Mobile Edition
Print
Get the Mag
Weekly UpdatesFrom quality of workmanship to community support and more, Coeur Alaska's experience to date with the Kensington Mine project in Southeast Alaska has been golden. According to Coeur Alaska's vice president and general manager, Timothy Arnold, at this point the Southeast experience has surpassed the mining corporation's prospects. "People here have exceeded our expectations," he said.
Arnold has worked in underground mining most of his life. He began mining in 1976 and graduated from the University of Idaho in 1982. The mining engineer's been a part of the multi-award-winning Coeur d' Alene Mines Corp. (CDM)--Coeur Alaska's parent company--for around five years, serving as vice president and general manager of CDM's Rochester Mine in Nevada for 2 1/2 years before transferring to the Kensington venture about three years ago. "It's a fun project," Arnold said of the Southeast Alaska gold development.
STEP-BY-STEP
Essentially, the Kensington mining plan consists of four stages: permitting, construction, operation and reclamation. Three different Environmental Impact Studies (EISs) have been completed on the project since 1987, but the permitting process for the most recent plan was completed in 2005, and now the project has all its necessary permits in place--nearly 60 environmental and regulatory permits in all. The goal is to begin operations toward the end of this year, and with construction about halfway completed at this point, the project is on target.
Since July 2005, Coeur has spent more than $100 million on construction costs alone. At this point, the mill building and the crusher building are constructed and enclosed, and the facilities are now in the process of being filled with equipment. The mine will use its on-site floatation mill to produce concentrate that will be shipped elsewhere for processing. This means that harsh chemicals, such as cyanide, will not be used at the mill.
The underground Kensington Gold Mine is located on the east side of the Lynn Canal, about 45 miles north-northwest of Juneau. Kensington's processing facilities are located 980 feet above sea level. Ore will be received from the underground mine by 40-ton trucks. At this time, the company is also working underground, driving a tunnel so that ore can be brought from the west side of the project to the east side where the mill facility is situated. While construction crews essentially live in a camp situation, the final plan allows for mining employees to make a daily commute to the site. According to Arnold, this helps a lot. "It brings costs down," he said, "and it lets people go home every night."
Right now there are more than 400 people, including contractors and their employees, working on the project, the majority Alaskans. "We're happy about that," Arnold said.
ALASKAN-HIRE
Overall about 90 people work directly for Coeur, again many of them Alaskans, who will transfer from the construction phase to operations when the time comes. Quality of work is a big issue with Coeur, especially in the arena of safety, and the company is impressed with its Alaskan-hire Coeur employees, as well as Alaska contractors and their crews. "We're happy with the work force," Arnold said. "We're a good team."
Coeur Alaska is equally happy with the miners the company has locally trained. "We're excited about putting a lot of locals to work at Kensington," said Arnold.
Although permitting is in place, one issue is outstanding, and that is the matter of tailings management. Simply put, the approved plan involves 40 percent of the tailings to be recycled back into the mine as fill. The plan further includes construction of a tailings dam below a small, relatively unproductive lake known as Lower Slate Lake. In the Kensington mining situation, the tailings will be acid-free and of a size similar to fine sand. As a result, the process will turn a 20-acre, brackish water lake that supports a small amount of habitat essentially just on its edge into a 60-acre lake with a flat bottom, creating an improved fish habitat. "We expect a better fishery," Arnold said. "It's a neat situation when you can provide benefits to the community and walk away with a better habitat for fish."
SMALL FOOTPRINTS
As it stands, the Kensington Mine project will leave a smaller footprint than was originally planned in the previous EISs, and Coeur Alaska will take less ore than initially intended, as well. The expected rate of production is 100,000 ounces annually over a 10-year period, totaling around 1 million ounces of gold.
In addition to ongoing contributions to a variety of local organizations; support among Native groups, political, and community leaders; and the support and sponsorship of local miner training programs, the Kensington Gold Mine projects brings to Alaska millions of dollars in state and local taxes, as well as approximately $16 million to be paid out in annual wages and benefits. During the operations phase, the project will employ around 200 people, boosting the economic vitality of Alaska's capital city. "Juneau needs that," Arnold said.
Overall, Coeur is pleased with the community's response to the project. According to Arnold, surveys indicate around 76 percent of the community supports the mine. "The community's been great, and state and federal entities have proved to be professional," said Arnold. "We want to meet or exceed their standards. That's the way Coeur operates."
FEED