The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Continuing a tradition of growth, Hecla Mining Company has increased its reserves of silver, lead, and zinc to historic levels. Hecla goes into 2020 with 37.08 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 212.2 million ounces of silver, 2 billion pounds of zinc, 1.6 billion lb of lead and 2.71 million oz of gold. Hecla replaced the 12.6 million oz of silver produced from ore containing 15.4 million oz and increased reserves by 11 percent during 2019, despite u...
Hecla Mining Company Jan. 7 reported that its Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska produced 9.9 million ounces of silver in 2019, a 24 percent jump over the 8 million oz produced the prior year and the highest annual production since the Idaho-based company bought full ownership of the operation in 2008. Greens Creek also produced 56,624 oz of gold last year, a 10 percent increase compared to the 51,493 oz produced in 2018. The Southeast Alaska mine also produces appreciable...
In November 1996, a little over 23 years ago, I began writing quarterly mining news summaries for the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG). Shortly after that, I began writing monthly summaries for this publication's ancestor, Mining News Alaska, and have continued both monthly, quarterly and annual mining news summaries ever since. With this summary, I have written my last Alaska update for North of 60 Mining News. When I wrote my first summary, Greens Creek was milling only... Full story
As the year winds down, mineral industry evaluations for 2019 are being published at a rapid rate. One of the most interesting such global reviews is EY Global Mining and Metals' annual "risk radar" for mining and metals, outlining what mining companies perceive as the top ten risks facing them in the near future. This publication stated that, for the second straight year, "social license to operate" remains the number one risk facing mining companies in 2020. This was... 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,...
Hecla Mining Company Oct. 7 reported that its Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska produced 2.54 million ounces of silver during the third quarter, a 36 percent increase over the 1.88 million oz produced during the same period of 2018. Through the first nine months of 2019, Greens Creek has produced 7.15 million oz of silver. This is up 24 percent compared to the first three quarters of last year and puts the Southeast Alaska operation on pace to produce 9.5 million oz of...
As the rest of the country suffers through the Dog Days of summer, Alaska is approaching the end of a topsy-turvy summer season that saw unseasonably hot, dry weather in some parts of the state during some parts of the summer, while other parts of the state have seen record rainfall and unseasonably early snowfall. Gold prices have skyrocketed over the $1,500 per ounce mark and silver prices have moved strongly up, now trading at a one-year high. However, copper and zinc are a... Full story
Hecla Mining Company Aug. 6 reported that drilling at Greens Creek has upgraded and expanded the resources in East Ore, NWW and 9A, zones. East Ore is a zone that comes to surface at the Big Sore outcrop that led to the Greens Creek discovery. Going into 2019, this zone continued to host 454,800 metric tons of indicated resource averaging 12.6 ounces per ton (5.73 million oz) silver, 7.86 percent (35,760 tons) zinc, 2.94 percent (13,390 tons) lead and 0.089 oz/t (40,600 oz) go...
Hecla Mining Company sees higher grades at its Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska as a catalyst for higher companywide silver production this year. "Silver production at Greens Creek continued to be strong due to higher grades, so we are increasing our estimates for silver production for the year," said Hecla Mining CEO Phillips Baker, Jr. Through the first half of 2019, the Greens Creek Mine has produced 4.6 million ounces of silver, which accounts for roughly 77 percent...
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
Hecla Mining Company July 18 reported that its Greens Creek Mine produced 2.37 million ounces of silver during the second quarter of 2019, a 19 percent increase over the same period of 2018. This marks the highest silver production at the Southeast Alaska operation in three years. Greens Creek also churned out 13,256 oz of gold during the quarter ending June 30, which is down 3 percent compared to a year ago. The Idaho-based miner said higher ore grades due to mining...
In the famous words of Sherlock Holmes, the game is afoot! After seasonally slower news from Alaska's mining industry in March and April, the dam has broken with over two dozen Alaska mining project news releases issued in the last month. Including those projects moving forward that have not released their 2019 plans, Alaska has become a very busy place under the sun. All of our major metal mines reported strong performances in the first quarter, several of Alaska's most... Full story
As is usually the case this time of year, news about Alaska mineral activities is a bit sparse this month as planning activities are at flank speed ahead of next month's surge in field activities. That said, there has been a blizzard of mineral industry data released recently that has both direct and indirect applications to the Alaska mineral industry. First off, some internally generated data. Current public and private budget announcements suggest Alaska's exploration... Full story
Hecla Mining Company April 17 reported that its Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska produced 2.23 million ounces of silver during the first quarter of 2019, a 17 percent increase over the first three months of 2018. The Southeast Alaska operation also churned out 14,328 oz of gold during the quarter ending March 31, which is up 9 percent compared to a year ago. The Idaho-based miner said higher ore grades and increased recoveries, partially offset by lower mill throughput,...
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...
As is usually the case this time of year, the mining industry is awash in backward-looking statements designed to allow for more accurate forward-looking statements. Prime among them is one of my favorites, S&P Global's annual "World Exploration Trends 2019", a summary of what happened industry-wide in 2018 and what it may portend for the mining industry in 2019. The study predicts that global exploration budgets will increase again in 2019, although by a smaller amount, with... Full story
Seeking economic and cultural prosperity for its more than 22,000 Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian shareholders while also looking to provide even greater benefits for future generations, Sealaska takes a balanced approach to developing the resources growing above and stored beneath its lands in Southeast Alaska. This does not mean the Southeast Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) corporation shuns mining or other resource development in its region, a nearly 600-mile... Full story
The value of non-fuel metals produced in Alaska and the United States during 2018 were similar to 2017, according to Mineral Commodity Summaries 2019, an annual report published by the U.S. Geological Survey. Alaska mines produced roughly $3.44 billion worth of non-fuel minerals last year, down nearly 3 percent from the US$3.53 million in 2017. This slight drop is largely due to lower output from the two largest mines in the state – Fort Knox and Pogo. The roughly 1.4 b... Full story
Those of you that attended the recent Cordilleran Roundup Convention in Vancouver can attest to the exuberant, upbeat atmosphere that pervaded the conference and was very much in evidence at the standing-room only festivities at our annual self-hosted Alaska Night meet and greet. But digging down under this veneer of optimism, many of the junior explorers and most of the producers admitted to their expectations of challenging times in 2019. Putting words to this apparent... Full story
Hecla Mining Company Feb. 14 reported the highest silver, gold and lead reserves in its 128-year history. "The increase reflects the quality of the districts we control; our long-term, consistent strategy; and the capturing and use of all the data that long-lived mines have," said Hecla Mining President and CEO Phillips Baker, Jr. "It is particularly important that this growth comes at Greens Creek and Casa Berardi, who generate approximately 85 percent of our revenue and...
I, for one, feel vindicated, relieved and ready to face the New Year! How so, you ask? Please let me explain. For those of you who remember my column in November, I noted that EY Global Mining and Metals publishes an annual "risk radar" for mining and metals, outlining what mining companies perceive as the top ten risks facing them in the near future. This publication was for the years 2017-2018 and stated that "Our number one risk this year is digital effectiveness." If you... Full story
Hecla Mining Company Jan. 15 reported that its Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska produced 8 million ounces of silver and 51,493 oz of gold in 2018, compared to 8.4 million oz silver and 50,855 million oz of gold in 2017. The roughly 5 percent drop in silver production at Greens Creek is due to anticipated lower grades. The mill operated at an average of 2,316 tons per day in 2018. This marks the second straight year of record throughput for the Greens Creek mill. This...
Hecla Mining Company's Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska has enough reserves to keep the high-grade underground silver mine in operation until 2030. The Greens Creek Mine now has 9.23 million tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 11.5 oz/t (107.1 million oz) silver; 0.09 oz/t (840,000 oz) gold; 7.6 percent (706,470 tons) zinc; and 2.8 percent (227,740 tons) lead. This marks the highest silver reserves for Greens Creek since Hecla bought full ownership of the... Full story
Cobalt is a critical safety ingredient in the cathodes of lithium-ion batteries powering the ever-increasing number of electric vehicles traveling global highways and a plethora of cordless electrical devices. "Globally, the leading use is in the manufacture of cathode materials for rechargeable batteries – primarily lithium-ion, nickel-cadmium, and nickel-metal-hydride batteries – which are used in consumer electronics, electric and hybrid-electric vehicles, energy sto... Full story
If you pay any attention to the popular press, it is difficult to avoid critical references to President Trump. He has become the effigy for everything from political division to global iconoclasm. However, as is the case with so many national issues; the impact of the intense debates inside the Beltway have only an attenuated resonance on the Last Frontier. The on-going controversy between elitist progressive governance and populistic resistance surfaced with the 2016 electio...
