Red Dog Mine celebrates 25 years: unique partnership between NANA and Teck sets it apart.

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

Visit the dining hall at the Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska and one can get a taste of what sets the mine apart from all others in Alaska. At Red Dog, workers are as likely to be dipping a piece of dried fish into seal oil as dunking a French fry in ketchup. Caribou, muktuk, and other traditional Inupiat foods are often preferred instead of more common camp food such as steak and hamburgers.

The mine, 80 miles north of Kotzebue and 106 miles north of the Arctic Circle, is the second-largest zinc mine in the world. It sits on land owned by NANA Regional Corporation, which has forged a unique partnership with Canadian company Teck Resources Limited. Teck Resources subsidiary Teck Alaska operates Red Dog, which is held up as a positive example of corporate and indigenous cooperation. Sixty percent of the mine's 500 workers are NANA shareholders.

The mine captures and celebrates the culture of the Inupiat people, says Shelly Wozniak, senior director of corporate communications for NANA. Sixty-five percent of Red Dog employees live in the region. Schedules are flexible so workers can participate in subsistence activities.

"It's a very unique place," she says. "People live there two weeks out of every month for the large part, so it's like a second home."

Instead of heading back to their rooms after their shift is done, workers at Red Dog can often be found playing basketball, doing yoga, taking sewing classes, and playing music, says Lance Miller, vice president of natural resources for NANA.

"Red Dog is really a special place," Miller says. "It's a sense of community you don't really find in a lot of remote camps. There's a sense of family, and people care about each other."

The Backstory

NANA was created under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act with the mandate to create economic opportunities for its Inupiat shareholders, which now number more than thirteen thousand. It also works to protect its lands and traditional culture, a task that may seem to be at odds with large-scale mining. But, from the beginning, NANA has worked with shareholders, listening to their concerns and working in cooperation with them and Teck on general oversight of the mine, subsistence protection, and shareholder employment, Miller says. It's been a successful partnership from both sides of the table.

The zinc deposit at Red Dog was discovered in the 1950s by pilot Bob Baker and named after the family pet. NANA claimed the land under ANCSA and in 1982...