Donlin employees talk about the project
Leonard Morgan, personnel and logistics supervisor
Leonard Morgan has lived in Aniak for almost all his life, a village with a population of 528 on the south bank of the Kuskokwim River. He worked for the Bureau of Land Management for three years, the postal service for nine years and Mark Air for five years, but after that company went bankrupt he had difficulty finding another job and his family had to depend on food stamps for a while. In 1996 Morgan heard from a friend that Donlin Creek needed workers, and said he was prepared to do anything there. He was initially hired as a driller’s helper.
Morgan progressed from driller’s helper to core cutter and then to core cutting supervisor, followed by stints in camp maintenance and as a camp manager. “Recently they moved me up to shareholder hire coordinator,” he told Mining News. “I get to travel around the different regions and do a presentation. ... People thank me for getting them out of food stamps and debt, they’re owning their own four-wheeler, snow machine, outboard motor, they can travel to Anchorage and go shopping.”
The schedule for most employees at Donlin Creek is two weeks on and two weeks off, which Morgan appreciates because it gives him time to go fishing. His daughter also works at the project in administration, after starting out as a kitchen helper. When he visits local schools to talk about Donlin Creek, Morgan gets an enthusiastic reception. “The kids that we talk to are really all excited about getting an education and what will be there if it does turn into a mine,” he said.
If an employee fails a random drug or alcohol test they are sent home, but they are also given a chance to go to counseling and rehabilitation, Morgan said. If they can show that they are going through treatment they may be able to return to work. Safety has always been the top priority for the project, but with Barrick’s arrival safety has been taken to another level, he added. “I kind of like how Barrick is operating right now,” Morgan said. “Learning more and more about it, environmental-wise I wouldn’t worry about it.”
—Sarah Hurst
Wassilie Kameroff, personnel and logistics supervisor Wassilie Kameroff is a former mayor of Lower Kalskag, a village with a population of 252 on the north bank of the Kuskokwim River. He now lives in Anchorage. In 1996 he answered an ad for a shareholder hire coordinator at Donlin Creek. “There was a few of us and I happened to be one of the lucky ones,” Kameroff told Mining News. “The most difficult part of my job is helping young people to work on a schedule, like 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Some still don’t understand that we have scheduled work out here and they have a difficult time adjusting to it.”
By 1999 the message was getting out to people that they could work at Donlin Creek and be sober and drug-free, Kameroff said. “This is the biggest thing that ever happened in our area in a long time,” he added. “We tried to get them to understand that mining isn’t how it used to be.” Many of Kameroff’s nieces, nephews and cousins are employed by the project. His daughter used to work there too, but she left to have children.
“A lot of people are talking about moving into Anchorage,” Kameroff said. They are concerned about the high price of fuel oil, electricity and food in the villages, he added. “Some go to town and check if they can make it in Anchorage. ... Right now the rent is low, they have enough money to buy groceries for a month. If they get sick they can go to the hospital.” Many villages have no resident healthcare worker, so they have to travel to Aniak or Bethel if they fall ill. But so far only about 10 Donlin Creek employees have moved to Anchorage, because not everyone can adapt to city life, Kameroff said.
—Sarah Hurst
Virginia Woodmancy, camp counselor Virginia Woodmancy has lived in the village of Aniak for about six years. Before that she lived in Valdez, and she has been in Alaska for a total of 21 years. She has worked for the Kuskokwim Native Association and started at Donlin Creek last August, becoming the first permanent full-time counselor in a remote camp in Alaska, as far as she knows.
“I think any time people are working in a remote camp situation there’s a need for some kind of support apart from their co-workers and their supervisors,” Woodmancy told Mining News. Donlin Creek employees come to her to talk about family issues, alcohol problems and work issues that they don’t know how to go about resolving. “I help them to process through what they want to do,” she said. At the request of employees she also goes to the villages to meet their families.
“In general when families are separated like that there’s got to be repercussions, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t get worked through,” Woodmancy said. “Management pays attention to families. People work so well together here,” she added. Still, in some cases the influx of money has caused additional problems, enabling people to spend more on drugs and alcohol. “This isn’t going to be a quick, easy fix. It’s going to take a while,” Woodmancy said. “It has a background in huge amounts of unresolved grief. As the generations pass, people become less interested in the subsistence lifestyle because the world is moving fast and they’re trying to keep up. It’s important to give people the tools they need. I’m just at the very beginning.”
Woodmancy’s work is much more informal than it would be at a mental health center, she said. Sometimes it just consists of a conversation during lunch or in the corridor. Woodmancy sees individuals and also holds regular Alcoholics Anonymous sessions and talking circles at the camp. There were seven deaths in the region in the last week of the year, which impacted some employees a lot, and Woodmancy held a group session to help them deal with that. “Kudos to the management — they allow everyone to come,” she said.
If Donlin Creek becomes a mine it could be a great boon for the area, Woodmancy thinks. “It’s a wonderful place, people are always smiling and friendly and happy to be here,” she said. “When I come back to camp from my days off they say, welcome home Ginny.”
—Sarah Hurst
Daniel Ausdahl, special project supervisor Daniel Ausdahl has lived in Kalskag all his life, a village with a population of 276 that lies two miles upriver from Lower Kalskag. Before he started at Donlin Creek he worked on the river barges, but in the winter of 2001 there wasn’t enough ice to start trucking at the end of the year and he decided to look for a new job. He was hired at Donlin Creek the following fall as a heavy equipment operator at the age of 22 and worked his way up to drilling coordinator before being assigned his latest job.
“Now I’m going to be doing a project of my own. It’s a peat project, that’s all I know about it,” Ausdahl told Mining News. Peat is being considered as a possible fuel source for the proposed mine. “When (the operations manager) told me I was going to be doing something a little bit different, I was excited about it, I felt the motivation, and a little bit scared. I’m really hoping I don’t let them down and that I rise to the challenge,” he added.
“They’re trying to set everyone up here for success, not failure,” Ausdahl said. “It’s hands-on. They keep good track of you and what your performance is like. Finding out the routine was difficult at first. After that it wasn’t that bad, if you keep an open mind and use a lot of teamwork, usually you do fine.” As a drilling coordinator Ausdahl met with the geologists to find out where sites had to be prepped and what roads had to be built, dealt with reclamation and water supplies, kept track of the people who were hauling the core, and made sure that the drillers had everything they needed.
“I’ll always love working on the river, but when you get the privilege of working with people you grew up with your whole life, it’s actually pretty nice, we’ve been together since high school,” Ausdahl said. “I get to sleep in my own bed every night, I have my own little private tent, and the people here are just friendly. My cousins and aunts and uncles come up, it’s really neat to see everybody working together and happy every day.”
Having the job makes Ausdahl use his time off wisely, he said. “It makes you realize what’s really important in your life, like seeing my nieces and nephews and spending time with my mom and dad.” Some families are being hurt because the money people earn is being spent the wrong way, but overall the percentage who drink is going down, Ausdahl thinks.
“I’m trying to get into college and get some kind of degree while I’m working here,” Ausdahl said. “I’m looking towards business administration or management, or if my math is good enough, maybe even mining engineering. I never really did have a reason to go to college before. I love being outside, I love the land.”
—Sarah Hurst
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