WEEKLY ONLINE NEWS STORY
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| December 11, 2014 --- Vol. 08, No. 50 | December 2014
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Alaska News Nuggets
INFRASTRUCTURE – Researchers from the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological survey have concluded that the proposed Ambler Mining District Industrial Access Road “would have minimal direct effects on high-value winter habitat” for the Western Arctic caribou herd in northern Alaska. The findings of the study were published in the December issue of Arctic, a monthly publication by the Arctic Institute of the North. If built, the Ambler Road would extend 200 miles, (320 kilometers) west from the Dalton Highway to the Ambler Mining District, an area rich in both base and precious metals. Recent exploration by NovaCopper Inc. has identified nearly 10 billion pounds of high-grade copper at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects, a long-term partnership between NovaCopper and NANA Regional Corp. This alliance combines Bornite and a number of other mineral prospects on Native lands owned by NANA with the world-class Arctic deposit and dozens of similar volcanogenic massive sulfide prospects located on NovaCopper’s state, federal and patented mining claims in the Ambler Mining District. The researchers – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Biologist Ryan Wilson; USGS Wildlife Biologist David Gustine; and National Park Service Biologist Kyle Joly – found that 1.5 percent to 8.5 percent of existing high-value winter habitat in our study area might be reduced in quality. The scientists said the three alternative routes produced only marginal differences in disturbed habitat. While direct disturbances are minimal, the researchers are quick to point out that cumulative impacts such as increased access to the area by hunters and others, disturbances to migration patterns, dust and collisions need to be considered.
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