Its Not a Mine, It's a District: A Q&A with Trilogy Metals about the future of Ambler Mining District.

• Author: Mackenzie, Kathryn
• Position: NATURAL RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT - Interview

It's been a busy year for Trilogy Metals. The company is focused on exploring and developing its high-grade copper-zinc-lead-gold-silver-cobalt properties in the Ambler Mining District, but that's not nearly all. Over the course of this year. Trilogy Metals completed the formation of its joint venture-Ambler Metals-with South32 Limited; filed the final EIS for the Ambler access road project; appointed Tony Giardini as its president and CEO; received the go-ahead to begin development of the Ambler access road; and put in place a new management team for Ambler Metals. All this while moving forward with development of the Arctic and Bornite deposits.

So it's a small miracle that Giardini and Patrick Donnelly, vice president of corporate communications and development, had a spare second to sit down with Alaska Business to talk about mining in Alaska, Trilogy's joint venture with South32, and the future of the Ambler Mining District.

[Editor's Note: The following excerpts are from a video interview conducted earlier this year. They have been edited for style, length, and clarity. To watch this interview simply access the enhanced digital edition of this issue via akbizmag.com]

Alaska Business: Trilogy Metals is no stranger to Alaska or to Alaska Business; we've covered the company in the magazine multiple times, and we featured then-CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse on the November 2018 cover. Today, we're excited to learn about what's happening with Trilogy Metals in Alaska and particularly with regard to your joint venture with South32. What can you tell us about Trilogy Metals and its history in Alaska going back to its spinoff from NOVACOLD to today?

Tony Giardini: The company's history in Alaska dates back well before the formation of NOVAGOLD, which subsequently became Trilogy. The vision that Rick [Van Nieuwenhuyse] had was really to establish a mining district. He was very aware of the exploration upside-and considerable exploration upside--that existed in the district. And it was through his relentless pursuit of this that the company was able to initially get to those exploration areas in the Ambler district, but then also enter into an agreement with NANA that created an economic model that will benefit not just Trilogy shareholders but NANA and its shareholders and will lead to, not just one mine development, but a series of mine developments in the district.

AB: What exploration opportunities in Alaska is Trilogy Metals particularly excited about?

Giardini: Having been in the mining industry for about twenty-five years now, I've operated in a lot of different mining jurisdictions. And Alaska is right at the top in terms of tenure of security once you operate there, but also an appreciation of the benefits mining can have, not just for the stakeholders but for the communities and for the people residing in the state. We feel that being in Alaska is exceedingly important for us. And the key, of course, with the Ambler Mining District is about infrastructure... [the Record of Decision issued in July] puts us into the...