Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse has little patience left for mines that aren’t getting built.After 40 years in Alaska’s mining industry, he is tired of permitting delays, lawsuits and the state’s lack of infrastructure.
So a bell chimed in his head four years ago when he read a vague line in a corporate report proposing an unusual kind of gold mine — one that could be ready for construction in just a couple of years, instead of the dozen or more that some projects take. The idea was simple: Dig a typical pit and mine the ore — but send the rocks somewhere else for the heavy industrial process of separating out the gold.
“When I read that, I was like, ‘That actually makes a hell of a lot of sense,’” Van Nieuwenhuyse said in an interview. A mine could be approved more quickly, and built much faster, Van Nieuwenhuyse figured, if it didn’t need the same processing and waste disposal sites that most large mines do. It also, in theory, would have a smaller environmental footprint, would need less power and would cost less to build.
For the rest of this article: https://alaskapublic.org/news/economy/2025-01-07/this-company-helped-build-an-alaska-mine-without-a-tailings-dump-can-it-build-2-more