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Alaska Mining

Opening offshore drilling options: Trump’s move will benefit Alaska if done responsibly (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner – January 7, 2018)

http://www.newsminer.com/

News-Miner opinion: The Trump administration moved toward opening up 90 percent of the nation’s offshore oil reserves last week. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke rolled out the five-year plan that allows for 47 offshore drilling leases, with 19 of those off the coast of Alaska.

It’s the latest in a bevy of headlines that spark visions of a robust economy for Alaska in the not-too-distant future. Add offshore drilling to the list that includes the following: Gov. Bill Walker’s proposed natural gas pipeline, the opening of a portion of the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development, Kinross applying for permits to expand the boundaries of its Fort Knox Gold Mine and the Pebble Partnership being allowed to apply for mining permits at its Pebble Mine site near Bristol Bay.

Alaska may not see all of these developments come to fruition, but this diverse portfolio has the potential to create many jobs and pump money into Alaska’s economy.

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U.S. agency starts review for Alaska mine project opposed by environmentalists – by Yereth Rosen (Reuters U.S. – Janaury 6, 2018)

https://www.reuters.com/

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – U.S. regulators formally launched a review process on Friday that could produce a permit a Canadian mining group needs to build the Pebble Mine copper and gold project in southwest Alaska, which is opposed by environmentalists.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that regulates the development and dredging of wetlands, has published the completed permit application from the Pebble Limited Partnership on its website.

The application will trigger a formal environmental review of the plan to build an open-pit mine in a region with the world’s biggest sockeye salmon runs.

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Feds jump into transboundary mining dispute – by Ed Schoenfeld (Coast Alaska News – December 29, 2017)

Coast Alaska News

The federal government is taking on the transboundary mining issue. The U.S. State Department now acknowledges Alaskans’ concerns about pollution from British Columbia mines. And it’s committed to engaging Canadian officials to protect salmon-rich, cross-boundary watersheds.

In November, the State Department issued a statement saying it was aware of Alaskans’ environmental concerns. And it said it was raising the issue with its Canadian counterparts. But details were scarce.

Then, the department sent a letter to Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott, who released it Dec. 28. He’s headed up the administration’s efforts to address potential pollution from mineral prospects across the border in British Columbia.

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Quantum Pebble leap: First Quantum enters $1.5B deal for half of Pebble; permitting begins – – by Shane Lasley (Mining News – December 24, 2017)

http://www.petroleumnews.com/

In a framework agreement announced on Dec. 18, First Quantum Minerals Ltd. was revealed as the major mining company that will complete the Pebble Limited Partnership.

“We have made good progress in the partnering process and are very pleased to be in advanced-stage discussions with First Quantum, an industry leader in mine development and management,” Ron Thiessen, president and CEO, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., currently the sole owner of the Pebble Partnership.

While the final details of an agreement that will provide First Quantum the option to own half of the Pebble Partnership are being hammered out, the US$1.5 billion preliminary agreement announced on Monday includes a US$150 million investment by First Quantum the will involve four equal payments of US$37.5 million to fund the upcoming permitting process for Pebble.

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Fort Knox gold benefits the Interior: Parcel G new mineral rights could expand life of Fort Knox mine (Daily News-Miner – December 19, 2017)

http://www.newsminer.com/

News-Miner opinion: Earlier this month, Kinross Gold Corp. announced it acquired additional mineral rights directly west of its Fort Knox Gold Mine. Known as Parcel G, this 709-acre tract of land contains an estimated 2.1 million ounces of gold. Going by Monday’s gold price, there could be more than $2.6 billion in gold beneath the surface of the site.

Parcel G could expand the life of the Fort Knox Gold Mine. This would be great for Fairbanks, so let’s hope Parcel G is mined.

Located about 25 miles northeast of Fairbanks, the open-pit Fort Knox Gold Mine has been producing gold for 20 years. It has produced more than 7 million ounces since opening and is the largest producer of gold in Alaska’s history.

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First Quantum breathes new life into Northern Dynasty’s Pebble project – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – December 18, 2017)

http://www.miningweekly.com/

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Base metals miner First Quantum Minerals has signed a framework agreement with Northern Dynasty Minerals to work on formalising an option on the controversial Pebble copper/gold project, in south-east Alaska.

The announcement on Monday breathes new life into the project billed as the largest undeveloped copper/gold project in the world, and which faces strong opposition from local conservationists, Aboriginal groups and nongovernment organisations.

Under terms of the framework agreement, a subsidiary of First Quantum will sign an option agreement with Northern Dynasty and pay $150-million, staged over four years, to acquire the option to acquire half an interest in the Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP) for $1.35-billion.

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Alaskan Native village, conservation groups sue BLM over mine on Chilkat River – by Kevin Gullufsen (Juneau Empire – December 5, 2017)

http://juneauempire.com/

The tribal government of Klukwan filed a lawsuit Monday against the Bureau of Land Management, accusing it of failing to protect culturally-important salmon habitat and world’s largest bald eagle congregation from mining on the Chilkat River drainage.

Filed in U.S. District Court on Monday, the suit alleges that BLM neglected its duties when permitting expansions of mineral exploration in the area in the last year and a half.

Permitting mineral exploration would eventually lead to the creation of a hard rock mine, the suit argues, which has been shown to negatively affect water bodies downstream. Mining companies conduct mineral exploration in hopes of documenting the existence of valuable ore bodies. Smaller exploration companies often then sell their claims to larger extraction companies after they’ve proved valuable.

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OPINION: A Gold Rush in Salmon Country – by Brendan Jones (New York Times – November 24, 2017)

https://www.nytimes.com/

SITKA, Alaska — It is almost winter again here. The days shorten and the furrows of the volcano that looms over our town steadily fill with snow. At night my daughters and I watch northern lights dance green across a mountain ridge as we wait for our salmon to thaw for dinner.

In the courts there is a case in which the defendant, a fisherman, claims his cloth measuring tape constricted in the cold, causing him to mismeasure his halibut. In another case a fisherman blames his freezer for shrinking a king salmon. Alaska state troopers disagree. Life continues apace.

When I’m not working on our tugboat, I fish with Eric Jordan, a second-generation troller whose parents, like those of so many seasoned fishermen around here, fought for Alaskan statehood so salmon could be better managed. We work the winter line, stretching between Cape Edgecumbe Light and Point Woodhouse.

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War on mining is over: Zinke’s Alaska advisor delivers strong message from Interior Department – by Shane Lasley (North of 60 Mining News – November 19, 2017)

http://www.petroleumnews.com/

When Steve Wackowski asked his superiors at the U.S. Department of Interior office in Washington D.C. for a message to deliver at the Alaska Miners Association’s annual convention in Anchorage, their response put an exclamation point on a clear shift in federal policy since President Donald Trump took office – “The war on mining is over.”

This does not mean the United States’ mining sector has a new federal ally, but it does indicate that the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and other agencies under the DOI banner are willing to grant mining due consideration on federal multi-use lands.

Wackowski, who was sworn in as Interior Ryan Zinke’s senior advisor for Alaska affairs in May, delivered this message during a Nov. 8 presentation at the AMA convention.

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The World Needs Copper. Does It Need This Controversial Mine? – by Julia Rosen (National Geographic – November 15, 2017)

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/

The fight over the proposed Pebble mine in southern Alaska is a harbinger: Global copper demand is expected to grow dramatically.

On a Thursday in October, dozens of Alaskans piled into a cavernous airplane hangar in the remote village of Iliamna to discuss — yet again — the fate of the proposed Pebble Mine. Seventeen miles to the northwest, underneath snaking rivers and spongy bogs, lies one of the largest undeveloped deposits of copper and gold in North America.

Mining companies have been exploring it for decades. But many fear that an open pit mine here, at the headwaters of two of the last great salmon rivers on Earth, will harm fish — and the people who depend on them.

In 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency moved to impose restrictions that would have blocked plans for a large mine, citing the impacts on fish-bearing streams, lakes, ponds, and wetlands. But the mine’s backers sued, putting the restrictions on hold.

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Op-Ed Pebble Mine is a poison pill for Alaska’s wild salmon – by Carl Safina and Joel Reynolds (Los Angeles Times – November 9, 2017)

http://www.latimes.com/

Carl Safina is a professor of journalism at Stony Brook University and the founder and president of the Safina Center. Joel Reynolds is western director and senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The Bristol Bay watershed, in southwest Alaska, comprises 40,000 square miles of bogs and evergreen forests, rimmed by distant mountains and shimmering with rivers and feeder streams. In these waterways, miracles happen. Together they sustain the largest remaining salmon fishery on Earth.

For more than a decade, a Canadian mining company, Northern Dynasty Minerals, has wanted to gouge one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines into the heart of the watershed, putting its rivers on a centuries-long poison drip.

The company has failed to move forward with the project, known as Pebble Mine, due to intense and sustained opposition.

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Zinc prices help NANA rebound from oil crash – by Elwood Brehmer (Alaska Journal of Commerce – October 25, 2017)

http://www.alaskajournal.com/

Strong returns from the Red Dog mine are helping NANA Regional Corp. overcome oil and gas industry losses. NANA CEO Wayne Westlake said in an interview that the Northwest Alaska zinc mine is outpacing production forecasts at a time when zinc prices are high.

The open-pit Red Dog mine sits about 90 miles north of Kotzebue, the largest community in the region. NANA, the Alaska Native regional corporation for the area, owns the mine that is operated by Vancouver-based Teck Resources Ltd.

Teck expects production from Red Dog to be between 525,000 and 550,000 metric tonnes this year, according to a September release from the company. Output in that range would be about 10 percent above prior production forecasts.

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Circle Mining District reunion relives gold rush history – by Kris Capps (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner – October 22, 2017)

http://www.newsminer.com/

FAIRBANKS — When the price of gold went up in the early 1970s, a new generation of gold miners jumped on the opportunity to strike it rich. That renewed interest in mining created the second gold rush in the Circle Mining District of Interior Alaska.

“The Circle Mining District, in the 1980s, collectively with all the placer mines — a total of 92 — was the largest gold producer for placer gold mining in the United States,” according to Gail Ackels, who wrote a book about her family’s experiences on Gold Dust Creek in the Circle Mining District.

She should know. She and her husband, Del, were part of that group that also included Joe Vogler, Ernie Wolf, Ed Gelvin, Fred Wilkinson and many others. Many of those miners gathered for a special reunion earlier this month, hosted by fellow Gold Dust Creek miners Bernie and Connie Karl at Chena Hot Springs Resort.

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Group of 29 tribes oppose Pebble Mine, B.C.’s ‘transboundary’ projects – by Kevin Gullufsen (Juneau Empire – October 20, 2017)

http://juneauempire.com/

Southeast and Bristol Bay tribal mining opposition now has a unified front. Two Alaska Native tribal consortiums announced a “historic” partnership Wednesday at the Alaska Federation of Natives conference in Anchorage.

Tribal groups representing a majority of the indigenous peoples in Southeast and Bristol Bay will work together to oppose mining projects in both regions. The Juneau-based Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (CCTHITA) and Douglas Indian Association (DIA) are part of the agreement.

The United Tribes of Bristol Bay (UTBB), which represents 80 percent of the 14 Yup’ik, Denai’na, and Alutiq indigenous communities in Bristol Bay, signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC), which represents 15 of the region’s 19 tribal organizations.

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[Alaska Mining] Bristol Bay braces for long awaited Pebble Mine plans – by Dave Bendinger (Alaska Public Media – October 3, 2017)

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This week, Pebble Limited Partnership is expected to publicly unveil the outline for a plan to mine the copper and gold deposit northwest of Iliamna. Those who have been briefed say the company’s plans call for a much smaller mine than discussed before, and appear to address many of the concerns raised by Bristol Bay residents and fishermen, environmentalists and the EPA.

As a region, the Bristol Bay watershed has largely opposed Pebble, perhaps in increasing numbers, for the past decade. Much of the effort focused on pushing President Obama’s EPA to finalize preemptive Section 404(c) Clean Water Act restrictions that would have blocked permitting of Pebble Mine’s dredge and fill activities.

Pebble filed several lawsuits, alleging in one that EPA and anti-mine activists were colluding to reach a predetermined outcome. That lawsuit found traction in the court of U.S. District Judge H. Russel Holland, who agreed to an injunction against further EPA effort until the case was resolved.

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