The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 115
HighGold Mining Inc. Oct. 16 reported the completion of 2,247 meters of drilling in nine holes during the newly formed company's inaugural exploration program at the Johnson Tract gold-zinc-copper property in Southcentral Alaska. In addition to the drilling, which focused on defining and expanding the JT (Johnston Tract) deposit, this year's fieldwork included prospecting, geological mapping and geochemical sampling at several regional targets on the property. HighGold,...
If you have watched the metals markets over the last month, you know why Alaska's mineral industry has surged, stalled, swerved, swooped, slowed, shelved and stuttered, sometimes all at the same time! Gold has gone above US$1,500 per ounce; copper pundits are predicting an increasingly dour future; zinc markets are looking to dive below $1.00 per pound; tin markets have marched strongly upward due to supply disruptions; and silver bulls are calling for annual worldwide... Full story
Earlier this month S&P Global put out a summary indicating that during the first quarter of 2019 metals like copper, zinc and nickel were up quarter over quarter by 11 percent, 22 percent and 25 percent, respectively. More recently gold has skyrocketed beyond the $1,400-per-ounce mark for the first time in many months. Correspondingly, the mining industry's aggregate market cap also rebounded strongly in the period after four bearish quarters, rising 12 percent to $1.43... Full story
Contango ORE Inc. June 11 announced that the sales process for the Peak Gold joint venture has concluded without identifying a buyer for the partnership that owns the high-grade Peak Gold project in Interior Alaska. Two adjacent skarn deposits at Peak Gold – Main Peak and North Peak – host 9.2 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 4.08 grams per metric ton (1.21 million ounces) gold and 14.19 g/t (4.2 million oz) silver. A preliminary economic ass...
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
Contango ORE Inc. May 13 said the Peak Gold joint venture will carry out a US$6.9 million exploration program at the Peak Gold property near Tok, Alaska. At the same time, the project partners – Contango ORE (60 percent) and Royal Gold Inc. (40 percent) – are continuing negotiations for the sale of Peak to a mining company that will advance development of the high-grade gold deposits found there. Two adjacent skarn deposits at Peak Gold – Main Peak and North Peak – host 9....
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
Royal Gold Inc. Feb. 6 said it has two criteria for any mining company interested in buying the Peak Gold project in Alaska – a willingness to make building a mine at the high-grade gold project a priority and a commitment to use the highest standards to do so. "Royal Gold will remain committed to the project over the long term through our existing royalty interests, and our considerations for any potential transfer of ownership will include a commitment to advance the project...
Contango ORE Inc. Jan. 23 announced that the Peak Gold mine project near the crossroads town of Tok in Eastern Interior Alaska is officially up for sale. The Peak Gold project is owned by a joint venture between Contango ORE (60 percent) and a subsidiary of Royal Gold Inc. (40 percent). Royal Gold, which manages the work under the joint venture, has retained Scotia Capital Inc. to conduct a joint process for the sale of the Peak Gold properties in Alaska. Given the high gold...
Excited about the robust economics outlined in a preliminary economic assessment finalized in October, Peak Gold partners – Contango ORE Inc. (60 percent) and Royal Gold Inc. (40 percent) are now looking at the potential of bringing on a partner to advance their high-grade gold deposit in eastern Alaska toward development. "We are at a point I think where it would be healthy to have somebody else come in and move the project forward with their skill set," Royal Gold P...
Following a couple of quiet months where Alaska's mining industry focused on its work, the last month has seen an explosion of new info come out regarding that effort, some of it profound in its potential immediate, near-term and long-term implications. For example, one of Alaska's largest mines was sold to a new owner at a surprisingly low cost per ounce. The results of a robust new preliminary economic analysis were tabled by an advanced gold-silver exploration project... Full story
The verdict is in – the economics of developing an open-pit mine at Peak Gold look tantalizing and Royal Gold Inc. is committed to being involved with this Eastern Interior Alaska gold-silver project for the long haul. Discovered by Contango ORE Inc. in 2009, the Peak Gold project hosts two skarn deposits – Main Peak and North Peak – on an underexplored property that covers roughly 850,000 acres west and south of Tok, a crossroads town on the Alaska Highway. A preli...
Contango ORE Inc. Aug. 30 said a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for the Peak Gold (formerly Tetlin) project in eastern Alaska is slated for completion by the end of September. Being advanced by a joint venture between Contango ORE (60 percent) and Royal Gold Inc. (40 percent), the Peak Gold project hosts two parallel gold-rich skarn deposits – Main Peak and North Peak – and 850,000 acres of underexplored and highly prospective land. The two Peak skarn deposits host a g...
An early spring coupled with low snow fall in many parts of Alaska have combined to enable companies large and small to start their summer field programs early this year. As expected, competition is stiff for people, drills, helicopters, heavy equipment and related services, awarding those who committed budgets early and penalizing those who did not or could not commit early. For the first time in half a decade, projects with money at hand may not be able to get the services t... Full story
There has never been anything ordinary about the Peak Gold (formerly Tetlin) project, or the companies that are exploring the high-grade gold skarn deposits found there. In a move that continues this tradition of extraordinary, Royal Gold Inc. has acquired a 13.6 percent stake in Contango ORE Inc. Neither of these companies are your prototypical mineral explorer and their involvement in the Peak Gold project continues to defy the norms for the industry and their own operating...
Contango ORE Inc. April 4 announced that Peak Gold LLC, a joint venture between Contango and Royal Gold Inc., has budgeted US$9.1 million for an initial phase of exploration at the Peak Gold (formerly Tetlin) project near the town of Tok in eastern Alaska. Contango ORE discovered the metals potential of Peak Gold while surveying the area for natural gas in 2008 and by 2014 had outlined a high-grade skarn deposit at the Peak zone with more than 1 million gold-equivalent...
Seven days of near-continuous rain did nothing to dampen the mood at the recently concluded Cordilleran Roundup Convention in Vancouver. The event was buoyed by a realistic optimism we have not seen in over five years. This change from half-empty to half-full glasses is due to a number of things including strong commodities prices, increasing global demand for metals and current or looming supply shortfalls in many of the metals produced by this industry. The event was... Full story
HighGold Mining Inc. was launched this summer to explore gold properties spun out of Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. While the spin-out of HighGold was not finalized until early August, the new company hit the ground running with drills turning at Johnson Tract, a gold-rich volcanogenic massive sulfide VMS project in Southcentral Alaska. Situated about six miles west of Cook Inlet and roughly 125 miles southwest of Anchorage, the 20,942-acre Johnson Tract property hosts a gol... Full story
Thanks largely to increased investments from Aussie mining explorers, mineral exploration spending across Alaska topped US$100 million in 2018. This is well above the roughly US$95 million invested last year and nearly double the US$58 million spent at the bottom of the market in 2015. "Canadian and Australian companies continue to be the source for the bulk of funds spent in Alaska in 2018, together comprising well over 80 percent of the exploration expenditures earmarked... Full story
Peak Gold, a joint venture between Contango ORE Inc. (60 percent) and Royal Gold Inc. (40 percent), is beginning to investigate the economics of mining the gold-rich Peak and North Peak skarn deposits that it has outlined at Peak Gold (formerly Tetlin), an extensive land package near the crossroads town of Tok in Alaska's Eastern Interior. The 2018 program also includes exploring for new skarn deposits near the Peak deposits, as well as evaluating the potential for porphyry... Full story
Peak Gold, a joint venture between Contango ORE Inc. and Royal Gold Inc., completed roughly US$11.8 million of exploration in 2017 at Peak Gold (formerly Tetlin), an extensive land package in Eastern Interior Alaska located near the crossroads town of Tok. The Peak Gold property hosts high-grade skarn deposits with gold, silver, copper and other metals. Contango ORE discovered the metals potential of Peak Gold while surveying the area for natural gas in 2008. After a...
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... Full story
Contango ORE Inc. Nov. 10 reported that Royal Gold Inc. has invested US$28.7 million into the Peak Gold project in eastern Alaska, which nears the US$30 million required to earn a 40 percent joint venture interest in the project. Once Royal Gold has earned its interest, Contango ORE will pay 60 percent of the expenditures at Peak Gold, formerly known as the Tetlin project, and Royal Gold will pay 40 percent. Contango ORE recently raised US$1.2 million through the exercise of...
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... Full story
As the first snows of the coming winter began to fall at high elevations across Alaska, results of summer programs likewise began to trickle in from far-flung areas of the state. Meanwhile, second- and third-quarter production data began to show up and mining industry analysts released a series of reports covering a wide range of industry-wide trends. For example, SNL Metals and Mining Research released information on how long it takes to move a new discovery to production.... Full story