The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Extremely hard and with the highest melting point of all the metals, tungsten's toughness is legendary. Like many of the other metals that have found their way onto critical mineral lists in Canada, Europe, and the United States, this durable metal is vulnerable to Chinese control. "World tungsten supply was dominated by production in China and exports from China," the U.S. Geological Survey inked in its 2021 mineral commodities report. It is estimated that mines in China...
Metallic Minerals Corp. April 7 reported that its 2020 drill program at West Keno confirmed the presence of high-grade silver mineralization at advanced targets on this property along extensions of structural corridors being mined on Alexco Resources Corp.'s adjacent Keno Hill project in the Yukon. Metallic Minerals completed 2,674 meters of drilling in 12 holes during its 2020 program at West Keno. This included 11 holes at Formo, a top priority target for near-term resource...
Granite Creek Copper Ltd. is leveraging the power of artificial intelligence to help discover more copper, gold, and silver across its Carmacks and Carmacks North project in the Yukon. After acquiring Copper North Mining Corp. late last year, Granite Creek expanded its land position within Yukon's Minto Copper Belt to 176 square kilometers (68 square miles). This merged land package includes the Carmacks deposit, which hosts 23.76 million metric tons of resources averaging...
Already headed toward the lowest level of annual mineral exploration spending in nearly two decades, the mining industry in Nunavut got broadsided by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Travel and workplace restrictions quickly imposed last spring by federal and local authorities to prevent the spread of the disease to the northern territory led some companies to cancel or postpone planned exploration programs until 2021. In February, Natural Resources Canada released figures...
The United States is heavily dependent on China and other foreign suppliers for its barite, a mineral critical to the petroleum sector. Barite derives from barús, the Ancient Greek word for heavy, owing to an exceptionally high specific gravity for a non-metallic mineral. It is this weight that makes barite a key element to the oil and gas sector and lands the mineral on USGS' critical list. "More than 90% of the barite sold in the United States was used as a weighting agent...
America's supply of tungsten, an extremely durable metal that is vital to a broad range of American industrial sectors, is at high-risk. A recent U.S. Geological Survey assessment to identify which mineral commodities are most at risk to supply disruptions ranked tungsten near the top of the list – alongside rare earth elements, cobalt and graphite, platinum group metals and tungsten. Like many of its neighbors at the top of the mineral commodity supply risk list, much of the...
The United States imported more than 90% of the 1.4 million metric tons of titanium minerals it consumed during 2019. What the mass majority of this critical mineral was used for, however, may come as a surprise. While titanium's lightweight and extreme durability make it an excellent material for aircraft and high-performance sporting equipment, more than 90% of this mineral mined each year is used to impart a stark whiteness to a surprisingly wide variety of consumer goods w...
When Granite Creek Copper Ltd. decided to refocus its energies on finding copper in Yukon Territory in October 2018, it swung into action, aggressively tackling its vision of becoming a leading copper exploration company. Just over two years later, the junior has acquired the advanced Carmacks Copper Project and is hoping to establish a mineral resource estimate on its larger Stu Project next door. To begin its transition, the junior changed its name from Granite Creek Gold...
Stretching along roughly 400 miles of Alaska's southern coast – from the north end of the Southeast Alaska Panhandle near Icy Bay to the tip of the Kenai Peninsula near Homer – the Chugach Alaska Corp. region epitomizes Alaska beauty. This 10 million-acre region along Gulf of Alaska coastline is carved with majestic fjords and bays teeming with fish, birds and marine mammals, and vistas of mountains and glaciers rising above and cutting through dense forests of hemlock and...
Yukon Territory, a mineral exploration frontrunner in Canada's North, is witnessing a significant slowdown in 2019. As a result, growth in Yukon's economy is expected to slow this year but rebound in 2020, according to The Conference Board of Canada. In its "Territorial Outlook Economic Forecast: Summer 2019," released in June, the board said new mines coming online in 2020 will drive Yukon's growth in the near future. Several factors, however, have converged to put the...
In the westernmost reaches of Alaska lies "Tin City," a mining settlement that all but disappeared except for a lonely radar station looking out over our seas and skies today. Located on the Seward Peninsula's Bering Sea coast, about 90 miles northwest of Nome and five miles southeast of Cape Prince of Wales, Tin City was founded with aspirations as simple and as grand as the name had hoped for it. An all but forgotten camp that had implications far larger than it probably...
The Bristol Bay region is home to two resources that beyond a doubt earn the moniker "world-class" – an annual run of sockeye salmon that is second to none and Pebble, the largest undeveloped copper and gold deposits known to exist on Earth. These world-renowned resources, however, have stirred up controversy in this Oklahoma-sized region of Southwest Alaska, as many of the roughly 7,400 Bristol Bay residents are concerned that mining the copper, gold, molybdenum and other m...
Granite Creek Copper Ltd. Feb. 19 said it has secured a substantial historical database detailing exploration work conducted on the area covered by the company's newly acquired Stu copper-gold-silver project about 47 kilometers (29 miles) northeast of Carmacks, Yukon. Granite Creek Copper is a newly formed exploration company that closed a deal to acquire Stu in January. At the time of the acquisition, the company closed a C$1.8 million non-brokered private placement...
Metallic Minerals Corp. Jan. 28 reported additional high-grade silver results from the 2018 exploration programs at its 100% owned McKay Hill Project, located 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the historic Keno Hill Silver District in the Yukon. While McKay Hill is earlier stage than Metallic's Keno Silver project to the south, the company see's similar potential for a district-scale, high-grade silver-lead-zinc-copper system on the property. The company said its 2018 explorat...
Titanium conjures images of the durable and lightweight metal used to build aircraft, replacement hips, high-end bicycle frames and even quality golf clubs. While its outstanding weight-to-strength ratio and corrosion resistance makes this critical metal ideal for these applications, roughly 93 percent of the world's titanium is used to impart a stark whiteness to many of the consumer goods we use every day. "Titanium is different than most other metallic elements in that it...
Extremely hard and with the highest melting point of all the elements on the periodic table, tungsten is a vital ingredient to a wide-range of industrial and military applications, yet none of this durable metal is currently mined in the United States. According to the United States Geological Survey, more than half of the tungsten consumed in the U.S. last year was used to make the cemented tungsten-carbide, a compound typically made with equal parts tungsten and carbon....
One of the most common complaints I hear from companies and individuals working in the mineral industry in Alaska is our deplorable lack of modern, usable-scale digital geophysical and geologic maps. How bad is it? Consider this: the U.S. Geological Survey has estimated that less than 2 percent of Alaska has acceptable geophysical data coverage, and less than 20 percent has been geologically mapped at a scale useful to evaluate the state's mineral resources. Nobody will deny...
In a report published in December, the United States Geological Survey defined critical minerals as non-fuel minerals or mineral materials essential to the economic and national security of the United States; vulnerable to supply chain disruptions; and serve an essential function in the manufacturing of a product, the absence of which would have significant consequences for the U.S. economy or security. Using this definition, USGS has identified 35 minerals critical to the...
Though mineral exploration in Yukon Territory this year lagged the pace seen in 2018, mine development projects advanced at a steady clip in 2019, while several past-producing mines moved toward resuming output. Yukon ranked fourth in Canada for projected spending on mineral exploration and deposit evaluation for 2018, according to statistics distributed by Natural Resources Canada. Spending for mineral exploration and deposit evaluations totaled C$249.4 million, made up of C$...
Extremely hard and with the highest melting point of all the elements on the periodic table, tungsten is vital to a broad spectrum of commercial and military applications, yet there are no mines in the United States producing this durable metal. Nearly 60 percent of the tungsten consumed in the U.S. during 2018 was used to make the cemented tungsten-carbide, a compound of roughly equal parts tungsten and carbon. Roughly twice as strong as steel, tungsten carbide is often...
Titanium conjures images of the durable and lightweight metal used to build aircraft, replacement hips, high-end bicycle frames and even quality golf clubs. While its outstanding weight-to-strength ratio and corrosion resistance makes this critical metal ideal for these applications, roughly 93 percent of the world's titanium is used to impart a stark whiteness to many of the consumer goods we use every day. "Titanium is different than most other metallic elements in that it...
If you are reading this article on your computer, tablet or phone, you are almost certainly looking through indium as we speak; and, if that devise happens to be a touchscreen you have the unique properties of this critical mineral to thank as you scroll down to read more about indium and where it can be found in Alaska. This is because indium-tin oxide is used as a transparent conducting film applied to virtually every flat-panel display and touchscreen on the market. This...
While not the flashiest of the 35 minerals on the United States Geological Survey's critical list, barite plays an essential role in America's energy sector. Barite derives its name from barús, the Ancient Greek word for heavy, owing to an exceptionally high specific gravity for a non-metallic mineral. It is this weight that makes barite a key element to the oil and gas sector and lands the mineral on USGS' critical list. "More than 90 percent of the barite sold in the United...
I'll be the first to concede that the upcoming election is probably a done deal, and that for Alaskans, it is probably far more important that we do our best to ensure that Republican majorities continue in both houses of Congress; however, I have to share a certain feeling of sadness for the future if we are saddled with four (or more) years of business as usual in the White House. For most Alaskan-Americans, I believe that the incumbency has been an economic disaster....
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...
