The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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More than 83,000 meters of drilling carried out over three years at Freegold Ventures Ltd.'s Golden Summit project successfully connected the Dolphin intrusion and Cleary Hill prospect into a single deposit with more than 20 million ounces of gold in all categories. This now truly world-class gold deposit happens to lie along a paved highway about 25 miles north of Fairbanks, and on the northern boundary of Kinross Gold Corp.'s Fort Knox Mine. The new resources calculated for... Full story
The success of Freegold Ventures Ltd.'s 2022 program at Golden Summit was all about connections. Thanks to a paved highway that connects the multi-million-ounce gold project to the nearby city of Fairbanks, the mineral exploration company was able to efficiently carry out drilling from February through December, and that expansive drill campaign was able to link the bulk-tonnage Dolphin deposit with the high-grade Cleary Hill Mine area to the east. According to a 2016...
Building upon the golden success of its 2020 exploration, Freegold Ventures Ltd. struck more bonanza gold while expanding upon the multi-million-ounce Dolphin deposit with a more than 38,000-meter drill program carried out during the 2021 program at its road accessible Golden Summit project about 25 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska. Prior to 2020, most of the drilling at Golden Summit focused on Dolphin, a deposit that hosts 61.5 million metric tons of indicated resource... Full story
When Australia-based South32 Ltd. decided to expand its portfolio into the Northern Hemisphere, Alaska was its first stop. Under a deal struck with Trilogy Metals Inc. in 2017, the major agreed to invest more than US$175 million to earn a 50% joint venture interest in the massive Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Alaska's world-class Ambler Mining District. After investing more than US$30 million to fully understand the mineral potential at UKMP, South32 agreed to pay US$145 mil... Full story
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... Full story
When Australia-based South32 Ltd. decided to expand its portfolio into the Northern Hemisphere, Alaska was its first stop. Under a deal struck with Trilogy Metals Inc. in 2017, South32 agreed to invest more than US$175 million to earn a 50% joint venture interest in the massive Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Alaska's world-class Ambler Mining District. After investing more than US$30 million to fully understand the mineral potential at UKMP, the major base metals producer...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. struck gold in Alaska, both literally and figuratively, during 2020. While it is no surprise that the Vancouver, British Columbia-based mineral explorer tapped gold at Golden Summit – the company had already outlined nearly 3 million ounces of precious metal on the property bordering Kinross Gold Corp.'s Fort Knox Mine – the bonanza grades encountered in the first hole of the 2020 season reminded investors of the project's high-grade roots. Situated alo... Full story
Considering the global shift to low-carbon energy and electric mobility, copper is the most vital metal not on the United States Geological Survey's list of 35 minerals and metals considered critical to America's economic wellbeing and security. Copper's importance is due to the rapidly emerging electric vehicle, wind turbines and photovoltaic (PV) solar technologies need a lot more copper than the combustion cars and power plants they are replacing. It is estimated that the... Full story
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... Full story
Freegold Ventures Ltd. May 26 announced that it has closed C$5 million of an up to C$10 million financing, which will fund ongoing exploration and other work related to its Golden Summit and Shorty Creek mineral exploration properties in Alaska. Noted resource investor Eric Sprott has agreed to invest a total of C$6 million in Freegold's private placement, including C$2 million in the recently completed initial tranche and C$4 million in a second tranche expected to close on... Full story
Freegold Ventures Ltd. April 6 announced that winter drilling at Golden Summit has encountered what appears to be an extension of the vein system that fed ore to the historic Cleary Hill Mine, which produced 281,000 ounces of gold from ore averaging 1.3 oz per ton before the operation was shuttered during World War II. The first hole of the winter program, GSDL2001, cut 188 meters averaging 3.69 grams per metric ton gold from a depth of 360 meters. The bottom 20 meters of...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. announced that drills are now turning at Golden Summit, an advanced staged gold exploration project located alongside the Steese Highway about a 30-minute drive north of Fairbanks. Golden Summit hosts 61.5 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.69 g/t ton (1.36 million ounces) gold; and 71.5 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.69 g/t (1.58 million oz) gold. The oxide portion of this deposit, found largely within the upper...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. Jan. 19 announced that South32 Ltd. has agreed to fund at least US$2 million of exploration at the Shorty Creek porphyry copper project in Interior Alaska this year. Early last year, South32 entered into an option agreement with Freegold to acquire 70% interest in Shorty Creek for US$30 million, less any money the Australia-based major invested in exploring the promising copper-gold-silver-tungsten targets that have been identified across the property. T...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. Jan. 16 announced results from the late-season 2019 drill program at Shorty Creek, a porphyry gold-copper project about 75 miles northwest of Fairbanks. The five-hole (1,542 meters) program was funded by a wholly owned subsidiary of South32 Ltd., which entered into an option agreement with Freegold Ventures to acquire 70 percent interest in Shorty Creek for US$30 million, less any money the Australia-based major invests in exploring the promising...
With two Australian companies making major investments and several exploration companies from Down Under chomping at the bit to get into the field, 2020 is shaping up to be the best year for Alaska's mining sector in a decade. When you add up the investments South32 Ltd. plans to make in the Ambler Mining District and other exploration projects; Northern Star Resources Ltd.'s spending at the Pogo gold mine; and the exploration dollars at least five other Aussie companies are... Full story
An abnormally long fall has allowed the Alaska mining industry to extend seasonal work well into mid-October, creating a lot of new information about project work conducted around the state. Exploration efforts, in particular, benefitted from this additional field time. Based on information available to date, 2019 exploration expenditures are expected to be in the $135-140 million range, well ahead of the $120-125 million exploration spending tracked for 2018. In addition,...
As the rest of the country suffers through the Dog Days of summer, Alaska is approaching the end of a topsy-turvy summer season that saw unseasonably hot, dry weather in some parts of the state during some parts of the summer, while other parts of the state have seen record rainfall and unseasonably early snowfall. Gold prices have skyrocketed over the $1,500 per ounce mark and silver prices have moved strongly up, now trading at a one-year high. However, copper and zinc are a... Full story
Freegold Ventures Ltd. announced the start of a roughly 2,000-meter drill program at Shorty Creek, a porphyry gold-copper project about 75 miles northwest of Fairbanks. This drilling is being funded by a wholly owned subsidiary of South32 Ltd., which entered into an option agreement with Freegold Ventures to acquire 70 percent interest in Shorty Creek for US$30 million, less any money the Australia-based major invests in exploring the promising copper-gold-silver-tungsten...
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
Freegold Ventures Ltd. May 15 announced the start of a US$2.2 million exploration program focused on testing the wider copper-gold potential at its Shorty Creek property in Alaska's Interior. This exploration is being funded by South32 Ltd., an Australia-based mining company that has agreed to invest up to US$10 million into exploration at Shorty Creek. Freegold Ventures identified the potential for porphyry-style copper-gold mineralization at Shorty Creek in 2014, which was...
As is usually the case this time of year, the mining industry is awash in backward-looking statements designed to allow for more accurate forward-looking statements. Prime among them is one of my favorites, S&P Global's annual "World Exploration Trends 2019", a summary of what happened industry-wide in 2018 and what it may portend for the mining industry in 2019. The study predicts that global exploration budgets will increase again in 2019, although by a smaller amount, with... Full story
South32, an Australia-based major base metal and coal producer spun out of BHP Billiton in 2015, is expanding its presence in Alaska. This company went into business with an impressive portfolio of base and precious metals mining assets in Australia, South Africa and Brazil. While all of South32's initial portfolio was south of the Equator, the Perth-based major is interested in high-quality exploration and mining projects around the globe. "Our exploration activities are...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. is focused on exploring for copper and gold on two properties in Interior Alaska – Golden Summit, an advanced stage gold project just north of Kinross Gold Corp.'s Fort Knox Mine, and Shorty Creek, an enticing porphyry copper-gold project about 75 miles northwest of Fairbanks. In March, South32 Ltd. entered into an option agreement with Freegold Ventures to acquire 70 percent interest in Shorty Creek for US$30 million, less any money the A...
While copper is not on the United States Geological Survey's list of 35 minerals and metals critical to America, there is no doubt of this metal's importance to both the everyday and avant-garde technologies vital to America's economy and security. "None of the other critical minerals work without copper," Trilogy Metals President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse told Mining News. Automobiles are a prime example of how emerging technologies and green energy will drive the demand... Full story
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... Full story
