High-grade gold found near Kensington Mine

The Kensington mine, located northwest of Juneau, recently announced the discovery of high-grade gold. It was found in a historic mining vein called Jualin near the active site.

“There’s an adage in the mining industry, you know the best place to look for a mine is near a mine,” says general manager Wayne Zigarlick.

The Kensington mine typically produces .2 ounces per ton, but Zagarlick says the Jualin material is modeled to be about .46 ounces ounces per ton.

“So considerably higher gold content per ton of material,” he says.

That means the cost to produce gold at Kensington is going to be cheaper. In 2014, it was $951 to produce an ounce of gold. Coeur Mining, the company that owns Kensington, forecasts it will be $820 per ounce in 2015. Zigarlick says it took about two years to find the high-grade gold in the historic Jualin site.

“There’s never a breakthrough moment where everyone says, ‘We had a discovery.’ It just kind of oozes out like toothpaste,” he says.

The company doesn’t plan on hiring any new employees at the location. Coeur Mining owns Kensington, along with two other mines in the U.S. and internationally in Bolivia, Mexico and Australia. Currently, the market rate price for gold is about $1,200 per ounce.

Sign up for The Signal

Top Alaska stories delivered to your inbox every week

Site notifications
Update notification options
Subscribe to notifications