Alaska Mining – Page 14 – Republic of Mining

Mining executives see Alaska in better light – by Shane Lasley (Petroleum News – March 6, 2016)

March 4, 2016

http://www.petroleumnews.com/

Perceptions of Far North state’s mining policies, mineral potential improve; mixed bag for British Columbia, Canadian territories

Alaska and the Yukon Territory continue to be perceived as among the best places in the world to seek and develop a mine, according to 449 mining executives who responded to the Fraser Institute’s Survey of Mining Companies 2015. This group of miners, explorers and consultants ranked these northern neighbors as two of the richest mineral jurisdictions on Earth, but found certain mining policies in each a cause for concern.

As a result, the mining leaders ranked Alaska sixth and Yukon 12th on the survey’s Investment Attractiveness Index, a measure that weighs miners’ perceptions of both the mineral endowment and mining policies of 109 jurisdictions around the globe.

Alaskans awaken to issues of mining, salmon and rivers we share with Canada – by Melanie Brown (Alaska Dispatch News – February 21, 2016)

February 22, 2016

http://www.adn.com/

Melanie Brown works with Salmon Beyond Borders to advocate for healthy watersheds in Southeast Alaska.

Although my parents are from Western Alaska, I consider myself lucky to have been born in Sitka. Work opportunities took our family northward, but my life led me back to Southeast Alaska, where I have chosen to raise my children.

It is a rich life with all the rivers, land and sea have to offer. We have friends who are good about sharing what they have and we are happy to reciprocate. We migrate along with the salmon to Bristol Bay every summer to be with our blood relatives and our home-river, but returning to Juneau for winter “fits our skin.” Not long after moving back here however, we learned of a looming threat to Southeast waters.

Northern Dynasty’s Pebble on ‘cusp of resolution’ – by Lesley Stokes (Northern Miner – February 17, 2016)

February 19, 2016

http://www.northernminer.com/

VANCOUVER — There’s more battling ahead for Northern Dynasty Minerals (TSX: NDM; NYSE-MKT: NAK) as it prepares to dispute its case to the U.S. Federal court against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to veto development of its world-class Pebble deposit, 321 km southwest of Anchorage, Alaska.

Ron Thiessen, president and CEO of Northern Dynasty, said during a session at Vancouver’s Resource Investment Conference in January that the company is “on the cusp of a resolution,” and expects that a final decision will be reached this year.

The behemoth porphyry copper-gold deposit — which has measured and indicated resources of 57 billion lb. copper and 70 million oz. gold in 6.4 billion tonnes — is located at the headwaters of Bristol Bay, home to the world’s largest wild salmon fishery.

EPA cleared of bias in Alaska mine controversy despite lost emails – by M.D. Kittle (Watchdog.org – January 14, 2016)

January 15, 2016

http://watchdog.org/

Despite acknowledging it could not obtain more than two years of emails from a key employee, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General on Wednesday effectively cleared the EPA of allegations of bias in its quest to preemptively kill a proposed mine in southwest Alaska.

The troubling details of the missing emails raise charges of an EPA whitewashing, a scenario and an allegation all-too-familiar in the Obama administration.

Tom Collier, CEO of Pebble Limited Partnership, the investment group behind the proposed copper and gold mine near Alaska’s Bristol Bay, said the EPA continues to “minimize the seriousness of its own misconduct with respect to the Pebble Project, while sweeping under the rug the complicity of its most senior officials.”

Alaska Treasure Mine and the ghost town of Gastineau City – by Brian Weed (Juneau Empire -December 23, 2015)

December 23, 2015

http://juneauempire.com/

The history of the Alaska Treasure Mine begins in 1884, when William Thompson found mineralization on the south end of Douglas Island, in the Nevada Creek area. Unable to find any backers, Thompson didn’t develop it and the area was abandoned.

In 1903, Percy Morgan and Col. Frank Stone purchased the area and created the Alaska Treasure Gold Mining Company. There were 25 employees working the property in the summer of 1904. The next year a wagon road was built from the beach to the mine site; it had an elevation gain of about 800 feet.

Under the watchful eye of Mike Hudson, buildings were built, tunnels drilled and, by the end of the year, the Corbus Mill, Hudson adit, Hogback shaft and 700 feet of trenches were completed. In 1906, 1.5 tons of hand-picked ore was sent to a smelter and it came back with an $11,000 return.

20 years and counting: Donlin Gold reaches major milestone; long path to production remains – by Shane Lasley (Mining News – December 13, 2015)

December 11, 2015

http://www.petroleumnews.com/miningnewsnorth/index.shtml

After 20 years of exploration and permitting, the Donlin Gold project is on the downhill side of gaining the permits needed to develop a mine at the 39-million-ounce gold deposit in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region of Southwest Alaska.

On Nov. 25, the U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers released a draft Environmental Impact Statement for what will likely be among the largest gold-producing mines on the planet.

The Donlin Gold Mine being considered in the draft EIS includes a 53,500-metric-ton-per-day mill that is expected to produce an average of 1.1 million ounces of gold annually at a cash-cost of US$585 per ounce for 27 years. During its first five years of operation, the mine is designed to extract 1.5 million oz. of gold annually at a cash-cost of US$409 per ounce.

[British Columnbia] Clark needs to step up on environment – by Stephen Hume (Vancouver Sun – November 25, 2015)

November 26, 2015

http://www.vancouversun.com/

Wednesday’s agreement between Premier Christy Clark and Alaska Gov. Bill Walker promising protection for shared environments from new mining developments on trans-boundary salmon rivers won’t quell the grassroots opposition swelling in the Northern U.S. state.

In fact, it might even make things more difficult for B.C.’s ambitious northwest development plans. Alaskan First Nations, fishing and environmental groups are already signalling a desire to trigger U.S. federal intervention through the International Joint Commission under the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty.

What happened to the Northern Gateway and Keystone XL pipelines — once promoted as a sure thing to carry Alberta’s oilsands crude to tidewater — might serve as a cautionary examples.

The melting Arctic is like ‘discovering a new Africa’ – by Leslie Shaffer (CNBC – November 12, 2015)

November 12, 2015

http://www.cnbc.com/

Governments and the private sector are positioning to develop the Arctic, where the wealth of resources is akin to a “new Africa,” according to Iceland’s president.

The melting of the Arctic is an ongoing phenomenon: In October, about 7.7 million square kilometers (about 3 million square miles) of Arctic sea ice remained, around 1.2 million square kilometers less than the average from 1981-2010, according to calculations by Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis that was published by researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

One effect of the melting ice has been newly opened sea passages and fresh access to resources.

“Until 20 or so years ago, (the Arctic) was completely unknown and unmarked territory,” Iceland’s President Olafur Grimsson told an Arctic Circle Forum in Singapore on Thursday. “It is as if Africa suddenly appeared on our radar screen.”

OPINION PAGE: When Gold Isn’t Worth the Price – by Michael J. Kowalski (New York Times – November 6, 2015)

November 11, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/

Michael J. Kowalski, the chief executive of Tiffany & Company from 1999 to 2015, is the chairman of its board.

THERE are few places in the world more beautiful than the landscape of salmon-rich rivers that flow into Bristol Bay, Alaska. I arrived there seven years ago not as a sportsman or ecotourist, as most visitors do, but as a chief executive fearful that the company I led would be seen as complicit in the destruction of this remarkable place.

My colleagues and I traveled to Bristol Bay in 2008 to encounter firsthand the land and people put in harm’s way by the proposed Pebble Mine. This vast open-pit gold and copper mine and its toxic waste would obliterate miles of pristine streams and thousands of wilderness acres that sustainthe world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery, which supports thousands of jobs. All in pursuit of the gold from which Tiffany & Company made jewelry.

The conclusion we reached was inescapable: No amount of corporate profit or share price value could justify our participation, however indirectly, in the degradation of such indescribable beauty. Beyond pledging not to use gold produced by the Pebble Mine, we became vocal opponents of mine development there.

Mining Alaska Part V: Mining and the environment – by Mallory Peebles (KTUU.com – November 6, 2015)

November 9, 2015

http://www.ktuu.com/

It took thousands of years for minerals to form but over just one century the process of mining changed drastically.

Today, machines weighing more than 2,000 tons quickly move dirt, miners use remote operated trucks and chemicals separate the minerals from their ores. The advancements are as huge as the mines themselves.

Critics of mines say that’s not a good thing. Dave Chambers, with the Center for Science in Public Participation, says large open pit mines create a greater risk for environmental damage.

Mining Alaska Part IV: Red Dog Mine – by Mallory Peebles (KTUU.com – November 5, 2015)

November 6, 2015

http://www.ktuu.com/

ANCHORAGE – Red Dog Mine is Alaska’s only Arctic mine. Located 106 miles north of the Arctic Circle, the mine employs close to 500 people, not including about 130 additional contracted workers.

Beneath the frozen ground at Red Dog Mine is zinc and lead. The ore is so rich it could be seen from the sky 50 years ago when a pilot flying overhead first discovered the prospect.

“It’s a world class deposit,” says Teck Community & Public Relations Manager Wayne Hall. “Other mines may be around 5 percent. Just to put it in perspective, our average grade here is right around 17 to 18.”

Mining Alaska Part III: Striking gold at Kensington Mine – by Mallory Peebles (KTUU.com – November 4, 2015)

November 6, 2015

http://www.ktuu.com/

A century of advances in technology and engineering has dramatically changed the way gold is mined. Pickaxes, wheelbarrows and pans have been replaced by remotely operated trucks and large industrial mills where gold is separated by the process of mineral flotation.

Kensington Gold Mine, in the Borough of Juneau, began production in July of 2010. The locally owned company, Coeur Alaska Inc., employs more than 300 people and is the largest property taxpayer in the borough as well as the second largest private company in terms of payroll, which exceeded $41 million in 2014 according to the Alaska Miners Association.

The mine does not produce pure gold. Instead, it ships out 2 ton sacks of gold concentrate, a mix of fine gold and dirt. Each sack contains between 10 to 17 ounces of gold which makes it worth about $20,000 at current market value.

Mining Alaska Part II: Digging into Alaska’s only producing coal mine – by Mallory Peebles (KTUU.com – November 3, 2015)

November 4, 2015

http://www.ktuu.com/

Of Alaska’s six currently operational mines, only one produces coal, a resource that supplies energy and heat to more than 37 percent of the Interior, according to the Alaska Energy Authority.

Usibelli Coal Mine near Healy has been a family-run operation since before Alaska obtained statehood. It holds five permits to mine areas within the Nenana coal field. The land within the area is leased by Usibelli from the state.

The company’s first ever tractor stays parked outside the main office while haulers and bulldozers five times its size help extract the mineral buried deep underground.

Mining Alaska Part I: Inside Alaska’s busiest mines – by Mallory Peebles (KTUU.com – November 2, 2015)

November 3, 2015

http://www.ktuu.com/

Alaska has been a prospector’s dream for more than a century. From the gold rush of the late 1800s to the 21st century, billions of dollars have been invested in the exploration and extraction of minerals.

According to the Alaska Miners Association, about 4,400 jobs come directly from mining with the number nearly doubling to 8,700 with indirect jobs included. Indirect jobs include contract work like food service and maintenance that takes place at many of the mines’ on-site housing areas.

“We have a saying that we just don’t get to pick where we discover these mineral deposits,” says Deantha Crocket with the Alaska Miners Association.

Mining Explorers 2015: Majors carry Alaska exploration – by Shane Lasley (Petroleum News – November 1, 2015)

October 30, 2015

http://www.petroleumnews.com/

Alaska producers continue robust programs, other majors seek opportunities

The owners of Alaska’s five large metal mines – Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo, Hecla Mining Co., Kinross Gold Corp., Teck Resources Ltd. and Coeur Mining Inc. – accounted for nearly half of the US$96 million of exploration spending in the state during 2014. This year, similar investments by these large companies and other majors are again providing solid footing for the Far North state’s mineral exploration sector.

Avalon Development Corp. President Curt Freeman said he is seeing more mining majors shopping for deals in Alaska.

“The junior markets are still flat, but that plus-three-year slump in the junior explorer market has caused joint ventures and leases and mining claims to unravel, providing well-heeled producers with opportunities to acquire at the bottom of the market. Expect to see more producers become involved in Alaska’s mineral industry this year,” the longtime Alaska geologist predicted.

Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo – a joint venture between Japanese firms Sumitomo Metal Mining Company (85 percent) and Sumitomo Corp. (15 percent) – accounted for nearly 20 percent of the exploration spending in Alaska during 2014 and 2015.