A company has applied for a permit to conduct sonic drilling by the Porcupine Creek, 30 miles from Haines. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources is taking public comments about the project, but company representatives aren’t saying much about their long term plans.

 

The public has until September 8th to comment on the latest mining activities proposed in the Chilkat watershed. RGD Mining Company Inc, a company based in Washington state, submitted an application to the Alaska Department of Natural resources. They want to drill core samples. 

According to the application, the company intends on developing a placer mine. Dave Charron is a geologist with DNR and is in charge of permitting, he says the drilling will have little impact.

Charron: “Their proposed disturbance in order to conduct a drilling program on those claims is, I want to say, less than an acre, so real small footprint.”

The application states that the drill rig would travel 35 miles through wooded areas between the months of may and october. The company intends on drilling ten holes 5” in diameter, 50 to 100 feet deep, using a mobile sonic drill. The size of the two claims under consideration is a combined 38.5 acres by the porcupine river, near its confluence with the Klehini.

When asked what the project could look like if RGD decides to mine the area, Charron describes:

Charron: “Kind of akin to a gravel pit, where they are just running and processing the material through a plant or sluice box, and depositing it right back, removing the placer gold. They might have a progressive mining around the property as time progresses as they get their approvals, in the future, but not a big operation. They are limited in size based on the claim that they have there.”

Charron says to start actively mining the claim, RGD would have to get an amendment to their application to mine. This is the same process that raised eyebrows earlier this year for its lack of public participation, when, the nearby Palmer Project amended its application to drill in the alpine zone, to include seismic testing at the bottom of the valley. Then, environmental advocates said different activities in a different location should require a different permit. 

Charron says placer drilling and mining Land Use Permits are exempt from public notice requirements, and that any public comment period is offered as a courtesy period.

He says the Porcupine creek has a long history of placer mining, and the claim has been mined before, most recently by Haines resident Jerry Fabrizio, from the late 80s until his passing in 2014. There are other active placer mines upstream from it. 

According to Nicole Zeiser, a biologist at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the porcupine river is host to a small number of king salmon and coho salmon. 

 Guy Archibald has worked as a chemist associated with the mining industry for decades. He explains what the environmental risks might be.

Archibald: “Placer mines tend to have a lot smaller and more temporary impact on the ecology than a ground mine or an open pit mine,which basically, their impact are in perpetuity.”

He says placer deposits are minerals that have been eroded from the rocks upstream, and that makes them environmentally safer.

Archibald: “Generally placer deposits are not contaminated with massive sulfide, or things like that that may have been in the host rock.”

Archibald says there is potential for an impact on fish. 

Archibald: “The major concern is silt and sediment being released from the operation and going downstream, smothering the spawning gravels, sending a lot of turbidity down the river, which harms the photosynthesis in the river so you don’t get  the phytoplankton and the aquatic insects near as much.”

Archibald says keeping the water clear is relatively easy for mine operators. They can use settling ponds, straw bales, or sediment fences. He says if they are run by the right people, placer mines can be relatively benign.

Archibald: “When I look and judge mining companies, I look at their board of directors, and if there are actual miners running the company, I feel a little bit safer than if the people running the company are investment bankers. You know, investment bankers are after maximum returns on their investment. In general miners tend to be a little more practical.”

A call to Mike Robinson, who is listed on the application as the owner of the claim, didn’t shed much light on the company. When asked for comments, he said to call back in a week

And hung up.