Alaska legislators say mining matters

Many Alaska state legislators have a personal connection with mining, and perhaps none more so than Richard Foster, Nome's Democratic representative. Foster, 58, grew up on his father's mine, 100 miles north of Nome. Today he is glad to see Vancouver-based NovaGold developing its Rock Creek project in his district, but he also regrets the disappearance of "mom and pop" mining operations like the one where he worked as a child.

"NovaGold has been very aggressive in trying to develop their gold and also their boundless deposits of gravel," Foster told Mining News. "People in Nome are fairly excited, there could be maybe 100 to 150 jobs at Rock Creek." NovaGold is already contributing to the local economy by renting dump trucks from private operators and shipping out barge-loads of high-quality quarry rock, Foster said.

"There is still potential for mining, but there are more and more restrictive regulations from the federal government," Foster said. "The regulations for the most part have a constituency. Powerful fishing interests have allied themselves with environmentalists to kill off logging and mining. Mom and pop operations could never comply with the federal regulations."

The area between Nome and Kotzebue where the Fosters used to mine is now on the edge of the Bering Land Bridge National Park.

Mount Foster in southeast Alaska is named after Richard's father, Neal, who was a territorial and state senator and a bush pilot, as well as a miner.

In an article for Alaska magazine in 1972, Richard described going on expeditions hunting for rock samples with his brother at the age of seven.

"Our trips were always heralded with fanfare, father urging us to go immediately and check the site before anyone else could stake it, and mother weighing down each backpack with enough food to last us for weeks," he wrote.

"We took everything she gave us, rather than let her worry about us starving to death in some gulch."

By the age of 15, Richard was an experienced miner himself. "I was anxious to find my own gold, so whenever we quit work for the night, I would pan sections of the bedrock until I found a good area and then mine it myself with a three-foot long 'rocker' I had made," he wrote. "By the end of the summer, I had mined enough gold to buy five pistols and two rifles. The fact that we already had 18 firearms somehow didn't bother me!"

Although Foster never used guns for anything more lethal than shooting ptarmigans, he remained an avid collector when he entered the state Legislature in 1988, and three years later he was arrested on federal felony charges of possessing unregistered guns, including several machine guns. He was caught in Juneau but fortunately the trial was held in Nome, where he was extremely well-liked, and he was found not guilty - but federal agents kept his confiscated firearms.

The jovial Foster is also popular in the Legislature, where he has a large enough office that Democrats and Republicans can mingle socially with some of his nine children when they come to visit. As long as Foster has a seat in the House, miners will always have a strong advocate in Juneau. "If it wasn't for mining, Juneau, Fairbanks and Nome wouldn't be there," he said. "People have forgotten about that."

Ramras: Mining on the menu

Jay Ramras began his career by opening a restaurant in Fairbanks called Jaybird's Wingworld, and now owns the somewhat more up-market Pike's Waterfront Lodge. As a brand new Republican representative for Fairbanks, 40-year-old Ramras will occasionally have to turn his attention from food to mining. Not only are Fort Knox and Pogo located in his district, he is also co-chair of the House Natural Resources Committee.

"I grew up with the Miscoviches, three generations of a mining family, they were friends of mine," Ramras said. "I want miners to be able to do business in a low tax, fairly regulated industry that allows for safe exploration." He dismissed former Gov. Jay Hammond's recent suggestion that mining companies could contribute more to the state by paying a severance tax. "Jay Hammond is wrong. You don't tax your way into creating a prosperous industry. Try being a miner, big or small, it's hard - give the miners a break."

Ramras is enthusiastic about the projects in his district, with some qualifications. "We love Fort Knox," he said. "Our two biggest concerns with Pogo are that they get open and that they do so by honoring Alaska hire." It was slightly disappointing that operator Teck-Pogo hired Canadian electricians, Ramras said. "The mine is going to be open for a whole generation of Alaskans, so it will be interesting to see what they're going to do about workforce development. I want to see Pogo train and employ local Alaskans."

There isn't a great deal of mining-related legislation coming up in this session, and that is probably a good thing, Ramras said. After listening to reports that mining industry representatives gave to the Legislature on Feb. 2, he concluded that adopting a laissez-faire approach would suit them best. "The mining industry seems pretty happy," Ramras said. "They were telling us, we're doing fine, let us build ourselves into a profitable industry."

Ramras supports Gov. Frank Murkowski's $700,000 budget request for airborne geophysical surveys. "I'm very excited about them, they're really state-of-the-art," he said. "The color mapping is really 21st-century. Those kinds of dollars come back tenfold and then some. The state is so fortunate to have Tom Irwin as DNR commissioner - I trust just about anything he and his people say is a good thing."

Kerttula: praises Greens Creek safety record

If the residents of Beth Kerttula's district have an opinion about mining, they can easily let her know: she is a Democratic representative for Juneau, and only has to step outside the capitol building to hear the word on the street.

Recently someone approached her in the city post office to discuss the Tulsequah Chief project, across the border in Canada. "I'm real worried about the Tulsequah Chief and the Taku River drainage," Kerttula said. "We don't have any jurisdiction over it. The river is one of the biggest spawning grounds and salmon fisheries around Juneau."

Canada's Redfern Resources has not yet completed the permitting process for the Tulsequah Chief mine. Idaho-based Coeur d'Alene's Kensington project outside of Juneau is at a more advanced stage, its mining plan having been approved by the U.S. Forest Service last December.

Kensington is a historic gold mine that Coeur intends to reopen. "Kensington is raising some fascinating issues," Kerttula said. "I think it'll be hard, especially with the precedent they may be setting - tailings disposal in Lower Slate Lake - they're going to have to work things out a little more."

Kerttula has a fairly positive attitude towards Coeur: "They've made a real effort as far as educating a lot of people who would have some say over the mine," she said. "I think they try to outreach to the community. But some of the concerns are absolutely legitimate."

A coalition of local environmentalists appealed the Forest Service's decision and a court battle is on the cards. "I want mining to be done right, I don't want us to be left with a legacy of environmental degradation," Kerttula said. "The miners who I know don't want to do that, either."

Kensington was permitted under the Juneau coastal management system and Kerttula hopes that Gov. Murkowski will not carry out his threat to withdraw from the Alaska Coastal Management Program. "It's one of the few places where you see coordination of the laws and the agencies," she said.

There is already an underground mine in the Juneau area, Greens Creek, which is the city's largest industrial employer.

"I don't hear any complaints about Greens Creek," Kerttula said.

"It has a really terrific safety record.

It's normally one of the top employers for worker safety." Kerttula, 49, describes herself as "real supportive" of mining, having grown up around miners in Juneau and on a farm in Palmer (her father, Jay, was a legislator for over 30 years), and spent her childhood summers at a mining operation along the Fortymile River.

"We used to play around dredges and gold pan ourselves," Kerttula said.

"We got jewelry from the gold nuggets we mined.

I appreciate the history of mining."

The main piece of legislation that will affect mining in this session is the governor's request for the state to obtain primacy over National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permitting. Alaska is one of only five states where the EPA conducts NPDES permitting.

"If we do it right, put the time and energy and funding behind it, it could be a good thing, it would put Alaskans in charge," Kerttula said. "I have talked to one mining company that had a representative from the EPA come up in high heels in the middle of winter and think she'd be able to walk around the mine site."

LeDoux: Pebble blinking brightly on her radar

In the past, a Kodiak legislator might have expected to devote most of her energies to fisheries, but not any more. The district's new Republican Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, 57, will have to get up to speed on mining very quickly because Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty is developing the huge Pebble deposit near Iliamna. Along with Kodiak Island, this part of Southcentral Alaska is included in the same district.

"Initially I was hearing a lot of excitement about Pebble from people in my district, but as of late some of that excitement has cooled down," LeDoux said. "I just received a joint resolution from the city council of Nondalton and the tribal council of Nondalton opposing the mine." On the other hand, some villages in the area support the project, she added.

"People are concerned that it's going to have a big impact on the subsistence lifestyle, the fishing," LeDoux said. "Initially there were hopes that there would be enough good jobs from the mine to make it worth it. I haven't made up my mind, I've got an open mind on this thing. Kodiak, where I live, is a fishing community, I know absolutely nothing about mining, I'm on a learning curve. I'm hoping that the mine can be developed in such a way that the impacts on fishing and the subsistence lifestyle are minimized. Jobs are one of the main problems in your really remote areas. People want to be able to stay in their area and want to be able to work. These areas are expensive."

LeDoux was born in Baltimore, grew up in California and went back to the East Coast after law school, moving to Alaska in 1979. "I like the people in Kodiak, you really get to know everybody," she said. "There is a sense of closeness in a small town that sometimes a big city doesn't have."