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Red Dog shallow gas drilling application withdrawn Drilling deferred, but Tech Cominco still working on project to develop natural gas from 23,040 acres of shallow gas leases near zinc mine Kristen Nelson PNA Editor-in-Chief
An application from Cominco Alaska Inc. for shallow gas drilling in the Wulik basin near the company’s Red Dog Zinc Mine has been withdrawn. The company said the “decision reflects a change in the manner in which the shallow gas exploration program will be approached, based on new geological and hydrological information obtained during the ongoing mineral exploration program.”
“We are just deferring it,” Jerry Booth, consultant for the project, told PNA Aug. 28. “We’re going to still be doing that flow test in the next year to two.”
If that flow test is successful, he said, we will have a project. Booth said that the flow test will include drilling de-watering and testing the flow rate.
The work is still planned for the state shallow gas leases, he said.
“This year … we did water testing to get information so we could proceed with the permitting process for gas flow tests.
“And during 2001, NANA and Teck Cominco … got the Department of Energy to join in with them to see if we could develop small-hole technology to do pre-testing.” That was successful, Booth said, and there will be more testing in 2002.
The shallow gas leases are 10 miles from infrastructure, and the work now is being done with helicopters so that pad and road construction can be deferred. Four shallow gas leases Cominco has four state shallow gas leases, 23,040 acres, in the Wulik Basin, and wants natural gas to use at the Red Dog mine.
The company told the state it has an immediate need for 8.25 million cubic feet a day to replace diesel used to generate about 30 megawatts of electricity. If adequate resources are available, power could also be supplied to local Inupiat villages.
The application submitted to the state and then withdrawn called for drilling in the summer of 2002.
There is active mineral exploration in the area under separate regulations and Cominco said “numerous mineral drill holes have been and are currently being drilled in the area.” Some of those mineral drill holes “will be used to evaluate subsurface water quality and quantity, in order to bring closure to the produced water disposal question” while the plan of operations is under agency review.
Cominco said the primary target is Ikalukrok shale with secondary targets in Kivalina shale and melange zones. The Wulik basin has been estimated to contain 160-200 billion cubic feet of gas in place with reservoir thickness averaging 225 feet in four core holes in the basin, and reservoir simulation indicates wells would recover about 2 bcf of gas over 20 years with a peak rate of 700,000 cubic feet a day per well. New company name Paperwork for the Red Dog shallow gas project still bears the Cominco name, but a merger between Teck Corp. and Cominco Ltd. was announced April 30 and became effective July 20 and a new company name, Teck Cominco Ltd., will become official in September.
The Canadian-based integrated natural resource group’s principal activities are mining, smelting and refining. The group mines zinc, copper, molybdenum, gold and metallurgical coal in the United States, Canada, Peru and Australia.
Alaska properties include Red Dog, developed by Cominco, and Pogo, a Teck project under development.
Teck Cominco is operator of the Pogo gold project between Delta Junction and Fairbanks and is in the process of earning a 40 percent interest. Subsidiaries of Sumitomo Metal Mining (51 percent) and Sumitomo Corp. (9 percent) hold the remaining 60 percent interest.
The deposit was discovered in 1994 and surface drilling from 1995-1997 by Sumitomo, and surface and underground drilling from 1998-2000 by Teck have outlined a deposit with a current gold resource of 5.5 million ounces. An environmental impact statement is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2001. Red Dog mine Red Dog in the DeLong Mountains of the Brooks Range is the largest zinc mine in the world.
The Red Dog zinc-lead ore deposit was discovered in 1953 when pilots and geologists noted mineral staining the area. The U.S. Geological Survey began formal documentation in 1970 and in 1975, the U.S. Bureau of Mines issues a press release announcing the significance of the Red Dog deposit.
NANA, the Native regional corporation for the Northwest portion of Alaska, became interested in selecting the land in 1976, and in 1980 with the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the Red Dog lands were formally chosen by NANA.
In 1982, shareholders signed an agreement with Cominco American for development of the deposit and feasibility studies and environmental permitting began. Development began in 1986 and operations and production in 1989. A production rate increase project was completed in 1998 and new deposits discovered recently in the area will extend the mine life.
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