Mining News: EPA doubles down on Bristol Bay study  05/26/2013
The second draft of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Bristol Bay Assessment strengthens the notion that Pebble and other copper deposits in the Bristol Bay watershed are at risk of losing mining habitat due to the salmon population found there. After spending about a year studying the area of...

Mining News: Unique explorer, distinct mineralization  05/26/2013
With a marketing campaign seemingly designed to send investors and their money running, Contango ORE Inc., also known as Core, may be the most unconventional mineral exploration company working in Alaska. A presentation posted on the company’s website in 2011 provides a sense of the explorer’s unab...

Mining News: Bottom feeders hunt projects in Alaska  05/26/2013
The unseasonably, interminably, unspeakably cold spring that is delaying mineral exploration and development work in Alaska this year is being mimicked by a financial chill that is affecting Alaska exploration efforts just like it is the rest of the world. Not to put too fine a point on it, but from...

Mining News: Spring is in the air, let’s go mining!  05/26/2013
Each year about this time, the sun begins to shine like never before, the rivers rise and the ice melts, the daylight hours grow longer, and miners across Alaska bend their shoulders to their avocation. While it is true that the endless problems we all face don’t go away; nonetheless, they seem to t...

Mining News: Skittish markets hamper metals prices  05/26/2013
Scotiabank’s Commodity Price Index, after losing significant ground in late 2012, started 2013 on a stronger note, climbing 3.8 percent in January before slipping 0.9 percent a month later, Scotiabank Vice President, Economics Patricia M. Mohr told a capacity crowd at 2013 Nunavut Mining Symposium i...

Mining News: Territory offers vast mineral potential  05/26/2013
There is a reason why Nunavut has one of the fastest-growing economies in Canada: mining. With one operating gold mine at Meadowbank, two projects on the verge of startup at Hope Bay and Mary River , five projects advancing through the environmental assessment process at Meliadine, Back River, Hack...

Mining News: Producer clears hurdles at Meadowbank  05/26/2013
The story of the Meadowbank Mine in central Nunavut continues to be a tale of challenges met and obstacles conquered. From the hour that its development was conceptualized in the middle of the past decade, the gold at Meadowbank has delivered a succession of hurdles for its developers – first Cumbe...

Mining News: Developer eyes Mount Milligan startup  05/26/2013
The Government of British Columbia’s push in recent years for mine exploration and development in the northern region of the province is slowly bearing fruit. An early plum is Thompson Creek Metals Co. Inc.’s Mount Milligan copper-gold mine in north-central B.C., which is rolling toward startup in A...

Mining News: Retooled Kensington; retooled Coeur  04/28/2013
Churning out 25,506 ounces of gold during the first three months of 2013, Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp.’s retooled Kensington Mine in Southeast Alaska is on pace to surpass 100,000 ounces of production in 2013. Late in 2011, Coeur cut processing rates in half to undertake several key initiatives aimed a...

Mining News: Alaska miners get their day in Juneau  04/28/2013
The 28th Alaska Legislature has forwarded a slew of bills to the desk of Gov. Sean Parnell that are aimed at recognizing the Last Frontier’s rich mining history and ensuring the industry is a key component of the state’s economic future. Senate Bill 1, which designates May 10 of every year as Alaska...

Mining News: Report rates countries on political risk  04/28/2013
Mineral consulting group Behre Dolbear Group Inc. released its 2013 “Ranking of Countries For Mining Investment Where Not to Invest.” Since 1999 the group has compiled annual political risk assessments from key players in the global mining industry. Geology and mineral potential are not considered i...

Mining News: For Alaska, the only constant is change  04/28/2013
About 2,500 years ago, Heraclitus of Ephesus observed that the only constant is change. Looking out the window on a snowy Alaska April morning brings this observation home once again. It is amusing to reflect on the acrimony associated with “global warming,” which was renamed “climate change” when...

Mining News: US$700M plan for Pebble nears completion  04/28/2013
With the goal of filing for permits by the end of the year, the Pebble Limited Partnership has agreed to a budget of roughly US$80 million for Pebble in 2013, which will push the total investment in the Southwest Alaska copper-gold-molybdenum deposit above US$750 million. “By the time the Pebble Par...

Mining News: Wily junior advances promising porphyry  04/28/2013
Copper Fox Metals Corp. recently completed a positive feasibility study of its Schaft Creek porphyry copper, gold, molybdenum and silver project in northwestern British Columbia that could mark an important turning point for the project. The Calgary, Alberta-based company holds title and a 100 perce...

Mining News: World community weighs in on Peel plan  04/28/2013
The Government of Yukon received comments from around the globe during recent public consultation in the prolonged land-use debate over the Peel Watershed, a 77,000 square kilometer mountainous and wild expanse in the northern part of the territory that also extends across the border into central No...

Mining News: North should prosper despite tough times  04/28/2013
The mining industry in northern Canada is expected to continue to flourish in 2013 despite current challenges, including slow economic growth, lower commodity prices and dismal financial markets, according to economists at The Conference Board of Canada. “The territories are not immune to the vulner...

Mining News: Ucore’s Bokan: Baby bear of REE projects  03/31/2013
The right size operation, recovering the right rare earth elements in the right location; this is how market experts and policymakers are describing Ucore Rare Metals’ Bokan Mountain REE project in Southeast Alaska. In a March 9 article, “The Rare Earth Space, ‘A Culling of the Herd, and the Survivo...

Mining News: Pentagon orders an about-face on REEs  03/31/2013
About face; forward; march! The U.S. Department of Defense recently issued this order in the field of rare earth elements. The unique properties of REEs – a group of 17 previously obscure metals that include scandium, yttrium and the 15 lanthanides – are key ingredients in a number of military appl...

Mining News: Alaska slips in 2012 Fraser rankings  03/31/2013
In a year that has started off with more than its share of mining industry gloom and doom, this year’s Fraser Institute “Survey of Mining Companies, 2012/2013” provided a bit of sunshine for Alaska. The annual survey of exploration and mining companies gauges the pros and cons of working in various...

Mining News: BLM manufactures another Alaska crisis  03/31/2013
As a recent editorial in The Economist (March 16, 2013) notes, “[America’s] debt is rising, its population is ageing …, its schools are mediocre …, its infrastructure is rickety, its regulations dense, its tax code byzantine, its immigration system harebrained - and it has fallen from first position...

Mining News: Early birds take flight in Far North  03/31/2013
There’s nothing like getting an early start, especially when it comes to mining exploration in Canada’s Far North. Literally, there’s nothing like the 2013 program that Prosperity Goldfields Corp. kicked off in late February at its Kiyuk Lake Project to the east in southern Nunavut nor the 2013 fie...

Mining News: Hecla eyes Canada’s golden Aurizon  03/31/2013
The 6.4 million ounces of low-cost silver recovered from the Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska during 2012 is funding growth aspirations at Hecla Mining Co., including a foray into Canada’s mining sector. “This past year, with the Lucky Friday down, Greens Creek generated strong silver producti...

Mining News: Selwyn sells stake in zinc-lead project  03/31/2013
The huge Selwyn lead-zinc project in eastern Yukon Territory is one of the latest on a growing list of resource developments attracting mega-investments from Chinese companies to Canada. Selwyn, perhaps the largest undeveloped zinc-lead deposit in the world, is located in the heart of the Yukon’s m...

Mining News: Junior takes on Cameco uranium-gold find  03/31/2013
URU Metals Ltd., a base metals and uranium explorer with interests in Africa and South America, is making a bold foray into Canada in 2013 to investigate the potential of the Nueltin Lake gold-uranium project held by Cameco Corp., one of the world’s largest uranium producers. URU has signed an optio...

Mining News: BC exploration spending shatters record  02/24/2013
VANCOUVER, B.C. – British Columbia, Alaska and Yukon Territory – the headliners of the Association for Mining Exploration British Columbia’s 2013 Mineral Exploration Roundup – tallied more than C$1 billion of mineral exploration spending in 2012. This marks the second year running that these neighbo...

Mining News: ‘When will risk capital drought end?’  02/24/2013
The annual Cordilleran Roundup Mining Convention is held in Vancouver at the end of January each year, and this year’s convention was unlike any of the nearly 20 such conventions I have attended. The norm for this convention is a sort of anticipatory excitement that permeates every facet of the eve...

Mining News: Interior designate Jewell has a choice  02/24/2013
It has been a long time since we have had a president who has hailed from a public lands state and, even though we have had some secretaries of the Interior from the West, they have ranged from the inept to total disaster. For reasons that are undoubtedly our own fault, not only do the unscrubbed ma...

Mining News: NW Alaska project tops 6B lbs. copper  02/24/2013
NovaCopper Inc. is 2.4 billion pounds closer to reaching its goal of defining a 10-billion-pound copper camp in the Ambler Mining District of Northwest Alaska. “In our first season of drilling at South Reef, we have defined 2.4 billion pounds of high-grade copper and the mineralized system is wide o...

Mining News: Fortune advances two projects in tandem  02/24/2013
Fortune Minerals Ltd. is advancing two mineral projects involving three different jurisdictions of Canada and doing much of it with the same timeframe. On the heels of development of its Nico gold-cobalt-bismuth-copper project in Northwest Territories, Fortune is also targeting commercial production...

Mining News: Far North producers deliver in 2012  02/24/2013
While others may have encountered insurmountable challenges, the new producers of precious and base metals in Canada’s Far North achieved solid and, in some cases outstanding, performance results in 2012. The Meadowbank Mine in Nunavut and the three operating mines in Yukon Territory – Minto, Bellek...

Mining News: Teck CEO sees long-term trends intact  02/24/2013
Trepidation over scarce venture capital tempered the inherent ability of mineral explorers to envision the prospectivity of what lies over the horizon, resulting in an aura of guarded optimism during the 2013 Mineral Exploration Roundup, held Jan. 28-31 in Vancouver, B.C. Teck Resources Ltd. Preside...

Mining News: Pace of claim staking slips in Far North  02/24/2013
Claim-staking and other mineral tenure activity in Canada’s Far North appears to be following the downward trend seen in recent exploration spending. Officials report that the number of mineral claims and leases and prospecting permits issued in 2012, generally, have plummeted from comparable activi...

Alaska News Nuggets  05/23/2013
NICKEL/COPPER/PGE – Pure Nickel Inc. May 23 said it has begun a 2013 exploration program on the Man Alaska property. This will consist primarily of a 2,200 meter drill program utilizing one helicopter...Comments

British Columbia  05/23/2013
RESTRUCTURE – Chieftain Metals Inc. and Chieftain Metals Corp. May 22 said a plan of arrangement approved by former shareholders of Chieftain Inc. at the annual and special meeting of shareholders hel... Comments

Northwest Territories  05/23/2013
DIAMONDS – Rio Tinto Diamonds May 23 said it has successfully launched a new and innovative sales platform for a portion of its diamonds production from the Diavik Mine in Northwest Territories. Rio T... Comments

Nunavut  05/23/2013
GOLD – Sabina Gold & Silver Corp. May 23 released additional results from the 2013 drilling at the Goose Creek area of its Back River gold project in Nunavut. In the Goose project area, drilling at th... Comments

Yukon Territory  05/23/2013
ROYALTY – Americas Bullion Royalty Corp. reported that Wolfpack Gold Corp. began trading as WFP on the Toronto Venture Exchange May 21. Following the completion of a reverse takeover transaction with... Comments

Mining supportive Clark defies pollsters in B.C. election victory  05/16/2013
Despite polls that predicted Adrian Dix would lead the New Democratic Party to a landslide victory in British Columbia, underdogs BC Premier Christy Clark and the BC Liberal Party emerged as the winne... Comments

1.8M oz silver at Greens Creek funds Hecla transformation  05/16/2013
As Hecla Mining Co.’s Lucky Friday Mine in Idaho ramps up to full production, the Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska continues to do the company’s heavy lifting. Of the 1.9 million ounces of silve...Comments

Alaska News Nuggets  05/16/2013
FINANCE – Ucore Rare Metals Inc. May 13 reported the completion of a C$5 million equity offering. The financing consisted of 20 million units priced at C25 cents each. Each unit consists of one common... Comments

British Columbia  05/16/2013
GOLD – New Gold Inc. May 15 said the company has eliminated its legacy gold hedges that were associated with the 2008 project financing put in place to develop the Mesquite mine. As a result of Mesqu... Comments

Northwest Territories  05/16/2013
GOLD – Seabridge Gold Inc. provided results from the first 10 holes of the 2013 winter drill program at its Courageous Lake gold project, Northwest Territories. The winter program, now completed, cons... Comments

Nunavut  05/16/2013
DIAMONDS – North Arrow Minerals Inc. May 15 said it filed on SEDAR an NI 43-101 technical report restating and confirming a mineral resource estimate for the Q1-4 kimberlite located at the Qilalugaq d... Comments

Yukon Territory  05/16/2013
MANAGEMENT – Capstone Mining Corp. May 14 said D. James Slattery has been appointed senior vice president and chief financial officer of Capstone. Slattery brings over 30 years of financial and execut... Comments

ARPN: Stratus involvement may taint Bristol Bay Assessment  05/09/2013
American Resources Policy Network President Daniel McGroarty May 6 delivered a letter to U.S. Congressmen charged with overseeing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, urging them to investigate t... Comments

Silver Predator unloads northern baggage, focuses on Nevada  05/09/2013
In order to focus on its Nevada assets, and its Taylor silver project in particular, Silver Predator Corp. optioned its Illinois Creek gold-silver property in Alaska and divested itself of most of it...Comments

Alaska News Nuggets  05/09/2013
COPPER/MOLY/GOLD – Full Metal Minerals Ltd. May 9 reported an inaugural inferred mineral resource estimate for the Pyramid copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry project, located near tidewater in Southwest... Comments

British Columbia  05/09/2013
MOLY/COPPER/GOLD – Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc. May 9 reported financial and operational results for the three months ended March 31 including income of US$900,000, or nil per diluted share, com... Comments

Northwest Territories  05/09/2013
POLYMETALLIC/COAL – Fortune Minerals Ltd. May 6 reported that its consolidated financial statements and management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations for the pe... Comments

Nunavut  05/09/2013
GOLD – Prosperity Goldfields Corp. May 9 reported final assay results for its 20-hole, 4,427-meters winter drill program on the Kiyuk Lake gold project in Nunavut. Final assay results from the Rusty d... Comments

Yukon Territory  05/09/2013
FINANCE – Copper North Mining Corp. May 8 said it has signed of a loan agreement with an insider of the company to secure C$300,000. Proceeds will be used for general working capital. The loan will ma... Comments

Yukon Territory (continued)  05/09/2013
GOLD – Colorado Resources Ltd. May 7 said Gold Fields Ltd. – through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Gold Fields Selwyn Exploration Corp. – has entered into an option and joint venture agreement to earn... Comments

EPA bolsters findings of assessment to determine Pebble’s fate  05/02/2013
The second draft of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Bristol Bay Assessment is being hailed as a triumph by the camp opposed to development of the massive Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project i... Comments

NWT mining industry praises Tłı̨chǫ land use plan  05/02/2013
The minerals industry of Northwest Territories April 30 congratulated the Tłı̨chǫ Government for the release of their long-awaited Tłı̨chǫ Wene’ke, or Tł&...Comments

Sonic drilling reveals 80 million year old fern leaf  05/02/2013
Drillers from Vancouver-based Sonic Drilling Ltd. May 2 reported the discovery a fossilized fern leaf in a recent core sample taken on a project in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. The company had been contracted... Comments

Alaska News Nuggets  05/02/2013
CONSOLIDATION – Heatherdale Resources Ltd. April 2 said it has returned the Delta volcanogenic massive sulfide project to Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. and no longer holds an interest in the Interior Alaska... Comments

British Columbia  05/02/2013
COPPER/GOLD – Orestone Mining Corp. April 30 said in preparation for the upcoming field season at the Captain project, the company has made application for an additional 20 diamond drill holes and 44.... Comments

Northwest Territories  05/02/2013
DIAMONDS – North Arrow Minerals Inc. April 29 reported that it has closed a non-brokered private placement of 20 million common shares at a price of C15 cents per common share for total gross proceeds... Comments

Nunavut  05/02/2013
GOLD – Sabina Gold & Silver Corp. April 30 reported initial drill results from the 2013 program at its Back River project in Nunavut and announces the adoption of an advance notice policy. Since mid-F... Comments

Yukon Territory  05/02/2013
ADVANCE NOTICE – Alexco Resource Corp. May 2 reported that its board of directors has adopted an advance notice policy in order to facilitate an orderly and efficient process for holding annual genera... Comments

Barrick slashes 2013 spending, says no new mines on lower gold prices  04/25/2013
For the first quarter 2013, Barrick Gold Corp. has reported net earnings of US$847 million (US85 cents per share), reflecting nearly a 19 percent drop from the US$1.04 billion (US$1.04 a share) for th... Comments

Avalon reports positive feasibility study for Nechalacho REE project  04/25/2013
Avalon Rare Metals Inc. recently reported completion of a positive feasibility study for its Nechalacho rare earth elements project in Northwest Territories. Avalon said the undertaking, prepared by...Comments

Alaska News Nuggets  04/25/2013
GOLD – Freegold Ventures Ltd. April 25 reported results from the first five core holes of the 2013 Dolphin/Cleary drill program at its Golden Summit project near Fairbanks. Holes GDSL1301 through GSDL... Comments

British Columbia  04/25/2013
COPPER/GOLD – Colorado Resources Ltd. April 25 reported the results of the first of two drill holes recently completed on its North ROK property located about 190 kilometers (118 miles) north of Stewa... Comments

Northwest Territories  04/25/2013
DIAMONDS – Dominion Diamond Corp. April 24 reported reserves and resources for the Ekati Mine expected to be included in an upcoming NI 43-101-compliant technical report. Dominion acquired the Ekati D... Comments

Nunavut  04/25/2013
DIAMONDS – Peregrine Diamonds Ltd. April 23 said it has collected a bulk sample weighing about 508 wet metric tons by surface trenching from the CH-6 kimberlite at the company’s Chidliak diamond proje... Comments

Yukon Territory  04/25/2013
RIGHTS PLAN/ADVANCE NOTICE – Western Copper and Gold Corp. April 25 said its board of directors has adopted a shareholder rights plan and an advance notice policy. The Vancouver-based junior has 100 p... Comments

Canada’s mining industry remains strong; challenges lie ahead  04/18/2013
In a keynote address to the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations, Pierre Gratton, president and CEO of the Mining Association of Canada, April 17 stressed the importance of keeping Canada’s mining in... Comments

Alaska News Nuggets  04/18/2013
NEW DIRECTOR – Goldrich Mining Co. April 16 reported its board of directors has elected Michael Rasmussen as director. Rasmussen has more than 25 years of experience in mining and exploration in the U...Comments

British Columbia  04/18/2013
FINANCE – Dolly Varden Silver Corp. April 18 reported that Hecla Mining Company, through a wholly-owned subsidiary, has exercised its right to maintain a19.94 percent interest in Dolly Varden and acqu... Comments

Northwest Territories  04/18/2013
DIAMOND – Arctic Star Exploration Corp. April 17 said Peak Drilling has mobilized to drill rig and crew to Arctic Star’s Redemption diamond project in the Lac de Gras diamond fields of Northwest Terri... Comments

Nunavut  04/18/2013
URANIUM – Kivalliq Energy Corp. April 17 reported the discovery of radioactive mineralization associated with a 1,000 meter long electromagnetic conductor located between, and along strike from, the E... Comments

Yukon Territory  04/18/2013
GOLD – Kaminak Gold Corp. April 15 said results for the first 41 drill holes from the 2013 drilling campaign at its Coffee Gold project continue to define new, good grade, shallow, oxidized gold zones... Comments

U.S. defends ‘world’s worst place to permit a mine’ title in 2013  04/11/2013
The United States is once again tied with Papua New Guinea for last place when it comes to the length of time it takes to get a proposed mining project through the permitting process, according to Be... Comments

Alaska News Nuggets  04/11/2013
FINANCE – NovaGold Resources Inc. April 10 reported results for its first quarter ended Feb. 28 and provided an update on the permitting process for its Donlin Gold project in Alaska. The company ende...Comments

British Columbia  04/11/2013
TRAINING – The British Columbia government is investing C$500,000 to extend a mining and environmental training project that will allow 35 people to receive the supports and services they need to find... Comments

Northwest Territories  04/11/2013
DIAMONDS – North Arrow Minerals Inc. April 11 reported that it has been notified by Dominion Diamond Corp. that an overburden drilling program is underway at the companies’ 307,000-acre Lac de Gras di... Comments

Nunavut  04/11/2013
GOLD – Prosperity Goldfields Corp. April 9 reported multiple zones of gold mineralization have been intercepted in three of the first four holes drilled at the Rusty zone during the 2013 winter drill... Comments

Yukon Territory  04/11/2013
FINANCE – Northern Freegold Resources Ltd. April 11 said it has increased its previously announced non-brokered private placement. The company will now offer up to 25 million units at C6 cents per un... Comments

Yukon Territory (continued)  04/11/2013
GOLD – ATAC Resources Ltd. April 9 provided an overview of the initial 2013 exploration and drill program for its Rackla Gold project in east-central Yukon. ATAC’s 1,700-square kilometer (656 square... Comments

Greenland  04/11/2013
FINANCE – True North Gems Inc. April 8 said it has completed the first tranche of a brokered private placement under a best efforts agency agreement with Casimir Capital LP. True North received gross... Comments

Scientists discover more pieces to the N.A. Cordillera puzzle  04/04/2013
The history of the North American Cordillera, the mineral-rich mountainous terranes stretching from Alaska through Mexico, may be more complex than previously imagined. Piecing together the complex p... Comments

Mineral production value rises in Nunavut, drops in NWT  04/04/2013
The NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines April 2 reported that overall value of mineral production rose in Nunavut in 2012, and dropped in the Northwest Territories, according to Natural Resources Canada st...Comments

Alaska News Nuggets  04/04/2013
GOLD – Endurance Gold Corp. April 4 said Liberty Gold Corp. has completed a C$20,000 option payment and will continue with their option on the McCord Creek gold property, near Livengood in Interior Al... Comments

British Columbia  04/04/2013
POLYMETALLIC – Chieftain Metals Inc. April 2 reported that a geological, geophysical and geochemical re-interpretation of its Tulsequah volcanogenic massive sulfide property has identified a number of... Comments

Northwest Territories  04/04/2013
FINANCE – TerraX Minerals Inc. April 4 said it has agreed to grant an option to Virginia Mines Inc. to purchase a 2 percent net smelter return royalty on its Northbelt Property in Yellowknife, NWT. T... Comments

Nunavut  04/04/2013
GOLD – Sabina Gold & Silver Corp. April 2 reported its financial results for the year that ended Dec. 31. 2012 was a year of continued growth and change for Sabina. Highlights of the year include Sab... Comments

Yukon Territory  04/04/2013
FINANCE – Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. April 4 said it has received conditional TSX-V approval to purchase 8.33 million units of Northern Freegold Resources Ltd at C6 cents per unit for a total conside... Comments