MINING NEWS: Most exciting industry developments in a decade highlight '07 Alaska Miners Convention 11/25/2007
For those of you who could not attend the Alaska Miners Association convention in Anchorage in early November, you missed what I understand was a record attendance and presentations on some of the mos...

MINING NEWS: Fort Knox mine to add jobs, equipment 11/25/2007
Army Corps OKs new heap leach facility; improved operations, exploration will boost yearly production and extend life of project
Between phase 7 of its exploration program, a new heap leach facility and an extended mine life, Fairbanks Gold Mining Inc. is ramping up activity to boost production more than 6,000 ounces annually a...

MINING NEWS: Exploration spending peaks in Nunavut 11/25/2007
Uranium hunters drive mineral industry activity to eighth yearly high in Canada's Far North territory
The government of Nunavut reported figures in early November suggesting the Canadian territory is heading for its eighth year of record spending on mineral exploration and development. A sector that...

MINING NEWS: Exploration pays off in triplicate 11/25/2007
Junior Sultan Minerals says Southeastern B.C. historic mine property holds valuable tungsten, lead-zinc, molybdenum deposits
Sultan Minerals Inc. is another Canadian junior with ambitious plans to cash in on higher prices by taking up where others left off in British Columbia. Sultan, a publicly held company in the Lang Min...

MINING NEWS: 'Barren Lands' delivers wild ride 11/25/2007
Chronicle of North American diamond exploration sparkles with suspense, intrigue, adventure amid rare gems of history, geology
If you ever wondered how Canada's diamond mining boom got its start, then taking the time to read "Barren Lands: An Epic Search for Diamonds in the North American Arctic" by Kevin Krajick is a good id...

MINING NEWS: Northgate drops Kemess North plans 11/25/2007
Vancouver junior charges $32.3M against third-quarter profits; moves on with takeover of Australian company, more ventures
Northgate Minerals Corp. of Vancouver has posted a loss of $11.9 million for the third quarter after dropping plans to develop the Kemess North project in northern British Columbia. The quarterly loss...

MINING NEWS: Mining values set records in 2006 11/25/2007
Higher prices, world-class projects such as Red Dog, Pebble drive Alaska exploration, development, production, employment
Alaska mining activity climbed to new heights in 2006 with the value of exploration, development and production exceeding $3.5 billion. Production values more than doubled, leaping to $2.86 billion fr...

MINING NEWS: Busy junior expands Alaska portfolio 11/25/2007
Exploration efforts earn company ownership in Terra; Livengood to be exploration focus in 2008 after first-of-its-kind discovery
Since agreeing to acquire the Alaska portfolio of South Africa major AngloGold Ashanti in August 2006, International Tower Hill Mines of Vancouver, B.C., has been exploring the state and expanding its...

Former executives hit with fines, bans 11/25/2007
Hefty penalties have been imposed on two former oil patch executives found by Alberta securities regulators to have misrepresented production and reserves volumes to security holders, analysts and the...

Rick Fox: Shell in Alaska for long haul 11/25/2007
Although a lawsuit has put Beaufort Sea drilling on hold in 2007 company moved ahead with Chukchi seismic and other programs
Despite the setback of a court-enforced suspension of Shell's Beaufort Sea drilling program, Rick Fox, the company's Alaska asset manager, gave an upbeat assessment of Shell's progress in Alaska at th...

Pioneer to spud first development wells 11/25/2007
Big independent in final stages of offshore North Slope Oooguruk oil field construction; prepares to drill first of 40 wells
In mid-November Ken Sheffield, president of Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska, told attendees of the Resource Development Council's annual conference that Pioneer is nearing the end of the construction...

Cosmo drilling done, flow test next 11/25/2007
Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska has finished drilling a horizontal appraisal well in the 25,000-acre Cosmopolitan unit in the Cook Inlet basin. Company President Ken Sheffield told attendees of the m...

Cash-strapped Fox sets sights on high-cost Alaska 11/25/2007
Alaska newcomer Fox Petroleum is a very small player in a very large oil patch inhabited by much larger, better-financed, better-equipped, and more successful exploration and production companies. Fi...

Energy board: Jury out on oil sands 11/25/2007
Beset from all sides, sector production scaled back by 200,000 barrels per day by 2015; despite costs and regulatory burdens
It is one of those wake-up calls that come in the middle of a disturbed sleep. You're not sure whether it is real or imagined. But the message is clear enough, spelled out in temperate language by one...

Chevron ups stake 11/25/2007
Back on North Slope, 2007-08 AK investment doubled, might again in 2009
Chevron is back exploring on the North Slope - for the first time since the early 1990s - and will start a two-year drilling program at its White Hills exploration prospect later this year. John Zage...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: BP 'exploring' in known fields 11/18/2007
Company uses technology to access vertical 'string of pearls' that lie above developed North Slope fields
BP Exploration (Alaska), no longer active in traditional exploration in Alaska, is focused on exploring for - and recovering - resources through technology. BP is the operator at Prudhoe Bay, the lar...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Storm Cat Energy drops out of Alaska 11/18/2007
Storm Cat Energy Corp., less than two years after drilling an exploration well in the coalbed-methane-rich Matanuska-Susitna Borough, has dropped its pursuit of natural gas reserves in Alaska. Instea...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Small independents in high gear 11/18/2007
Five small EandP gas companies plan to drill exploration wells on Alaska's North Slope winter 2007-08
Five small independent oil and gas companies expect to drill exploration wells on Alaska's North Slope in the winter exploration season of 2007-08. In the past, the highest number of small independent...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Exploring on pause, development on go 11/18/2007
Pioneer focusing on Oooguruk development, Cosmo delineation; exploration still on hold due to disappointing results, concern about Alaska's tax regime
Dallas-based Pioneer Natural Resources has no immediate plans to resume its Alaska oil and gas exploration program, Timothy Dove, Pioneer's president and chief operating officer, said on Sept. 27, 200...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Marathon continues to chase inlet gas 11/18/2007
Company sees significant opportunity in the Cook Inlet region but wants competitive gas pricing and a stable fiscal, regulatory environment in Alaska
Although oil and gas production in Alaska is declining, there are still plenty of resources to find and develop, Mitch Little, Marathon's Alaska production manager, told Petroleum News Oct. 2, 2007. "...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Petro-Canada: From operator to partner 11/18/2007
A better headline for this story might have been "Petro-Canada: From possible operator to partner" because the company had not actually drilled a well in Alaska when it decided to continue to play the...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Eni moving forward with Nikaitchuq 11/18/2007
Beaufort Sea project sanction expected by end of 2007, first oil 2009; Maggiore, Rock Flour undergoing evaluation
The signs are good that Eni will move forward with development of its Nikaitchuq unit offshore Alaska's North Slope in 2008. On Oct. 5, 2007, the Houston-based affiliate of Italy's Eni SpA received S...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Benchmark Oil and Gas buying seismic, talking to operators 11/18/2007
It took more than a year, but Benchmark Oil and Gas, along with other successful bidders, finally received its lease assignments from the State of Alaska for the 20 tracts it won in the May 2006 Cook...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: ConocoPhillips drops 300,000 acres 11/18/2007
Major and its independent partners focused on appraising previously announced NPR-A discoveries
ConocoPhillips Alaska's exploration program reached into far western NPR-A last winter, 2006-07. In 2007-08 the company plans to drill closer in, with proposed exploration wells - the program had not...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Anadarko to drill first ANS gas well 11/18/2007
Has two rigs under contract, drilling 2 Brooks Range gas prospects, going back to finish Jacob's Ladder
Anadarko Petroleum and its partners in the Brooks Range Foothills, BG Alaska and Petro-Canada, plan to drill the first two natural gas exploration wells in northern Alaska this winter. Gas discoveries...