Pebble Mine loses short-term water permits

The state has suspended short-term water and land use permits at the Pebble Mine near Bristol Bay.

The problem involves withdrawals of water from lakes and streams outside areas where it is permitted. The Department of Natural Resources says the unpermitted water withdrawals occurred at 45 sites over a three-year period.

The Pebble Partnership, the industry group pushing for development of the mine in Southwest Alaska, reported the unpermitted withdrawals to the state last November.

Pebble has agreed to pay a $45,000 fine and come up with a plan to prevent such withdrawals in the future.

Northern Dynasty Minerals and Anglo American are developing Pebble — a huge copper and gold deposit near the state's major wild salmon streams.

Improvements boost productivity at Red Dog mine

The Red Dog zinc and lead mine near Kotzebue reported that improved operations last year allowed it to produce record amounts of metals and increase profits by $34 million.

Manager John Egan said that investing $6 million in staff and consultants paid off in productivity.

The Red Dog is the largest mine in Alaska.

The improvements were mostly simple solutions to make things run more smoothly: speedier removal of snow and ice that clog ore feeders, replacing parts before they break, and ordering products in bulk.

The project kicked off in September 2008 and mine productivity hit records in January 2009, April, October and December.

The mine shipped 1.02 million metric tons of zinc concentrate last year, compared to 920,000 tons of zinc concentrate in the year before.

Red Dog's operating profit last year was $381 million, also up significantly from a year earlier, according to Teck Resources, the Vancouver, British Columbia, company that owns the mine. The operating profit doesn't include deductions made for taxes and certain other expenses.

Last year, Teck said it distributed $144 million to the state and NANA Regional Corp., the Kotzebue-based Alaska Native corporation that owns the land on which the mine sits. That's a $32 million increase from the previous year. NANA shares its royalties with other Native corporations.

New vein of gold discovered at Kensington Mine

The company developing the Kensington mine near Juneau has discovered a new vein of gold.

Drill tests conducted at the end of last year revealed the new vein. The discovery could develop into a major gold system, said Donald Birak, Coeur d'Alene Mines' vice president for exploration. Idaho-based Coeur d'Alene Mines is developing the mine.

The tests represent a first phase of drilling. More work needs to be done before the company can say how much additional gold the mine might produce.

The mine 45 miles northwest of Juneau was thought to have 1.5 million ounces of gold reserves and an initial life of 12 years.

Coeur's new drill tests showed eight of 14 core holes intersected "very significant gold mineralization," the company said, with assays ranging from 0.144 ounces per ton to more than 1.29 ounces per ton.

Tom Crafford, the state's large mine coordinator, said the numbers are fairly impressive.

Development of the mine stalled after Coeur's plan to dispose of mining waste in Slate Lake was challenged in court. The mine was allowed to proceed after the U.S. Supreme Court gave it the go-ahead. A tailings facility currently is under construction.

Production at Kensington is expected to begin later this year. The mine estimates production at 120,000 ounces of gold annually. The mine is expected to employ up to 300 during remaining construction and about 200 during operations.

Chuitna residents petition against coal mine plan

A group opposing a proposed coal mine on the west side of Cook Inlet delivered a petition to Gov. Sean Parnell. Members of the Chuitna Citizens Coalition met recently with the governor to deliver the petition with 1,500 names.

They say the surface mine proposed by PacRim Coal about 45 miles west of Anchorage threatens salmon habitat in the Chuitna River.

Coal mine developers hope to export 300 million metric tons of coal to Asia over 25 years.