Pogo poised to pour gold: the mine may be completed early next year and provide jobs to 2005 by December.

• Author: Loeffler, Bob
• Position: 2005 Mining Special Section

Teck-Pogo Inc. is working hard to complete Pogo by March 2006 and begin delivering the first of an anticipated 400,000 ounces per year for the next 10 years. Alaska Interstate Construction completed all the heavy civil work at the mine site.

Anyone seeking the source of the golden glow on the horizon for Alaska s mining industry would soon find himself on the banks of the Goodpaster River, 50 miles northeast of Delta Junction, where the Pogo mine is getting ready to start producing gold next spring.

A dozen years after the deposit's discovery by Sumitomo Metals Co., Teck-Pogo Inc. is working hard to complete the mine by March 2006 and begin delivering the first of an anticipated 400,000 ounces per year for the next 10 years.

"It's been a fascinating and exciting opportunity to take (this mine) from the grass roots up," said Karl Hanneman, manager of public and environmental affairs for Teck-Pogo, a subsidiary of TeckCominco, developer of the Red Dog zinc mine. "We look forward to beginning production and starting to recoup what will, by that time, have been 15 years of investment in Pogo."

Summer's Peak

With up to ,540 workers on site at the summer's peak, the mine is about 82 percent completed as of mid-September, Hanneman said. A 49-mile all-season road and adjoining 49-mile 138 kV power line were completed last fall. The steel main mill building has been erected and major mechanical equipment installed, and testing will begin following completion of the building's plumbing, piping and wiring.

Crews have installed 10 of the 11 sections of the 2,500-foot conveyor galley that will carry ore from the mine mouth to the mill. They have completed the water storage dam, and are almost halfway through installing the dam face liner. The company has already begun underground blasting at two of the planned 10 ore access points in the 12-foot-thick, 4,000-foot-wide ore deposit. As crews complete work on the dam, water diversion system, administrative building and shop, the number of construction jobs will ramp down accordingly, Hanneman said.

"Our job now is to bring all the construction projects to completion," he said. "We must complete and commission the mill and test all the operating systems, computer controls and motor controls. We have to complete the conveyor, complete the underground development work so we can access the underground ore where we need to, and complete our office and shop complex so we can provide support services for the...