The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 27
While copper has the potential to be a major contributor to Alaska's economic future, this "new oil" of the low-carbon economy will be hard-pressed to beat out the old money being produced at current and coming gold mines across the Last Frontier. This is due in large part to Kinross Gold Corp.'s new "Kinross Alaska" strategy that is leveraging the underutilized 14-million-metric-ton-per-year mill and storage capacity at Fort Knox to process higher-grade ore mined from... Full story
Looking to expand resources and build reserves for the expanded mill at its Pogo gold mine in Alaska, Northern Star Resources Ltd. carried out surface drilling across the Goodpaster discovery zone and Central Gap prospect, along with underground drilling that focused on most of the ore systems at this high-grade underground mine. As of the end of March 2021, Pogo hosted 12.86 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 9.5 grams per metric ton (3.95 million oz) gold,... Full story
Seeking to expand and upgrade its multi-million-ounce Korbel gold deposit in preparation for feasibility-level studies and explore the intriguing gold targets across the 125-square-mile (324 square kilometers) Estelle property, Australian explorer Nova Minerals Ltd. carried out one of the largest mineral exploration projects in Alaska during 2021. Located about 100 miles northwest of Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, the 18-mile-long Estelle property covers more than a dozen... Full story
Building upon the success from systematic exploration carried out over the previous two seasons, Tectonic Metals Inc. focused its 2021 program on testing high-grade and bulk tonnage gold targets on its Tibbs properties in Interior Alaska. Located in the Goodpaster Mining District, Tibbs is known for high-grade gold targets reminiscent of the ore at Northern Star Resources Ltd.'s Pogo gold mine about 22 miles (35 kilometers) to the northwest. During its initial drilling at... Full story
The product of a 2020 merger between Redstar Gold Corp. and Heliodor Metals Ltd., Heliostar Metals Ltd. is a junior exploration and development company with three gold and silver projects in Mexico and its flagship Unga gold project in Alaska. Covering roughly 93 square miles (240 square kilometers) of the Unga and Popof islands off the southern coast of the Alaska Peninsula, the Unga project hosts the historic Apollo and Sitka mines, which produced roughly 150,000 ounces of... Full story
Kenorland Minerals Ltd., which has been exploring the Tanacross porphyry copper-gold project in eastern Alaska as a private company for several years, is now a publicly listed company with a strong treasury and extensive portfolio of mineral exploration projects in Alaska, Quebec, and Ontario. As a private project-generating explorer, Kenorland entered into an agreement with Freeport-McMoRan to further investigate the potential at Tanacross, a more than 100,000-acre property... Full story
Kinross Gold Corp.'s strategy to leverage the underutilized 14-million-metric-ton-per-year mill and enormous tailings storage capacity at its Fort Knox gold mine to process higher-grade ore from projects within a roughly 300-mile radius of the Interior Alaska operation is a gamechanger for smaller high-grade gold projects and how the global mining company approaches exploration in the state. Prior to the Kinross Alaska strategy, Fort Knox mill production was winding down.... Full story
As a project-generating exploration company, Millrock Resources Inc. identifies and secures grassroots mineral projects and brings on partners to fund the high-risk early stages of exploration. In recent years, many of these have been with Australian companies intrigued by Alaska's rich and underexplored mineral potential. During 2021, Millrock was actively working with two such Aussie explorers on Alaska gold projects – Felix Gold Ltd. in the Fairbanks Mining District and R... Full story
After investing a record US$50.6 million in exploration during 2020, Coeur Mining Inc. set the bar even higher with a roughly US$75 million investment in exploration spending during 2021. "We expect to complete roughly 1.2 million feet (365,750 meters) of drilling by the end of the year, with the primary objective of further extending mine lives across our portfolio," Coeur Mining Senior Vice President of Exploration Hans Rasmussen said in September. Roughly US$13 million of... Full story
Donlin Gold LLC partners Novagold Resources Inc. and Barrick Gold Corp. completed a roughly 24,200-meter drill program during 2021 that will likely provide the final data needed for an optimized plan for a mine at the world-class gold project in Southwest Alaska. With 504.81 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 2.09 grams per metric ton (33.9 million oz) gold, the Donlin Gold deposit is already particularly high-grade when you consider its magnitude. O... Full story
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
Southeast Alaska explorer Grande Portage Resources Ltd. is advancing its Herbert Gold project roughly 16 miles north of Juneau toward permitting and potential development. Following a significant investment by Eric Sprott in mid-2020 that helped fund a 21-hole drill program, Grande Portage is confident that a mine of significant return could be built at Herbert Gold. The 2020 program encountered gold in the Goat, Main, Deep Trench, and Elusive veins, plus Sleeping Giant,... Full story
HighGold Mining Inc. is rapidly unlocking the potential of Johnson Tract, a high-grade polymetallic gold project that exemplifies the exceptional mineral exploration opportunities Alaska has to offer. A parcel of land privately-owned by Cook Inlet Regional Inc., an Alaska Native regional corporation more commonly known as CIRI, Johnson Tract is a moderately advanced gold project that has flown under the radar for more than two decades. By the 1990s, exploration by Anaconda... Full story
Exploring its Central Alaskan properties, Avidian Gold Corp. continued progressing its Fairbanks Mining District projects, Amanita and Amanita NE, as well as further exploring Golden Zone, a gold-rich polymetallic project about six miles (10 kilometers) west of the paved Parks Highway roughly midway between Anchorage and Fairbanks. Avidian kicked off 2021 with results from its 2020 drill program at Amanita, which lies next to Kinross Gold's Fort Knox Mine property. The best... Full story
President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse has positioned Contango ORE Inc. to be the next gold producing company in Alaska and has added projects that deepen the pipeline for this unique exploration and development company. CORE's primary asset is Manh Choh, a 675,000-acre land package leased from the Tetlin Alaska Native Tribe that hosts two adjacent, high-grade gold-silver deposits the company advanced from discovery to a project slated to be Alaska's next large gold mine.... Full story
With the lithium-ion batteries powering electric vehicles and storing intermittent renewable energy driving enormous new graphite demand, Graphite One Inc. focused its 2021 program on collecting the final bits of data needed to complete a feasibility study for developing a mine at its Graphite Creek project about 35 miles north of Nome, Alaska. According to a 2019 calculation, Graphite Creek hosts 10.95 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 7.8%... Full story
Following a year that saw Hecla Mining Company scale back exploration as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Idaho-based silver miner is beginning to get back to its tradition of adding more ore to reserves than is processed through the mills at its mines in the United States and Canada. "While focused, our exploration efforts have spanned our three operating mines and eight of our exploration properties," Hecla Mining President and CEO Phillips Baker Jr. said... 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
While much of Teck Resources Ltd.'s investment and focus during 2021 was on the implementation of its long-term sustainability strategy, the British Columbia-based miner continued to carry out exploration behind the scenes. In Alaska, Teck operates the Red Dog zinc mine on lands owned by NANA Corp., the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) regional corporation for the Northwest Arctic region where the world-class operation is located. This operation, which produces... Full story
Goldman Sachs' declaration that "copper is the new oil" may serve as a foreshadowing of Alaska's economic future, one that is not so heavily reliant on the revenues from petroleum flowing from the North Slope and leans more heavily on the state's rich endowment of precious, critical, and base metals. The investment bank's suggestion that copper is to become the strategically most important commodity on Earth is due to the vital role the conductive metal plays in global... Full story
While copper may be the new oil of the green energy revolution, a wide variety of industrial minerals and metals found in abundance in Alaska will be needed to build the envisioned low-carbon future. In a 2021 report on the minerals and metals critical to low-carbon energy and transportation, the International Energy Agency estimates that a typical passenger electric vehicle requires six times the mineral inputs of a conventional internal combustion engine car and an onshore... Full story
Under the new leadership of longtime Alaska and Northern British Columbia explorer Rob McLeod, Blackwolf Copper and Gold Ltd., formerly Heatherdale Resources Ltd., is bringing new vigor and geological ideas to the exploration of its Niblack copper-gold-silver-zinc project on Princes of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. "Our name change to Blackwolf Copper and Gold better reflects the company's spirit and vision, particularly with consultation and inclusion with indigenous... Full story
With the goal of establishing an underground mine at the Palmer volcanogenic massive sulfide project in Southeast Alaska, Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. and its joint venture partner Dowa Metals & Mining Alaska Ltd. focused their 2021 field program on geotechnical and environmental drilling to support the development of an underground exploration ramp and feasibility-level studies for a mine at this zinc-copper-silver-gold-barite project. According to the most recent... Full story
During a 2021 exploration program focused largely on collecting further geological and metallurgical data for a scoping study on establishing a mine at its Alaska Range property, PolarX Ltd. made a game-changing high-grade copper discovery. As its name suggests, this property covers a 22-mile- (35 kilometers) long stretch of the majestic and mineral-rich Alaska mountain range that arcs across the middle of the Far North state. PolarX' 2021 program focused on two high-grade... Full story
With the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects being advanced under a joint venture with South32 Ltd., Trilogy Metals Inc. has begun exploring for Arctic-type volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits on three properties it staked across the southern slopes of the Brooks Range in northern Alaska during 2021. "While Trilogy is focused on the oversight of our primary asset, the UKMP which is being managed by Ambler Metals LLC, the joint venture company equally owned by Trilogy Metals and Sou... Full story
