Calista prospects for a brighter future.

• Author: Forker, Jennifer
• Position: Calista Corp.

Mineral explorations may bring greater fortune and shareholder jobs to Y-K region.

It's there - Matthew Nicolai is sure of it. There's gold in those Kuskokwim Mountains - about 3.6 million ounces of it. Not flakes or nuggets, as is envisioned of yesteryear's Gold Rush. This gold is crushed - no larger than a speck of dust and often undetectable to the naked eye.

For 22 years, Nicolai, now president of Calista Corp., has known the gold was out there on the Native regional corporation's 6.5 million acres. He's waited, watched and hoped for a technology that could retrieve, process and refine this microscopic metal.

"We get our hopes up," Nicolai says about ongoing geological studies. "We know the gold's there, but is it feasible to take it out?"

Placer Dome U.S. thinks so. The mining company entered a partnership with Calista in 1990 and launched the Donlin Creek gold exploration project, 17 miles north of Crooked Creek near the Kuskokwim River.

Last year, Placer Dome invested $1.5 million in explorations. This year the company spent close to $9 million, nearly all of it in-state, Nicolai says. And Placer Dome's budget will grow next year as the exploration moves into a more in-depth phase this spring, he says.

More than 87 shareholders are employed on the project as heavy equipment operators, mechanics, core-cutters, cooks and general maintenance personnel. They work 12-hour shifts, two weeks on, one off. Placer Dome will need to hire another few dozen shareholders during next spring's feasibility phase.

"Shareholder hire is the No. 1 priority with the Donlin Creek mining project." Nicolai says.

Placing shareholders into middle and upper management positions is another emphasis, says Sue Gamache, Calista's vice president of corporate affairs. She notes that one shareholder, who is getting her masters degree in environmental science at the University of Alaska Anchorage, interned at a Placer Dome mining site in Montana. Afterward, she was hired as a land planner at Donlin Creek, where she works while finishing her studies.

"It's cheaper to get a local worker," says Gamache. "They know the area, the weather, the bears. They live nearby. These people are used to living around wildlife. There's no panic."

The Calista region has some of the state's highest unemployment rates, according to the Alaska Department of Labor. Nicolai acknowledges these numbers and says high unemployment goes hand in hand with a high incidence of violence.

"With jobs...