AMA Award Winners
Photo by Lee Leschper Paul and Joni Manuel receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from Ted Hawley, the Hawley family and Rich Hughes.
Paul and Joni Manuel, Chuck Hawley Lifetime Achievement Award
Together, they have mined in the Circle Mining District on Bonanza, Crooked, and Mastodon Creeks (among others, likely) and in the Fairbanks Mining District, currently on Fairbanks Creek. For years he has worked with agencies to show how miners’ understanding of their environment results in operator-driven best management practices. He has spent countless hours showing the BLM, Army Corps of Engineers, and others that understanding native vegetation, preserving topsoil, and other site-specific techniques were the best methods to reclaim and enhance areas where placer mining takes place. In recent years, he hosted agency personnel out to his site where these techniques are fully on display, providing a real-life in-person demonstration to show that it can be done. If that weren’t enough, in the last two years at his own expense he contracted a pilot and photographer and flew over dozens of mine sites with similar environmental excellence, in order to develop a catalog of examples of placer mining restoration and
environmental enhancement. But what equally drives him is his passion to have young people understand this, and get young people involved in our industry. That is why he has been such a huge supporter of Alaska Resource Education. As mentioned, he is also ALWAYS urging members to bring their kids to his mine and always willing to sit down and spend time with kids. While quiet in his demeanor, no one will speak out more clearly and strongly than Paul about mining in an effort to keep mining possible and accessible for the small to medium sized miner. The activity that brings the most joy to Paul and Joni are sharing mining with our youth. In these moments, it is wonderful to watch Paul light up and, in some ways, become younger again, himself. Many of us have had the awesome experience of taking our kids out to their mine for a cleanup, or to tour the reclamation areas, or to search for mastodon tusks and teeth. MANY a youngster has benefited greatly from the joy they provide — not even knowing that in that play and joy is always embedded education and awareness.
By Anna Atchison Paul and Joni Manuel are the
kindest, most loving, giving people — and fervent supporters of mining. They will do whatever it takes to educate people about the importance of mining, both from a modern day, pillar of our economy perspective and from a historical perspective. Paul is a very strong advocate for Alaska placer miners. He brings that perspective to discussions about the Alaska mineral industry. Many placer miners are reluctant to discuss their operations due to a number of factors, but Paul has always shared information about his operation. He helps all of us in showing that small operators can do it right. They can make a living off of small-scale mining operations and do it effectively in an environmentally friendly way. Paul and Joni have been members of AMA for so long that the current AMA member database doesn’t have the information. Paul served on the Fairbanks Branch as Chair and then as a Director in 2007- 2009, and then in 2013-2015, 2017- 2019, and 2021-2023. He has only stepped off when term limits force it and then steps right back on.
29
Winter 2023
The Alaska Miner
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