Ambler Mining District – Alaska
Alaska’s Ambler Mining District has attracted world class majors including Cominco, Noranda, Sunshine, Anaconda and Kennecott. The Ambler District, as recognized by Metals Economics Group, is one of the world’s largest un-developed copper-zinc districts with three known principal VMS (volcanogenic massive sulfide) deposits within the District. The largest is the Arctic Deposit owned by Nova Gold Resources Inc., the smallest is the Smucker Deposit, owned by Teck Resources Limited and the SUN Deposit owned by Andover, is recognized as the second largest VMS deposit in the District.
There has been a renewed interest in the Ambler District over the past several years, emphasized by NovaGold Resources’ recent activities in the district. NovaGold has maintained a strong presence in the Ambler District since their acquisition of the Arctic Deposit in 2004. During 2011 NovaGold has (1) completed a positive Preliminary Economic Assessment by SRK Consulting (US), Inc. for the Arctic massive sulfide deposit, (2) formed a joint venture with NANA Regional Native Corporation for the nearby Ruby Creek (Bornite) copper deposit, and (3) decided to spin off the Ambler District and Ruby Creek assets into a new subsidiary, NovaCopper Inc. The creation of NovaCopper underscores NovaGold’s confidence in the Ambler District as a viable mining entity.
NovaGold’s recent actions, along with an assessment by Andover during the 2011 field season of the large size of the prospective area surrounding the Sun, S. W. Sun and Picnic Creek deposits, has prompted the company to expand its land position, thereby ensuring that all the prospective ground is covered by Andover claims. Andover now has an aggregate land position of 45,920 acres in the Ambler Mining District.
Transportation Corridor
The State of Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities is studying potential transportation corridors connecting the Ambler Mining District to Alaska’s contiguous infrastructure. Final Reports on the Ambler Mining District Access titled Summary Report, Design Criteria Memorandum, Corridor Development Memorandum, Baseline Cost Memorandum, Geotechnical Memorandum and Environmental Overview Memorandum were all published in September 2011.
The opening paragraph in The Summary Report is as follows: “The Ambler Mining District Access project will indentify, design, and construct a transportation corridor from the Ambler mineral belt to either a port location on the west coast of Alaska or the surface transportation system in Alaska’s Interior. Both road and rail options are being evaluated. The selected corridor is intended to provide surface transportation access to state lands and facilitate exploration and development of mineral resources along the Ambler mining belt.”
North Western Alaska Corridor
The State of Alaska, Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (Northern Region) has commissioned and received a completed report by DOWL HKM consultants from Anchorage, Alaska on preliminary corridor alternatives to open up Western Alaska. The Report titled “Western Alaska Access Planning Study” was completed in 2010.
The proposed road corridor would connect the Fairbanks area to the Sewart Peninsula. The study identified communities and resources that would benefit from the estimated project cost of between $2.3 to $2.7 billion, for the 500 mile long corridor.
The benefits, as outlined in the study, of this transportation corridor include;
- Lower passenger transportation costs
- Lower fuel delivery costs
- Lower freight and mail delivery costs
- Lower mining/ resource and development costs
- Lower energy and power infrastructure costs
- Increased jobs, income and access to services for local villages
Public meetings are currently being conducted in most of the communities affected. Meetings are also being conducted with Tribal organizations and City governments, Regional and Village Native Corporations, mine owners and other interested parties.
About Alaska
Alaska is considered to be one of the most underexplored regions in North America, with excellent potential for discovery. The state is home to world-class precious metal mines such as Pogo and Greens Creek, and base metal deposits such as Red Dog, the world’s largest zinc mine. In the past 15 years, over 60 million ounces of gold resource have been discovered in Alaska. This includes the 5.6 M.oz Pogo mine currently under construction, and world-class discoveries such as the 20+ M.oz. Donlin Creek Gold and Pebble Copper-Gold Deposits; additionally, most of the state is open to exploration:
- 250,000 Sq. Miles Open For Exploration
- Pro-Mining Government
- World Class Mineral Endowment
- New Infrastructure Proposed
- 12 For Profit Native Corporations (1971)