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Alaska Mining

Alaska is facing a massive mineral boom, but at what cost? -by Lois Parshley (Grist.org – July 26, 2023)

https://grist.org/

Adusting of snow clings to the highway as Barbara Schuhmann drives around a hairpin curve near her home in Fairbanks, Alaska. She slows for a patch of ice, explaining that the steep turn is just one of many concerns she has about a looming project that could radically transform Alaskan mining as the state begins looking beyond oil.

Roughly 250 miles to the southeast, plans are developing to dig an open-pit gold mine called Manh Choh, or “big lake” in Upper Tanana Athabascan. Kinross Alaska, the majority owner and operator, will haul the rock on the Alaska Highway and other roads to a processing mill just north of Fairbanks.

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Alaska asks US Supreme Court to undo EPA Pebble mine veto (Reuters – July 26, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

The state of Alaska on Wednesday asked the US Supreme Court to vacate a Biden administration veto blocking Northern Dynasty Minerals’ proposed Pebble copper and gold mining project, arguing the move violated a decades-old land swap deal and the state’s sovereignty.

The lawsuit asked the high court to reverse the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water Act veto. The agency’s January decision determined the Pebble project would cause large-scale loss and damage to the Bristol Bay watershed, and prohibited the project from dumping mining waste into those waters.

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U.S. Department of Defense funds Canadian graphite miner to build project in Alaska – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – July 18, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

Miner is first to receive such a grant

The United States Department of Defense has awarded a subsidiary of Vancouver-based junior miner Graphite One Inc. a grant of $37.5 million to develop a mining project in Alaska, with the aim of lessening America’s dependence on China for metals needed to transition away from fossil fuels.

While a number of Canadian miners have applied to the Department of Defense (DOD) for funding, Graphite One, through its subsidiary in the U.S., is the first to receive such a grant, the company’s chief executive Anthony Huston said. It’s also the first graphite miner to receive a fund from the department, he added.

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[Alaska Mining] Ambler road decision now expected by mid-2024 – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – May 24, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

The Department of Interior (DOI) of the US has once again delayed the release of the record of decision (RoD) for the Ambler road project, which will give access to untouched deposits of copper, zinc, lead, silver and gold in north-western Alaska.

The resolution on Trilogy Metals’ (TSX, NYSE: TMQ) and South32’s (ASX, LON, JSE: S32) proposed 340-km (211-mile) road from the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (UKMP) to the Dalton Highway is now expected on the second quarter of 2024. As of last week’s status report, the DOI was promising a decision by the end of the year.

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USGS funds new Earth MRI scans in Alaska – by Shane Lasley (North of 60 Mining News – May 17, 2023)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

Home to deposits and prospects enriched with 49 out of the 50 minerals deemed critical to the United States, Alaska is the single best state in the nation to explore for the minerals and metals needed for clean energy, electric vehicles, high-tech devices, and military hardware.

To gain a better understanding of the 49th State’s critical minerals potential, the U.S. Geological Survey is investing an additional $5.8 million to explore specific regions of the state in 2023.

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A northern solution to copper shortage – by Shane Lasley (North of 60 Mining News – May 11, 2023)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

The North of 60 Mining area hosts billions of pounds of copper ready to be delivered to a world craving this metal in sky-high demand for wiring the electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure that would enable the envisioned low-carbon future. Whether enough of these copper-rich projects are developed in time to circumvent a short circuit of the clean energy transition remains to be seen.

Global Market analysts such as S&P Global have predicted that copper production will need to double by 2035 to meet demands driven by global net-zero emission goals. This means that even if every current copper mine was still producing at today’s capacity in 12 years, enough new mines would need to come online to match that production – both highly unlikely scenarios.

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State lawmakers join call to feds to intervene in Canadian mining upriver of Alaska – by Sage Smiley (Alaska Public Radio – March 16, 2023)

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Southeast Alaska lawmakers are joining tribal and municipal governments, calling on the federal government to stop – at least temporarily – British Columbia’s mining activities in transboundary watersheds.

Southeast Alaska’s major river systems – the Taku, Unuk and Stikine – originate in British Columbia. Those transboundary watersheds are peppered with mineral claims, active mines and shuttered former mining operations.

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Tribes, Fishermen, Businesses, Conservation Groups Respond to New Potential Mineral Exploration in Bristol Bay Watershed – by United Tribes of Bristol Bay (Alaska Native News – March 8, 2023)

https://alaska-native-news.com/

ANCHORAGE, AK — Bristol Bay Tribes, fishermen, businesses and allies again reiterated their opposition to mining that jeopardizes Bristol Bay’s cultures and economies in response to the latest mineral exploration efforts in the region.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) on February 28 issued a public notice of an application from Stuy Mines LLC for mineral exploration activities along Kaskanak Creek in the Bristol Bay watershed, located southwest of the Pebble deposit. The public notice from the DNR on this proposal for mining exploration (which was submitted in June 2022) in the watershed triggered a two-week public comment period ending March 14.

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Deal over access to ore dock in Skagway, Alaska, ‘critical’ to Yukon, premier says (CBC News North – March 8, 2023)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai is calling a potential new deal that would secure access to the ore dock in Skagway, Alaska, “very, very good news for Yukon.” “I’m very proud. I mean, this is a great example of our government taking on something … that’s very critical to the Yukon and to Canada and having the capacity, I guess I would say, to come up with a solution and get this done.”

Skagway recently accepted the terms of the agreement that would see the Yukon government put more than $17 million US toward upgrading one of the town’s docks. For the Yukon, it’s a vital facility for companies to be able to ship ore mined in the territory.

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This road could save the planet — and carve up Alaskan wilderness – by David Wolman (Bloomberg News – February 27, 2023)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The remote Ambler Mining District contains massive lodes of minerals essential to cleantech, but extracting them will likely make an ecological mess.

Coldfoot, Alaska, is a lone truck stop-cafe-bar-motel 60 miles north of the Arctic Circle. It’s the last spot for northbound semis to gas up on their way to Prudhoe Bay and a place where camo-clad hunters smelling to high hell eat stacks of burgers and swap stories while dead moose lie in pickups parked outside.

On one of Coldfoot’s brisk September mornings, a rumble grows into steady thunder. Man-made wind sends grit whipping across the dirt driveway where someone, a few weeks earlier, placed a wooden sign with red-stenciled letters: “Helicopter Parking Only.”

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A Mine That Threatened Alaskan Salmon May Be No More – by Teresa Nowakowski (Smithsonian Magazine – February 7, 2023)

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/

A proposed mine project in Alaska may have been dealt its final blow. Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) effectively vetoed the project, citing its potential harm to salmon fisheries in the state’s Bristol Bay watershed.

Called Pebble Mine, the proposed development included a mile-wide open-pit mine, a power plant, a gas pipeline, access roads and a port to take advantage of gold and copper deposits thought to be worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

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Alaska mine production tops $4.5 billion – by Shane Lasley (North of 60 Mining News – February 6, 2023)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

More gold, strong zinc prices helped push value higher; critical minerals could add a boost moving forward.

Alaska mines produced approximately $4.51 billion worth of nonfuel minerals last year, a 16% increase over the $3.89 billion in 2021, and an impressive 42.7% jump over the $3.16 billion of mined products during 2020, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Mineral Commodity Summaries 2023 report.

The rise in Alaska mine production value is largely due to increased zinc and gold production, along with strong zinc prices during 2022.

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Alaska gold, copper mine blocked over environmental worries – by Becky Bohrer and Patrick Whittle (Associated Press – February 1, 2023)

https://apnews.com/

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took an unusually strong step Tuesday and blocked a proposed mine heralded by backers as the most significant undeveloped copper and gold resource in the world because of concerns about its environmental impact on a rich Alaska aquatic ecosystem that supports the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.

The move, cheered by Alaska Native tribes and environmentalists and condemned by some state officials and mining interests, deals a heavy blow to the proposed Pebble Mine. The intended site is in a remote area of southwest Alaska’s Bristol Bay region, about 200 miles (322 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage.

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Alaska’s EPA Recommends Further Protection For Bristol Bay From Pebble Mine – by Chris Cocoles (Alaska Sporting Journal – January 9, 2023)

Alaska Sporting Journal

Calling it the “the third step in (a) four-step Clean Water Act Section 404(c) review process,” the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 10 announced a recommendation to restrict mining use in Bristol Bay watersheds.

That Dec. 1 news was welcome relief in one of the world’s last great salmon spawning waters, where fishermen and locals are pushing to permanently protect the region’s pristine rivers from projects like the Pebble Mine.

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EV Mineral Bonanza on Alaska Tribal Land Turns on Disputed Road – by Bobby Magill (Bloomberg Law – November 7, 2022)

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/

Bornite Camp is beyond all the roads in North America, on the southern edge of the massive Brooks Range. It’s home to grizzly bears, and the caribou, moose, and salmon essential to the survival of Alaska Natives who live off the land.

The only way in is by bush plane. If the weather goes bad, there’s no telling when you might get out. Yet in early autumn this tent city above the Arctic Circle—where satellite internet is spotty, bear encounters are expected, and visits to family are rare—is bustling with workers.

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