Pogo: construction begins this month: construction at Pogo is expected to take about two years, with the work force peaking at about 500 employees.

• Author: Liles, Patricia
• Position: Building Alaska

Initial development work began this winter at the Pogo gold deposit in eastern Interior Alaska, slated to become a producing mine in about two years.

Crews constructed a 50-mile temporary ice road and hauled almost 500 truckloads of fuel, equipment, camp facilities and supplies up the Goodpaster River valley to the Pogo project, in preparation for a construction start expected this month.

"It worked smoother than expected," said Karl Hanneman, Teck-Pogo's manager of public and environmental affairs and special projects. "We're very excited about it."

Actual construction work at the site is scheduled to start in late May, following formal board approval of advancing the Pogo project, he said.

By late spring, crews will begin preparing the site for mill construction, as well as for locations for shop and camp facilities. Preliminary road construction of a 50-mile all-season road has already begun, as has construction of a power line that will provide the project with 10 megawatts of electricity from the Railbelt grid.

The project's developer, Teck-Pogo Inc., a joint venture formed by mining giant Teck-Cominco and Sumitomo Metal Mining of Japan, received the final regulatory permit from the Environmental Protection Agency in March. The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit issued March 15 came more than 3.5 years after Teck-Pogo submitted its original development plan in August 2000.

"It was a long process," said Tom Irwin, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, announcing the EPA permit issuance during a March 15 speech before the Alaska Miners Association in Fairbanks.

Comparatively, permitting for Alaska's largest gold mine-Fort Knox-took a little more than two years during the early 1990s, noted Irwin, a former Fort Knox mine manager.

State permits were issued in December, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wetlands permit approval came in January.

Still, the Pogo permitting process was faster than some other projects being developed in the Lower 48, according to Steve Borell, AMA's executive director. An Environmental Impact Statement review completed in "a massive mining district" in Nevada took seven years, he said.

PROSPECTING AT POGO

Borell and others in Alaska's mining industry have closely watched the steady progress at Pogo since the high-grade mineralization was discovered in 1994 in a rugged, remote portion of Alaska, located 38 miles northeast of Delta Junction.

Watts, Griffith & McOuat crews prospecting in the Goodpaster River drainages for Sumitomo...