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Experienced engineer becomes state natural resources commissioner Tom Irwin brings to the commissioner’s office more than three decades of mining experience, including engineering, permitting, government relations Patricia Jones PNA Contributing Writer
Mining industry individuals applaud Tom Irwin’s appointment as commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, announced Jan. 17 by Gov. Frank Murkowski.
“I was expecting a political animal, but what we got was a manager and a technical animal,” said Curt Freeman, a consulting geologist based in Fairbanks and a news columnist for Petroleum News Alaska. “This is a big step forward for the state.”
He and others say Irwin’s experience as general manager of large mine projects both in Alaska — at Fort Knox gold mine — and a similar-sized gold mine in Nevada bring valuable experience to the DNR post.
“He’s actually permitted major mine projects, built major mine projects and operated major mine projects — so he knows what large hundred million dollar projects look like,” said Steve Borell, executive director of the Alaska Miners Association.
“He knows the kind of pressure that companies are under, and their need to get decisions in a reasonable timeframe,” he added. “I think you’re going to see DNR become a more professional organization because of him being there. They’re not collecting paper just for the cause of collecting paper.”
Resource development is resource development, said Bill Jeffress, manager of environmental services at Fort Knox, and industry experience is valuable, whether it’s in the oil, minerals, timber, agriculture or recreation arenas covered by DNR.
“It could have been an oil well here instead of a gold mine — it’s the same process of dealing with state and federal agencies,” Jeffress said.
That experience, coupled with the platform of resource development touted by the Murkowski administration, will likely improve the state’s image within the minerals industry, said Dick Swainbank, mineral development specialist for the state Department of Community and Economic Development.
“It will definitely be easier to talk to people with this change in attitude,” he said. “We have in the past had a wildlife biologist as DNR commissioner and that left an influence.”
Managerial history in Nevada Irwin, 56, who earned a bachelors of science degree in mineral engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in 1968, has overseen operations for two large hard-rock gold mines in his 30-plus years within the mining industry.
He took over as general manager of the Sleeper gold mine in Nevada in 1988, two years after the facility started up, according to Jeffress, who also worked at that facility operated by Amax Gold.
Roughly 250 employees worked at Sleeper, a slightly smaller operation than Fort Knox, Jeffress said. “It was the mine that made Amax Gold,” he said.
That mine produced 250,000 ounces of gold a year from an “extremely high grade, real rich deposit,” Jeffress said. “Tom was instrumental in doing some really neat things there.”
For example, during a dewatering process at the mine, Irwin negotiated a cooperative agreement with Nevada state agencies, providing water to create a temporary wetlands area over 5,000 acres in size in a drought-stricken area.
“It was kind of unique that industry and government had cooperated on a project of that magnitude,” Jeffress said.
Developing Fort Knox Irwin’s experience in Nevada put him on the short list for the management team developing Amax Gold’s next big project, Jeffress said, a large, low-grade gold deposit in Alaska that the company acquired from Fairbanks Gold.
“They saw Fort Knox as the future of the company, and they asked Tom to come up,” Jeffress said.
Irwin and Jeffress, along with a handful of other Amax Gold employees, arrived in Fairbanks in 1992 to begin the company’s permitting and mine development process. Irwin served as operations manager, overseeing the myriad of technical details to be resolved in the design, permitting and construction of the giant mill and mine site. Construction was complete in late 1996.
“It was about 12 years from the initial discovery of Fort Knox to the first gold pour,” said Jeffress. “Maybe there’s a way to shorten that down … streamlining the public review and permitting process has got to help Alaska.”
Stepping up at Fort Knox Irwin spent his first years at Fort Knox as operations manager, responsible for technical operations of the mine and mill facility. In December 1999, three years after the much-celebrated first gold pour at Fort Knox, Irwin was formally selected to serve as the mine’s general manager.
“When people wonder about Tom, they should go visit Fort Knox and see what a professional organization and professional looking facility it is,” Borell said.
Corporate ownership also changed. Toronto-based Kinross Gold currently owns the subsidiary Fairbanks Gold, which operates Fort Knox.
In the midst of record low gold prices in 1999 and 2000, Irwin’s crews continued to bump up production at the facility, adding another crusher to the rock-pulverizing circuit. Originally designed to produce about 1,000 ounces of gold per day, Fort Knox now pumps out about 440,000 ounces per year.
Irwin’s managerial duties also included development of a supplementary feedstock, the True North deposit, located about 10 miles west of Fort Knox. Crews began in 2001 digging up and trucking True North ore to the Fort Knox mill complex for processing.
“One of the things we found with True North is that it consumed a huge amount of time,” said Jeffress.
New position created The True North expansion, coupled with work pursuing other exploration and development opportunities in the state, created additional work for the general manager.
Kinross promoted Irwin to vice president of Alaska business development in August 2001, spinning off general manager duties of Fort Knox.
“Kinross saw Alaska had a lot of opportunities for future growth,” Jeffress said. “With Tom’s involvement in the community and state — all the different commissions he’s on…it was a good opportunity to look for new business.”
In fact, the company was so pleased with Irwin’s results, that he was offered in December a similar position on a corporate level, Jeffress said.
“Kinross was very happy with the community and government relations that Fairbanks Gold has in Alaska, and they wanted to make that the standard operating procedure for the rest of the company,” Jeffress said.
But accepting that position would require Irwin to move from Alaska, a land he quickly grew to love, his associates say. “He chose not to do that,” Jeffress said.
“It’s always a dream to see a project all the way through closure…to be on a project from the ground floor, from permitting through construction and operation,” Jeffress said. “We expected a lot from (Fort Knox) and got even more.”
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