North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Usibelli Coal Mine has secured a sales contract for a second shipment of coal to Chile with Glencore Ltd. The ship was scheduled to begin loading approximately 45,000 metric tons on Dec. 21. This load, Usibelli said in a Dec. 20 press release coal... — Updated 2/26/2018 Full story

A report on the economic impact of Alaska's mining industry published in February provides a comprehensive look at the varied benefits mining brings to the state. The Alaska Miners Association commissioned the McDowell Group to prepare the report... — Updated 2/26/2006

Usibelli Coal Mine in Healy, Alaska, has achieved an all-time safety record for no lost time injuries. The company said Jan. 17 that from Jan. 27, 2004, to the present, Usibelli's employees have collectively achieved more than 720 days of... — Updated 1/29/2006

The stars may be in alignment at long last for a huge coal project that has been languishing for decades just 50 miles from Anchorage. Developer Bob Stiles has renewed confidence that a mine will be built to exploit the Beluga-Chuitna coal fields,... — Updated 11/27/2005

Alaska's Department of Natural Resources may not have seen the last of Bob Loeffler. When he resigned as director of the Division of Mining, Land and Water in November, it was the third time he had quit the department that he first joined in 1978.... — Updated 11/27/2005 Full story

A Homer electric cooperative is eyeing the closed Healy Clean Coal Plant as a future source of power. The $300 million state-owned plant, located 78 miles southwest of Fairbanks, was built in the mid 1990s to tap the Usibelli Coal Mine and... — Updated 10/30/2005

Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski appointed Bartly Coiley, Usibelli Coal Mine's environmental affairs manager, to the Alaska Minerals Commission in August. Coiley fills the seat vacated by another Usibelli employee, Charles Boddy. The commission makes... — Updated 9/25/2005

An ambitious plan by Canadian junior Cash Minerals could bring 1.2 million tonnes of coal per year to Southeast Alaska's Skagway Ore Terminal for export to Pacific Rim markets. Cash has begun talks with the Alaska Industrial Development and Export... — Updated 7/24/2005

Other mining projects may be jumping on the bandwagon, but Teck Cominco still leads the race to find local gas reserves to feed the voracious appetite of a large-mine power plant in Alaska. Seven years after discovering gas deposits in shale near... — Updated 6/19/2005

There aren't many places in the United States where you drive on the left side of the road, but Usibelli coal mine is one of them. When you arrive at the gates to the mine in Healy, Alaska, you have to switch to the left because that makes it... — Updated 5/22/2005

Red Dog's unenviable position at the top of the Environmental Protection Agency's national Toxics Release Inventory doesn't mean that the world's largest zinc mine is a dangerous polluter, according to the state of Alaska. The Teck... — Updated 5/22/2005

Since the Pebble project began hitting the headlines, Bob Loeffler has been asked some strange questions. People accost the mild-mannered director of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Mining, Land and Water and demand to know... — Updated 4/24/2005

The report of the 2005 Alaska Minerals Commission, published in January, stresses the urgent need to overcome the twin obstacles of permitting and lawsuits at a time when the mining industry is experiencing a dramatic upsurge in activity. Since... — Updated 2/27/2005

Alaska's Usibelli Coal Mine began talks in January with Matanuska Electric Association about the possible construction of a coal-fired power plant. Usibelli is looking for a customer in the Railbelt and MEA serves nearly 50,000 people in the Matanu... — Updated 2/27/2005

Management and employees at the Red Dog zinc mine near Kotzebue expect a decision from the National Labor Relations Board in February on holding a union election there. The mine's electrical workers have asked to join the International Brotherhood... — Updated 1/30/2005

What a difference a year makes ... along with a few things like rebounding metals prices, China's voracious appetite for minerals and investors' enduring love affair worldwide with gold. That's the assessment of Alaska officials after reviewing... — Updated 12/26/2004

After seeing his daughter Lisa elected to the U.S. Senate, the first place Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski headed to on Nov. 3 was the Alaska Miners Association convention in Anchorage. Perhaps because of his good mood, Gov. Murkowski promised to... — Updated 11/28/2004

Neither the heat and smoke from wildfires, nor excruciatingly low winter temperatures could deter miners from expanding their operations in Alaska this past season. Representatives of several companies described their achievements in the... — Updated 11/28/2004

A coal-fueled power plant could help meet the growing energy needs of Alaska's Railbelt, Usibelli Coal Mine Inc. believes. But the company faces a bumpy road to the realization of its Emma Creek Energy Project, with some electric utilities... — Updated 10/31/2004

After years of contentious debate, lawsuits and sporadic negotiations, the two major players involved in the Healy Clean Coal Project, an experimental coal-fired power plant built with $300 million in state and federal funds and shuttered since... — Updated 8/8/2004 Full story

Usibelli Coal Mine Inc., Alaska's only commercial coal producer, will send a shipment of its Healy coal south this fall to be test burned in a power plant operation in Chile, opening the door to a potential new international market. The test... — Updated 8/8/2004

Long the symbol of a "dirty" economy and seemingly destined for oblivion in the age of global warming, coal is making a resurgence in the United States and Canada, propelled by the big blackout last summer and the volatility of natural gas prices.... — Updated 6/20/2004 Full story

A draft feasibility study completed this spring by Nuvista Light & Power Co. recommends construction of a coal-fired electric generation plant at Bethel, Alaska, plus construction of a 191-mile transmission line to the Donlin Creek gold project as... — Updated 5/9/2004