Comment: This morning we join with members of the Alaska Mining Association to celebrate Alaska Mining Day.  We follow mining here to the extent that many of the same leasing, permitting and extremist opposition matters are those shared with oil and gas investors in northern Canada and Alaska.  Also, energy availability is a primary concern of miners and contributes to determination of whether a given property is economically feasible to develop.  We salute all of these resouorce pioneers, for without them and their hardy predecessors our way of life would [...]