Alaska's Pebble deposit reveals minerals potential
Published Friday, December 5, 2008
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Stumble It!ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The magnitude of the Pebble deposit is becoming more clear each day.
So far 476 holes have been drilled to determine the copper and gold mining prospects of the Southwest Alaska salmon-rich area.
A report by companies researching the project says the deposit holds close to 72 billion pounds of copper and 94 million ounces of gold.
At today's mineral prices that's about $236 billion. But six months ago, the resource would have fetched closer to $500 billion.
The potential project has generated concern among commercial fishermen, environmentalists and hunters. Some believe mining could pollute the salmon streams.
Community Discussion
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Mining has been hit hard by the economic downturn, copper values have dropped dramatically in the past month or two, all base metals have plummeted. This is probably a readjustment that we all knew would (or at least should) happen. If I had a little extra money now I would buy mining stock because when the readjustment stabilizes commodities will rise again just as dramatically as they have fallen. The demand for copper and the value of precious metals isn't going to go away, they will continue to escalate.
The big question now is where the power will come from to develop Pebble (and Donlin). Of the many proposals and suggestions made for supplying power to both the most likely is a combination of Beluga natural gas (assuming the additional supplies are developed), Beluga coal-to-liquids, the Chakachamna hydro potential, and the Mt Spurr geothermal potential. I expect that the Beluga/Cook Inlet area will expand its energy production and become one of the largest energy production centers in the world as the big Alaska mines develop and the south central Alaska/Mat-Su Valley populations explode. Fairbanks and the interior communities should focus on developing gasoline, propane, diesel, and natural gas for distribution and consumption on the river and coastal navigation system as well as the interior road system.
The news that continues to come from Pebble mine development just gets better month by month....it is a project all of Alaska needs to embrace and get behind the wagon to make it happen correctly right from the start. Mining operations are normally decade long projects and the market value of the deposit are assured because of world wide demand of the minerals in this deposit.
Mining continues to contrubute greater shares of jobs and dollars Alaska requires to prosper and grow. These are Non-rew able resourses and need to be developed and sold..We need to be moving right now to develop our re-new able resourses to support development of projects, such as Pebble....both chakachamna and Susitna could be on line in time for the mine to move into production...but only if we move forward now...we have the money....we have the need and now need the political will to move things forward in an orderly manner.
Many things will be put on hold until this entire economic climate begins it's global warming. It is not like the resources will disappear if not mined today. The we need it now attitude by some Alaskans, means nothing to a company that can wait until the product will bring their company a bigger profit margin. These companies are not there to provide jobs like the government is promising to do, they are there to make money and today is not the time for that. Think about the fact BP put on hold a $125 million dollar gas plant on the slope, give you insight regarding gas development.
Well, at a minimum, "brass" prices seem to be increasing, so copper should begin rising soon as well.
Developing Pebble may bring short term gain but jeopardizes irreplaceable resources that are far more valuable in the longterm.
The only way this project will ever work is if the corporate owners pay minimally for the public resources they extract and are allowed to dig w/o proper insurance and bonding. This project just should go away.
If Pebble is developed, and a multinational corporation produces billions of dollars worth of resources, what do you and I get? Nothing.
If it is to be developed, let it be done by an Alaskan-owned or Alaskan-controlled entity. Let it be done so those resources are developed for the benefit of Alaskans, not foreign shareholders.
I don't know where you live or how you make your living, skinfish, but short term and long term are relative terms. Extreme poverty has been the common condition of mankind through the "long term". People lived in driftwood and mud huts or tar-paper shacks. I've seen them on the Nushagak/Wood River and on the lower Kuskokwim. In the "short term", the last 120 years, mineral extraction has made a higher quality of life/standard of living available to many in Alaska. I have seen the placer mine tailings at Platinum on Salmon River, one of the largest placer mines in Alaska, and the salmon run in the river is still strong, the salmon run on the Tuluksak hasn't been hurt by the Nyac and Bear Creek mines, nor have the runs on the Arolik, Kanektok, or Goodnews been hurt. I can't name a single fishery in Alaska that has been destroyed by 120 years of mining. But, on the other hand, conditions both social and economic have been greatly enhanced by employment at Donlin Creek and Pebble. The cash incomes, which by the way are not seasonal, have elevated the prosperity of many and the strict drug policies of mining companies have enhanced the social well-being of the villages where god and the law couldn't. I appreciate what mining has done and can do for Alaska. And, by the way, Alaska does have a world class Department of Environmental Conservation.
Building a cofferdam and digging openpit with a haulroad at Pebble is Stone-Age thinking doomed to disaster.
I know how to do Pebble without poisoning a single fish, even if another Mag-9 earthquake hits the area..
but I wouldn't tell a multi-national corporation how to do it.
If Pebble was owned by Alaskan Sourdoughs, then I'd tell ya.
A 183mile coalwater-HDPE-polypipe would be the cheapest/quick way to deliver 1-megawatt to DonlinCr from Napaskiak.
Donlin Creek requires 80 megawatts of power. Plans are to build a very large wind farm to produce 40 megawats, the remainder of the need to be diesel barged up the Kuskokwim. I question the feasibility of barging that much diesel up the river. More likely the additional 40 megawatts required will come from Chakachamna/Mt Spurr/Beluga.
Good letters and commentary here, however, Henry --> there is no Alaskan entity that can finance or operate the Pebble Mine. Donlin Creek will cost ~$5B to construct if they started yesterday. Pebble will likely cost double this amount.
skinfish - there is no evidence that Pebble and salmon are mutually exclusive. We can and we will have both. This is the way of the world.
I've got a whizz-bang idea for tunneling and crushing rock..
.. without brute-force.
Donlin might not really need 80megs..
..there's companies that build 1000hp electric motors that use 1/5th the wattage of the old GeneralElectric monsters.
Old sourdoughs who used to pick me up and set me on their knee told me to finance mining with the first shovel full of gravel pitched into the sluice.. this is how you do a direct withdrawal from The River Bank of Alaska.
Dollars are Debt, and slow down progress.
Good information is worth more than gold.
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