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Alaska Mining

Trilogy-South32 venture delivers feasibility for $1bn Arctic project – by Mariaan Webb (MiningWeekly.com – August 20, 2020)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Ambler Metals – a joint venture between Trilogy Metals and South32 – on Thursday announced the outcome of a feasibility study for the Arctic base and precious metals project, in north-western Alaska.

With an estimated initial capital requirement of $906-million and sustaining capital of $114-million, the project has a payback period of 2.6 years, Toronto-listed Trilogy said in a statement.

The study calculated that Arctic has an aftertax net present value (NPV) of $1.1-billion and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 27%, using long-term metal prices of $3/lb for copper, $1.10/lb for zinc, $1/lb for lead, $1 300/oz for gold and $18/oz for silver.

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Northern Dynasty ‘confident’ of final Pebble decision despite White House review – by Jackson Chen (Mining.com – August 7, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

Northern Dynasty Minerals’ (TSX: NDM) US-based subsidiary Pebble Limited Partnership is welcoming a pending White House review of its controversial copper-gold project and the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) released by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) last month.

In a public statement issued on Friday, Pebble Partnership CEO Tom Collier said he is confident that the scientific and regulatory record established by project’s Final EIS demonstrates the project can be developed without harm to fisheries in the Bristol Bay region of southwest Alaska.

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump pledged to hear out “both sides of the issue” concerning the proposed Pebble mine after his son Donald Jr. — in a rare instance of public disagreement — tweeted to oppose the project supported by his father’s administration.

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Giant Alaska copper-gold mine gets final environment nod after 15-year fight – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – July 24, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

Northern Dynasty Minerals (TSX: NDM) has cleared the last environmental hurdle for its proposed Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum mine in Alaska, almost two decades after developers first started considering the project.

The US Army Corps of Engineers issued on Friday a final environmental impact statement (EIS), backing the controversial mine in the Bristol Bay region.

The decision opens the door for Northern Dynasty to obtain the federal go-ahead as soon as late August.

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Why Building of the Alaska Highway is Still an Epic Feat 75 Years Later (TranBC – August 10, 2017)

https://www.tranbc.ca/

Driven by wartime urgency, the building of the Alaska Highway remains an epic accomplishment, 75 years later. The highway began as a dream.

In the 1920s, the United States wanted a route through Canada to connect Alaska – its largest and most sparsely populated territory – with the 48 states south of the 49th parallel. Some 800 kilometres of land lay between Alaska and the rest of the US. With no overland way across northern BC and the Yukon to Alaska, the northernmost US state was reliant on air and marine transport.

Back then, Canada was just not interested – there was little to be gained, and the next decade brought the Great Depression.

Wartime Drive

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Northern Dynasty to share Pebble mine revenue with locals – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – June 17, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

Northern Dynasty Minerals (TSX: NDM), the company behind a proposed massive copper-gold mine in southwest Alaska, has announced a revenue sharing program for full-time residents of Bristol Bay.

The initiative would distribute a 3% of the revenue generated from the Pebble copper-gold-silver mine among adult locals who subscribe as participants of the “Pebble performance dividend” plan.

Northern Dynasty’s subsidiary Pebble Limited Partnership said the dividend would distribute a guaranteed minimum annual payment of $3 million, beginning “at the outset of project construction”.

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How a fault that stretches from the Yukon to Interior Alaska slides Canadian gold into the state – by Ned Rozell (Anchorage Daily News – March 8, 2020)

https://www.adn.com/

Nate Becker lives with his family on a quiet stretch of the Yukon River as it flows into Alaska. On a recent ski trip, I visited the Beckers’ home along with two geologist friends. Nate had a question for them.

“Why are all the gold deposits located on the south side of the river here, and none are on the north side?” Becker said.

A quick look at the map of Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve showed what Becker was talking about. In the 160 miles between the towns of Eagle and Circle, a half-dozen gold-mining settlements — most of them ghosted out — were on the south bank of the Yukon River. Not one was on the north side. That seemed like more than a coincidence.

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Fraser Survey: Alaska shines, Canada slips – by Shane Lasley (North of 60 Mining News – February 28, 2020)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

Canada’s provinces and territories have fallen from grace in the eyes of the global mining community, according to the latest rendition of Fraser Institute’s Annual Survey of Mining Companies.

For the first time in a decade, no Canadian jurisdiction ranks in the top 10 for “investment attractiveness” in the annual survey conducted by the Canadian public policy think-tank.

This report asks industry professionals from around the globe to score mining jurisdictions based on their mineral endowment and various policy topics important to mining. The investment attractiveness metric of the survey is a compilation of respondent’s views on both geology and policy.

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Prospects brighten for Northern Dynasty Pebble mine on leaked draft study – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – February 13, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

A leaked draft of an environmental impact statement (EIS) on Northern Dynasty’s (TSX: NDM) proposed copper-gold mine in Alaska has brighten up its prospects, suggesting nearby terrestrial freshwater resources and downstream fisheries could co-exist with the project.

While the US Army Corps of Engineers’ document is not final, it could mean the government is closer to issuing a long-sought permit for the $100 billion copper-gold mine in the Bristol Bay, southwest Alaska.

Shares jumped up as much 9.4% to 70 cents on the news on Wednesday, to close at 69 cents, the highest value so far this year. If permitted, Pebble would be North America’s largest mine, according to a study by the Center for Science in Public Participation.

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No viable substitute for critical chromium – by Shane Lasley (North of 60 Mining News – January 30, 2020)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

A vital ingredient in stainless steel and superalloys, chromium is considered by the United States Geological Survey as “one of the nation’s most important strategic and critical materials.”

“Because there is no viable substitute for chromium in the production of stainless steel and because the United States has small chromium resources, there has been concern about domestic supply during every national military emergency since World War I,” the USGS explains.

Rich chromite deposits on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula were able to ease some of these concerns by providing a domestic supply of chromite, the only mineral of chromium metal, to help fill America’s increased demand for chromium during both World Wars. Alaska is second only to Montana when it comes to the best states to explore for future domestic needs of this important strategic and critical mineral.

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Governor extends open invitation to mining industry – by Ben Hahenstatt (Juneau Empire – January 23, 2020)

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Gov. Mike Dunleavy told the mining industry Alaska is open for business during an annual mining conference in British Columbia. Dunleavy, who spoke Wednesday at an Alaska Night event held during the Association of Mineral Exploration Roundup Conference, can be heard in a recording of his remarks obtained by the Empire emphasizing Alaska’s openness to mining projects.

“We have gold, silvers, lead, zincs, you name it,” Dunleavy said. “We have everything in the state of Alaska, and what you have now in the state of Alaska is an open invitation for all of you to set up shop in the state of Alaska.”

In a release prior to the convention, Dunleavy said he intended to encourage mining investment in Alaska at the conference and would be joined by commissioners Doug Vincent-Lang, Department of Fish and Game; Corri Feige, Department of Natural Resources; and Jason Brune, Department of Environmental Conservation.

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Alaska Natives and fishermen sue EPA for reversing Pebble Mine decision – by Richard Read (Los Angeles Times – October 8, 2019)

https://www.latimes.com/

SEATTLE — Trump administration officials broke the law when they reversed course and gave a green light to a proposed copper and gold mine near Alaska’s Bristol Bay, mining opponents said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Alaska Native, commercial fishing and economic development organizations said the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision July 30 to step aside and let the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers determine whether to permit the Pebble Mine was “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion” and illegal.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Anchorage is the latest challenge to the project that the EPA’s Seattle branch criticized in written comments July 1 before abruptly reversing course, withdrawing the agency’s option to block the proposed open-pit copper and gold mine.

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How a salmon scientist got hooked into a battle over the world’s largest gold mine – by Warren Cornwall (Science Magazine – September 26, 2019)

https://www.sciencemag.org/

It’s hard to think small in Alaska. The largest of the United States is home to North America’s highest mountain range. It’s a place where undammed rivers run more than 1000 kilometers, glaciers collapse into the ocean, and polar bears roam.

Daniel Schindler, however, is here hunting for something the size of a grain of rice. Crouching in tiny Allah Creek, hemmed in by alders and smeared in blood, he grasps a rotting sockeye salmon carcass and nearly decapitates the fish with a stroke of a carving knife.

With tweezers, he delves into a cavity of creamy goo tucked behind the brain and plucks out a sliver of what looks like bone. It is an otolith, a bit of calcium carbonate that sits within the inner ear and acts like an internal gyroscope, helping the fish orient its movements.

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Apple and Tiffany & Co. will source gold from miners who have committed to restore streams for fish (MacDailyNews.com – August 13, 2019)

https://macdailynews.com/

There are hundreds of small and large placer mining operations in Alaska actively producing gold in the US. Placer mining sites sit along creeks and streams, giving miners the chance to re-mine for any nuggets or fine gold left over from the Yukon’s Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1890s.

Meanwhile, since 1991, 12 Pacific salmon runs have been listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). These routes that salmon use to make their run to their spawning beds each year are often adjacent to placer mining sites.

The causes for the ESA classification are not limited to mining. Add logging, urbanization, record wildfires and landslides in the region, and salmon runs don’t stand a chance. But RESOLVE, a nonprofit organization tackling some of the planet’s most critical challenges through innovative, unexpected partnerships, wants to fix that.

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Murkowski, Sullivan urge action on mine cleanup – by Peter Segall (Juneau Empire – August 5, 2019)

Juneau Empire

Alaska’s Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both Republicans, on Monday hosted a number of state and federal agencies, local organizations and commissioners of the U.S.-Canada International Joint Commission for a round-table discussion of transboundary mining.

Among the organizations present were the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, Salmon Beyond Borders, Council of Alaska Producers, Alaska Miners Association and United Fishermen of Alaska.

Government organizations present were the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Forest Service, Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Alaska Department of Fish and Game and Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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Alaska mine developer Northern Dynasty wins U.S. EPA reprieve, shares soar – by Nichola Saminather (Reuters Canada – July 30, 2019)

https://ca.reuters.com/

TORONTO (Reuters) – The Trump administration said on Tuesday it would lift an Obama-era restriction on the world’s biggest undeveloped gold and copper resource owned by Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd, sending the Canadian company’s shares soaring.

Under former U.S. President Barack Obama, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2014 proposed limits on large-scale mining in Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed, citing environmental concerns. Under President Donald Trump, the EPA has dismantled scores of environmental rules and Trump rejects mainstream climate science.

Northern Dynasty’s site is near Lake Iliamna in southwestern Alaska between the headwaters of two rivers that drain into Bristol Bay, and is known for its huge salmon runs, wilderness and abundant brown bears.

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