The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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The owners of Alaska’s five large metal mines – Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo, Hecla Mining Company, Kinross Gold Corp, Teck Resources Ltd. and Coeur Mining Inc. – accounted for nearly half the US$92 million of exploration spending in the state during 2014 and similar investments by these companies is providing solid footing for the Far North state’s mineral exploration sector this year. Avalon Development President Curt Freeman said he is seeing more mining majors shopping for d...
Mineral exploration spending in Alaska will likely struggle to top US$80 million for 2014, a dramatic fall from the US$365.1 million pinnacle reached in 2011. "The din of mineral industry activity that is normally a part of the summer months in Alaska is decidedly muted this year as the global mining industry attempts to lift itself off the bottom of a plus-18-month-long slump," Avalon Development President Curt Freeman opined in a June column written for Mining News. Unlike 2...
IDM Mining Ltd. April 4 provided an updated resource estimate for its Red Mountain gold project located in northwestern British Columbia about 15 kilometers (nine miles) northeast of Stewart. Red Mountain now hosts 1.64 million metric tons of measured and indicated resource averaging 8.36 grams per metric ton (441,500 ounces) gold and 26 g/t (1.38 million oz.) silver. "With the release of today's updated resource estimate for the Red Mountain project, another milestone has...
Although there is plenty of Alaska mining industry news this month, the big dog in the pen is the dramatic and unexpected run-up in the price of gold, which moved from a low of $1,078 per ounce to a high of $1,246/oz., most of which occurred after Feb. 1. Although profit-taking and other factors have caused the price to back off a bit, the move was both dramatic and unexpected. As you might guess, the ether is full of talking heads telling us why it went up, why it either won'...
While many mining companies continue to scale back programs on their promising mineral exploration projects, Royal Gold and Contango Ore are expanding the extent of their work at Tetlin. This year, the partners have launched the first-ever winter drill program at this high-grade gold-copper project located near Tok, an eastern Alaska community at a junction of highways that lead to Fairbanks and Anchorage. Neither of these companies are your prototypical mineral explorer -...
As the curtain rings down on 2015, the sound of clapping and cheering can already be heard from the mining industry as it anticipates the end of a largely depressing year which started out looking like the long-awaited industry recovery was going to happen but in the end, did not. The uncertainty brought on by this year's unsettling events was front and center in a recent round-table discussion hosted by Northern Miner, sponsored by PearTree Securities and entitled "New...
Earlier this month, the Alaska Miners Association held its annual convention in Anchorage amid plummeting metals prices and an over-all atmosphere of economic uncertainty now stretching into its fourth year. Individuals from around North America and beyond were present and conversations outside of the technical sessions seemed to gravitate toward how best to climb out of the doldrums that seem to grip the mining industry on a global scale. One individual was heard to say that...
Contango ORE Inc. Nov. 16 posted results from 19 of 32 holes drilled during the second phase of 2015 exploration at the Tetlin project near Tok, Alaska. This exploration was carried out by Peak Gold, a limited liability joint venture company formed to further the exploration and development of the Tetlin project. Royal Gold Inc. has the option to earn up to a 40 percent interest economic interest in Peak Gold by investing up to US$30 million prior to October 2018. "We are...
CTGO:OTC MARKETS President and CEO: Brad Juneau Chief Financial Officer: Leah Gaines Contango ORE Inc. has forged an alliance with Royal Gold Inc., a company that promises to invest as much as US$30 million in furthering the exploration and potential development of the Tetlin gold properties situated along the Alaska Highway near the crossroads community of Tok in eastern Alaska. Since acquiring the property in 2008, Texas-based Contango ORE has identified a number of precious and base metal targets across the 750,000-acre...
Initial results from the 2015 drill program at the Tetlin project in eastern Alaska near Tok is providing some insight into why Royal Gold Inc. was eager to invest US$4 million to fund a second phase of drilling before winter sets in at the Interior Alaska project. Peak Gold - the limited liability joint venture company that Royal Gold joined earlier this year to follow up on the exploration success that Contango ORE Inc. had at Tetlin - completed 7,162 meters of core...
By the time this summary reaches your eyes, termination dust (aka "snow") will have started to cover mineral projects across Alaska. At a recent project site visit, one of the project owner's representatives was listening to local Alaskans talk about not being ready for winter, how many things planned for the summer remained un-done, etc. After some cogitation on this, he asked me "Does everyone in Alaska get surprised by winter every year?" My response was simple: When you...
If another US$4 million investment by Royal Gold Inc. is any indication, drilling so far this season at the Tetlin gold property in Interior Alaska is a success. In January, Royal Gold and Contango Ore Inc. finalized an agreement that affords the Denver-based royalty company an opportunity to earn as much as a 40 percent joint venture interest in Contango's Tetlin project by investing up to US$30 million on the unique and promising gold properties near the crossroads town of...
Mining is a notoriously cyclical business that generally ebbs and flows with the overall state of the global economy, and these cycles are amplified for junior mining companies charged with scouring the globe for the next generation of mines. Following a bull market that reached a crescendo at the end of 2010, the current bear market has been especially deep and painful for even seasoned mining sector veterans. "This has been a particularly treacherous bear market," longtime...
Royal Gold Inc. July 23 provided an operational update for its streaming and royalty interests at Mount Milligan, Phoenix and Voisey's Bay, as well as an update on exploration at the Peak Gold Joint Venture. Royal Gold estimates spending for Peak Gold, a joint venture with Contango Ore Inc. to explore the Tetlin gold-copper project in Alaska, to be around US$2 million for the quarter ending June 30. A total of US$5 million is planned for an initial phase of 2015 exploration at...
I recently returned from the Geological Society of Nevada's once-every-five-years Symposium in Reno and was surprised to learn a number of things regarding Alaska, despite the symposium's tight focus on the Great Basin of the western United States. First off, mineral exploration guru Brent Cook presented information suggesting we have reached and are "bumping along" the bottom of the current metals market slump. Reminded me of an overloaded fixed-wing aircraft bumping down the...
Contango ORE Inc. May 15 reported that US$5 million has been budgeted for an initial phase of exploration at the Tetlin gold project in eastern Interior Alaska. This will mark the first exploration at Tetlin under Peak Gold LLC, a joint venture between Contango ORE and Royal Gold Inc. The first phase of the 2015 program at Tetlin will test outlying exploration targets at Tars, Saddle, North Saddle and Saddle Skarn targets. The drilling also will test expansion targets at the...
Royal Gold Inc. April 17 reported that its wholly owned subsidiary, RGLD Gold AG, received about 26,200 ounces of gold from the Mount Milligan copper-gold mine in British Columbia for the quarter ended March 31. As part of its purchase and sale agreement with Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc., Royal Gold can purchase 52.25 percent of the payable gold produced at Mount Milligan for US$435 per ounce, or the prevailing gold price, whichever is less. Royal Gold currently sells...
Slipping metals prices and investors' ongoing reluctance to risk venture capital in the junior mining sector is hitting Alaska's mineral exploration sector hard; and the Far North state is not the only mining jurisdiction reeling from this one-two punch. "After another year of strong headwinds in 2014, and with lower demand and overproduction continuing to depress metals prices, the mining industry's outlook for 2015 is unpromising at best," SNL Metals & Mining wrote recently...
Several events have dramatically affected Alaska's mining industry in recent weeks, underscoring critical links between Alaska and the global economy. First came bad news for newly-elected Gov. Bill Walker: The plunge in world oil prices pushed Alaska's coming-year budget projections about $3.5 billion into the red. The ripple effect of this was a slashing of everything not required and one of the cuts, temporarily at least, was state funding of the Ambler District Road....
Royal Gold and Contango Ore have forged an alliance that promises to invest as much as US$30 million in furthering the exploration and potential development of the Tetlin gold properties situated along the Alaska Highway near the crossroads community of Tok in eastern Alaska. Contango Ore shareholders ratified a joint venture agreement Jan. 8 that the Denver-based gold royalty firm and Houston-domiciled mineral exploration company struck tentatively on the project in...
In an industry eager for even a scintilla of good news, a recent report from industry analyst SNL Metals & Mining recently gave the good-news-starved industry a bit of hope. SNL's article, titled, "Too early to start celebrating a recovery in the sector," indicated that although the downward trend in mineral exploration has not broken yet, the market has stopped down-grading mining equities, with a modest gain in market capitalization since its most recent low in mid-2013....
Two companies that trace their roots to the oil and gas sector have agreed to form an alliance to continue exploration at the Tetlin gold-copper-silver property in Alaska's eastern Interior. In early October, Contango Ore Inc. announced that it inked a deal with Royal Gold Inc. that provides the Colorado-based royalty company the opportunity to earn up to a 40 percent interest in Tetlin. The agreement, which awaits final approval from Contango Ore shareholders, calls for the f...
The Government of British Columbia's push in recent years for mine exploration and development in the northern region of the province is slowly bearing fruit. An early plum is Thompson Creek Metals Co. Inc.'s Mount Milligan copper-gold mine in north-central B.C., which is rolling toward startup in August and commercial production in the fourth quarter. Terrane Metals Corp., a subsidiary of Thompson Creek, reports that construction of the 60,000-metric-tons-per-day open pit mine, which is located 155 kilometers (about 96...
Copper Fox Metals Corp. recently completed a positive feasibility study of its Schaft Creek porphyry copper, gold, molybdenum and silver project in northwestern British Columbia that could mark an important turning point for the project. The Calgary, Alberta-based company holds title and a 100 percent working interest in Schaft Creek, which is located due east-northeast of Petersburg, Alaska, about 61 kilometers (38 miles) south of the village of Telegraph Creek. The feasibility study prepared by Tetra Tech in late December...
More than 30,000 people attended the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada Convention held in Toronto March 4 - 7, breaking last year's attendance record of 27,714 participants from 120 countries. The annual convention, currently in its 80th year, attracts investors, analysts, mining executives, geologists, prospectors and international government delegations from all over the world and represents a tremendous networking and educational opportunity for the industry. The gathering's Trade Show and Investors...
