Kissee said. “But we’re getting better and better every year in supporting mining. “Now that Ben has come on board, with his contacts in the in- dustry, we’ve been able to work with several of the mines here at home and in the Lower 48.” “Most of the mines need a little bit of every- thing,” Kissee said. “And we self-perform electri- cal, civil and mechanical work — we can do it all. Another bit of our history is we build a lot of pipe- lines and when you get into the heap leach process, you’re running pipelines. We feel at home there. .:9,8ɪ^ OTaP]^T_d LW^Z SPW[^ Zʬ^P_ _SP NSLW - lenges of Alaska weather, he said. “We work year-round and have been successful doing that. We do a lot of indoor mill work in win- ter and civil work in the summer,” he said. “That allows CONAM to keep its core mining group working year-round, too. “We’re pretty optimistic about (the future of mining in Alaska).” day morning breakfast meeting in Anchorage when I moved here in August 1995. I’ve always really appreciated the diligence of Steve Borrell and now Deantha Crockett as advocates for our industry. “AMA is extremely important for our company. We want to promote this state as an attractive ju- risdiction for investment. That’s part of our DNA as a company to attract money here. But that goes hand-in-hand with an advocacy organization like AMA, which also hammers on the Legislature to make changes that make sure the state is attrac- tive.” He says Alaska is still rebuilding from a tough decade for mining. “This is an exceptionally cyclical business and we’ve been in a down cycle for seven years. Just look back at our company. We started in 2007 at the frothiest peak of metal markets. In oneyear we were almost broke. The whole economy crashed. Fortunately, it was a short-lived downturn. We had a great run in 2010-2011 but have been hand-to- mouth for seven years. “I’ve seen several of these cycles in my career and this has been the longest. All we can hope for is the next up cycle is as long. We are overdue for it to get underway, and it is heartening to see the price of gold moving up. “The availability of capital is so much tied to the price of gold. The more it goes up, the better. “I’m optimistic for the future. By being aggres- sive acquirers of mineral rights, and sticking to our M`^TYP^^XZOPWT_^SZ`WO[LdZʬɮ
CONAM, CONTINUED from PAGE 20
mines being developed and permitted along with ongoing opportunities within mines currently in production. We also see tremendous opportunities for expanding our base of operations in the Lower 48 supporting ongoing mining operations there.” What else do you want to be sure our readers know? “We’ll Find a Way” to deliver heavy industri- al infrastructure solutions to the mining industry. Our main strength is our dedicated employees fol- WZbPOMdZ`]ʭYLYNTLW^_]PYR_SLYOP\`T[XPY_]P - sources coupled with our ability to tackle risky jobs ZQLYd_d[PTYLYdWZNL_TZY,WZYRbT_SZ`]ʭYLY - NTLW^_]PYR_SNZXP^^TRYTʭNLY_MZYOTYRNL[LNT_dTQ required for large projects. Kissee and Eaton emphasize that mining is a key part of CONAM’s business. “Oil and gas are our main revenue producers,”
MILLROCK, CONTINUED from PAGE 19
convince a funding partner to put up the funding needed to systematically explore the ground over a period of years. There simply has to be more gold deposits in the area that are similar to that being mined at Pogo.” Outside Alaska, Millrock has projects in Sonora State, Mexico and in British Columbia’s Golden Tri- angle. Millrock can operate in British Columbia at about 60% of the cost of the same project in Alaska, he said. “There’s not much doubt that Alaska is a pretty expensive place to explore. It’s real frontier. I love that the most about it. “As an industry we’re barely getting started here,” he said. “The Alaska mining industry is not in infancy but in its adolescence. We have a long way to go. The degree of exploration here is so much lower than BC and the Yukon. It’s the same rocks, but there are more mines and mineral oc- currences documented in those jurisdictions. There could be dozens of mines here, yet here we are with just six large operating mines. There could be so many more. Its just that the industry has not ex- plored Alaska to the same extent as BC and Yukon. If we keep looking we will make some more great discoveries.” The Alaska Miners Association plays a critical role for the industry, he said. ɭ4ɪaPMPPYTYaZWaPObT_S,8,^TYNP_SPʭ]^_1]T -
The Alaska Miner
July 2019
34
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