Worth Waiting For: Slow but steady progress for the Donlin Gold development.

• Author: Kay, Alexandra

Though placer mines had been in the Middle Kuskokwim area for decades, the official discovery of the Donlin Gold deposit in the late '80s led to one of the largest undeveloped gold projects in the world. Expected to take three to four years to construct, the mine aims to produce 1.1 million ounces of gold each year over its twenty-seven-year lifespan. The deposit is five times the average size of its peer mines, according to NOVAGOLD, one of the partners on the project.

Donlin Gold has been conducting environmental studies and developing engineering plans for the site for more than twenty years. In 1996, landowners Calista Corporation and The Kuskokwim Corporation (TKC) came to an agreement that gave a company called Placer Dome mining rights at Donlin Creek. Placer Dome was eventually purchased by Barrick Gold Corporation, and Donlin Gold is now owned in equal parts by Barrick Gold Corporation and NOVAGOLD Resources, both based in Canada.

The Donlin Gold proposal is to develop an open pit, hard rock gold mine about 10 miles north of Crooked Creek. The Kuskokwim Corporation owns most of the surface land rights, and Calista Corporation owns the subsurface mineral rights and some surface land rights. According to the environmental impact statement, "The proposed project would build mining and ore processing facilities at the site, transportation facilities, and a 315-mile buried natural gas pipeline from Cook Inlet to the mine to support electrical generation. The project would also include transportation infrastructure for barge transportation on the Kuskokwim River"

There's a long road between concept and reality for the gold mine, though. All parties involved must first make sure the project is both feasible and worthwhile. Donlin Gold's environmental review process began in 2012. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process was initiated to determine potential environmental, social, and economic impacts of the proposed mine. The NEPA process was completed in 2018, as was an environmental impact statement. The US Army Corp of Engineers and the US Bureau of Land Management issued the Record of Decision, which analyzed the impact of the entire project, including the mine site, transportation corridor, pipeline, and associated infrastructure.

What's Happening Now

Exploration of the mine site continued in 2022, as well as further environmental studies and monitoring, engineering studies, and state permitting. The last year saw Donlin...