Haines offers deep-water port of dreams

Haines Borough Manager Mark Earnest is a man on a mission, getting the word out to mining companies in Yukon Territory that the deep-water port in his sleepy Alaska community of 1,811 souls could well be the answer to their prayers.

Unlike the Port of Skagway, its increasingly busy neighbor to the northeast, the Port of Haines is virtually devoid of congestion. The port attracts only one cruise-ship a week along with daily ferry service in summer, has very little road traffic thanks to a designated truck route that bypasses downtown Haines to the north and is situated four miles away from the town's small boat harbor.

Haines also boasts several hundred acres of private, borough and federal uplands in and around the port area that could be developed, in addition to borough-owned acres along the waterfront where the freight dock could be extended to the north, Earnest told Mining News Sept. 21 and Sept. 26.

"In addition, the grade of the highway up to the summit is not as steep as the Skagway Highway," he said.

The Haines Borough Assembly has commissioned a development plan to better define and assess opportunities for the port to benefit from Yukon's recent mining boom.

With US$120,000 in funding from the Alaska Legislature, the community engaged consulting firm Northern Economics of Anchorage to prepare a needs evaluation to determine how the Port of Haines might play a role in Yukon development.

Waterfront engineering experts Peratrovich, Nottingham & Drage of Anchorage is also studying potential enhancements to the freight dock that could improve the port's marketability.

Northern Economics presented a draft of its findings to the Haines assembly Aug. 23 in phase 1 of the study. The 40-page draft report included a comparison of the three ports in Haines, Skagway and Valdez, Alaska.

The Haines port came out on top for shipments of large equipment. However, the outlet currently has the smallest berths of the three ports, with Lutak Dock at 750 feet (1,200 feet in Skagway and in Valdez) and the shallowest depths at 15-23 feet (45-90 feet in Skagway and 50 feet in Valdez), according to the report.

Haines also charges relatively high port fees, though its port could negotiate more competitive rates in contracts with shippers of mineral concentrates, Earnest said.

Yet Haines still has an overall advantage over the other two ports for shipments to and from Yukon mine projects connected by road to the Alaska Highway, the report concluded.

"Distance is a key factor in determining an export port," wrote Northern Economics.

Haines and Skagway, ironically, are located only about 19 miles (30 kilometers) apart as the crow flies, and regular ferry service connects the two communities. But the rugged mountains and ocean inlet that separate them present an enormous logistical challenge for industrial ground transportation. Overland, the distance between Haines and Skagway is significant. By highway, Haines to Whitehorse is 244 miles (394 kilometers), while Skagway to Whitehorse is 109 miles (176 kilometers). Haines to Haines Junction and all points west in the Yukon, however, is 56 miles (90 kilometers) shorter than the distance from Skagway to Haines Junction and beyond.

"We believe we will provide a significant opportunity for mines in western Yukon," Earnest said.

A viable option for some mine projects

Some mining companies are already taking notice of the Port or Haines.

The Haines Assembly is considering signing a memorandum of understanding with Prophecy Platinum regarding potential development of the Wellgreen Ni-Cu-PGM Project near Burwash Landing, Yukon.

The Wellgreen project is expected to produce (in concentrate) 1.959 billion pounds of nickel, 2.058 billion pounds of copper and 7.119 million ounces of platinum + palladium + gold over 37 years of mine life.

Prophecy hopes to begin production and monthly shipments of 30,000 pounds of ore concentrates from Wellgreen to smelters and refineries in Asia in 2019. The MOU, which Haines' leaders generally favor, spells out the company's desire to route the shipments through the Port of Haines.

Western Copper & Gold Corp. also discussed importing large equipment for power generation at its giant Casino copper-gold-molybdenum project through Haines, but the company has indicated that it will follow in the footsteps of Capstone Mining Corp.'s Minto Mine and Alexco Resource Corp.'s Bellekeno Mine and truck concentrates to the Port of Skagway for ocean shipment to smelters in Asia. For Western Copper, the distance from Casino to Skagway would be 347 miles (560 kilometers) one way.

Though both Prophecy Platinum and Western Copper are considering trucking liquefied natural gas for power generation from northern British Columbia to their respective mine sites, Haines could eventually become a contender for this business.

"Haines is being looked at for LNG imports and exports," said Earnest. "The shipments could be containerized for the mines, and a gas pipeline could go through Haines further down the line with potentially an LNG processing plant here."

As for gas exports, Earnest said Haines officials are talking with Northern Cross (Yukon) Ltd., an oil and gas exploration company that is currently focused on developing natural gas resources in Yukon's Eagle Plains Basin.