MAJOR MINES SHOW GREAT PROMISE.

• Author: FREEMAN, CURTIS J.

Red Dog, Greens Creek, Fort Knox and Pogo contribute nearly $1 billion annually to Alaska's economy.

Information recently published by the State of Alaska indicates that Alaska's mineral industry contributed a record $1.25 billion to Alaska's economy in 2000. Of this total, approximately $1.15 billion came from the metallic minerals industry, much of it from three large producers (Red Dog, Greens Creek and Fort Knox) and one large development project (Pogo). During 2000 these four mines were responsible for 75 percent of all exploration dollars expended, over 75 percent of all development dollars expended and 90 percent of the value of all minerals produced. A quick look at these properties clarifies why they carried the rest of Alaska's metallic mineral industry on their collective backs.

Red Dog: The Biggest of the Big

Several months ago George Cole, Cominco American's vice president for exploration, gave a presentation at a mining convention in which he opened by saying "Red Dog is big... and getting bigger." Cole was bubbling with enthusiasm over the Red Dog zinclead-silver mine and vicinity and he is not alone in his enthusiasm.

Operations at Red Dog began in 1989 and consist of a conventional open pit mine, a mill complex at the deposit site and a 52-mile road to the Chukchi Sea to the company's concentrate storage and port loading facility. The operation is a joint venture between Cominco American and NANA Inc. Total capital costs to date top $600 million. In 2000 the mine produced a record 960,000 tonnes of zinc concentrate and 139,000 tonnes of lead concentrate while earning $127 million in operating profit. The mine shipped 911,000 tonnes of zinc concentrate and 132,000 tonnes of lead concentrate from its port facility. A $90 million mill optimization project, designed to push Red Dog's annual production to 1.1 million tonnes of zinc concentrate, is scheduled for completion in late 2001.

Red Dog is the world's largest zinc deposit and has nearly 50 percent more reserves that the next largest deposit. The grade of the mineralization at Red Dog ranges from 15 percent to 19 percent zinc, 4 percent to 6 percent lead and 65 grams to over 100 grams per tonne silver. Red Dog grades are two to three times higher than the average grade of most zinc deposits. From a production standpoint, Red Dog is the world's largest zinc producer by a factor of two.

The future of the Red Dog operation will rest on some new mineral deposits that have been processed at the Red Dog site over the last five years. Deposits such as Aqqaluk, Qanaiyaq, Paalaaq and Anarraaq give Cominco an enviable track record of multi-discipline discovery. By merging information from geological, geochemical and geophysical surveys, these deposits were hypothesized, identified and quantified with amazing regularity.

The Red Dog mine has become an integral part of the fabric of life in Northwestern Alaska. The...