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SHORT COURSES

SHORT COURSES: All short courses are scheduled for Monday, November 7, 2022.  The courses are open to the public and will provide valuable information to anyone involved with or interested in the minerals industry.  

MSHA REFRESHER COURSES: Surface and underground mining refresher courses are scheduled for Friday and Saturday, November 11 and 12, respectively, at the Downtown Marriott Hotel.  All courses are open to the public. 

SHORT COURSE #1:

It’s Mine! – Securing Mineral Tenure in Alaska

Short Course #1 Description:

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This course will explore mining on Alaska state lands post SB 155. We will review DNR’s new rules (assuming they are issued before the course) and how they relate back to the statutory changes adopted in 2020. The course will then turn to the legal issues involved in acquiring and maintaining mineral interests in Alaska. We start with due diligence, entity choice and formation, and the initial agreements involved in many deals: term sheets, confidentiality agreements, and letters of intent. After lunch, we will address claim maintenance issues and how to avoid common pitfalls in mineral tenure and mineral agreements. We will give an overview of options, leases, and earn-in arrangements, and issues to consider in deciding whether to include an area of interest or a right of first refusal. Finally, if time permits, we will give an overview of some of the major trends and issues in the mining industry nationally, touching on supply chain and critical minerals, mining law and permitting reform, and major court decisions affecting the industry.

SHORT COURSE #2:

Critical and Strategic Minerals in Alaska and Beyond:
Geological Endowment  and the Role Their Development May Play in Alaska’s Mineral Resource Future 

Short Course #2 Description:
 

The Alaska Miners Association is offering a one-day short course on Critical and Strategic Minerals endowment in Alaska.  Five Instructors will be presenting information.  Tom Bundtzen will review historic production from Alaska includes antimony, mercury, tin, tungsten, chromite, asbestos, graphite, and platinum group elements (PGE).  Significant resource endowment for cobalt, nickel, and PGEs was established at several Alaskan deposits prior to the 21st Century. Doug Kreiner will present a mineral systems approach to understanding how, where, and why critical minerals may be enriched in mineral deposits. A mineral systems framework is a holistic approach focused on incorporating geologic features from the tectonic setting to the ore body scale – all of which play a fundamental role in determining the metallogenic signature of ore deposits. This approach has been applied to prioritizing regions of Alaska to focus new data collection efforts, including geologic mapping, geophysical surveys and geochemical analytical coverages. James Barker will provide case histories of rare metal (including tin) deposits Southeast, Interior, Western and Northern Alaska, including Climax-style tungsten-molybdenum-niobium mineralization in the eastern Brooks Range.  Paul Metz will analyze the potential in Alaska for continental margin, carbonate-hosted rare earth element (REE) mineralization—describing analogue occurrences in the Canadian Cordillera.  The carbonatites of the Canadian Cordillera will be reviewed and compared with similar structural domains and lithologies in Alaska. Shane Lasley will provide insights into the government policies and technological innovations that are driving demand for these raw materials. Focused on Alaska’s potential, this segment will include market information on battery metals (antimony, cobalt, graphite, lithium, manganese, nickel, and vanadium); tin, an overlooked critical metal that is abundant in Alaska; zinc, a new addition to the USGS critical minerals list that is often associated with germanium and indium byproducts; and copper, technically not a U.S. critical mineral but needed in vast quantities to meet international climate goals and is associated with cobalt, rhenium, PGMs, and tellurium in Alaska. 

SHORT COURSE #3:

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Overview of the Mining Industry & How to Talk About It

Technology, Environment, Economics, & Communication

Short Course #3 Description:

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This short course will acquaint participants with mining: the how mines work, environmental issues and economics.  It will focus on mining as it exists in Alaska.  Mining is also a mis-understood industry in Alaska, and the course will also discuss how to talk to your neighbors, friends, and opponents about the industry.  The course is intended for people who are a part of the industry or interested but for those who do not spend a lot of time at operating mines.  These may be exploration geologists, bankers, environmental scientists, students or others. Instructed by Bob Loeffler and Sarah Erkmann Ward.

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