MINERAL DEVELOPMENT AND LAND USE REGULATION: THE AJ MINE

• Jurisdiction: United States

Mineral Development and Land Use
(May 1995)
CHAPTER 12A
MINERAL DEVELOPMENT AND LAND USE REGULATION: THE AJ MINE
Christopher Hayes
Echo Bay Mines
Denver, Colorado

I. Echo Bay's AJ (Alaska Juneau) experience offers one perspective on the conflicts that can arise between mineral development and other land uses, when the two are in such close proximity that they are forced to compete.

A. Juneau is the capital of Alaska, with a permanent population of about 30,000. It is completely inaccessible by land; all travel into and out of Juneau is by airplane or boat.

1. The City and Borough of Juneau ("CBJ") is enormous. Covering more than 2400 square miles, it is larger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined.

2. The CBJ is mountainous and largely undeveloped, with only about 40 miles of roads. The town itself is located on an extremely narrow strip of land, hemmed in between the coastal mountains and the Gastineau Channel.

3. Originally founded on mining, the town economy now depends on tourism (about 475 cruise ships, carrying over 400,000 passengers, visit Juneau every year), state and federal government, and fishing for its livelihood.

B. The AJ mine is an historic underground gold mine located immediately adjacent to the town.

1. At one time, the AJ was one of the largest gold mines in North America; it was shut down during WWII and remained inactive until 1986, when Echo Bay leased it from the CBJ and began redeveloping the old underground workings.

2. The town was founded to exploit the deposit, and much of the waterfront is built on tailings from the AJ mill

3. The mineral occurrence is a low-sulfide carbonate hosted deposit, with benign mineralogical and geochemical characteristics (that is, little sulfur mineralization and very little associated heavy metal mineralization).

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C. The mine property, Mount Roberts, is literally adjacent to the town; the valleys on either side of Mt. Roberts contain streams and hiking trails used by the residents of the town for water supply and recreation.

1. In fact, a tributary to Gold Creek, which recharges the town's well field, flows into and through the mine before joining the main stem of the Creek above the well field.

a. This water is used with only minimal treatment as part of the city's drinking water supply.

b. The water flowing from the mine is tested frequently and consistently meets drinking water and aquatic life standards.

II. The land use conflict at AJ is both regulatory and philosophical. Regulatory, in that EPA New Source Performance Standards ("NSPS") for metal mines of this type necessitated a project design that has fairly high land use impacts; philosophical, in that there are many people in Juneau who believe that mining's day is done there, and do not want to see the mine reopened.

A. Regulatory conflict: NSPS and project design

1. Echo Bay's original project design placed almost all facilities underground, including shops and the mill.

2. The mill would produce

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