With a statewide primary and special election behind us, Haines looks toward an upcoming assembly election. Plus, the Constantine Mine project has a new ownership structure. KHNS’ Mike Swasey spoke with Chilkat Valley News publisher Kyle Clayton for a look at the latest issue of the paper.

Swasey – Kyle Clayton, publisher of Chilkat Valley News, thanks so much for joining us. The big story from this week is the statewide election. How did Haines turnout?

Clayton – Haines turnout was 29% in precinct one, the town site, ANB Hall, and then in Haines two up the valley was 35%.

Swasey – And which way did they lean? 

Clayton – Well, the early results, as of Wednesday, Haines voters favored Peltola, Murkowski, and Walker. In the special election the votes for the Republican candidates, Sarah Palin and Nick Begich were split. Begich had one extra vote; it was 136 for Begich, 135 For Sarah Palin. And then on the primary side of the ballots, Sarah Palin edged out Nick Begich in that vote. But Mary Peltola, received 50% of the votes, Palin 23.5%, and Begich 20%.

Swasey – It’s interesting that the votes kind of flipped a little bit between the shortened session that’ll be up in early January and the full seat that’ll start in early January… 

Clayton – Yeah, I thought so too. And these numbers that I’m giving you all are all for precinct one, but I think it’s pretty similar for up the valley votes as well.

Swasey – And then in local elections, the borough assembly election is coming up what’s happening on that front?

Clayton – So we have three seats that are up for election. One was created recently when a current assembly member resigned. So it opened up a third seat. Right now, well as of Wednesday afternoon, two people have filed; one is an incumbent Gabe Thomas, who is currently on the assembly, and then the second is Jerry Lapp who has been in and out of Haines politics for a long time. He has served as mayor and assembly member.

Swasey – And that’s Katie Kirby’s seat, she’s the assembly person who resigned, correct?

Clayton – That’s right, yep. George Campbell, also a former assembly member has expressed interest in filling the vacancy and Jerry Lapp has too. So, two people are interested in filling that vacancy until the election.

Swasey – And finally Constantine Mine has some new ownership. Tell us what happened there.

Clayton – Yeah, on Monday, they sent a press release announcement out letting people know that a Vancouver-based junior exploration company called American Pacific Mining is going to acquire Constantine Metal Resources and the Palmer Project. They’re both based out of Vancouver. They’re both what are known as junior exploration companies. Constantine has a joint venture with DOWA… a Japanese company. And over the last few years, their share of the project went from the majority share to being diluted and DOWA sort of taking over.

DOWA’s funded the project the last couple of years. And yeah, so this news came and, I spoke to a man named Jim Kuipers, he’s been a longtime expert in the mining industry. He used to be an engineer and, and work in the industry, now he’s an independent consultant. And he said that things like this are pretty common in this industry. The ownership of a project changes hands, people within the companies move around quite often. And he said that this doesn’t change much in terms of the project, DOWA is still the controlling interest. He said the next couple of years of exploration will really determine the future of the Palmer Project and what happens there.

Swasey – Kyle Clayton, publisher of the Chilkat Valley News. Thanks for keeping us informed about what’s happening in Haines. 

Clayton – You’re welcome, thanks.