Active mines: production rising.

• Author: Stricker, Julie
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Mining

The Alaska mining industry is predictably cyclic: predictable only in that miners are aware that what goes up usually comes down, whether it's this season or next or a dozen years from now.

To date, 2013 is falling somewhere in the middle of the cycle. While gold prices are still much higher than they were a decade ago, they've sagged considerably from the record high prices seen in September 2011. This September, gold was trading at about $1,300 an ounce, significantly lower than the record of $1,916 per ounce only two years ago and a game-changer for mines with thin margins.

That was the case for the Nixon Fork gold mine thirty-five miles northeast of McGrath, which ceased operations this July. The mine, operated by the Vancouver, British Columbia-based Fire River Gold Corporation, was burdened by debt and the challenges and high costs of operating in a remote area.

That leaves only six large operating mines in Alaska:

* Fort Knox gold mine near Fairbanks

* Greens Creek Mine near Juneau, which produces silver, zinc, gold, and lead

* Kensington gold mine near Juneau

* Pogo Gold Mine near Delta Junction

* Red Dog zinc, lead, and silver mine in northwest Alaska

* Usibelli Coal Mine in Healy

In 2012, these mines, including Nixon Fork, accounted for nearly 2,300 full-time jobs. Overall, 4,800 people were directly employed in the mining industry, with wages nearly double the state average, according to the Alaska Miners Association. In addition to coal and precious metals, sand, gravel, and rock are also important products.

Rick Rogers, executive director of the Alaska Resource Development Council, grew up in the Midwest and sees distinct parallels between placer mining and farming.

"They are small businesses, very hardworking families that are living off the land," Rogers says. "They're not growing crops but they're working with the land. It makes up quite a bit of the fabric of the population, especially in the Interior."

Mining pays well, with workers at the large mines averaging $100,000 annually, twice Alaska's average annual wage, says Deantha Crockett, executive director of the Alaska Miners Association.

"Mining sustains places that don't have a lot of opportunities," Crockett says. "I think the biggest thing is the trickle-down effect of the really high-paying jobs to residents of those areas."

Shift schedules are flexible, too, she says, allowing residents to continue to subsistence hunt and fish. Studies also show the community benefits of mining, which creates thousands of jobs indirectly tied to mining and a $650 million payroll in both direct and indirect wages in 2012.

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