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Northwest Alaska is seeing one of its busiest minerals exploration programs in years as companies drill prospects In the Ambler Mining District and Upper Kobuk River east of Kotzebue.
Ambler Metals LLC, a joint-venture of Trilogy Metals of Canada and Australia-based South32 has three rigs working on several copper prospects including Arctic, a high-grade discovery, along with Bornite, a long-known deposit near Kobuk a few miles to the west. Other nearby copper discoveries in the area are also being tested.
Further west, Teck Resources, another Canadian company, has three rigs exploring two significant new zinc discoveries a few miles north of the producing Red Dog zinc and lead mine. Red Dof is operated by Teck, on land owned by NANA Regional Corp. of Kotzebue.
If the exploration is successful, a significant underground mine could be developed. Red Dog itself is a surface mine.
Further west on the Seward Peninsula Graphite One is continuing exploration and development planning for a proposed graphite mine west of Nome.
Company officials told regional community leaders earlier this year that a pre-feasibility study, an important step in development planning, is expected to be complete this year. Meanwhile, work is continuing on exploration.
If the mine is developed, Graphite One would ship concentrates in powder form shipped by truck to Nome. About 3,000 tons per day of graphite concentrate could be moved over 20 miles of private road and 28 miles of the public road.
From Nome the concentrates would be shipped to markets by ocean during the summer and and fall when ice clears from Norton Sound. About 200 people would be needed to operate the mine, community leaders were told.
At its project east of Kotzebue Ambler Metals has about 120 seasonal workers employed this summer on its exploration, including direct hires by the company and contractor staff, said Shalon Harrington, Ambler Metals’ Director of External Affairs, in an email.
About 10,000 meters of drilling are planned. The 2022 summer program is similar to that in 2021 and is budgeted at about $28 million, about the same as in 2021 except that work last year was cut short because of poor weather and difficulties in securing workers.
A support camp at Bornite was opened in early May for the project. “We have three drill rigs operational. Drilling began in early June, and we are currently drilling at Arctic and West Bornite,” Harrington said.
“Our exploration program includes extensive soil sampling and land mapping. We are employing about 120 seasonal staff during the summer, half are Ambler Metals direct hire, and the other half are through contractors.
Ambler Metals’ Arctic project involves a higher-grade deposit, mainly copper, and it is considered the most advanced in exploration and development planning among prospects the company is exploring.
Arctic was discovered decades ago by Kennecott Minerals, a U.S. company, which conducted substantial exploration on the prospect but then sold Arctic to NovaCopper, a Vancouver, B.C. “junior” exploration company, which subsequently became Trilogy Metals.
Trilogy continued the exploration at Arctic and then at Bornite, another Kennecott discovery, under an agreement with NANA Regional Corp., which meanwhile had purchased Bornite from Kennecott.
Trilogy subsequently entered into a 50-50 joint venture with South32, a major mining company, with the two companies forming Ambler Metals as an operating subsidiary to continue exploration.
Meanwhile, other significant exploration projects are under wayin the Northwest region including one by Teck Resources exploring two zinc discoveries on state-owned lands about 10 miles north of the Red Dog Mine, a producing mine operated by Teck.
NANA Regional Corp., an Alaska Native Regional Corp. based in Kotzebue, is the land and resource owner at Red Dog and its working with Teck. NANA also owns lands in the upper Kobuk River area near exploration projects Ambler Metals has underway.
Teck has drilling underway this summer with three drill rigs and there are also plans to begin construction of an all-year access road in January assuming permits are finalized.
The road will allow construction of an adit, or tunnel, to do test drilling underground. Teck’s two prospects are Aktigiruq and Anarraq, which would he underground mines if development proceeds. The hope is that these projects will eventually replace Red Dog as major zinc producers. The ore reserves at Red Dog are expected to be depleted by 2031.
The new projects, if they proceed would depend on support facilities at Red Dog, such as its ore process mill. It’s likely that the new mines could sustain the level of employment and business support activity now generated by Red Dog well into the future.
But that will depend on whether the two new zinc projects, which will be more costly because they are underground, are economically viable.
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