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Alaska Mining

As Arctic warming accelerates, permafrost thaw hits Red Dog mine with $20 million bill – by Nathaniel Herz (KNBA.org – September 8, 2020)

https://www.knba.org/

The multinational company that operates the massive Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska says that thawing permafrost linked to global warming has forced it to spend nearly $20 million to manage its water storage and discharge.

The problems at Red Dog, one of the world’s largest zinc mines, show how climate change poses a challenge not just to residents of Arctic Alaska, but also to the economy of the region, which is warming at triple the rate of the global average.

Vancouver-based Teck Resources Ltd. says that permafrost thaw in the watershed surrounding Red Dog is releasing higher natural levels of dissolved minerals and other particles into streams.

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Opinion: Mine cleanup plan is encouraging, but there’s still work to be done – by Cynthia Wallesz (Juneau Empire – September 7, 2020)

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Cynthia Wallesz is an Alaska seafood advocate who fishes commercially for salmon in Southeast Alaska.

Good news for the Taku River and for those, like myself, who sell and eat Southeast Alaska seafood.

Last month, the British Columbia government released a permanent closure and cleanup plan for its long-abandoned and polluting Tulsequah Chief mine. When releasing the plan, B.C. committed almost $1.6 million to start the process.

In tracking this issue for the last five years, I’ve learned that making strides in transboundary waters takes having prominent elected officials on your side.

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Northern Dynasty stock plummets further with Pebble project in limbo – by Staff (Mining.com – August 25, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

Northern Dynasty Minerals (TSX: NDM) shares continued to crater on Tuesday as doubts grow over whether the company can clear regulatory hurdles for its Pebble project in Alaska.

The stock declined nearly 32% by 2:20 p.m. ET after falling by more than 40% during the previous session, leaving the company with a market capitalization of just over C$410 million.

On Monday, the US Army Corps of Engineers gave the company 90 days to explain how it would offset “unavoidable adverse impacts” to more than 3,200 acres (1,295 hectares) of wetlands were the mine to be developed.

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Trump Administration Said to Turn Away From Pebble Mine Support – by Ari Natter and Reade Pickert (Bloomberg News – August 23, 2020)

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — The Trump administration is planning to block the controversial Pebble Mine in southwestern Alaska that’s recently drawn opposition from certain powerful Republicans, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The project, which has known deposits of copper, gold and other metals, is located in an area that drains into Bristol Bay, home to the world’s most productive wild salmon fishery.

Conservationists, local activists and fishing operations have fought the project for years, but blocking the project would be a reversal for the Trump administration.

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Trilogy-South32 venture delivers feasibility for $1bn Arctic project – by Mariaan Webb (MiningWeekly.com – August 20, 2020)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Ambler Metals – a joint venture between Trilogy Metals and South32 – on Thursday announced the outcome of a feasibility study for the Arctic base and precious metals project, in north-western Alaska.

With an estimated initial capital requirement of $906-million and sustaining capital of $114-million, the project has a payback period of 2.6 years, Toronto-listed Trilogy said in a statement.

The study calculated that Arctic has an aftertax net present value (NPV) of $1.1-billion and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 27%, using long-term metal prices of $3/lb for copper, $1.10/lb for zinc, $1/lb for lead, $1 300/oz for gold and $18/oz for silver.

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Northern Dynasty ‘confident’ of final Pebble decision despite White House review – by Jackson Chen (Mining.com – August 7, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

Northern Dynasty Minerals’ (TSX: NDM) US-based subsidiary Pebble Limited Partnership is welcoming a pending White House review of its controversial copper-gold project and the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) released by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) last month.

In a public statement issued on Friday, Pebble Partnership CEO Tom Collier said he is confident that the scientific and regulatory record established by project’s Final EIS demonstrates the project can be developed without harm to fisheries in the Bristol Bay region of southwest Alaska.

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump pledged to hear out “both sides of the issue” concerning the proposed Pebble mine after his son Donald Jr. — in a rare instance of public disagreement — tweeted to oppose the project supported by his father’s administration.

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Giant Alaska copper-gold mine gets final environment nod after 15-year fight – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – July 24, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

Northern Dynasty Minerals (TSX: NDM) has cleared the last environmental hurdle for its proposed Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum mine in Alaska, almost two decades after developers first started considering the project.

The US Army Corps of Engineers issued on Friday a final environmental impact statement (EIS), backing the controversial mine in the Bristol Bay region.

The decision opens the door for Northern Dynasty to obtain the federal go-ahead as soon as late August.

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Why Building of the Alaska Highway is Still an Epic Feat 75 Years Later (TranBC – August 10, 2017)

https://www.tranbc.ca/

Driven by wartime urgency, the building of the Alaska Highway remains an epic accomplishment, 75 years later. The highway began as a dream.

In the 1920s, the United States wanted a route through Canada to connect Alaska – its largest and most sparsely populated territory – with the 48 states south of the 49th parallel. Some 800 kilometres of land lay between Alaska and the rest of the US. With no overland way across northern BC and the Yukon to Alaska, the northernmost US state was reliant on air and marine transport.

Back then, Canada was just not interested – there was little to be gained, and the next decade brought the Great Depression.

Wartime Drive

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Northern Dynasty to share Pebble mine revenue with locals – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – June 17, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

Northern Dynasty Minerals (TSX: NDM), the company behind a proposed massive copper-gold mine in southwest Alaska, has announced a revenue sharing program for full-time residents of Bristol Bay.

The initiative would distribute a 3% of the revenue generated from the Pebble copper-gold-silver mine among adult locals who subscribe as participants of the “Pebble performance dividend” plan.

Northern Dynasty’s subsidiary Pebble Limited Partnership said the dividend would distribute a guaranteed minimum annual payment of $3 million, beginning “at the outset of project construction”.

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How a fault that stretches from the Yukon to Interior Alaska slides Canadian gold into the state – by Ned Rozell (Anchorage Daily News – March 8, 2020)

https://www.adn.com/

Nate Becker lives with his family on a quiet stretch of the Yukon River as it flows into Alaska. On a recent ski trip, I visited the Beckers’ home along with two geologist friends. Nate had a question for them.

“Why are all the gold deposits located on the south side of the river here, and none are on the north side?” Becker said.

A quick look at the map of Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve showed what Becker was talking about. In the 160 miles between the towns of Eagle and Circle, a half-dozen gold-mining settlements — most of them ghosted out — were on the south bank of the Yukon River. Not one was on the north side. That seemed like more than a coincidence.

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Fraser Survey: Alaska shines, Canada slips – by Shane Lasley (North of 60 Mining News – February 28, 2020)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

Canada’s provinces and territories have fallen from grace in the eyes of the global mining community, according to the latest rendition of Fraser Institute’s Annual Survey of Mining Companies.

For the first time in a decade, no Canadian jurisdiction ranks in the top 10 for “investment attractiveness” in the annual survey conducted by the Canadian public policy think-tank.

This report asks industry professionals from around the globe to score mining jurisdictions based on their mineral endowment and various policy topics important to mining. The investment attractiveness metric of the survey is a compilation of respondent’s views on both geology and policy.

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Prospects brighten for Northern Dynasty Pebble mine on leaked draft study – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – February 13, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

A leaked draft of an environmental impact statement (EIS) on Northern Dynasty’s (TSX: NDM) proposed copper-gold mine in Alaska has brighten up its prospects, suggesting nearby terrestrial freshwater resources and downstream fisheries could co-exist with the project.

While the US Army Corps of Engineers’ document is not final, it could mean the government is closer to issuing a long-sought permit for the $100 billion copper-gold mine in the Bristol Bay, southwest Alaska.

Shares jumped up as much 9.4% to 70 cents on the news on Wednesday, to close at 69 cents, the highest value so far this year. If permitted, Pebble would be North America’s largest mine, according to a study by the Center for Science in Public Participation.

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No viable substitute for critical chromium – by Shane Lasley (North of 60 Mining News – January 30, 2020)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

A vital ingredient in stainless steel and superalloys, chromium is considered by the United States Geological Survey as “one of the nation’s most important strategic and critical materials.”

“Because there is no viable substitute for chromium in the production of stainless steel and because the United States has small chromium resources, there has been concern about domestic supply during every national military emergency since World War I,” the USGS explains.

Rich chromite deposits on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula were able to ease some of these concerns by providing a domestic supply of chromite, the only mineral of chromium metal, to help fill America’s increased demand for chromium during both World Wars. Alaska is second only to Montana when it comes to the best states to explore for future domestic needs of this important strategic and critical mineral.

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Governor extends open invitation to mining industry – by Ben Hahenstatt (Juneau Empire – January 23, 2020)

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Gov. Mike Dunleavy told the mining industry Alaska is open for business during an annual mining conference in British Columbia. Dunleavy, who spoke Wednesday at an Alaska Night event held during the Association of Mineral Exploration Roundup Conference, can be heard in a recording of his remarks obtained by the Empire emphasizing Alaska’s openness to mining projects.

“We have gold, silvers, lead, zincs, you name it,” Dunleavy said. “We have everything in the state of Alaska, and what you have now in the state of Alaska is an open invitation for all of you to set up shop in the state of Alaska.”

In a release prior to the convention, Dunleavy said he intended to encourage mining investment in Alaska at the conference and would be joined by commissioners Doug Vincent-Lang, Department of Fish and Game; Corri Feige, Department of Natural Resources; and Jason Brune, Department of Environmental Conservation.

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Alaska Natives and fishermen sue EPA for reversing Pebble Mine decision – by Richard Read (Los Angeles Times – October 8, 2019)

https://www.latimes.com/

SEATTLE — Trump administration officials broke the law when they reversed course and gave a green light to a proposed copper and gold mine near Alaska’s Bristol Bay, mining opponents said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Alaska Native, commercial fishing and economic development organizations said the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision July 30 to step aside and let the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers determine whether to permit the Pebble Mine was “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion” and illegal.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Anchorage is the latest challenge to the project that the EPA’s Seattle branch criticized in written comments July 1 before abruptly reversing course, withdrawing the agency’s option to block the proposed open-pit copper and gold mine.

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