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Mining News: Feds open comment period for Ambler EIS Public review may signal real progress for industry toward gaining access to mineral-rich lands of remote Alaska mining district Curt Freeman For Mining News
With the opening late last month of a public comment period for the environmental impact statement on the proposed Ambler Mining District Industrial Access Project, I am cautiously optimistic that this time, Sisyphus will get the boulder up the hill.
As a lowly graduate student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks back in 1979, I helped a crew from Anaconda Minerals color township-size blocks on a huge paper map of the Brooks Range. At the time, Anaconda and numerous other mining companies were actively exploring the Ambler Mining District, an area long known even then for having significant potential to host gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc mineralization.
At the time, what became the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act was being hotly debated by the U.S. Congress, and a request came in from the Alaska congressional delegation: They needed to know where the most prospective mineral lands were in Alaska so these lands could be kept out of the numerous conservations units then being considered. Hence, I sat up late nights with some of the most experienced exploration geologists then working in Alaska, they, doing the thinking, me, coloring townships red for high mineral potential, orange for moderate mineral potential and yellow for low mineral potential. Also clearly marked on these colorful thematic maps were the most cost-effective access routes that would allow roads or railroads to be pushed into the southern Brooks Range. At last, the maps were done and they went to Washington, along with a raft of other information provided by the mining industry. I remember naively thinking “Now they will understand, and they will make sure the world-class potential of the Ambler District will remain open to mineral entry.” In the end, many of the highly prospective mineral trends were closed to mineral entry, despite or perhaps because of, the info the mining industry supplied. Equally damaging was the clever gerrymandering of access routes that made it nearly impossible to gain access to those few areas left open to mineral development.
I, and many others, have spent our careers waiting for this particular boulder to get pushed over this particular hill. I am hoping that this time, Sisyphus has enough help from all of us to get that rock over the hill!
Western Alaska Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Alaska-based Pebble Limited Partnership and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have filed a joint motion in federal court to extend a stay of proceedings to May 4 in ongoing litigation under the Federal Advisory Committee Act. The company has made substantial progress in recent discussions with the EPA and intends to continue negotiating the matter directly, rather than through mediation.
CopperBank Resources Corp. announced that it has secured Alaska engineering firm, DOWL, to provide initial infrastructure planning for an area that is roughly four kilometers (2.5 miles) from the Pyramid copper-molybdenum-gold project on lands on the Alaska Peninsula owned by The Aleut Corp. DOWL will assist in developing a rough order-of-magnitude understanding for several components of conceptual infrastructure, including potential port site locations, on-site power generating options, and supporting road networks. Inferred mineral resources at the project total 122 million metric tons, grading 0.41 percent copper, 0.02 percent molybdenum, and 0.10 grams per metric ton gold. The Pyramid deposit is still open in most directions and to depth. CopperBank also is evaluating additional drilling programs that will increase the current resource, particularly around hole PY11-16 that returned 155 meters, grading 0.71 percent copper, 0.18 g/t gold and 0.018 percent molybdenum and bottoming in 34 meters of 0.844 percent copper.
Interior Alaska International Tower Hill Mines reported a reduction in previously announced all-in sustaining costs at its Livengood gold project. The revisions are designed to conform with World Gold Council guidelines relating to all-in sustaining cost calculations. The effect of the error was to reduce the estimated all-in sustaining cost to $976 per ounce from the previously released $1,247 per ounce. This resulted in an all-in cost reduction from $1,263 per ounce to $1,247 per ounce.
Contango ORE Inc. reported initial 2017 drilling results from its Tetlin gold project, a joint venture with operator Royal Alaska LLC. The currently ongoing drilling is designed to extend open-ended mineralization at the North Peak prospect and drill initial holes in other prospects prior to the spring thaw. Significant new results from the North Peak zone include hole 16312, which returned 29.12 meters grading 7.12 g/t gold; hole 163313, which returned 28.04 meters grading 8.80 g/t gold and an additional 5.36 meters grading 3.2 g/t gold; hole 16317, which returned 7.62 meters grading 8.72 g/t gold; and hole 16320, which returned 6.62 meters grading 7.81 g/t gold. Initial results have expanded the known mineralization at North Peak and prompted the joint venture to delay release of its planned mineral resource update until the results of winter drilling are compiled. The company indicated that it plans to explore other undrilled prospects this summer that are near the Main Peak and North Peak resource areas, focusing on resistivity and magnetic anomalies that have similar characteristics to known resource zones. The company also announced that the joint venture has staked about 68,000 additional acres of State of Alaska lands adjacent to the Tetlin project, the new claims now referred to as the Noah prospect. Targeting was based on drilling results at Tetlin, the re-interpretation of proprietary geological, geophysical, and geochemical data, and interpretation of recently released public geological, geochemical and airborne geophysical data provided by the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys. The joint venture plans to begin initial exploration at Noah this summer.
Alaska Range Millrock Resources Inc. said it has entered into an option to joint venture agreement with an affiliate of Kinross Gold Corp. concerning the Liberty Bell gold project in the western Bonnifield District. Kinross can earn a 70 percent joint venture interest by providing US$5.0 million in exploration funding and property maintenance over five years, paying up to US$145,000 in management fees if Millrock manages exploration programs throughout the duration of the agreement, and paying advanced minimum royalties totaling US$145,000 over the five-year period. The project consists of claims owned outright by Millrock and other claims upon which it holds an option to purchase a 100 percent interest from Boot Hill Gold Inc., a private Alaska firm. A small gold deposit is known to exist on the property, and this mineralization appears to be a distal gold-bearing pyrrhotite skarn. Exploration plans for 2017 were not announced.
Coventry Resources announced plans for 2017 at its Caribou Dome copper project in the Valdez Creek District. The company indicated that as part of a previously announced scoping study, re-interpretation of the three-dimensional geological model is now underway, incorporating the results from previous drilling as well as recently compiled structural information. The company expects the scoping study will be completed shortly. Plans for 2017 will be guided by the scoping study but are expected to include a ground geophysics survey over the new Senator prospect, which was identified by a 2016 soil sampling program. The Senator prospect covers five kilometers, or 3.1 miles, of strike over prospective sedimentary rocks in the far northeast end of the project. The new prospect is more than 11 kilometers, or 6.82 miles, northeast of the main Caribou Dome deposit. Assay results from the 2016 soil sampling program at the Senator prospect included a five-kilometer, or 3.1-mile, wide zone of highly anomalous copper results, with soil samples assaying up to 0.17 percent copper. Select rock chip samples from areas of outcropping sediment-hosted mineralization returned up to 12.1 percent copper.
Northern Alaska Trilogy Metals Inc. reported a significant step in advancing permitting for the Ambler Mining District Industrial Access Project. The Notice of Intent initiating the permitting process under the National Environmental Policy Act for the preparation of an environmental impact statement was published by the Bureau of Land Management, the lead federal agency for the EIS. This notice initiates the public scoping process, with comments due by May 30, 2017. The EIS will evaluate construction and operation of a 211-mile-long industrial access road originating at the Dalton Highway and ending at the Ambler River. Construction of the AMDIAP would provide surface access to significant deposits of copper, lead, zinc, gold and silver, including the Arctic volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit and the Bornite copper carbonate deposit, both of which are part of the Upper Kobuk Mineral project, a business relationship owned and controlled by Trilogy and NANA Regional Corporation Inc.
Trilogy also said it intends to undertake a pre-feasibility study on the high-grade Arctic deposit, using information collected in 2015 and 2016, along with data that will be generated in 2017. A budget totaling US$7.1 million was approved for 2017 and will focus mainly on the Arctic PFS with an anticipated completion date of early 2018. The PFS will include an updated resource model, geotechnical pit-slope stability studies, hydrology, waste rock characterization, and metallurgy, all of which are based on in-hand data. The remaining 2017 field work includes studies related to determining the placement of all site facilities, including the ore-processing facility (crushing and milling), the waste rock and tailings disposal areas, water storage ponds and supporting road infrastructure. The partners also will continue environmental baseline data gathering.
Goldrich Mining Co. posted a forecast for 2017 estimated production as provided by its joint-venture partner NyacAU, LLC at the Chandalar placer gold mine in the Brooks Range. Estimated 2017 production will total about 14,100 ounces of fine gold at a cost of roughly US$700 per ounce. This compares to actual production of 3,857 oz. and 8,227 oz. of fine gold in 2015 and 2016, respectively, and a 2016 cost of about $960 per ounce. The 2017 forecast assumes 120 days of plant operation, averaging 19 hours a day, with a processing rate of 308 bank cubic yards per hour. In 2016 the plant operated about 15 hours per day at a processing rate of 183 yards per hour. Goldrich and NyacAU are making modifications to the plant to increase efficiency and plan to complete upgrades by the end of May. Total plant capacity after modifications is expected to increase to 400 yards per hour. The partners also approved a 122-hole sonic drill program, totaling 7,700 feet of drilling with average hole depth of 63 feet. The drill plan is designed to further define mineralized placer material between Line 8.6 and Line 12, as well as test for potential mineralized material from Line 13 to Line 17.5. The lines are roughly 500 feet apart.
Southeast Alaska Ucore Rare Metals, Inc. announced that it has entered an option to purchase agreement with IBC Advanced Technologies, Inc. The $650,000 option expires on March 14, 2019 and gives Ucore the right to purchase the outstanding shares of IBC in exchange for cash consideration totaling $10,000,000 and a grant of 10,000,000 units, each unit consisting of one common share of Ucore plus a warrant worth one half of a common share of Ucore. Upon the execution of the option, IBC key personnel will receive performance incentives and payments totaling 7 percent of annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for each of the first 5 years of operations subsequent to the execution of the option. The option gives Ucore access to IBC’s Molecular Recognition Technology (MRT) for the mining industry, with an existing customer base spanning several continents and including several major mining companies. This technology also was used with promising results during testing of Ucore’s Bokan rare earth project on Prince of Wales Island.
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