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Wetlands permit issued for Pogo gold mine Corps of Engineers releases wetlands permit for Pogo gold project; EPA water handling permit expected in late February or early March Patricia Jones Petroleum News Contributing Writer
Developers of the Pogo gold deposit in eastern Interior Alaska received a wetlands permit Jan. 12 from the Anchorage office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“Now it’s up to EPA,” Army Corps of Engineer project manager Victor Ross told Petroleum News Jan. 12.
The 404 permit issued allows developers to place fill and conduct mechanical clearing of 303 acres of wetlands for construction and operation of the hardrock gold mine 40 miles northeast of Delta Junction, Alaska.
Contractors hired by project developers Teck-Pogo, a joint venture between Teck Cominco and Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., have already started work building a temporary winter road that will be used to haul construction camp equipment to the site. Developers received authorization from state regulators to do so in mid-December.
But according to Karl Hanneman, Teck-Pogo’s manager of public and environmental affairs and special projects, developers will refrain from construction work until receiving permits from the Environmental Protection Agency, the lead regulatory agency.
“We will begin preparation of the winter road and get ready to mobilize and stage equipment for construction, if and when the final major permit is issued,” Hanneman said.
Bill Riley, EPA’s mining coordinator for the region 10 office, said the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit should be issued the last week in February or the first week of March.
“We’re on track — there’s nothing that I know of (to get off-track),” Riley said. Delay due to new water standards EPA’s permit approval process has been held up due to a change last summer in the state of Alaska’s water quality standards, according to regulators.
The change makes Alaska’s water quality standards more closely reflect EPA’s measures of clean water, said Ed Fogels, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources project manager for the Pogo development.
To use the new standards in Pogo’s permit, EPA regulators have to complete the approval process for the state’s water measures, Riley said. That includes a review that the new state standards comply with the endangered species act, “an elaborate process that we’ve been looking to shortcut as best we can,” he said. “We knew it would take some time to get through and we’ve had some contractor help in the short timeframe to get the permit ready for the Pogo project when they need it.”
EPA’s review of the new Alaska state standards begin last fall, Riley said.
“The company wanted the new permit to be tied to the new standards,” he said. “Otherwise we could have issued this permit months ago.”
The procedural delay has “definitely been frustrating for all of us,” Fogels said.
Regulators have been working on the Pogo permits since August 2000, when developers first submitted a plan for putting the project into production. Seasonal construction a concern Following the Sept. 19, 2003, release of the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Pogo project, regulators and developers were anticipating a January 2004 start of construction.
Now that has been put off for at least two months or more, some construction work planned for winter months could be in jeopardy.
“We will do the best we can with the timing we’re given,” Hanneman said. “We are evaluating our options (for seasonal-dependant construction) and that is part of the reason why we are using the winter road and staging equipment to the site.
“We are trying not to lose a full construction season,” he added.
Teck-Pogo hired Cruz Construction, based in Palmer, Alaska, to construct and operate the winter ice road that follows the same route up the Goodpaster River valley used by Pogo prospectors during the winter season of 1997-1998.
Following the road completion, Hanneman said a trucking contractor will haul to the site a 250-person construction camp, a sewage treatment plant and portable water plant for the construction camp, construction offices and construction equipment.
Construction crews are expected to peak at 500 workers, who will be housed on-site in the construction camp and in permanent crew quarters that will later be used for the mine and mill staff, expected to be about 250 full-time workers.
The underground Pogo deposit is believed to contain 5.5 million ounces of gold, with an average grade of about one-half ounce of gold per ton of rock, considered a relatively high-grade ratio for gold mining.
Development of the deposit is estimated at $250 million. Annual production is estimated at 375,000 ounces of gold per year, for a 10-year mine life.
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