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Draft EIS released for Pogo Progress continues on the 5.5 million ounce Pogo Gold Mine Project, as regulatory agencies release preferred plan of operation, construction could start in fall Patricia Jones PNA Contributing Writer
After two and one-half years of review by state and federal regulatory agencies, a draft environmental impact statement was released March 14 for the Pogo Gold Mine project, operated by Teck-Pogo Inc., a subsidiary of global mining giant Teck Cominco.
A 60-day public comment period started with official release of the 1,000-page document, which cost Teck-Pogo more than $1 million for state agency expenses and a third-party environmental contractor hired by federal agencies.
Following the public comment period, agencies say they expect to release a final EIS and accompanying permits sometime in the fall.
“We feel pretty confident that we’ve done a good job in analyzing the project, just in the fact that the agencies agree on a preferred alternative this early on,” said Bill Riley, Region 10 mining coordinator for the Environmental Protection Agency. “I’m fairly optimistic that maybe … they could have everything they need by August or September.”
Teck-Pogo hopes to start construction in November on the remote gold project, located 38 miles northeast of Delta Junction in the Goodpaster River Valley.
“We’d start working on the road, and doing earthwork at the site to prepare for pouring concrete next spring,” Karl Hanneman, Alaska Regional Manager for Teck Cominco, told Petroleum News Alaska March 18.
That initial dirt work would require about 250 workers, he said, with bids for construction work expected to go out sometime this summer or fall, about the time of the expected final EIS release. Scope, spending on gold project Teck-Pogo expects to spend up to $250 million to construct the underground Pogo gold mine and its accompanying above-ground hard rock mill and processing facilities, a job that will require up to 500 workers.
Already, the company has spent $78 million, Hanneman said. That includes surface and underground exploration, establishing camp infrastructure at the site, conducting environmental baseline and permitting work, completing engineering and feasibility work and continued maintenance and management of the remote site.
Based on surface and underground exploration conducted from 1995 through 2000, geologists estimate Pogo contains 5.5 million ounces of gold, with an average grade of a little more than a half ounce per ton of rock.
As designed, the proposed mine and mill complex will process between 2,500 and 3,500 tons per day of ore, with gold production of approximately 400,000 ounces per year. About 300 year-round workers will be needed to operate the mine and mill, according to Hanneman.
Pogo is expected to have a 10-year mine life, although the operation could continue longer, should additional gold deposits be found nearby, he added. Exploration will likely resume on the property, once gold production starts hopefully in late 2005, Hanneman said. Agencies agree on access road Teck-Pogo has proposed building a 49.5 mile all-season gravel road to the mine site, a construction and maintenance expense the company will foot by itself.
State and federal agencies agree with Teck-Pogo’s proposed route, which starts from an existing road off the Richardson Highway and traverses the Shaw Creek hillside, dropping into the Goodpaster River valley to the mine. An electric power line would follow the access road.
Where the agencies differ with Teck-Pogo, and say they are looking specifically for public input, is management and use of that access road.
Teck-Pogo proposes that the road be used for authorized industrial purposes only, to include logging trucks that could access areas of the Tanana Valley State Forest, previously identified in state timber harvest plans. Teck-Pogo believes the road should remain closed to the public until after the mine is closed and reclaimed.
“We would have safety and liability issues with putting the public on a road that is not designed for the public,” he said. “We would also tread softer on the land and resources of the area,” referring to increased access and hunting pressure that a new road would provide to the now remote area.
Regulatory agencies have come up with a mixed-use plan for the road, suggesting that the first 23 miles be open to the public, with an industrial-use only section for the remaining road into the mine.
“It’s sort of a compromise solution here, one that maybe appeases folks who want more access and those who are anti-access because they fear damage to the resources out there,” said Ed Fogels, Pogo project manager for the state Department of Natural Resources.
“Maybe we’ll get better ideas from the folks out there in the public comment period.”
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