on plans for next year. Study work is also in full swing to prepare for submission later this year of a Section 404 application for a mine at Arctic to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Meanwhile, Amber Metals has an active community engagement pro- gram underway and has held in-per- son visits to three nearby NANA-re- gion and two Doyon-region villages to provide information on the explora- tion and the pending Corps of Engi- neers application, Fawaz said. In tandem with the work at Arc- tic and nearby prospects, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, or AIDEA, the state devel- opment finance corporation, contin - ued feasibility and permitting work on a 211-mile industrial access road that would connect hoped-for mines in the Ambler Mining District to the Dalton Highway, the north-south highway connecting North Slope oil fields to Interior Alaska. Ambler Metals is con- tributing $6.5 million to the $13 million program underway this year on the road, known as the Am- bler Access Project. Field work in 2021 is focused on gathering information for bridges and stream crossings to screen for any cultural and archeolog- ical sites at those locations. More seasons of planning and in- formation-gathering are needed so that final engineering, and a feasibil - ity study, can be done for the road, but the schedule dovetails with that for a mine at Arctic so that both are set for final investment decisions in 2024 or 2025 after the Section 404 Arctic per- mit is approved. Of the core exploration prospects, Bornite was discovered by prospectors in the 1960s and acquired by Kennecott Minerals. Kennecott subsequently discovered Arctic, a high-grade de- posit, which caused the company to concentrate attention on Arctic. Kennecott subquently sold to Tril- ogy Metals, a “junior” explorer, and sold Bornite to NANA Regional Corp., which owned substantial lands around the area. Trilogy continued explora- tion at Arctic and took over explora- tion at Bornite. Trilogy and NANA subsequent- ly negotiated the sale of Bornite to Trilogy with an opt-in for NANA in Bornite, Arctic and other prospects in the area. Both Trilogy and NANA then brought South32, a major min- ing company, into the venture and
Photo courtesy Ambler Metals
formed Ambler Metals. If a mine were developed at Arctic, it would be a surface mine with ore trucked to the Dalton Highway and then south to a connection with the
Alaska Railroad in Fairbanks. A mine at Bornite, if developed, would ini- tially be a surface mine with possible underground mining at some point of deeper parts of the deposit.
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Fall 2021
The Alaska Miner
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