explored the property every year since, and reported discovery of at least 11 gold zones. Kaminak CEO Eira Thomas said the fine-grained gold mineralization found at Coffee,...
A substantial amount of mining activity continued apace in Yukon Territory this season even though most mining companies are shying away from the anorexic capital markets. Many exploration companies raised funds in other ways, turning out their pockets to return to Yukon in 2013 to explore for Carlin-style gold mineralization in the east-central region of the territory, for more gold-bearing structures in the White Gold and Klondike districts to the west and for other styles and types of mineralization elsewhere in the territ...
Fortune Minerals Ltd. is advancing two mineral projects involving three different jurisdictions of Canada and doing much of it with the same timeframe. On the heels of development of its Nico gold-cobalt-bismuth-copper project in Northwest Territories, Fortune is also targeting commercial production at the Arctos Anthracite Project, formerly Mount Klappan Anthracite Coal Project, in Northwest British Columbia within the next four years. Management is shooting for the last half of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016 for...
Don Ewigleben and Tom Irwin - two figures that played key roles in the development of Kinross Gold Corp.'s Fort Knox Mine - are once again united to develop a world-class gold deposit in Interior Alaska. Filling a void created by the sudden departure of James Komadina in May, International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. appointed Chairman Ewigleben president and CEO of the company looking to develop the 20-million-ounce Livengood gold project. Ewigleben, a lawyer who spent 35 years... Full story
One year after going public, Chieftain Metals Inc. is blazing a trail through roadblocks that impeded past efforts to re-open the historical Tulsequah Chief Mine, a precious metals-rich volcanogenic massive sulfide project on British Columbia's western border about 65 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of Alaska's capital city of Juneau. A C$20 million initial public offering that closed in December 2010 provided Chieftain with the funds needed to put the project back on the... Full story
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...
Less than two years after completing its initial public offering, Fire River Gold Corp. is positioned to commence production at its Nixon Fork Gold Mine in Interior Alaska. Building stockpiles of ore with gold grades of more than 1 ounce per metric ton, the young junior is preparing to start up the historical mine in June. With Fire River Gold nearing a point where it will generate its own revenue stream, company founder Harry Barr is stepping down as president and CEO of the... Full story
Mining exploration activity in northern British Columbia approached record levels in 2010 with explorers setting a new drilling record and spending about C$168 million in pursuit of a wide range of minerals, including gold, copper, silver, molybdenum, and rare earth elements, according to a top provincial geologist. Paul Wojdak, regional geologist for the Northwest Region of British Columbia's Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, said the major good news mining story in 2010 for central and northern British... Full story
As mining heats up in Yukon Territory, professionals from around the globe are finding new roles in the region and employing a host of unique experiences and perspectives in pursuit of exploration, development and production of the territory's minerals. This growing international contingent covers the industry spectrum and hails from around the globe. Their presence is most evident in exploration camps scattered across the Yukon; however, the new manager of Yukon's sole producer, Capstone Mining Corp.'s Minto Mine, is a...
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...
