While there are many challenges facing the establishment of the mining district, including delays caused by COVID-19, perhaps the largest—and currently the most controversial—is the construction of a 211-mile controlled industrial access road that would provide permitted access to the district.

The proposed route would begin at milepost 161 of the Dalton Highway and stretch westward to the Ambler Mining District, covering 125 miles of state-owned property, 51 miles of federally owned and managed property, and 3.6 miles of land owned by the Northwest Arctic Borough. The remainder of the route is owned by private landowners, including ANCSA (Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act) corporations Doyon, Limited and NANA.

Once the road is completed, Ambler Metals, a joint venture between Trilogy Metals of Canada and South 32 of Australia, would prospectively develop a mine to access a large copper-zinc mineral belt that also contains deposits of gold and silver. Not only would the mine benefit Alaska, it would serve as a domestic resource for the critical minerals required by the nation’s tech-focused and developing green economy.

or more than forty years, the development of the Ambler Mining District in the southern Brooks Range has been discussed as a way to bring jobs and revenue to the residents of the Northwest Arctic Borough, surrounding villages and landowners, and the state of Alaska. Located 168 miles east of Kotzebue, 22 miles northeast of Kobuk, and 162 miles west of the Dalton Highway, this remote area is considered a prime target for mineral exploration and production.

While there are many challenges facing the establishment of the mining district, including delays caused by COVID-19, perhaps the largest—and currently the most controversial—is the construction of a 211-mile controlled industrial access road that would provide permitted access to the district.

The proposed route would begin at milepost 161 of the Dalton Highway and stretch westward to the Ambler Mining District, covering 125 miles of state-owned property, 51 miles of federally owned and managed property, and 3.6 miles of land owned by the Northwest Arctic Borough. The remainder of the route is owned by private landowners, including ANCSA (Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act) corporations Doyon, Limited and NANA.

Once the road is completed, Ambler Metals, a joint venture between Trilogy Metals of Canada and South 32 of Australia, would prospectively develop a mine to access a large copper-zinc mineral belt that also contains deposits of gold and silver. Not only would the mine benefit Alaska, it would serve as a domestic resource for the critical minerals required by the nation’s tech-focused and developing green economy.

According to Alan Weitzner, CEO and executive director of Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), a full route survey is currently underway, which includes the surveying of forty-eight bridge sites and eleven future materials sites along the route, as well as surveying the 3.6 miles of land owned by the Northwest Arctic Borough. Specific geotechnical and ground surveys are also included in the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) work plan, including work at the Wild, John, and Koyukuk River crossings.

“In addition to the route survey, our cultural resources contractor and field workers are focusing on fifty-nine specific areas identified on a cultural resources survey,” says Weitzner. That project, which focuses on identifying and documenting archeological and historical cultural items, is expected to be completed in October 2021.

“We had originally scheduled more work than that, but we scaled it back during COVID to be sensitive to the fact that we’d be bringing in external contractors to areas where native villages and local stakeholders could be impacted,” says Weitzner. “We reduced the workload quite a bit based on our interactions with the BLM and local stakeholders and their input on what we had planned.”

Looking to build a consensus of support for the road, Weitzner says that AIDEA has been actively engaging with Doyon and NANA as well as individuals and villages along the route.

“We’ve shared our field season plan and our annual work plan and are fully engaging with these communities to understand their needs on a subsistence level as well as on the cultural resource studies we’re doing,” he says, adding that a tribal liaison program was created to keep people along the route aware of their work. “We want to be good partners in this process.”

Despite this, two lawsuits have already been filed against the federal government and the BLM’s record of decision to stop the road project, including one by Tanana Chiefs Conference, which represents forty-two tribes in Interior Alaska, and the tribal governments of Alatna, Allakaket, Evansville, Huslia, and Tanana. The National Parks Conservation Association, joined by the Northern Alaska Environmental Center, Alaska Wildlife Alliance, Center for Biological Diversity, Earthworks, the National Audubon Society, Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society, and Winter Wildlands Alliance, also filed suit to prevent the project, which would cut through the Gates of the Arctic National Preserve and cross the Kobuk River.

“These lawsuits are ongoing; the public record was recently submitted to the court by the defendant federal agencies and a briefing schedule will happen next—that usually takes about six months,” says Ambler Metals CEO Ramzi Fawaz, adding that AIDEA, the state of Alaska, NANA, and Ambler Metals are all intervenors in the case.

“There’s no need for the road if there’s no mine, and there’s no mine if there’s no access,” he says. “These projects can only happen if you have the social license to get them built. That’s why we’re working hard to communicate with communities and to listen to them; we hope to get their support and endorsement.

“We’ve been traveling around the region talking about the project and sharing our plans and hearing communities’ questions and concerns because it is of paramount importance to get the social license to build the road,” he adds.

A Subsistence Advisory Committee Working Group has also been established among regional stakeholders to preserve and protect the rights of subsistence users along the route. The group will help identify road crossing locations used for subsistence and other local travel, in addition to providing input into road operations to minimize the potential for adverse effects on subsistence access.

The Ambler Metals Bornite Camp.

Ambler Metals

According to Weitzner, preliminary costs for the road are estimated at $500 million.

While the initial record of decision and original permitting for the route was undertaken with general funds provided by the state of Alaska, AIDEA and Ambler Metals are financing the current field season.

“AIDEA entered into an agreement with Ambler Metals for final feasibility and permitting activities to take place from 2021 to 2024,” says Weitzner. “At that point, we hope to reach a final investment decision about building the road.”

The $70 million development agreement covers feasibility studies, permitting, and groundwork, and every year a new budget is approved. In 2021, AIDEA and Ambler Metals approved using $13 million for work at the access road site, which includes the cultural survey and archeological site survey.

“When that is completed at all of the locations along the access route, the information will be submitted to the BLM,” says Fawaz, adding that the $13 million also includes engineering and environmental work happening this year, as well as community outreach efforts.

In the meantime, AIDEA is looking to establish public-private partnerships to raise capital to fund the road’s construction and operation. “In addition to moving toward final feasibility and permitting, our work activities right now include putting contract structures in place for construction and operating agreements and determining who our partners will be,” says Weitzner.

The project is being designed along the lines of the DeLong Mountain Transportation System in northwestern Alaska, which services the Red Dog Mine. “The DeLong project was the state’s first public-private partnership where road and storage port facilities were owned and financed by AIDEA and included a user agreement with Cominco and NANA for the operation of the road and usage fees,” explains Weitzner.

“This is a similar model on a larger scale. While it’s a 211-mile road instead of a 52-mile road, the project is a little simpler because it doesn’t involve storage or port facilities. However, the longer road is a little more complicated to develop,” he adds.

The road would have user fees in place for larger volume users, and National Park Service and BLM permits would be required to use the controlled industrial access-only road. As plans are currently defined, there is no public access. Mines would pay tolls and mineral royalty fees that escalate as traffic or the price of minerals increase, which will be used to pay back the full cost of the road.

AIDEA will continue to collect tolls and mineral royalties after the debt is paid off, which will be used to support additional economic development and provide dividends to the state’s general funds.

Construction of the road is expected to take approximately four years, which will run concurrently with Ambler Metals’ development of the Arctic mine. “The full road will take four years, but there will be earlier access to the mine, depending on what is required,” says Weitzner.

According to Fawaz, Ambler Metals is currently making progress on the pre-feasibility study and preparing the Arctic project for 404 permitting, which it would initiate with the US Army Corps of Engineers, the lead federal agency for the mine permit. The 404 permit authorizes placement of fill material into wetlands under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and requires selecting project alternatives that have the least impact on the environment.

“We are also doing drilling in the Arctic deposit, taking samples for metallurgical testing and other tests in order to prove resource confidence in the deposit,” says Fawaz. “We didn’t do this last year because of COVID, so this year we started in early June and will finish in September.”

Over the summer, Ambler Metals will also explore other areas in the region, including drilling at Sunshine, Snow, and east of the Arctic deposit at a number of locations to establish if there are additional viable deposits that could extend the life of the Arctic project once it’s underway.

“We’re just exploring; we’re not there yet,” says Fawaz. “The Ambler District is a very prospective area.”

As the Arctic project nears a final investment decision, Fawaz expects that the road decision will parallel its progress. “We expect that these things will happen around the same time because the projects really go hand-in-hand,” he says. “About the same time the road gets its permitting and feasibility studies done, we will have finished with the mine study and permitting, which usually takes about three years. Then we hope to be able to make the decision on building the mine and building the road.”

In terms of benefits, the mine will produce copper, zinc, lead, and some precious metals. Fawaz notes that copper is an essential metal used in renewable energy projects.

“We see ourselves as contributing to the new US economy, which includes renewable energy sources like electric vehicles and solar and wind turbine power generation,” says Fawaz. “We also see the mine as an instrument of growth and a way to improve the quality of life in the region and in the villages around it.”

Ambler Metals has had a partnership agreement in place with NANA since 2011 with the objective of advancing the Ambler Mining District while also ensuring that the project benefits the region and villages in ways including improved infrastructure and providing direct and indirect jobs.

“For every direct job, there are potentially four, if not more, indirect jobs that will be provided in the surrounding communities,” says Fawaz.

According to Weitzner, a University of Alaska Center for Economic Development study estimates that construction of the Ambler Access Road will provide 360 direct jobs. The mining district itself, which could contain up to four principal mines, could provide more than 2,700 direct jobs and an additional 2,000 indirect jobs.

“And these are really well-paying jobs, which not only helps the individuals working but their families and communities,” says Weitzner.

The state is expected to earn roughly $400 million in tax revenues, as well as $524 million in corporate revenues and $214 million in production tax royalties from the open pit mine, which is estimated to operate for approximately twelve years. Over the lifetime of the mine, it is expected to contribute roughly $1.3 billion to state and local coffers.

“By enabling access to the Ambler Mining District, we are creating greater access to Alaska resources, including base minerals, metals, and strategic minerals,” says Weitzner. “Alaska is an excellent resource for providing the cobalt, germanium, and gallium used in smartphones, electric vehicles, electric storage, and aircraft turbines, among other things, and it can be mined in a responsible manner.

“Opening this mining district will allow Alaska to benefit from its resources and will also broadly benefit the United States and the broader economy,” he adds. “The state will become a key supplier to the nation’s growth by providing a secure supply of critical minerals.”