MINING NEWS: Coeur, enviros unveil tailings plan 11/25/2007
Parent company reports lower profits on less production; appeals court denies rehearing on wet tailings disposal for Kensington
Coeur Alaska Inc., operator of the Kensington Gold Project near Juneau, has joined Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, Lynn Canal Conservation and Juneau's Sierra Club in drafting a new plan for di...

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: 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: 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: Is U.S. Senate end of road for H.R. 2262? 11/25/2007
Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007 passes U.S. House; other body looks at throwing it out and starting with clean slate
Representatives Nick Rahall, D-W.V., and Jim Costa, D-Calif., introduced H.R. 2262, the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007, in the U.S. House of Representatives as a replacement for the 1872...

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...

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: Idaho newcomer in Cook Inlet 11/18/2007
Newcomer Duke Oil and Gas-Alaska LLC joined the bevy of small companies and investor consortiums that clamored for tracts in Alaska's Cook Inlet areawide oil and gas lease sale May 24, 2006. Its leases...

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: 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: 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: Chevron: working across the state 11/18/2007
White Hills exploration to begin this winter, company continues to look at Cook Inlet opportunities
Chevron, an oil and gas explorer and producer in Alaska for decades, will begin exploration drilling this winter at its White Hills prospect in the Brooks Range foothills on the southern edge of the N...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Escopeta, Renaissance hunt for jack-up 11/18/2007
Escopeta Oil has led the effort to bring a mobile offshore drilling unit into Cook Inlet, the body of water in Southcentral Alaska that lies over part of the Cook Inlet oil and gas basin. That hunt ha...

Seven drilling ANS exploration wells 11/18/2007
Gas target of two Anadarko's wells; four small independents to drill; Chevron starts multi-year exploratory program in Foothills
Seven oil and gas companies plan to drill exploration wells on Alaska's North Slope this winter; an eighth company is moving forward with plans to re-enter an old exploration well on an undeveloped pr...

Investment at risk 11/18/2007
Oil company execs says consequences dire if Alaska hikes taxes again
Investment in Alaska is in jeopardy if the state's oil production tax is overhauled in such a way that it significantly increases the State of Alaska's take, oil company executives told attendees of t...

ANGDA promotes in-state gas options 11/11/2007
Far from special legislative session debates over the troubled PPT, the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority is quietly focused on making North Slope natural gas available to Alaska residents, uti...

Escopeta's North Alexander well in ACMP review 11/04/2007
Escopeta Oil Co. LLC's North Alexander prospect gas exploration well is under review for consistency with the Alaska Coastal Management Program. Escopeta is proposing to drill the North Alexander No....

MINING NEWS: DEC closer to issuing NPDES permits 10/28/2007
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation Division of Water said it submitted a revised application to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Oct. 15 for authority to permit wastewater dis...

MINING NEWS: A conversation with Steve Borell 10/28/2007
Longtime Alaska Miners exec says busy mining industry brings good jobs, significant public revenue and excitement to state
Steve Borell, longtime executive director of the Alaska Miners Association, sat down to discuss the state of the industry recently. Borell expressed optimism and excitement about the industry's future...

Small independent on board with ACES 10/28/2007
Thompson: ACES train has left station, AVCG wants five things to remain in Palin's bill, four to be changed, favors 22.5% rate
By mid-2008 Alaska Venture Capital Group and its partners will have invested more than $100 million in their oil and gas properties in Alaska, including drilling two exploration wells last winter, one...

FEX puts NPR-A drilling on pause 10/21/2007
Independent remains committed, but concerned about land access, high costs, fiscal regime, postpones drilling for two years
FEX L.P.'s decision to put its Alaska drilling program on pause for two years came as a surprise to everyone except those paying attention to the federal government's cancellation of National Petroleu...

30 STRONG: UERD for offshore development 10/14/2007
Ultra extended reach drilling enables Liberty offshore development without gravel island
Directional drilling of wells that deviate far from the vertical has proved a key technology in accessing much of the North Slope's vast oil reserves. But drilling to horizontal departures of tens of...

Exxon, Murphy sue Canada over NAFTA 10/07/2007
Exxon Mobil Corp. and Murphy Oil have served notice that they plan to sue Canada for breaching the North American Free Trade Agreement by permitting Newfoundland to require them to spend millions of d...

MINING NEWS: Operator seeks to expand Red Dog mine 09/30/2007
EPA kicks off regulatory process aimed at reviewing plans to extend zinc-lead mine's life with ore from nearby Aqqaluk deposit
A quest by Teck Cominco Alaska Inc. to expand operations at the Red Dog Mine in northwestern Alaska is moving forward as regulators prepare to conduct a series of public scoping meetings Oct. 2-5 in a...