Mining veterans team to find the next PebbleMining veterans team to find the next Pebble
By Tim Bradner
Alaska Journal of Commerce
Three veterans in Alaska's mining industry hope to find the next Pebble mineral deposit on the Alaska Peninsula southwest of Anchorage. In fact they may have discovered one already. They call it "Boo," and it's part of a larger prospect area now known as South Pebble.
Two years ago, Alaska geologists Bill Ellis, Dave Lappi and Rob Retherford formed Alaska Earth Resources Inc. and in December 2003 the trio staked mining claims covering 17,920 acres of state lands, or 28 square miles. The claims are adjacent to where Northern Dynasty Inc., a Canadian company, hopes to develop Pebble - a large copper, gold and molybdenum prospect.
The staking sparked a claims-rush in the area. A couple of weeks after Ellis, Lappi and Retherford staked their claims competitors were hot on the trail. Within a month new mining claims blanketed 500 square miles in the Pebble region, a record for Alaska's mining industry, according to Ellis.
Since the claims were staked, Alaska Earth Resources has formed a partnership with Full Metal Minerals Ltd., another Canadian exploration company, to explore its claims blocks that comprise Pebble South.
Last summer, ground-based geophysical surveys were done on a widely spaced grid and more work is planned this year, Ellis said. So far 11 mineral anomalies, places where the geophysics indicate there may be ore deposits, have been located, he said.
In a September press release, Full Metals said two of the 11 prospects are high priority for exploration drilling: Boo, which consists of two mile-long areas of anomalies and "TYP Prospect," a small mineralized area 12 miles north of Boo.
Alaska Earth Sciences Inc., a sister company to Alaska Earth Resources, is managing the exploration on behalf of itself and Full Metal Minerals. Alaska Earth Sciences had 11 geologists on staff in 2004 and may double its work force this year to work on South Pebble and three other Alaska projects.
One is "Gunsight," a copper-gold prospect in the Talkeetna Mountains about 70 miles north of Anchorage. The two companies completed a six-hole drilling program on the property last summer, finding high gold, silver and copper values.
The second is the Kamishak, a copper-gold breccia formation on the southeast side of Lake Iliamna.
They are also now involved in a third program with the Aleut Corp., the Alaska Native regional corporation for the Aleutian Islands area of southwest Alaska. Several prospects in the Port Moller and Shumagin Islands areas and adjacent lands on the Alaska Peninsula are included.
Discoveries have already been made on Aleut lands, including "Pyramid," a copper and molybdenum deposit located in 1974 by a mining company working with the Aleuts; "Centennial" on Popov Island near Sand Point, a gold prospect discovered in 1987; and "Shumigan," a gold-silver prospect drilled in the 1970s and 1980s.
The earlier exploration at Pyramid resulted in an estimate of 125 million tons of copper-molybdenum mineralization in the prospect. Early exploration at Centennial indicate potential resources of 6 million tons of low-grade bulk mineable ore, while the preliminary assessment at Shumigan indicate the presence of 280,000 tons of high-grade gold-silver mineralization.
The three principals in Alaska Earth Sciences have worked for years as geologists for other companies, as well as working as consultants. Ellis first came to Alaska in 1974 as exploration manager for Sunshine Mining Co. He hired Lappi, who had recently graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The two worked together on several Brooks Range projects. Retherford is also a long-time Alaska geologist - he has been in the state for 50 years - and has known Ellis and Lappi since the late 1970s.
The three partners got together originally to take land positions on prospects of merit, and to market these to well-funded mining companies. The three individuals now also share the ownership in a consulting company, Alaska Earth Sciences, which was founded in 1985.
The three find mineral prospects, stake claims and then market the project to "junior" mining exploration companies to secure capital for exploration, Ellis said. Full Metal Minerals is Alaska Earth Resource's first partner, although there could be others as further prospects are developed, he said.
Two new prospects being marketed this year include areas of copper-gold mineralization west of Beluga Lake in the Alaska Range foothills, about 65 miles west of Anchorage, and Kaigani, a gold prospect on Dall Island west of Ketchikan, in Southeast Alaska.
Kagani is held by Alaska Earth Resources in a 50/50 partnership with another experienced Alaska geologist, William "Boomer" Block.
There are other examples of Alaska mineral consultants forming companies to take an ownership position in prospects.
A recent and well-known example is NovaGold Resources, formed by its president, Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse, an Alaskan geologist previously employed by Placer Dome. Van Nieuwenhuyse formed NovaGold to take over exploration of the Donlin Creek gold project from Placer Dome to earn what may eventually be 30 percent of one of North America's largest gold deposits, and has since gone on to other projects.
NovaGold is a public company with shares sold on the Vancouver and American stock exchanges.