Kinross Hopes to Almost Double Fort Knox Gold Production
Ribbon cutting last summer at the new Barnes Creek Heap Leach project at Kinross Gold Fort Knox Mine. Barnes Creek delivered its first gold ounces in late 2020. Left to right: Marisa Sharrah, manager, Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce; Jason Perino, Kinross Capital Projects Manager, Fort Knox), and Jeremy Brans, General Manager at Fort Knox. The first Fort Knox heap leach, at Water Creek, began operating in 2009.
Tetlin reserve — size of Rhode Island — holds promise for mineralization The Tetlin reserve is 675,000 acres – almost the size of Rhode Island – and there are indications of several additional areas of mineralization. Kinross is also meeting regularly with the local Tetlin council to discuss training for local residents. What’s different about Tetlin than other Alaska Native- owned lands is that the village owns the reserve in fee simple, both surface and subsurface. In most other Native landholdings, the surface and subsurface is typically split, with the surface lands owned by the local village corporation and the subsurface by the regional corporation of the area (in Interior Alaska it would be Doyon Ltd.). However, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 gave Alaska Native communities on reserves or reservations that had been formed earlier the option of participating with the regional corporation in the area and giving up subsurface in exchange for being shareholders in the regional corporation and receiving dividends or going it alone by taking all of the land rights. In the case of every community on an Alaska reserve the villages opted to take lands in fee simple. This has created some very large village-owned land units include Venetie, north of the Yukon River, and St. Lawrence Island, in the northern Bering Sea, and Tetlin, of course.
ore the mill might have closed this year, although the company has also been conducting mill trials over the last two years aimed at extending its life. The mill employs about 100 people. If things go as planned the $110 million construction of the mine at Peak would start in 2023 with first production in 2024. Total “all-in” costs are estimated at $750 per ounce. Peak’s mine-life is now estimated at four and a half years, but Kinross is already planning new exploration drilling to expand the resources. Initially there will be “in-fill” drilling, between test holes already drilled, to better confirm the deposit. This will be followed by “step-out” drilling at and beyond the edges of the known deposit, to test for possible extensions of the ore body. Placer mining in 1903 The land that the Fort Knox mine sits on was originally staked in 1913 when a bismuth-bearing, gold-quartz vein was located. Minor mining occurred with a small shaft and a three-head stamp mill. There had been placer mining in the area as early as 1903 and in 1980 local prospectors Joe Taylor and George Johnson worked the placer deposits. In 1986, the property was leased to various mining companies. In 1992, Amax Gold purchased the property. Construction began 1995 with the first gold pour at the end of 1996. In 1998, Amax Gold merged with Kinross Gold. — Tim Bradner
www.alaskaminers.org I The Alaska Miner I Spring 2021
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