Pogo Mine's tenth anniversary: first leg of a long journey.

• Author: Stricker, Julie
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Mining

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On February 12, hundreds of Fairbanks residents who stopped at a local coffee stand got a surprise: free coffee. Specifically, 891 people received the treat, courtesy of Pogo Gold Mine. The date and number are significant: February 12 is the tenth anniversary of the date Pogo poured its first bar of gold. It weighed 891 ounces.

The coffee was a way to say thank you to the community, says Pogo External Affairs Manager Lorna Shaw.

"It was a big hit," Shaw says. "We didn't advertise it beforehand. What we were hoping to do was have a nice surprise, a thank you. There's no way Pogo could be in production today without the support of Fairbanks and the other communities, like Delta."

In return, Pogo employees have donated nearly a million dollars to community organizations, and the mine has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on operations and exploration over the past decade. It employs about 320 workers year-round, in addition to more than 100 full-time contractors.

First Milestone

The 2006 gold pour was the first milestone in what was estimated to be a ten-year journey for the underground mine northeast of Delta Junction. As it turns out, it was just the first leg of a journey that shows no sign of coming to an end any time soon, Shaw says.

"Originally, the life of the mine was only about ten years, but we've got a long future in front of us," Shaw says. "Our permits only go through 2019, but both of the last two years we've spent $15 million per year on exploration. The geologists, well, they've struck gold."

Since that first pour, Pogo has produced more than 3 million ounces of gold. The mine, owned by Japan-based Sumitomo Metal Mining and Sumitomo Corporation, is located thirty-eight miles northeast of Delta and eighty-five miles east southeast of Fairbanks in the Goodpaster River valley. It's an area that saw little mining before exploration in the 1980s uncovered rich mineralization zones. Further mapping has expanded those resources even more, Shaw says.

"They've had an incredible few years," she says. "We've got a large land block that we can explore, but they're focusing on areas right near the mine and they've struck gold nearly every time."

The new finds don't mean Sumitomo is in a hurry to enlarge the mine and work force, Shaw says.

"The Japanese culture in general takes a much longer view of things," she says. "We're not nearly as reactive to the price of gold as North American company would be. Not that...