Ice road freighting continues near Pogo

Contractors hired by developers of the Pogo gold deposit northeast of Delta Junction completed construction of a 50-mile temporary ice road in early February and transportation of fuel and equipment into the remote site should be complete by the later part of March.

"Things are moving along well," Karl Hanneman, Teck-Pogo's manager of public and environmental affairs and special projects, told Mining News on March 8. "We have about half of the necessary fuel and equipment mobilized over the road."

The freight hauling work, which started the first week of February, should be complete "by the end of the next week or so," he said, putting the freighting work completion around March 19.

A cold spell, dropping temperatures down to 30 below Fahrenheit in recent days, has helped preserve the ice road, he said. "The road is in good shape. Our goal is to get things staged on site and get the construction camp built on site so we are prepared to begin."

The ice road starts at Quartz Lake and follows historical trails that wind up the Goodpaster River valley to the Pogo deposit near the confluence of the Goodpaster and Liese Creek. It's the same route that Pogo developers used in 1998 to construct a winter ice road to haul in camp equipment, fuel and underground mining equipment used to construct a tunnel during advanced exploration and development work.

Teck-Pogo, a joint venture between Teck Cominco and Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. of Japan, is still waiting for its final regulatory permit before making a final decision to proceed with the $250 million mine construction project.

The project needs approval from the Environmental Protection Agency for water discharge under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System.

Bill Riley, EPA's mining coordinator for the region 10 office in Seattle, told Mining News in early March that the permit should be issued by March 15.

Following the EPA action, Teck-Pogo joint venture partners will meet and "hopefully make a positive project decision," Hanneman said. "It will be soon after, hopefully within weeks."

Contracts awarded

Several contractors have already been selected for work at Pogo. Cruz Construction, based in Palmer, built and is operating the winter ice road.

Alaska West, based in Anchorage, was selected to haul the freight, fuel and equipment needed for the first construction season. That includes 300,000 to 400,000 gallons of fuel - both diesel and gasoline. It also includes the 250-person construction camp, made up of Atco units.

Anchorage-based AIC will build the 50-mile all-season road, once project approval is given by developers. AIC will also perform earth moving and site construction work at Pogo.

Fairbanks-based City Electric was selected to install the 50-mile power line needed to transmit electricity to the remote site.

Construction crews are expected to peak at 500 workers, and will be housed on-site in the construction camp and in permanent crew quarters that will later be used for the mine and mill staff, expected to be about 250 full-time workers.

The underground Pogo deposit is believed to contain 5.5 million ounces of gold, with an average grade of about one-half ounce of gold per ton of rock. Annual production from the underground hard rock mine is estimated to be 375,000 ounces of gold per year, for a 10-year mine life.