Twitter

Alaska Mining

Alaska mine value tops $4 billion in 2023 – by Shane Lasley (North of 60 Mining News – March 1, 2024)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

At a value of $1.5 billion, zinc held onto its throne as the most valuable metal produced in Alaska during 2023. With production forecasts and price trends headed in opposite directions for zinc and gold, however, the gleaming precious metal that drew fortune-seekers North at the turn of the 20th century could soon regain the crown as the most valued metal produced in the 49th State.

According to preliminary calculations completed by Alaska’s Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys (DGGS), the total value of metals produced at Alaska mines was approximately $3.76 billion during 2023. When you include sand and gravel mining for the construction sector, that value bumps up to around $4.1 billion, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Read more

Pebble mine developer sues EPA over Alaska mine veto – by Clark Mindock (Reuters – March 18, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

March 18 (Reuters) – Northern Dynasty Minerals, the developer of the proposed Pebble copper and gold mine in southwest Alaska, has sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seeking to overturn the agency’s veto of the project.

The developer on Friday filed a lawsuit in federal court in Anchorage challenging the EPA’s 2023 final determination prohibiting the discharge of mining waste in the state’s Bristol Bay over concerns the materials would degrade the watershed and harm important fishing ecosystems.

Read more

B.C.’s multimillion-dollar mining problem – by Francesca Fionda, Jeffery Jones and Chen Wang (Globe and Mail/The Narwhal – February 24, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The true cost of cleaning up mine pollution in B.C. is growing, a Globe and Mail-Narwhal investigation has found – and if disaster strikes, taxpayers could be stuck with an even bigger bill

When John Morris Sr. is asked where the sacred sites on the Taku River are, his answer comes easily. “This whole place is sacred,” the 84-year-old Elder says. In the spring, all five species of North American salmon fight the current to spawn. In the summer, bright orange salmon berries speckle the landscape.

Mr. Morris, a member of the Douglas Indian Association in southeast Alaska, said his grandparents, aunt, uncle and parents always reminded him that everything they needed was provided by the land there.

Read more

Alaskan tribes seek historic legal recognition from B.C. gov’t for review of mining project – by Caitrin Pilkington (CBC News Canada North – February 07, 2024)

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

Coalition wants to be part of environmental review for Eskay Creek gold mine

An Alaska-based coalition of Indigenous governments has applied to be part of a B.C. environmental review process. Representatives of the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission say they’re concerned about the environmental impacts of a proposed project that would see work resume at Eskay Creek, a former open-pit gold mine. The mine, which mining company Skeena Resources hopes to revive, lies about 85 kilometres northwest of Stewart, B.C.

Skeena’s proposal would see workers make use of some of the old mine’s existing facilities, extracting up to three million tonnes of gold and silver ore per year. The proposed mine would be in operation for nine years.

Read more

Debate over Pebble mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region moves to dueling Supreme Court briefs – by Yereth Rosen (Alaska Beacon – November 13, 2023)

Home

The company seeking to develop the controversial copper mine is sticking to its plans, despite federal action that barred permitting for the project

The company trying to build a huge copper and gold mine in the salmon-rich Bristol Bay will keep fighting for the project, despite a decision by the federal government to keep the proposed development site off-limits to large-scale metals mining.

John Shively, chief executive officer of the Pebble Limited Partnership, made that vow in a presentation at the Alaska Miners Association annual convention in Anchorage. He said the Pebble mine had the potential to transform the economy and improve lives in the rural Bristol Bay region, just as he said the Red Dog Mine, one of the world’s biggest zinc producers, has done in Northwest Alaska.

Read more

OPINION: Canada is endangering our traditional way of life — and Sen. Murkowski made sure the president knows – by Richard Chalyee Éesh Peterson (Achorage Daily News – November 4, 2023)

https://www.adn.com

Richard Chalyee Éesh Peterson is the president of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, the largest sovereign tribe in Alaska, representing more than 37,000 Tlingit and Haida citizens worldwide.

The transboundary T’aakū (Taku), Shtax’héen (Stikine) and Joonáx (Unuk) rivers have provided for Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. These rivers are economic powerhouses for Southeast Alaska’s coastal communities.

Today, however, the headwaters of these sacred rivers are the site of a modern-day gold rush with investors aiming to develop poorly regulated gold mines and failure-prone toxic mine waste dams in British Columbia (B.C.).

Read more

Alaska Energy Metals stock rises on drill results at Nikolai nickel project – by Staff (Mining.com – October 30, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

Alaska Energy Metals’ (TSXV: AEMC) stock rose on Monday after releasing results for two additional diamond drill holes from its 2023 exploration program at its 100% owned Nikolai nickel project.

The Nikolai project is possible host to disseminated nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE mineralization analogous to the Crawford deposit in Canada and the Norilsk mine in Russia, according to the company’s website.

Read more

US DOI draft study poses further setback for Alaska’s Ambler road project – by Staff (Mining.com – October 16, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

The proposed 211-mile transportation corridor for accessing untouched mineral deposits in northwestern Alaska, also known as the Ambler road project, will likely cause harm to wildlife and disruptions to local communities, according to the latest environmental review by the Biden administration.

In a draft supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) released on Friday, the U.S. Department of the Interior found that as many as 66 communities whose subsistence-style living activities could be affected. Nearly half of those could face significant impacts because of the road, the agency added.

Read more

[Alaska] Direct Payment Update: Americans in One State to Get $3,000 Check – by Jon Jackson (Newsweek.com – August 15, 2023)

https://www.newsweek.com/

Some residents of Alaska will soon receive payments of up to $3,284 as a result of oil and gas revenues from 2022. These residents will be paid from Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend. Revenue the state generates from its energy resources goes into the PFD. Created in 1976 to invest oil proceeds for future generations, the Permanent Fund is managed by a state-owned corporation.

Alaska began sending out 2022 payments from the state’s PFD last fall and recently disbursed a portion in July. The latest batch of residents to be paid are scheduled to receive their checks Thursday.

Read more

Alaskans Receive Record Dividends of $3,284 – by Maryalene LaPonsie (Forbes Magazine – November 10, 2022)

https://www.forbes.com/advisor/

Alaska residents have been receiving annual dividend payments from the state’s Permanent Fund for 41 years, but the 2022 payout is one of the largest in history. Every resident received $3,284 this year, with most payments issued in September and October.

Permanent Fund Dividends (PFD), are larger than normal thanks in part to the addition of a $662 energy relief payment. Rather than send out a separate payment, as other states have done, Alaska rolled the energy relief payment into this year’s PFD payout.

Read more

Northern Dynasty updates Pebble PEA, adds southern access route – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – September 6, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

Northern Dynasty Minerals (TSX: NDM)(NYSE: NAK) published on Wednesday an updated preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for its Pebble copper project, which includes an infrastructure plan for a “southern route” access to the proposed mine in Alaska.

The Canadian miner said the independent technical report reviews cost and price estimates to reflect current economic volatility, providing production, financial and cost estimates for a proposed 20-year, 180,000 tonnes per day open pit operation.

Read more

COMMENTARY: It’s time for U.S. government to hold Canada accountable for transboundary river impacts in Alaska – by Brenda Schwartz-Yeager (Alaska Beacon – August 16, 2023)

Home

Two years ago this fall, I testified at a Wrangell Borough Assembly meeting in support of yet another resolution calling on the U.S. federal government to be firm with British Columbia and Canada in protecting the Stikine River, as well as the Taku and Unuk rivers.

These transboundary rivers, the lifeblood of Southeast Alaska, are threatened by the more than 30 B.C. gold mines in some phase of development just over the border. Over a dozen of them are located within the Stikine-Iskut watershed.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more