ed Dog mine began operations in 1989 and currently has a projected mine life until 2031; however, in late November 2024, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) announced its decision to issue a permit that allows for the construction of a road to support Teck Resources Limited exploration activities that could further extend operations at the mine—and its contributions to local and statewide economies.

Red Dog operator Teck and landowner NANA regional corporation welcomed the permit approval. According to NANA Vice President of Natural Resources Lance Miller, “This was the last permit needed to construct the exploration road and advance the evaluation of the project. This milestone was reached after many, many hours of work by Kivalina, Teck, and NANA leadership.”

Those many hours were in fact spread over multiple years.

Teck holds mining claims near Red Dog on state land: the Aktigiruq and Anarraaq mineral deposits, approximately 9 miles north of the Red Dog Mine. According to Teck Manager of Community and Public Relations Wayne Hall, the company submitted its initial Section 404 permit application to USACE in May 2018 to advance the exploration phase of the Aktigiruq Project. “Teck worked closely with local subsistence hunters, who walked potential road routes with engineers to incorporate traditional and local knowledge in identifying the best route to minimize impacts in advance of the permit submission,” Hall says.

Teck resubmitted its permit application, which included additional information, to USACE in February 2022.

According to Teck, “The required tribal consultation process administered by the USACE has taken longer and has been much more complex than we anticipated and resulted in multiple delays from the original environmental review process schedule.” Just recently, a decision deadline of September 30, 2024 was extended to October 31, 2024—the eighth such deadline extension.

By late 2024, the project had received eighteen other required permits from state and local government agencies, with only the Section 404 permit remaining.

The permit’s approval in late November set the ball rolling for an exploration project that is now on a tight deadline.

According to Hall, “This permit approval is an important step forward which allows start of construction of the 9-mile access road needed to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of two deposits that could potentially extend Red Dog mine’s life.” Road construction began as 2024 came to an end, and construction of the road is projected to take nine to twelve months over two winter seasons.

According to an April 2022 Plan of Operations for the Aktigiruq Project exploration program that Teck submitted to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, the company anticipates exploration activities would take place year-round for an estimated four years. If exploration progresses as expected and Teck delineates a technically and economically feasible deposit, the company could potentially extend Red Dog mine’s life beyond 2031.

“Our overall goal is to extend the mine’s life and continue the significant social and economic benefits the mine contributes to local communities and the region,” says Hall, adding that, even with the permit in place, “Time is of the essence to construct the exploration facilities and complete our evaluation of mineral deposits.”

The April 2022 plan of operations noted that construction related to exploration activities would be divided into two phases, with Phase I seeking approval for “certain surface civil construction activities only,” namely construction of an approximately 9-mile access road, surface pads, approximately 3 miles of secondary access roads to the pads, and two material sites.

According to Teck, construction activities for Phase I will take place on state land, except for two segments of the access road and two material sites, which will be on NANA land.

Phase II of the project would add additional aboveground infrastructure: a four-season camp, fuel storage facility, maintenance facility, core processing facility, offices, water treatment plants, power generation facility, other support buildings, and a stockpile area for transient waste rock. Underground exploration activities would include developing “approximately 80,000 feet of underground exploration ramps and drifts and executing approximately 300,000 feet of exploratory drilling,” Teck explains.

The ultimate goal is to extend Red Dog Operations beyond 2031 and to do so without an extended gap in production. According to Miller, “With more than 85 percent of the NAB [Northwest Arctic Borough] budget from Red Dog and over 980 shareholder jobs earning about $63 million in annual wages, any gap may have significant negative economic consequences for the region. Any delay has economic implications that will impact direct and indirect workers, communities, the NAB, NANA, and many others depending on the length of shutdown.”

For 2023, Red Dog generated approximately $1.6 billion in revenue, with a gross profit of $408 million, producing 540,000 tonnes of concentrate. Beyond the benefits directly to the region and NANA shareholders, revenue from Red Dog is distributed through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act 7(i) and 7(j) revenue sharing provisions, which means Red Dog money spreads to every region of the state. According to Teck, Red Dog Operations have provided more than $3 billion in royalties to Alaska Native corporations, including NANA, over the mine’s life. Approximately $2 billion of that has been shared with other Alaska Native regional and village corporations.

Hall says the company “is proud to be a major employer in the Northwest Alaska region providing secure, high paying jobs.”

Teck says it is “diligently working to minimize a gap in production” and that securing this permit was key to advancing exploration at Aktigiruq, which “could hold the greatest possibility of extending Red Dog’s mine life, the largest zinc mine in the world.”

According to Teck, Red Dog Operations is an important part of North America’s critical minerals supply chain. Zinc concentrate from Red Dog is shipped to Teck’s Trail Operations in British Columbia, Canada—one of the world’s largest fully integrated zinc and lead smelting and refining complexes—where it is converted into refined products, including germanium, and sold to about 100 customers in the United States.

Hall continues, saying “We are committed to continuing to work collaboratively with local communities, government, and regulators to responsibly extend Red Dog’s mine life and continue the significant social and economic benefits the operation contributes to the region.”