Mining News: Pebble bobs to, fro on waves of opinion 12/20/2009
Fisheries board rejects plan to establish Bristol Bay fish refuge; Native corporations differ sharply on mining project's impact
The Pebble Partnership, a 50-50 joint venture between Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. and Anglo American plc, can chalk up one win and one potential loss toward the development of a mine at its copper-...

BBNC opposes offshore leasing, Pebble 12/20/2009
Native regional corporation says oil and gas leasing, mine development are too risky for fish-rich Bristol Bay; others fire back
A major stakeholder in the Bristol Bay region has come out against offshore oil and gas leasing in the North Aleutian basin. The Bristol Bay Native Corp. announced Dec. 11 its board passed a resolutio...

State reverses Holitna license decision 12/13/2009
Overturning a 2006 decision, DNR finds that a gas exploration license in Southwest Alaska is in the best interest of the state
Alaska officials have again decided that an exploration license in the Holitna basin is in the best interests of the state, returning in a 2005 ruling that had previously been overturned. In a decisi...

Projecting the jobs 11/29/2009
AEDC CEO Bill Popp works with Petroleum News and Mining News on new project forecast
Like one of Scrooge's Christmas apparitions, a ghost of Alaska's future could portend doom, or could just prove to be a warning of the consequences of not taking appropriate action. And from the persp...

Mining News: Parnell lauds Alaska permitting process 11/22/2009
"The state will continue to defend our permits that we issue, and our permitting process. That is the least I can do as governor"
Alaska Governor Sean Parnell reflected on Alaska's rich mining history and vowed to defend the state's mining regulatory process and to oppose unjust attacks on the industry during an address to miner...

Mining News: Victors may be 'the biggest losers' 11/22/2009
Shortsighted opponents of mining industry will suffer along with everyone else if America loses access to its mineral resources
Although there are innumerable differences between any point in the past and the present, modern political activists of all political stripes routinely draw on one half-recalled and poorly understood...

The Explorers 2009: Interior Alaska basins 11/15/2009
Although analysts think that the majority of Alaska's oil and gas resources lie within the major basins of northern Alaska, Cook Inlet and the Bristol Bay area, there are several other basins around t...

The Explorers 2009: Alaska Peninsula and North Aleutian basin 11/15/2009
The North Aleutian basin, also known as the Bristol Bay basin, extends more than 200 miles along the north side of the Alaska Peninsula and out into the southern Bering Sea shelf. The southeastern por...

Oil Patch Insider: TransCanada on Arctic gas; RDC conference Nov. 18-19; Buffett cash to build Alaska gas line? 11/15/2009
TransCanada, with a financial stake in the Mackenzie Gas Project and the prospect of operating the main gas pipeline to southern markets, but no ownership position, is ideally situated to tell it stra...

Mining Explorers 2009: Majors discover value in Millrock 11/01/2009
Investments help project-generating junior seek new gold projects in tough financial times
When Greg Beischer and Phil St. George teamed up to form Millrock Resources Inc. early in 2007, they set out to make big discoveries that would attract the interest of the world's mining giants. The M...

Mining Explorers 2009: Pebble team focuses on engineering 11/01/2009
Developers budget US$20 million toward 2009 exploration drilling; rest pre-feasibility work
The Pebble Partnership, a 50-50 venture between Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. and Anglo American plc, put together a 2009 budget of US$70 million focused on completing a pre-feasibility study for the...

Mining Explorers 2009: Gold shines through financial cloud 11/01/2009
While base metal explorers struggled, gold seekers carried the torch in 2009
The plunge of base metal prices and turmoil in the financial markets caused explorers and producers alike to scale back exploration budgets for 2009. North of 60 Mining News estimates this year's expl...

Mining News: Global gold demand continues to climb 10/25/2009
Miners must cope with worldwide shortage of capital, while upward pressure on prices spurs increase in mergers and acquisitions
For many undercapitalized junior mining companies, the past 12 months have been a sort of annus horribilis. As capital remains tight in the current economic climate, financing for speculative explorat...

Mining News: Nonprofit does not mean public interest 10/25/2009
Environmental groups benefit from blurring of distinctions as age-old concept of common good is subverted in self-interested trend
It seems that with the passage of time the concept of the common good, the general welfare and the public interest, all variations of the same theme, have become so diluted as to make them indeciphera...

Mining News: Recession walloped exploration spending 10/25/2009
As drought in available venture capital eases, miners seeking acquisitions would do well to accelerate the pace of purchases
As the active exploration season winds down in Alaska, both good news and bad is afoot and both sets of news turn out to be the same data. Double speak you say? Read on and judge for yourself. Halifa...

Mining News: Reclamation draws 200 to Yellowknife 09/27/2009
About 100 scientists, engineers, and regulators attended the 2009 Northern Latitudes Mining Reclamation Workshop held in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Sept. 8-11. Presenters delivered 22 profess...

Mining News: Majors discover value in Millrock 09/27/2009
Junior uses investments to expand portfolio of Alaska gold properties; restricts exploration focus to prospect for giant deposits
Built on a project generator model, Millrock Resources Inc. has teamed up with Kinross Gold Corp., Altius Resources Inc. and Vale Exploration Canada to seek out and explore new large gold and copper p...

Mining News: Minerals gain momentum as season wanes 09/27/2009
Average rate of gold investment around the world nearly doubles in past eight years as demand for metals increases exponentially
Although Alaska's summer field season is quickly coming to an end, the mineral industry continues to gain momentum thanks to rapidly increasing metals prices, fueled in part by growing industrial dema...

Mining News: Recession drives miners into mergers 08/30/2009
Tough economic conditions precipitate flurry of consolidation among majors, juniors that do business in Alaska, Northwest Canada
The recession is taking its toll among mining companies with properties in Alaska and northwestern Canada as mergers and acquisitions surged in this sector during the second quarter, in step with a gl...

Mining News: Suit worries natural resources industry 08/30/2009
Trustees for Alaska sues state, claiming DNR and the Legislature created a scheme to skirt public comment of water use permits
Alaska's resource development community is responding en masse to a civil suit filed by environmental law firm Trustees for Alaska that contends permits issued by the Alaska Department of Natural Reso...

Mining News: Self-interest can serve public interest 08/30/2009
Economics 101: Opposition to Pebble Project reflects irrational position of activists who are dedicated to destructive objectives It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. - Adam Smith, 1776
When it comes to comprehending social forces that frame our society, it sometimes occurs that good people take irrational positions for strange reasons, despite unequivocal evidence that it is contrar...

Mining News: EPA wants second look at Kensington plan 07/26/2009
The federal agency seeks re-evaluation of gold project's tailings permit; leaders say Supreme Court ruling should be final word
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take another look at the tailings disposal permit it issued for the Kensington gold project near Juneau. In a Jul...

Mining News: Finding rekindles Ballot Measure 4 fires 06/28/2009
APOC identifies more than 20 campaign violations by 'Gillam Group;' member accuses initiative opponents of similar improprieties
The opposing sides of Ballot Measure 4, the failed ballot initiative that opponents said targeted development of a mine at the huge Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum deposit in Southwest Alaska, have mov...

Mining News: 'Pay Dirt!' discovered in 'Gold' exhibit 06/28/2009
Companion exhibits at Anchorage Museum explore man's captivation with gold, and the gold rushes that opened the Alaska frontier
A stroll through the "Gold" exhibit at the Anchorage Museum of Art and History can transport visitors through six millennia of man's captivation with the brilliant metal. The journey explores the uniq...

Mining News: Mining industry invests in communities 06/28/2009
Companies advance in emerging field of sustainable development by tackling tough issues such as public health, environment
Few can argue that the business of mining and mineral development has evolved dramatically in recent years. Engineering standards. Environmental safeguards. Regulatory oversight. Operational efficienc...