The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News – February 17, 2023
The 83,739 oz of gold poured at Kinross Alaska's Fort Knox Mine during fourth quarter is 13% higher than a year earlier.
Trout Unlimited Director Austin Williams (left) and Kinross Director Anna Atchison (right) introduce the Alaska Abandoned Mine Restoration Initiative during a 2022 gathering on the banks of Resurrection Creek in Alaska's historic Hope mining district.
Continuing a steady rise in annual gold output, Kinross Gold Corp.'s Fort Knox Mine produced 291,248 ounces of gold in 2022, a roughly 10% increase over the 264,283 oz recovered at the Interior Alaska operation during 2021. This upward trajectory reflects the early stages of the Kinross Alaska strategy, which is expected to see the annual gold output of the mill at Fort Knox jump to roughly 400,000 oz by 2025.
The basic idea behind the Kinross Alaska strategy is to leverage the underutilized mill, along with tailings storage space from more than 26 years of mining at Fort Knox, to process ore from satellite deposits within a roughly 300-mile radius of the Interior Alaska operation.
This began with mining at Gil, a satellite deposit on the Fort Knox property that is serving as a bridge to the first ore to be delivered from Manh Choh, a much higher grade deposit about 250 miles to the southeast.
As a result of ore from Gil, coupled with especially strong production from the Barnes Creek heap leach pad, total gold recoveries at Fort Knox hit 83,739 oz during the fourth quarter of 2022, a 13% jump over the 73,830 oz produced during the same period of 2021.
During Q4 2022, the Kinross Alaska mill at Fort Knox processed 2.4 million metric tons of ore averaging 0.69 grams per metric ton gold, compared to 2.15 million metric tons averaging 0.73 g/t gold processed during the previous quarter. The heap leach pad processed another 11.45 million metric tons of ore averaging 0.2 g/t gold during the fourth quarter, compared to 8.19 million metric tons at 0.19 g/t gold during the same period of 2021.
As gold production climbs at Fort Knox, Kinross Alaska was honored with the Alaska Miners Association Environmental Stewardship Award for its partnership with Trout Unlimited, Kinross, Hope Mining Company, and the U.S. Forest Service to restore fish habitat in Resurrection Creek, a stream in the Hope area of Southcentral Alaska with more than a 100-year history of placer gold mining.
"This is the first project under our Alaska Abandoned Mine Restoration Initiative," said Anna Atchison, who was recently named director of external affairs, U.S. at Kinross. "To our knowledge, this is the first partnership of its kind in the state, and we are very honored to be part of it."
The next stage of growth for Kinross Alaska will come with the first truckload of ore delivered from Manh Choh, which is expected in 2024.
A feasibility study completed in 2022 details plans for trucking high-grade ore mined at Manh Choh to Fort Knox for processing through the Kinross Alaska mill.
"At Manh Choh in Alaska, we completed a feasibility study ahead of schedule, and are proceeding with a project that we expect will add approximately 640,000 lower-cost gold ounces to our production profile over its life of mine in one of the world's best mining jurisdictions," Kinross Gold President J. Paul Rollinson said last July when the company officially announced it would proceed with the Kinross Alaska project.
In total, Manh Choh is expected to produce roughly 1 million gold-equivalent oz, which includes the value of both the gold and silver recovered, over 4.5 years. The gold will be split proportionally between Kinross and Contango ORE Inc., which own a 70% and 30% joint venture interest in the project, respectively.
Based on a feasibility study completed prior to Kinross' go-ahead decision, Manh Choh hosts 3.9 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 7.88 grams per metric ton (998,000 oz) gold and 13.6 g/t (1.7 million) oz silver.
The grade of these reserves is an order of magnitude higher than the ore currently being fed into the Kinross Alaska mill. As a result, gold production at Fort Knox is expected to jump to 400,000 oz per year for the currently anticipated 4.5 years of mining at Manh Choh.
Early construction at Manh Choh is underway.
Camp refurbishments were completed and upgrades to a roughly 20-mile road connecting the Peak Gold deposits at Manh Choh to the Alaska Highway were begun in advance of the 2023 construction season in Alaska.
"So far, in 2023, we have completed construction of a 176-person camp near the mine site in the town of Tok, Alaska and continue to advance road construction," Contango ORE President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse said earlier this month.
In addition, Kinross says all long-lead procurement orders for both the Fort Knox mill modifications and the Manh Choh site have been placed.
The Peak Gold joint venture at Manh Choh has selected an Alaska-based supplier for the life-of-mine ore haul trucking and has also awarded the contract mining to a company with significant experience working in Alaska. This contract will include initial construction along with mining and closure activities.
Kinross said it is focused on safely advancing Manh Choh, listening to stakeholder concerns, and building on relationships with the local communities and the Alaska Native Village of Tetlin, which owns the property where Manh Choh is located.
The Alaska team put a capital "E" in Kinross' environment, social, and governance initiatives during 2022.
During the Alaska Miners Association's 2022 annual convention in November, Kinross was bestowed the Environmental Stewardship Award for reclamation activities on Resurrection Creek in Hope, Alaska.
One of the things that makes this award special is that the freshwater stream conservation group Trout Unlimited is the one that nominated Kinross Alaska for the honor.
The first-of-its-kind Alaska partnership between a mining company and fish conservation NGO included a US$540,000 contribution by Kinross to support restoration focused on a 2.2-mile stretch of fish habitat in Resurrection Creek.
The award also recognizes efforts to reclaim the True North mine and the 27-year partnership between Kinross Alaska and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to restore Fish Creek, including fish counts in wetland areas below the tailings dam.
"We are honored to receive this award as it represents more than just one key value for Kinross Alaska," said Atchison. "This accolade highlights the environmental work, community engagement and the high standards we hold ourselves to in order to maintain a sustainable and responsible operation."
Further details of the placer stream reclamation efforts can be read at Resurrection Creek restoration offers hope in the August 27, 2022 edition of North of 60 Mining News.
In addition to its award-winning environmental work, the Alaska team advanced efforts on the social front of ESG.
Kinross Alaska has donated $1 million to support the Troth Yeddha' Indigenous Studies Center, a 34,000-square-foot facility to be built on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus that will provide a center for Alaska Native programs and support indigenous student success.
"This is much more than a building. It is a space and tangible symbol of honoring and valuing Alaska's first people," said Atchison.
"The Indigenous Studies Center will be a place rich in culture, knowledge and healing for our future leaders in Alaska," added Aaron Schutt, president and CEO of Doyon Ltd., the Alaska Native Claims Act (ANCSA) regional corporation for Interior Alaska, and chairman of the Troth Yeddha' Legacy Committee.
More information on the Troth Yeddha' Indigenous Studies Center and Kinross' donation can be read at Kinross backs Indigenous Studies Center in the April 15, 2022 edition of North of 60 Mining News.
The Kinross Alaska efforts are playing a significant role in the global mining company's industry-leading ESG and governance.
"We are proud to be a consistent leader in ESG performance and expect to publish our 2022 Sustainability Report in May," said Rollinson. "We strengthened board oversight of ESG and advanced strategy, awareness and programming across the company, focusing on achieving our targets and metrics to maintain our strong performance."
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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