The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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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...
11 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for the Palmer copper-zinc-silver-gold project in Southeast Alaska. A roughly US$9 million exploration program outlined by Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. on May 10 proposes not only the annual tradition of resource expansion and new discoveries but also plans to provide the first peek into the economics of mining the copper- and zinc-rich volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits found there so far. Being carried out by a joint venture...
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. May 1 said it intends to raise C$10 million through a non-brokered private placement that will include a major strategic investment from Electrum Strategic Opportunities Fund II L.P., an investment fund managed by The Electrum Group LLC. Altius Minerals Corp. and John Tognetti, a major shareholder and Constantine Metal insider, are also slated to participate in the financing. "We welcome the Electrum 'family' as a major shareholder, who we...
In 2017 Alaska’s mineral exploration industry saw its first up-tick in exploration spending since 2011, an increase that S&P Global Market Intelligence’s “World Exploration Trends” indicates was mirrored on the world-wide level. According to S&P’s data, the worldwide exploration industry spent $8.4 billion in 2017, the first such increase in spending since 2012. S&P also forecast a 15-20 percent increase in exploration spending for 2018 as well. The study also showed that dema...
For the fourth year running, Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nevada, has put forward the legislation aimed at streamlining the process for permitting strategic and critical minerals in the United States. "Critical and strategic minerals are essential to the technologies that make our daily lives and economy work. Unfortunately, when it comes to mining strategic and critical minerals domestically, duplicative regulations, bureaucratic inefficiency, and lack of coordination between federal...
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. Feb. 27 said it has initiated a metallurgical test program to determine if a marketable barite concentrate can be produced as a co-product from the Palmer copper-zinc-gold-silver project in Southeast Alaska. In a report published earlier this year, the U.S. Geological Survey named barite among 23 minerals considered "critical" to the economic and national security of the United States. Palmer hosts a volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposit...
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. Jan. 6 named Ian Cunningham-Dunlop as the company's vice president of advanced projects, an appointment that signals the transition to advanced stage exploration and evaluation work at the Palmer project in Southeast Alaska. South Wall-RW zone, the most advanced of the high-grade volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits and prospects identified at Palmer, hosts 8.1 million metric tons of inferred resource grading 1.41 percent copper, 5.25 percent...
From wide zones of high-grade copper and zinc in resource expansion drilling to a discovery hole with grades worthy of being compared to Greens Creek, Constantine Metals Resource and Dowa Metals & Mining's 2017 drill program at the Palmer volcanogenic massive sulfide project in Southeast Alaska is off to a great start. After investing US$22 million into Palmer over the previous four years, Dowa Metals & Mining Alaska Ltd. earned a 49 percent joint venture interest in the...
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. April 12 announced plans for 7,000 meters of drilling this year at the Palmer project, Alaska in Southeast Alaska. This will mark the first program under the newly formed joint venture between Constantine (51 percent) and Dowa Metals & Mining Alaska Ltd (49 percent). The partners have developed a new multi-year plan for Palmer that includes exploration for new resources across the district-scale property, as well as expanding and upgrading the current inferred copper-zinc polymetallic...
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. Aug. 17 reported additional long, high-grade intercepts from exploration drilling at the Nunatak AG zone, a volcanogenic massive sulfide discovery located about 3,000 meters south of the South Wall-RW deposit at the Palmer project in Southeast Alaska. The discovery hole at Nunatak AG, reported in July, cut 9.2 meters of massive barite-sulfide averaging 312 grams per metric ton silver and 0.9 g/t gold. CMR17-92, drilled about 140 meters south of the discovery hole, cut 17.8 meters grading 11.7...
Mining's contribution to Alaska's economy starts with the hefty paychecks being issued to the some 4,350 miners that work in the state, according to recent study completed by the Alaska Miners Association and McDowell Group. The report, "The economic benefits of Alaska's mining industry," found that the average miner working in Alaska during 2016 received a whopping US$108,000 for the year, about double the average income across all sectors in the state. That is nearly US$470...
Alaska’s current fiscal crisis has highlighted the need to diversify the state’s economy and being one of the richest minerals jurisdictions on the planet, mining is an industry that could play a major role in future wealth creation in the Last Frontier. Alaska Gov. Bill Walker touched on mining’s role in the state’s future during a Nov. 15 address at the Alaska Resource Conference. “We have six large scale mines in Alaska, we would like to have 12,” he told the business le...
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. is a metals exploration company focused primarily on its Palmer volcanogenic massive sulfide project in Southeast Alaska. Dowa Metals & Mining Co. Ltd., which joined Constantine in advancing exploration and potential development of Palmer in 2013, had invested US$20 million in advancing the VMS project through the end of 2016. This, along with US$2 million deposited into a joint venture account, earned the Tokyo-based smelting and mining company a 49 percent stake in the Palmer. Constantine...
Alaska's minerals exploration sector is on an upswing, thanks to Australian mining explorers looking north and mining majors upping their activities in the state. South32 Ltd., a Perth, Australia-based miner spun out of BHP Billiton Plc, is the largest mining company from Down Under to express an interest in Alaska's mineral potential this year. South32, which has eight operating mines in the Southern Hemisphere, secured an option to acquire a 50 percent interest in Trilogy...
With winter programs winding down and summer efforts rapidly ramping up, it is becoming clear that 2017 will be a much more vigorous year for the Alaska mining industry than the 2013 to 2016 period. For example, my internal estimates are already pushing $75 million for exploration activity alone and a significant number of projects that have announced exploration plans have not yet announced budgets for 2017, so that number is likely to rise. Compare this to estimates of less...
Bureau of Land Management April 28 announced a 30-day public comment period on a request from Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. to extend the planned road at its Palmer project near Haines by 800 feet. Last year, Constantine gained approval to build 2.5 miles of new road that will provide access to the Glacier Creek deposit at Palmer. This authorization by BLM allows for up to 40 acres of ground disturbance to carry out exploration on their federal claims. The extension requested by Constantine would involve about 0.5 acres...
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. June 13 announced the start of a 7,000-meter drill program with two drills at the Palmer volcanogenic massive sulfide project near Haines, in Southeast Alaska. This is the first program under the newly formed Palmer joint venture between Constantine (51 percent) and Dowa Metals & Mining Alaska Ltd (49 percent). The majority of this year's drilling is dedicated to discovery of new mineral deposits. Palmer is host to numerous high-quality prospects with large hydrothermal alteration zones and...
The summer solstice has come and gone, but the Alaska mining industry has paid little attention to the decreased amount of daylight because it is high summer in the high latitudes, time to be out completing work programs that have been in the planning since last fall. Exploration drilling programs have sprouted in the Brooks Range, Interior, Alaska Range, Southeast, Southwest and the Alaska Peninsula. In addition, the sounds of tire-kicking are being heard over a wide area of...
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. Nov. 2 reported wide silver and zinc intervals during expansion drilling at the AG Zone, a silver- and zinc-rich volcanogenic massive sulfide discovery at the Palmer project in Southeast Alaska. The discovery hole at AG, reported in July, cut 9.2 meters of massive barite-sulfide averaging 312 grams per metric ton silver and 0.9 g/t gold. Assays from additional holes reported in August include: 17.8 meters grading 11.7 percent zinc, 0.2 percent...
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. Oct. 2 reported additional high-grade zinc and copper intercepts in four holes drilled to upgrade and expand the resource at the South Wall zone of the Palmer project in Southeast Alaska. According to a 2015 calculation, the South Wall and RW zones at Palmer host 8.125 million metric tons of inferred resources in the averaging 5.25 percent (940.4 million pounds) zinc, 1.41 percent (252.6 million lb) copper, 0.32 grams per metric ton (83,600...
As the Alaska mining industry prepares for and kicks off exploration, development and production activities for 2017, the question on everyone’s lips at the recent Cordilleran Roundup mining convention in Vancouver, B. C., was the same: “Have we seen the bottom of this down cycle?” While signs of life were seen for short periods during the 2008 to 2015 period, the reality was an overall downward spiral of commodities prices and global demand. However, in a recent editi...
Alaska is rich in mineral potential but poor in the critical infrastructure needed to fully realize this potential, that was the message Alaska Division of Geological and Geological Surveys Director Steve Masterman delivered to lawmakers on Capitol Hill. During a March 30 hearing, Masterman informed member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources that Alaska could be the answer to the United States growing dependence on foreign suppliers for minerals....
For the first time in five long years, the mood at the recently held Alaska Miners Association Convention in Anchorage was buoyant, the result of a slow but steady turnaround on mineral investments in the state. Additional new corporate interest in the state emerged during the past 30 days, and sources of exploration funds coming to Alaska continue to shift, with estimates for 2017 suggesting that 62 percent of this financing comes from Canadian concerns, 18 percent from...
In early November, the Alaska Miners Association will hold its annual convention in Anchorage. Unlike the past four or five years, the excitement surrounding the convention this year is palpable due to the steady increase in exploration, development and production activities in Alaska in 2017. Clear signs of the industry's long-awaited revival include the fact that 11 new project acquisitions have taken place in 2017, half of which involve companies that are newcomers to the...
The Alaska mining industry continued its increased pace of activities in August, even as the first hint of autumn starts to be felt across the state. Metals prices were relatively stable with increasing demand for zinc and gold, the two metals that generate the most revenue from Alaska's operating mines. Wood Mackenzie is forecasting a 3 percent increase in global refined zinc demand in 2017 to 14.7 million metric tons. With refined zinc production limited to a 2 percent...
