The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Senator objects to BLM's proposed land grab, saying it would put large swath of historic district off-limits and violate ANILCA
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is planning to designate nearly one-third of the historic Fortymile mining district in eastern Alaska as off limits to mining in a blow to miners of the region who already feel unduly targeted by federal regulators.
The proposal to set aside large swaths of the district along the Alaska-Yukon border for environmental conservation, which comes as a late addition to the federal land manager's Eastern Interior Draft Resource Management Plan, also caught the attention of Alaska's senior senator in Washington.
"After reviewing the 1,267-page document released by BLM, and speaking with a number of Alaskans who stand to be affected by it, I am highly concerned by the agency's proposal to permanently close a significant portion of the Fortymile sub-unit," Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, wrote to BLM's Fairbanks office on March 3.
In late February, BLM informed the public of its intention to designate 685,000 acres of the 2.1-million-acre Fortymile district as an "Area of Critical Environmental Concern."
The federal land management agency says this swath of the mining district needs to be set aside to protect important Dall sheep and caribou habitat. Those against the designation argue that mining and wildlife have both prospered in the Fortymile region since gold was discovered there in 1886.
ANILCA violation?
Beyond not being needed for habitat, Murkowski contends the ACEC designation is a land grab that violates a promise the federal government made to Alaska when the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act was enacted by Congress in 1980.
"I object to the scope of the mineral entry closure envisioned by BLM," Alaska's senior senator wrote. "This new designation violates ANILCA and would negatively impact Alaskans, who have already faced repeated resource-related restrictions from the federal government in recent years."
The area of environmental concern being considered by BLM measures roughly 85 miles by 12 miles in a corridor of federal lands that border the southeast side of the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. The designation also would put swaths of state and Alaska Native lands on an island between a national reserve and the environmental conservation area.
While Fortymile is celebrated for its 130-year history of placer gold mining, this neighbor of the Klondike is also known to host deposits rich in silver, zinc, lead and copper.
In a recent letter to Murkowski, Fortymile Mining District President Dick Hammond wrote, "If this ACEC is put into effect, we will never know if there is another Red Dog- or Pogo-sized mineral deposit in that area."
The senator passed on the message to BLM. "If the BLM proceeds with its current preferred alternative and does not allow mineral exploration and development on the nearly 700,000 acres in its proposed ACEC designation within the Fortymile sub-unit, Alaskans will never know the extent of the mineral resource located there, and will never be able to benefit from the minerals contained in the area," Murkowski wrote.
An Alaska lifestyle under threat?
BLM's proposed land withdrawal is just the latest issue for miners in the Fortymile region who are feeling increasingly pressured by the federal government and environmental conservation organizations.
"Government bureaucracies and pressure from special interest groups now continuously bombard our industry with ever-increasing rules, regulations, and proposals that seem to aim directly at nothing more than ending our way of life," wrote The Fortymile Miner's Association on its website.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency caused a stir in the Fortymile when it sent a task-force of armed agents with bulletproof vests to investigate water quality violations by placer miners in the region.
Viewed by many as a SWAT-style operation more akin to a drug or illegal arms bust, the water-quality violations raid gained national attention.
"In Chicken, Alaska, an EPA SWAT team of heavily armed and armored agents conducted 'paperwork' inspections on small mining operations, in what appears nothing more than an effort to intimidate and scare hardworking Americans," Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., said during a 2013 U.S. House hearing on the topic of overreach by the EPA.
Others, including U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon, considered the characterization of the Fortymile EPA Clean Water Act inspections as SWAT raids to be hyperbole.
Fortymile miners said no matter how you characterize the incursion, the presence of an armed and armored task-force was intimidating.
Placer miners in the Fortymile region and across Alaska are also feeling pinched by guidance on placer mining reclamation issued by BLM in November - an issue Murkowski touched on in her letter to the federal land management bureau.
The senator's primary concern is that placer operations that exceed 40 acres in disturbances would be excluded from a bond pool set up by the state to cover reclamation liabilities. Another area of concern is that only mining claims with road access would be able to participate in the bond pool.
"Simply put, BLM's standards threaten to make placer mining operations uneconomical," she wrote.
Fortymile miners say the continued pressure by outside forces threatens to end an Alaska lifestyle.
"It's not just a matter of 'the way we do business' that is challenged - it's our whole way of life; it's the ever-present threat to bring it all to an end," the mining association wrote.
As a final thought, the miners query: "Can intelligent and progressive development withstand the effects of environmental extremism, or will our livelihood as miners truly just become a part of history?"
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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