One of Southcentral Alaska's most promising mining prospects sits on Native corporation land, surrounded by Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, about 120 miles southwest of Anchorage and smack dab in the middle of a conflict.
On one side is Contango, the mining company leasing the Johnson Tract from Cook Inlet Region Incorporated, whose nearly 10,000 Indigenous shareholders stand to benefit from developing what is thought to be billions of dollars worth of gold, zinc and copper.
On the other are conservationists, fishermen and local lodge owners who worry about impacts from a mine, a road through a national park and a port that would need to be built to ship out ore, which would happen in an area critical to beluga whales.
Northern Journal reporter Max Graham, who recently wrote about the Johnson Tract, says, while the conflict over the proposed mine might feel familiar, there are some unique circumstances around it.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Max Graham: Yeah, so it goes back to the '70s, you know, even before the park was created, really starting with the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971. The pool of land that the federal government made available to CIRI (Cook Inlet Region Incorporated) around Cook Inlet was pretty limited. And then, over several years, they negotiated this huge deal with the federal government and the state government called the Cook Inlet Land Exchange. And the Johnson Tract was one of the key assets that that deal guaranteed to CIRI.
Casey Grove: What would development entail there? I mean, it's in the middle of a national park, they would need to get that ore out of there somehow, and, of course, dig it up. I mean, how would that all work?
MG: Yes, it's still pretty early on, and a robust feasibility study hasn't been completed yet, but the company that is advancing the project, Contango Ore put out a sort of preliminary economic study last year. And that preliminary study had some info about what it might look like.
It would be an underground operation. It would be pretty small compared to some of the other major mines in the state or that have been proposed. Contango is proposing to process the ore off-site and just to ship the raw ore itself. And that means they wouldn't build a mill right next to the mine, and they wouldn't build a tailings pond right there, but would then just be shipping ore that hasn't been refined yet to a mill somewhere else, and they haven't said yet where exactly it would go.
So earlier this year, the Park Service, or the Department of Interior, which oversees the Park Service, granted CIRI two easements, one for a road that would connect the mine, if one were built, to the coast, and then another easement for a port site where the developer would actually build a dock or something to ship the ore out. And those easements are sort of the initial rights for CIRI and whoever CIRI's partnered with, in this case Contango, to build that infrastructure through the park.
CG: Well, of course, with all of this, there are people that are concerned about it. Who are they and what are their concerns?
MG: Yeah, there are a few different sort of pockets of opposition. So the area where that the port would go, there's a small set net fishery there. And there's a lot of concern among that community that, you know, this operation, if it moves forward, would really transform the bay where they they fish.
And then, in addition to that, there's concern from a couple of environmental groups that that same bay where the fishery is appears to be pretty important winter habitat for beluga whales, an endangered population of belugas in Cook Inlet.
And then I'd say another pocket of concern is there are a couple bear lodges, right in that area as well. And lodge owners are concerned, you know, similar to the fishermen, that this kind of development would be incompatible with the landscape and with their businesses.
CG: So Max, this idea to develop a mine there, it strikes me as somewhat unique. I mean, you know, the land ended up with CIRI through ANCSA, and it's a Native corporation trying to develop land for its shareholders. Does it seem different to you than some of the other mining disputes that we've heard about?
MG: Yeah, I think there are a number of similarities, and then some interesting differences. The fact that it's this in-holding surrounded by a park, a national park, makes it different. But then I also I think you're right, I think the ANCSA component and the historical significance of the property to CIRI makes it different and interesting to me. I mean, there are other deposits, of course, or mines that are important to Alaska Native corporations, but the confluence of different interests here and the history of the land itself is unique.
You know, in my story, I sort of talk about how this conflict is kind of a microcosm of these larger tensions between two different visions for Alaska, one that's more oriented around environmental protection, and the other that is more oriented around resource development. And I think that there are two different sides here, in which those views are embedded.
But I also think that it's important to note that, like, that tension sometimes is sort of manifested even just within one individual or one corporation. And I think that, yes, it's easy to sort of draw this picture of two competing sides, but I do think it's more complicated.
