By Patricia Liles
For the Journal

Affordable access to remote regions has been one of the major hurdles in developing many of Alaska's rich mineral resources. State transportation planners are actively working on six access solutions for five different mining projects.

Resource transportation analysis work ranges from initial reconnaissance engineering studies to determine the best possible access routes to actual construction of a three-mile road realignment of the Glacier Creek Road near Nome.

A $1.5 million federal appropriation to the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities though the Federal Highway Administration in 1999, sponsored by Sen. Frank Murkowski, started Alaska's resource transportation analysis, according to Mike McKinnon, DOT's industrial roads program manager.

That work was initially designed to examine resource development transportation needs in northern Alaska, McKinnon said. "The goal was to see if there were road or rail links that could expedite resource development opportunities."

Traditional, long-distance road or rail routes to access remote mineral deposits cannot be supported in today's world markets, McKinnon said in a Nov. 4 presentation before the Alaska Miners Association's annual convention in Anchorage.

But "seasonal ports and short road links to remote major mineral deposits were practical in some cases," McKinnon said. "Marine transportation is the great level playing field, (and) getting resources into the marine transport network in the shortest overland way is critical to success in moving base minerals and coal out of Alaska."

DOT planners are currently working on six access projects identified for mineral resources, as well as three road projects to better serve the North Slope oil and gas fields.

The most advanced of the six mining projects is the Glacier Creek Road realignment and construction, which started this summer and is scheduled to be complete next fall for the Rock Creek gold project being developed by NovaGold Resources.

Construction work by Kiewit Pacific to create a bypass of the existing north Nome road will cost $7.39 million, which was provided through the Federal-Aid Highway program. The bypass will remove traffic from the Nome watershed and improve the state's maintenance and operating costs, as well as provide better access to the Rock Creek gold project, according to DOT's October status report for the department's industrial ports and roads program.

Improving access for the state's largest mine, the Red Dog zinc and lead mine in Northwest Alaska, involves two of the DOT mineral resource planning projects. One calls for expanding existing port facilities that currently serve Red Dog. During the short, ice-free shipping season, mineralized concentrate is currently loaded into lighters, which then carry the material to ocean-going ships anchored about six miles offshore in deeper water.

DOT planners are working with the mine's operators, owners and the state agency financing the Red Dog transportation system to consider dredging a channel and turning basin that would allow freight haulers to be directly loaded at the port, eliminating the extra handling time and expense. A draft environmental impact statement review may begin in early 2005, according to DOT's October status report.

Red Dog would also receive improved air access with a proposed airport runway expansion at the neighboring village of Noatak and construction of a 35- to 40-mile road to the mine's haul road. The existing Red Dog airport is closed or at marginal operations up to 40 percent of the time, according to McKinnon, while the Noatak airport offers "terrific aviation characteristics" from its elevated location.

"The road would provide Noatak with business and employment opportunities and a way to get fuel and freight to the community (from Red Dog's port)," McKinnon said. "Both are currently flown in."

A reconnaissance engineering report is due next March, and DOT is working to build a development timeline this winter with Red Dog operator Teck Cominco, the NANA regional corporation and the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority.

"We will conduct a benefit/cost analysis once we have more information on both the road construction/operation costs and the operational benefits," McKinnon said.

Also in northwestern Alaska, the undeveloped, high-grade coal deposits near Point Lay called the Deadfall Syncline is receiving planning work from DOT. Reconnaissance engineering underway by CH2M Hill is scheduled to be complete next spring on a potential 90-mile route connecting the coal resource to the existing road system serving Red Dog.

That potential road route would allow the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. to export annually 1 million to 2 million tons of its high-quality coal to Asian markets.

"Grade and terrain breaks appear to preclude rail," DOT said in its October status report.

Another area under study is in southwestern Alaska, offering access for the Donlin Creek gold project and other neighboring mineralized areas. A road corridor connecting new port facilities on the Yukon and the Kuskokwim rivers was identified in the initial DOT planning analysis.

"The first project is likely a port on the Kuskokwim River and a 24-mile road linking the port to the mineralized area," DOT said in its October status report. "The second phase would likely be a mainline barge port on the Yukon River and a 65-mile road to the mineralized area."

Once those two phases are complete, McKinnon said DOT could then work with industry to provide improved access to other known and potential mineral deposits in the McGrath and Ruby area.

DOT planners, through prime contractor HDR, recently started work this fall on an environmental impact statement, with scoping meetings held in Holy Cross and Crooked Creek. A draft environmental impact statement is scheduled for release in December 2005 and a final decision scheduled for December 2006.

DOT planners have also begun looking at access issues for the Lake Iliamna area, should the Pebble gold-copper-molybdenum deposit be developed. Reconnaissance engineering work is being reviewed in house, McKinnon said, with plans for state agencies to conduct public meetings and presentations in the region later this year.

A benefit/cost analysis for the project is scheduled to begin in February , with final reconnaissance engineering complete in May, according to the October status report.

Currently, state planners and DOT contractor PND are considering a west Cook Inlet port and a road or a rail route, roughly 80 to 100 miles in length, connecting the port to the mineralized area northeast of Iliamna.

An existing route between Williamsport, located at the head of Iliamna Bay on Cook Inlet, and Pile Bay village, located on the far eastern shore of Iliamna Lake, is being considered.