GOLD - Fire River Gold Corp. March 2 said it has expanded its management team to advance the Nixon Fork Gold Mine. Richard Goodwin has been appointed vice president of mining and is the project manager of Nixon Fork. Goodwin is a mining engineer with more than 25 years experience in underground mine operations, engineering consulting and corporate management. Goodwin’s prior experience includes vice president of mining, for Yukon Zinc Corp.’s Wolverine zinc‐silver project in the Yukon Territory and COO and vice president mining for Redcorp Resources Ltd. Larry Hillesland has been hired as the manager of geology for the project. Hillesland has more than 30 years of mineral exploration experience, with a strong focus on gold. Fire River said Hillesland has applied his talents to project development, the assessment of district plays, and to mergers and acquisitions. Kristian Whitehead has been added to the team as senior geologist. Whitehead has worked as senior project geologist at Stratagold Corp.’s Dublin Gulch project in the Yukon Territory and most recently on the Hawthorne Gold Corp.’s Cassiar gold project in British Columbia. Fire River Gold said this project team will manage the geological re‐assessment work at Nixon Fork. The work will result in a complete re‐evaluation of the geological model that will be used to prepare a new resource statement, which will be declared in a NI 43‐101 report before year end.
GOLD - Linux Gold Corp. Feb. 26 reported signing of a mining agreement for the Trout claims, located about 70 miles northwest of Fairbanks, Alaska. The company said the Trout claims are underlain by the Wolverine Mountain intrusive complex. Linux Gold is to make an initial payment of US$1,500 upon signing a five year lease. Annual payments are US$5,000 the first year, US$10,000 the second year, US$15,000 plus 10,000 Linux Gold shares the third year, and US$15,000 plus 50,000 Linux Gold shares the fourth year. The company can acquire 100 percent interest in the claims by paying US$500,000 in cash and issuing US$500,000 worth of Linux Gold shares the fifth year. The agreement calls for minimum expenditures of US$10,000 per year. Linux Gold said it will be announcing an exploration program for the property this spring.
GOLD - Linux Gold Corp. March 1 said it has completed a mining agreement for the Coho claims, located in Interior Alaska 30 miles northeast of the Pogo gold mine and 100 miles east of Fairbanks. Linux Gold made an initial payment of US$1,500 upon signing a five year lease. Annual payments are US$5,000 the first year, US$10,000 the second year, US$15,000 plus 10,000 Linux Gold shares the third year, and US$15,000 plus 50,000 Linux Gold shares the fourth year. The company can acquire 100 percent interest in the claims by paying US$500,000 in cash and issuing US$500,000 worth of Linux Gold shares the fifth year. The company has also agreed to pay a four percent of the net smelter return from future production from the ten claims that make up the Coho property. Linux Gold said gold-bismuth-copper anomalies (maximum values of 1,024 parts per billion gold; 71 parts per million bismuth and 499 ppm copper) have been detected in rocks collected near a Cretaceous-Tertiary intrusive complex on the property.
GOLD - Teryl Resources Corp. March 2 said it has retained Mark Robinson, a certified and qualified consulting geologist, to complete a feasibility study and a fair value analysis on the Gil joint venture property (Kinross Gold Corp. 80 percent and Teryl 20 percent). The first phase of the work will examine the property for previously unknown intrusive-hosed mineralization, as well as examine and sample the “White Schist” outcrop on the north end of the property. Teryl President John Robertson said, “The occurrence of historical production from gold placers on the Gil joint venture suggests that there may be multiple sources of bedrock gold in the area."The second phase of the study will consist of a fair market evaluation, utilizing 3D modeling of the proposed ore body, and a calculation of grade and tonnage contained within that model. Teryl said its board of directors concluded that retaining a highly qualified geologist to complete an economic study on the Gil property will be key in gauging any future offers on the project. In January Teryl turned down a letter of intent proposal offer that it received from Kinross subsidiary Fairbanks Gold Mining Inc. for acquisition of its 20 percent interest in the Gil property.
RARE EARTH ELEMENTS - Ucore Uranium Inc. March 1 said detailed mineralogical studies on surface and drill core samples from its Bokan Mountain are being led by Dr. A.N. Mariano, a renowned expert on REE minerals. Analyses are being made by traditional and state-of-the-art methods. To date, a wide variety of REE-bearing minerals have been identified. Ucore said concentrates of iimoriite were made using simple heavy media separation techniques, with grain sizes up to 2 millimeters."Characterizing the mineralogy is an important aspect of evaluating any REE deposit," said Ucore President and CEO Jim McKenzie. "Many REE minerals have similar physical and chemical characteristics. Separating the complex REE minerals from the waste rock can be a challenge at any REE deposit. We are encouraged by the coarse grain size and liberation of iimoriite, a key REE mineral that has high concentrations of the more valuable heavy rare earths and has relatively simple refining properties. We already have previous metallurgical test reports by the US Bureau of Mines that indicate recoveries of more than 95 percent yttrium, and results of our new mineralogical studies will be used to develop bench-scale metallurgical investigations to determine the potential recovery of the full suite of light and heavy rare earth minerals and elements."
FINANCE - Kiska Metals Corp. March 3 said it has closed the first tranche of the non-brokered private placement of 9 million units at C66 cents for gross proceeds of C$5.94 million. Kiska issued 6.72 million units for gross proceeds of C$4.435 million. It is expected that the remaining tranche of the private placement will close on or about March 11. Each unit consisted of one common share and one half of one non-transferable common share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder to purchase one common share at a price of C92 cents per share until March 2, 2011. The terms of the warrants provide that if, during the term of any unexercised warrant commencing on July 3, 2010, the closing price of the common shares of the company on any exchange is greater than C$1.40 for a period of 20 consecutive trading days the Company may, at its option and by notice in writing to each holder, require the holder of the warrant to exercise such warrant within 30 days, failing which the warrant will be deemed to have expired. The units issued under the offering are subject to a four-month hold period expiring on July 3, 2010. The proceeds from the private placement financing will be used for exploration of the Company's Whistler Project in Alaska and for general corporate purposes.
ENVIRONMENT - The US Environmental Protection Agency Region 10 March 3 reported that the Salt Chuck Mine site has been added to the EPA’s National Priorities List. The listing makes the site eligible to receive federal funds for long-term cleanup while the EPA seeks to recover costs from the responsible parties. The Salt Chuck Mine is located on Prince of Wales Island in the Tongass National Forest. The federal agency said heavy metals from mine tailings have affected water quality and sediments in Lake Ellen Creek and the northern end of Kasaan Bay. Contamination affects the important commercial and subsistence salmon and shellfish fisheries in the bay. "This Superfund listing will provide a healthier future for Kasaan Bay and for Kasaan Tribal members, local residents and everyone who eats salmon and shellfish from the Bay,” said EPA Region 10 Superfund Director Dan Opalski. ”We look forward to cleaning up the Salt Chuck Mine site in collaboration with the tribe, the U.S. Forest Service, the State of Alaska and affected stakeholders.” Background information on the Salt Chuck Mine site and other EPA documentation is available at: http://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/CLEANUP.NSF/sites/scm
