The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mineral production value jumps 23% in 2021, expected to continue upward in 2022; Red Dog poised to be critical mine North of 60 Mining News – February 4, 2022
Alaska mines produced roughly 630,000 ounces of gold during 2021, an amount that is expected to rise with increased output from Kinross' Fort Knox and Northern Star's Pogo operations.
Teck Resources Ltd.'s Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska, which produces more than 1 billion pounds of zinc per year, is poised to be the highest producing critical mineral operation in the nation if zinc is added to the revised critical minerals list.
Alaska mines produced roughly $3.89 billion worth of nonfuel minerals last year, a 23% increase over the estimated $3.16 billion produced in the 49th State during 2020, according to Mineral Commodity Summaries 2022 published by the United States Geological Survey on Jan. 31.
The rise in Alaska mine production value is largely due to increased zinc and gold production, along with strong metals prices last year.
According to early estimates by the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys, Alaska mines produced roughly 1.25 billion pounds of zinc, 254 million lb of lead, 630,000 ounces of gold and 15.2 million oz silver.
"Zinc and gold continue to be close rivals for the honor of being Alaska's most valuable mineral commodity," Evan Twelker, senior resource geologist at Alaska DGGS, said during a Jan. 31 presentation at AME Roundup in Vancouver.
Alaska gold production, however, is expected to trend higher during 2022 due to anticipated increased output at Kinross Gold Corp.'s Fort Knox and Northern Star Resources Ltd.'s Pogo, the two highest producing gold operations in the state.
With increasing production values during 2021, Alaska edged out Florida to move up to the sixth-highest mineral producing state – behind Arizona, Nevada, Texas, California, and Minnesota.
Arizona, the top mining state in the nation, produced US$9.96 billion worth of nonfuel minerals during 2021. This output was dominated by cement, copper, molybdenum, and aggregates.
Roughly $90.4 billion of nonfuel minerals were produced in the United States last year, which is nearly a 10% jump over the $82.3 billion produced in the U.S. during 2020.
USGS says this increased output from U.S. mines reflects a bounce back in commercial construction, steel production, and the automotive industry following the COVID-related economic slowdown in 2020.
"For the metals sector, the copper, iron ore, steel, and zinc industries were particularly affected by increased demand from manufacturing," USGS penned in its report. "For the industrial minerals sector, the largest increases in production were in cement, crushed stone, sand and gravel, and soda ash, commodities that are closely tied to the performance of the construction industry."
American industries such as steel, aerospace, automotive and electronics that use nonfuel mineral materials created an estimated $3.32 trillion in value-added products during 2021, an 8% increase over 2020.
U.S. metal mine production in 2021 was estimated to be valued at $33.8 billion, or 23% higher than that in 2020. The principal contributors to the total value of metal mine production in 2021 were copper (35%), gold (31%), iron ore (13%), and zinc (7%).
There were 14 mineral commodities produced in the U.S. valued at more than $1 billion each. These commodities were, in order of value, crushed stone, copper, cement, gold, construction sand and gravel, iron ore, salt, lime, industrial sand and gravel, zinc, soda ash, phosphate rock, palladium and molybdenum.
USGS' annual Mineral Commodity Summaries report is the earliest comprehensive source of mineral production data for the world. The 2022 report includes information on the domestic mining sector, government programs, tariffs, and five-year statistics on more than 90 mineral commodities that are important to the U.S. economy and national security.
"Decision-makers and leaders in both the private and public sectors rely on the crucial, unbiased statistics and data provided in the Mineral Commodity Summaries to make business decisions and determine national policy," said USGS National Minerals Information Center Director Steven Fortier.
A critical minerals shift
The USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries continues to highlight America's dependence on foreign countries for most of the minerals, metals, and groups of elements critical to the nation's economy and security.
For 2020, the U.S. was dependent on imports for more than half its supply of 47 nonfuel mineral commodities and was 100% import-reliant for 17 of those.
Of the 35 minerals and groups of elements on the current critical minerals list, the U.S. is reliant on imports from more than half its supply of 29, including 100% import-reliant for 14.
The U.S. critical mineral list, however, is expected to be updated early this year.
In November, the USGS unveiled a proposed list of 50 critical minerals and metals.
While this seems to be a major jump over the 35 critical minerals on the original list published in 2018, most of the increase is from a much-needed breakdown of the rare earth elements and platinum group metals.
Listed as a single commodity on the 2018 critical minerals list, rare earths are a group of 15 individual elements, each with its own properties, uses, and markets.
The new draft list of U.S. critical minerals names 14 individual rare earths – cerium, dysprosium, erbium, europium, gadolinium, holmium, lanthanum, lutetium, neodymium, praseodymium, samarium, terbium, thulium, and ytterbium – as critical to the U.S.
This list of critical REEs includes all 15 of the lanthanides that make up the second row from the bottom on the periodic table except for promethium, which is an unstable element with a naturally occurring abundance in Earth's crust estimated to be less than 600 grams at any given time.
Scandium and yttrium, which are often considered rare earths due to similar properties and geological affinities to the 15 lanthanides, are listed separately on both the 2018 and draft 2021 critical minerals lists.
The 2018 USGS critical minerals list also considered the group of six platinum group metals as one commodity.
The new draft list names five – iridium, platinum, palladium, rhodium, and ruthenium – as critical to the U.S.
Critical Red Dog?
While breaking up the rare earth elements and platinum group metals account for most of the U.S. critical minerals list expansion, there are two major additions – nickel and zinc.
Due to its importance to lithium-ion batteries, it is no surprise that nickel made the list.
The International Energy Agency forecasts that under a scenario where low-carbon energy generation and electric vehicles are adopted at a pace to meet the climate objectives of the Paris Agreement, nickel demand will rocket from roughly 2.4 million metric tons this year to 4.6 million metric tons by 2030 and continue climbing to 6.3 million metric tons by 2040.
This massive rise in the demand for the nickel needed for lithium-ion batteries grabbed headlines when Tesla CEO Elon Musk implored the mining sector to "please mine more nickel" during the EV manufacturer's 2020 Battery Day event.
While not as high-profile as nickel, zinc is an important ingredient to the renewable energy revolution, as well as the Biden administration's $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.
An oft-overlooked industrial metal, zinc plays a central role in the low-carbon future due to its use in galvanizing renewable energy infrastructure against weathering. Zinc is particularly demanded by wind power generation, which needs about five metric tons of the galvanizing metal for every megawatt of power generating capacity, according to the IEA.
These same galvanizing qualities will be needed for the bridges, culverts, guardrails, light poles, 5G network towers, and other upgrades to be funded by the massive infrastructure bill signed into law by President Joe Biden in November.
Interestingly, the addition of zinc to the critical minerals list would make Teck Resources Ltd.'s Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska the largest critical minerals mine in the U.S.
Red Dog is the second-largest zinc producer in the world, and the largest in the U.S. The mine is also a significant source of germanium, a metal that is on both the 2018 and proposed 2022 critical minerals lists.
If zinc makes the final 2022 list, Red Dog would be the largest producer of critical minerals in the U.S. in terms of both quantity and value.
Following public comments on the proposed list, USGS anticipates publishing its final updated critical minerals list by the end of February.
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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