Feds approve key step toward expansion at major Northwest Alaska zinc mine

For years, one of Alaska’s largest mines has steadily depleted its ore while its operator has waited for a key federal permit to access new mineral deposits.

This week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the permit for Red Dog Mine, allowing its Canadian operator to build roads and other infrastructure to reach two new zinc prospects.

It’s a significant step toward extending the life of the mine, which is set to close within a decade unless those new deposits prove lucrative enough to tap.

With the federal Clean Water Act permit in hand, Red Dog’s operator, Teck, now says it will move ahead quickly with construction.

The zinc mine, one of the world’s largest, is a major source of jobs and accounts for more than 80% of the revenue for the remote Northwest Arctic Borough. It has also generated billions of dollars for Alaska Native-owned corporations across the state since opening more than 30 years ago.

But, barring new development, its days are numbered: Running low on ore, the mine is set to close in 2031. Facing the prospect of diminished revenue for the borough — which comes through yearly, agreed-upon payments from Teck — regional elected officials have already been considering sharp cuts to government services.

But Teck has long been examining its options to expand.

The new permit allows the company to build just over 12 miles of roads needed to access two zinc deposits, called Aktigiruq and Anarraaq, that could help sustain mining operations for years longer.

Teck says it already has enough cash on hand to move forward with the permitted work. It expects to begin construction on the main, nine-mile access road within the next two weeks, a company spokesperson said in an email.

“We’re breathing a sigh of relief that the permit finally got approved,” Dickie Moto, the borough mayor, said in a phone interview. “It means a lot for the borough and our residents.”

The Army Corps permit covers the disturbance of nearly 20 acres of wetlands, and the construction of other infrastructure, like bridges and culverts, to support Teck’s exploration work.

The company previously has used small rigs, flown in by helicopter, to drill test holes at Aktigiruq and Anarraaq. Now it plans to do more substantial exploration, including through an underground portal, which it needed the road to facilitate.

Teck anticipates that it will need at least six more years of exploratory drilling to determine if the two deposits can be mined economically.

The company initially submitted a permit application in 2018 — then withdrew it a year later because it was missing necessary information related to historic preservation, according to John Budnik, an agency spokesperson. Teck resubmitted an application in 2022.

Some of the Corps’ permit evaluation included consulting with the tribal government of Kivalina, an Iñupiaq village that’s the only settlement downstream of Red Dog.

Residents there have long said that the mine risks impacts to their drinking water and their subsistence harvests of species like caribou and fish. Kivalina’s tribal government pushed for environmental protections as part of the Corps’ permitting process.

“Our efforts are not to shut the project down,” the president of the village’s tribal council, Enoch Adams, said earlier this year, before the permit was authorized. “Our efforts are to protect our subsistence way of life.”

Kivalina leaders could not be reached for comment this week, and an attorney who has worked with the tribal government declined to comment.

Earlier this year, the Army Corps designated part of the Wulik River watershed, which surrounds Red Dog, as a “traditional cultural landscape,” according to an August letter obtained by Northern Journal.

The agency has said that such a designation could require additional permit conditions to limit negative effects of development. Budnik did not provide specifics this week in response to questions from Northern Journal.

“This permit is reflective of a fair and balanced U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regulatory process that is required to protect the nation’s aquatic resources while allowing reasonable economic development,” Budnik said in an emailed statement.

Teck operates Red Dog through a landmark, decades-old agreement with NANA — the Native-owned regional corporation for Northwest Alaska that owns the land where the mine sits.

A NANA spokesperson, Josie Wilson, called the permit decision “an important milestone.” But she added that “it is only one step forward, as we remain in the exploration phase for the Aktigiruq and Anarraaq deposits.”

The prospects are on state land. That means that the local government and NANA are likely to collect less revenue from mining those deposits, if the project goes forward, than they collect from current Red Dog operations.

“We won’t be getting as much,” Moto said. “But we’ll be setting down the road where we won’t be completely out of funding.”

Originally published at Northern Journal. Reach Max Graham at max@northernjournal.com.