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Weekly UpdatesBUMP IN THE ROAD
In June, the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska denied a request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against the Rock Creek project, regarding that wetlands permit. The court found that the Corps appropriately issued the wetlands permit, following guidelines under the Clean Water Act, and noted that NovaGold incurred considerable time, effort and expense to minimize the environmental impact of its mine.
"If the project proceeds as planned, it is likely that much of the land involved will be left in far better condition than it was when the project began," the court said.
Construction work also slowed this summer, after two workers were killed on-site in an accident that involved a man-lift toppling over.
And throughout last fall and winter, NovaGold faced a hostile take-over attempt from mining giant Barrick Gold, a company who has partnered with NovaGold in developing the Donlin Creek gold project in Southwest Alaska.
Barrick's multiple attempts to purchase NovaGold failed and the two companies now face a November deadline for Barrick to complete its contractual requirements to earn a 70 percent interest in Donlin.
That property, which contains an estimated 33.7 million ounces of gold, according to the most recent resource calculations released by NovaGold, is one of the largest, undeveloped gold deposits in North America.
NovaGold and its new partner, Teck Cominco, are also involved in developing another giant-sized mineral deposit in northwestern British Columbia. Called Galore Creek, that deposit is believed to contain almost 14.3 billion pounds of copper, 13.1 million ounces of gold and about 220 million ounces of silver. Construction began this summer.
As NovaGold's first producer, Rock Creek figures into development of those larger-scale mine projects. With an average cash cost of about $300 to produce an ounce of gold, Rock Creek will provide about $30 million a year in funds for NovaGold to use for other projects.
"We plan to be there (in Alaska) for a long time," Van Nieuwehuyse said. "We believe in building the mining capacity of the region and in the state that is sustainable."
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