Toni Logan Goodrich Education Scholarship
Alaska’s future in mining can aid green technology
BY CORAL MERCER
EDITOR'S NOTE: Coral Mercer, winner of the 2022 Toni Logan Goodrich Education Scholarship awarded by Oxford Assaying, wrote this compelling essay on the future of Alaska mining in the shift to new energy technologies. Minerals are an indispensable component in developing green technologies. As the world works toward its clean energy goals, the demand for raw materials and crit- ical minerals will only rise. Alaska has the potential to produce signif- icant quantities of critical minerals and materials that will help supply this demand. These minerals are copper, cobalt, zinc, graphite, rare earth minerals, and aluminum (Loeffler & Watson, 2022). Minerals are used in practi - cally every aspect of renewable ener- gy; from producing solar panels and lithium-ion batteries to the copper wires needed to expand the electric grid. The International Energy Agen- cy (IEA) has identified two potential scenarios for global mineral demand over the next 20 years. In the IEA’s Stated Policies Scenario, mineral demand from clean energies tech- nology will double by 2040, while in the Sustainable Development Sce - nario the total demand is expected to quadruple by 2040. Mineral demand in terms of weight will be led by copper, graph- ite, and nickel in 2040 (IEA, 2021). An explosive increase in demand for critical minerals, along with propor- tional growth in other aspects of the industry, would provide Alaska the opportunity to enter new markets and provide a domestic source for the United States’ mineral needs. The state of Alaska already has a substantial mining industry, but the industry still has room for signifi - cant growth. As of 2019, Alaska has six major production sites as well as
Photo by Lee Leschper Coral Mercer receives the 2022 Toni Logan Goodrich Education Scholarship from Gene Pool of Oxford Assaying and Beki Toussant of Alaska Resource Education.
a couple of smaller scale operations with a total gross value of 2,626 mil- lion dollars per year. Calculated using USGS’s Data Series 140, zinc made up 49 per - cent of Alaska's gross total value in 2019, gold made up 22 percent of that value, silver 9 percent and lead 10 percent. These values represent about 10 percent of Alaska’s export base and contribute to 80 percent of the U.S. zinc production, 44 percent of U.S. gold production, and around half of the U.S. silver production. Through the funding of Power the Future, the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Anchorage Alas- ka produced a study analyzing the future of Alaska’s mining industry in an attempt to identify reasonable
projections for the economic value of Alaska’s mining industry over the next two decades and compiled three possible scenarios; unfavor- able, status-quo and favorable. The defining aspect for these scenarios is not a matter of Alaska’s resources, but rather the market, policy, and geologic conditions that will affect the industry. This analy - sis will focus on the favorable sce- nario, for demand of critical min- erals will rise regardless of Alaska’s potential policy restrictions. The conditions associated with the favorable scenario are increased infrastructure, sustained high mineral prices, a clear and trans- parent system for regulations, and no public opposition to operating mines. Under these circumstances,
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The Alaska Miner
Winter 2023
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