After 20 years of producing zinc and lead, the Red Dog Mine is ready to move on to an adjacent new ore deposit that will extend its life by at least 20 years.

As the main deposit nears depletion, Teck Alaska, the mine operator, and NANA Regional Corporation, the land owner, are preparing for the next 20 years by targeting the adjacent Aqqaluk deposit, said Jim Kulas, Environmental Manager for Teck Alaska.

Speaking at an RDC breakfast meeting last month in Anchorage, Kulas said Red Dog is working diligently to acquire the necessary federal, state and local permits that will allow the company to expand into the nearby deposit. Without the permits, he said the current pit would run out of ore by 2011, forcing Red Dog to close down operations.

Closure of the mine would trigger the loss of hundreds of jobs in a region with few private employers, warned Rosie Barr, NANA’s Resources Manager, who also spoke at the RDC breakfast. Barr noted that local residents holding many of those jobs use their income to
support their families and neighbors in the villages.

Over the past couple of decades, the mine has transformed the Northwest Alaska economy, Barr said. Located 82 miles northwest of Kotzebue, Red Dog has created 580 full and part-time jobs. About 56 percent of the workers are NANA shareholders. Barr pointed out that the mine has also generated revenues that support local government services and schools, as well as millions of dollars in royalties distributed annually to Native corporations across Alaska.

Kulas said the company has been working with federal and state agencies over the past two years to renew existing permits and gain the authorizations needed to mine Aqqaluk. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in conjunction with other federal, state and local agencies, has prepared a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement to support renewal of the mine’s water discharge permit and issuance of the wetlands permit required for Aqqaluk.

A decision on the discharge permit is expected in November. After a 30-day appeal period, Kulas is hoping all necessary permits will be granted by the end of the year.

With permits in hand, Teck Alaska intends to begin work at the new site early next year. By 2012, all mining activity will be solely in the Aqqaluk pit. To reduce the environmental footprint, waste rock will be placed into the empty main pit. Ore from Aqqaluk will be
processed in the current mill and shipped out using the existing 50-mile road to a port site on the Chukchi Sea.

The renewed water discharge permit will reflect changes in state standards brought about by new study information, Kulas said. As a result, the soon-to-be-issued permit will include a new limit for Total Dissolved Solids (TDS).

Red Dog had operated under a 1998 permit, which limited TDS to a monthly average of 170 milligrams per liter (mg/l) and a daily maximum of 196 mg/l. Those limits were based on an unrealistic and no longer in effect state water-quality-standard that set TDS limits at one-third above background levels.

Working in conjunction with EPA, Red Dog has done aquatic studies that demonstrate a higher limit will not harm aquatic life. The new permit will reflect this new information and allow for a
1,500 mg/l in-stream TDS limit.

“The public needs to know that this will not be a relaxation of Red Dog’s TDS discharge practice,” said Kulas. He explained that EPA and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation issued compliance orders about five years ago authorizing the mine to discharge above the 1998 limit. “In essence, the 2009 permit will memorialize the past practices the agencies have already endorsed,” Kulas said.

Return to newsletter headlines