The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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As Alaska embarks on building a major new hydropower generation project, the question of whether the endeavor could spur development of hardrock mines in Interior and Southcentral Alaska arises. Gov. Sean Parnell signed energy legislation in mid-July aimed at moving the Susitna-Watana hydroelectric project toward licensing and construction with first power anticipated in 2023. Senate Bill 42, sponsored by the governor, allows the Alaska Energy Authority to advance the engineering and design of the Susitna Dam. "The Susitna Da... Full story
A March ruling by U.S. District Judge John W. Sedwick, which reinstated the so-called "Roadless Rule" in the Tongass National Forest, promised an early end to Ucore Rare Metal Inc.'s 2011 exploration at its Bokan Mountain rare earth elements project on Prince of Wales Island and left several other Southeast Alaska mineral projects needing special permission to carry out planned drilling. "The implementation of the 'roadless rule' in the Tongass National Forest by Judge...
Zinc, the fourth most consumed metal in the world, is an essential building block of modern society and the dominant metal mined in Alaska over the past two decades. In 2010, 538,000 metric tons of zinc was mined at Teck Resources Ltd.'s Red Dog Mine and an additional 67,580 metric tons of zinc was recovered as a byproduct at Hecla Mining Co.'s Greens Creek silver mine, accounting for US$1.3 billion, or about 42 percent, of Alaska's US$3.1 billion of mineral production for...
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...
The Fraser Institute recently released its "Survey of Mining Companies, 2010/2011," an annual survey of exploration and mining companies that gauges the pros and cons of working in various countries around the world. This year the survey results came from 494 mining companies working in 79 jurisdictions and representing cumulative exploration expenditures of more than US$2.4 billion in 2010. There was a bit of honey and a bit of vinegar for Alaska in this report. Let's do...
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...
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
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
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...
While intrepid juniors are busy pursuing another season of uranium exploration in Nunavut, the Government of Nunavut, in partnership with the federal government through the Canada-Nunavut Geoscience Office are participating in a major collaboration between government, industry and academia in hopes of achieving similar objectives - gaining a better understanding of the region's prospectivity for the radioactive mineral. "In Nunavut much of this geology is poorly understood," says Peter Taptuna, Nunavut's Minister of Economic...
Undaunted, undeterred and poised for growth is the message Hecla Mining Co. brought to its shareholders at the company's annual meeting in May. This mantra reflects the silver miner's perseverance in overcoming the financial challenges it faced after spending US$750 million in April 2008 to buy Rio Tinto's 70.27 percent stake in Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska, an acquisition that has catapulted it to the No. 1 silver producer in the United States. "It was difficult in '...
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...
Metals markets continue to climb out of the basement as the world demand for metals resumes its upward trend. Fueled by this growing demand, numerous Alaska precious, base and rare metal projects reported results of their 2009 exploration, development and production programs. The recent Alaska Miners Association Convention in Anchorage felt this surge of interest with the highest attendance in more than a decade. The atmosphere at the conference was charged with optimism, a co...
Hecla Mining Co. has repaid the US$380 million it borrowed to buy out Rio Tinto plc's 70.3 percent interest in the Greens Creek Mine. The purchase, which gave the Idaho-based miner 100 percent interest in the Southeast Alaska silver mine, nearly proved to be the company's undoing. "It was frankly a near-death experience for the company," Hecla Vice President of Corporate Development Don Poirier told an audience at the Alaska Miners Association 2009 annual convention Nov. 5....
After spending $750 million to buy out Rio Tinto's 70.27 percent interest in the Greens Creek Mine in April 2008 and then watching base metal prices plummet, Hecla Mining Co. chose to be prudent in its 2009 exploration of the zinc-rich silver mine. Though restrained, the Idaho-based silver miner's US$3.4 million exploration budget for Greens Creek continued the tradition of replenishing the reserves currently being mined as well as drilling a contact zone that could become a...
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...
Spring has arrived in Alaska and the mining industry is heading to the hills to do its work. Compared to last year, the state is a quiet place in the sun due to drastically reduced exploration and development budgets. Alaska's mines continue to benefit from the sharply reduced costs of power, diesel fuel, labor and other goods and services, but worldwide economic uncertainties have dried up the availability of venture capital for smaller exploration companies and have made... Full story
Nunavut Territory's next mine appears to be a winner. On track to begin initial gold production in early 2010, the Meadowbank Project promises to deliver the best of what those who pressed for the creation of the territory had in mind - a mining venture capable of doing the heavy lifting needed to improve the local standard of living by providing steady, good-paying jobs along with significant public revenue. The Meadowbank property is located in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut and lies in the Third Portage Lake area, about...
There are some new stats out from the State of Alaska that I thought you might like to see. For 2008, the Alaska mining industry accounted for 3,500 direct jobs and 5,500 indirect jobs. The industry doled out US$350 million in payroll with the average salary totaling US$82,600 per year, which is 90 percent higher than the statewide average for all sectors. Mining salaries were higher than all other sectors, except for the oil and gas sector. The industry paid US$105 million in...
The plummet in base metal prices in 2008 will be felt across Alaska and Northwest Canada's mining sectors. Miners of the far north reaches of North America enjoyed a bounty when base metal prices reached record values in 2007, carrying into 2008. The escalation of base metal prices was driven by expanding markets in China and India, as well as a building, retail and technology boom in the West. Mines producing the industrial metals enjoyed unprecedented returns from the ore sh... Full story
Alaska saw robust mining activity in 2008 across the full spectrum of the industry, from small placer operations to major producers, and from exploration programs to advanced development projects. Here is a look at companies reporting significant progress during the year. Placer mining Silverado Gold Mines Ltd. has recovered 26,879 ounces of placer gold from channel and bench deposits in the Nolan Valley through 2007. The largest nugget recovered from the property, located about 280 miles north of Fairbanks, weighed 41.35...
Hecla Mining Co. now has until Feb. to pay off the remaining balance on the $240 million bridge loan it took out to purchase Rio Tinto's 70.27 percent of the Greens Creek Mine near Juneau, Alaska. In April, the Coeur D'Alene-based silver miner agreed to pay $750 million ($700 million in cash and $50 million in Hecla common stock) to its Greens Creek partner, Rio Tinto, for 100 percent ownership of the Southeast Alaska silver mine. Hecla put about $340 million from its...
Let me start this month's mining update by saying I am not a chartist nor do I believe economic cycles are controlled by cosmic forces known only to the mystics. That said, I do believe in cycles because I have lived and worked through more cycles in the mining industry than I care to remember. So a couple of observations seem in order as we plummet down the slope off another peak into what looks to be a pretty deep, chilly valley. First off, what goes up, must come down with...
