VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 4 | FALL 2025
OPTIMISM ABOUNDS FOR AMBLER MINING DISTRICT
of road construction, which is likely to be higher than the roughly half-billion cost es- timate done several years ago. Ambler Metals will also have to revise its cost estimates of a mine and for truck- ing ore to the state’s Dalton Highway, and to Fairbanks. Ore would then be shipped by rail to a Southcentral Alaska port and, finally, ocean transport to customers. Despite those hurdles, the important political and permitting problems that have blocked progress may be resolved. “We are quite optimistic on our initial review, as this action (by the President) stands to create new jobs for Alaskans and secure access to strategic minerals,” AIDEA said in a statement. The Alaska Miners Association (AMA), voiced similar support. “We want to thank President Trump for overturning the harmful 2024 decision on the Ambler Road Project and prioritizing access to Alaska’s critical minerals,” said Deantha Skibinski, AMA’s Executive Di- rector. “The Biden Administration’s nearly unprecedented ‘no action’ (decision) on the Ambler Road project and flat refusal to grant access (across federal lands) that was promised in the Alaska National In- terest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) was unconscionable. With stable policies in place, Alaska now stands ready to supply the nation with the minerals critical to our national security and our economy.” Here are key points from the President’s decision: “I approve the appeal (of Biden’s denial) made by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority on June 6 under sec- tion 1106(a) of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) and I approve AIDEA’s 2016 revised consolidat- ed application for a transportation system known as the Ambler Road Project,” the decision said. The route of AIDEA’s proposed road does not cross wilderness-designated lands. It mostly crosses state-owned and federal land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and for a short distance the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Pre- serve but it does not traverse designated Wilderness. AIDEA’s application for permits for the road are now more than 10 years old. The agency submitted its consolidated applica- tion for the road in late 2025 for a 250-foot- wide right-of-way. The application was
for an industrial-access road but included facilities like turnouts, airstrips, a fiber-op- tic line and several material sites as well as access roads to material sites and water sources. The state authority asked to use these areas during construction and for 50 years throughout operations. Once exploration and mine operations are completed, rec- lamation measures would return the road area to its natural state. The proposed road would begin near Milepost 161 of the Dalton Highway, ex- tend west across less than 20 miles of BLM- lands, then cross other lands — mostly state-owned, along with lands owned by Doyon and NANA, and a portion of Gates
of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. BLM took the lead in processing the application and prepared an Environmen- tal Impact Statement (EIS) that considered AIDEA’s proposal along with two alterna- tive routes and a “no-action alternative.” In July 2020, under the previous Trump presidency, the BLM and the U.S. Army Corps issued a Joint Record of Decision that approved AIDEA’s application. But in June 2024, under President Biden, the BLM issued a new Record of Decision, in which it decided to select the “No Action Alternative.” Based on this, the previously issued federal rights-of-way and U.S. Army Corps permits were terminated. President Trump’s new decision reverses that.
AIDEA to take lead on construction, funding of 211-mile access road BY TIM BRADNER THERE’S NEW OPTIMISM THAT THE LONG- PLANNED AMBLER ACCESS ROAD WILL BE CLEARED FOR CONSTRUCTION AFTER PRESI- DENT TRUMP’S DECISION REVERSING THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION’S CANCELLATION OF FEDERAL AUTHORIZATIONS FOR THE PROJECT. Construction won’t begin until financ- ing can be arranged, however, and this will still take time. Also, two influential Alaska Native regional corporations, Doyon, Ltd. in Interior Alaska, and NANA Regional Corp. in Northwest Alaska, have cited is- sues with the road that must be resolved, though both corporations strongly favor economic development. Concerns by NANA, Doyon and villag- es in the region mostly involve protection of subsistence hunting and fishing, and ways of resolving those are now being dis- cussed as they were for construction of the Red Dog Mine and access road north of Kotzebue. Trump’s decision is good news for Alas- ka, state business leaders say. The Ambler Mining District, an area of state lands east of Kotzebue, contains copper, silver, gold, lead, cobalt and other strategic metals. It also is one of the largest undeveloped cop- per-zinc mineral belts in the world. Discoveries of high-grade copper and other minerals have been made in the Am- bler Mining District over several decades of exploration, most of them by Kennecott Minerals, a major mining company with a long history in Alaska. Development of the discoveries has been stymied by lack of ac- cess to the region. Various road alternatives and even a railroad have been thought of to allow access. The current plan for a road connection with the Dalton Highway is the most recent, but it has been steeped in con-
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Exploration has continued for years in the Ambler Mining District.
troversy. The present plan is for the Alaska Indus- trial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), the state’s development finance agency, to fund and construct the 211-mile industrial road. AIDEA would model the project on its development of the Red Dog Mine port road in the late 1980s. With Red Dog, AIDEA issued revenue bonds which were backed by shipping com- mitments by Cominco, Inc. (now Teck) the mining company at Red Dog. The same model would be used for the Ambler proj- ect, AIDEA said. However, mining experts say more copper must be found for mines to be built in the Ambler region and to al- low companies to sign binding contracts to ship ore. Without those, AIDEA cannot is- sue revenue bonds. The prospects for more ore look prom- ising, however. Ambler Metals, a joint-ven-
ture of Australian-owned South 32, a major mining company, and Canadian-owned Trilogy Metals, a small “junior” exploration firm, has done substantial exploration and found high-grade copper and other metals. The most work by Ambler Metals and previously Kennecott has been done at Arctic, a high-grade copper accumulation. Ambler Metals is also exploring Bornite, another copper discovery made earlier by Kenncott. Other copper deposits have been found elsewhere in the region by Ambler Metals and other companies. More work on all of these needs to be done. However, Ambler Metals halted a sub- stantial exploration program two years ago in the face of Biden’s opposition to the road. The company’s decision to resume ex- ploration next summer will be an import- ant signal. Other work needed to be done will include an updated forecast of the cost
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ALASKA RESOURCE REVIEW FALL 2025
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