Red Dog zinc production strong despite pandemic
Alaska’s producing mines continue to do well despite ongoing problems caused by the pandemic. The Red Dog zinc/lead mine north of Kotzebue, the world’s largest pro- ducer of zinc concentrate, saw stron- ger production of zinc in the second quarter and it now seems likely to exceed expectations for the year for its owner, Teck. The land and royalty owner at Red Dog is NANA Regional Corp. In its second quarter financial re - port Teck said stronger production is expected to continue through the rest of the year with the improvement due to higher throughput at Red Dog’s mill as well as higher grades of ore mined. Lead production at Red Dog was also up by 33 percent, the company said. Zinc production at Red Dog in- creased to 140,300 tonnes in the sec-
ond quarter compared with 83,900 tonnes a year ago (a tonne, as a unit of measurement, is 2,200 pounds com-
pared with a “ton,” which is 2,000 pounds). The increase is credited to higher mill throughput, higher grades and metal recovery from ore. Mining operations performed well, also. Red Dog is also seeing the benefits of pro - cess control improvements in the mill through its RACE21 program. “Our profitability in the second quarter improved significantly from a year ago as a result of increases in the prices for all of our principal prod- ucts,” Teck told investors. Zinc pric- es are up significantly due to stron - ger industrial activity in key markets, increasing 48 percent from second quarter 2020. Zinc represents 91 per- cent of the value of Red Dog’s pro- duction with the rest being lead and smaller amounts of silver and other metals. Costs are going up, however. Min- ing equipment, fuel, tires and explo- sive costs are rising, driven largely by price increases in underlying com- modities like steel, oil and natural gas, the company said. Red Dog’s gains benefits NANA Regional Corp., the land and royalty owner, as well as other Alaska Na- tive regional and village corpora- tions. NANA receives 35 percent of the mine’s net profits, and 70 percent of that is shared with other Alaska Na- tive regional and village corporations under terms of the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
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The Alaska Miner
Fall 2021
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