Department of Natural Resources hires Alaska geologist Tom Crafford

A geologist with 30 years' experience in Alaska has been appointed mining section chief at the Department of Natural Resources. Tom Crafford, 54, will report to Bob Loeffler, director of the Division of Mining, Land and Water, beginning June 1. Crafford has recently been working as a consultant out of Anchorage in partnership with his wife Liz, who is also a geologist. He will have to give up his private clients now that he is employed by the state.

Explaining in an interview with Mining News why he applied for the state job at a time when industry is booming, Crafford mentioned his two-year-old daughter, a reason for him not to be out in the field all the time. "There are better-paying jobs out there, but this was a job where I could have some real influence, play a real role in the mining industry in Alaska," he added. "It's important to have good and qualified people in these positions."

Before starting his consultancy in 1998, Crafford's jobs included exploration geologist with Anaconda, head of surface exploration at Greens Creek mine, and subsequently vice president of North Pacific Mining, a subsidiary of Alaska Native corporation Cook Inlet Region Inc. He is a member of the BLM Alaska Resource Advisory Council. Among Crafford's recent clients were the Mental Health Trust - he put together prospectuses for some of their properties - and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, for whom he did sand and gravel evaluations.

Crafford: state should do more educating

"I want the mining industry to get a fair shake from the state, and the state to be holding the industry to reasonable standards," Crafford said. "I think what is good for the mining industry is most often good for Alaska, but not always. I truly believe that my heart is in the right place. I think the mining industry is an honorable profession that provides commodities that are very important to our society today."

The state should make more of an effort to educate people in rural Alaska about the realities of mining, Crafford believes. "Not a sell job for mining, both the good side and the bad side," he said. "We should enable those residents to make informed decisions and understand about the development that's going on in their communities." Browsing environmentalist Web sites, Crafford has been "quite appalled at the selective use of information, the errors of fact and errors of omission. There are a lot of half-truths and out-and-out errors."

To redress the balance, DNR could include more information on its Web site about mining opportunities in Alaska, with facts, figures and pictures, Crafford said. For example, instead of pictures of people shaking hands with U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton and receiving their plaques for reclamation awards, there should be pictures of actual reclamation taking place, he suggested.

There is already a plan to put together courses about mining for rural Alaskans, involving DNR, the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, and the University of Alaska, Crafford said. "The opponents of mining try to convince people that you have no voice in this process, you're going to get steamrolled. The people don't understand that they have quite a voice in the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) process."