A year ago, Alaska’s miners were selling gold at what seemed like a great price: around $2,200 per ounce. Today, that number sounds like a steal.
After a historic surge in value, gold is now selling at an all-time high: more than $3,000 an ounce, or an increase of some 35% since the beginning of 2024.
That’s great news for gold miners across the state, from Nome to Ketchikan — and for businesses of all sizes, from the multi-billion-dollar Kinross Gold Corp. to mom-and-pop placer operations.
Owing partly to the hot market, the value of gold produced statewide shot up more than 60% last year from the year before, according to a recent report in the trade publication North of 60 Mining News.
“We’re in uncharted territory. And we’ve gotten here very quickly,” said Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse, the chief executive of Contango Ore, a Fairbanks-based company developing several gold deposits in the state.
The staggering rise in gold’s value, driven by global economic uncertainty and a range of other factors, is translating into a windfall for Kinross and the other multinational companies that operate Alaska’s four major gold mines, which reported huge earnings last year.
The price of gold is the “largest single factor in determining profitability,” according to financial statements from Kinross, which owns the massive Fort Knox mine near Fairbanks and the smaller Manh Choh mine, in partnership with Contango, near the Interior town of Tok.
But it’s not just the billion-dollar companies that are benefitting: Gold’s surge also could buoy Alaska’s 150 or so placer operations.
Those smaller mining businesses use water to wash heavier gold out of sand and other sediments, often along creekbeds. They tend to be family-run and have smaller profit margins than the large corporations that own Alaska’s biggest hardrock mines — meaning that the rising prices make a big difference.
“It’s good for everyone. It’s good for the big mines, small mines,” said Click Bishop, a former state senator from Fairbanks who runs a placer mine in the Interior. “The biggest thing is: It makes a lot more marginal ground minable.”
When gold was selling for less, some lower-grade deposits weren’t worth mining, Bishop added. “But at $3,000, that’s a different story,” he said.
Gold mining has come under heightened scrutiny in recent years, as the metal has relatively few industrial applications and mostly is snapped up by banks and financial speculators, and for use as jewelry.
But gold remains a key part of Alaska’s economy, as the backbone of the state’s mining industry. The nearly 850,000 ounces produced by Alaska mines in 2024 accounted for some $2 billion — about half of the total value of minerals, including coal, sand and gravel, produced in the state, according to estimates from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.
At Fort Knox — the state’s largest gold mine — sales rose 64% between 2023 and 2024. That was due partly to a big increase in production, with ore trucked in from the new Manh Choh mine. But the high price of gold also contributed, according to Kinross’ financial reports.
Other large gold mines, like Kensington north of Juneau and Pogo near Delta Junction, also reported increases in sales and earnings. Gold’s rising price boosted revenue at Kensington by nearly $40 million last year, according to its owner and operator, Coeur Mining.
“Anybody with an operating gold mine is in a happy spot right now,” said Van Nieuwenhuyse.
For his company, Contango Ore, which owns 30% of the large Manh Choh project, the outlook is a bit different than for bigger companies like Kinross. Contango, given its relatively small size, is still paying off debt and sells most of its gold at prices pre-set by banks that loaned the company money to build its share of Manh Choh.
It makes some money on those sales, but a lot more on the 30% of its gold that it sells at current prices, according to Van Nieuwenhuyse. “The higher the gold price goes, the more money we make, and the faster we pay off the debt,” he said.
Gold miners across the state say it’s shaping up to be a good year.
In Nome, a summer hotspot for placer mining, “things are looking shiny” for the industry, Ken Hughes, a local miner and gold buyer, wrote in an email.
Given the growing challenge of finding labor and the usual obstacles from Bering Sea storms, “it may well take the recent record price of gold to keep operators in the field,” Hughes said.
“Existing producers are licking their chops at the upcoming season’s prospects,” he added.
Northern Journal contributor Max Graham can be reached at max@northernjournal.com. He’s interested in any and all mining related stories, as well as introductory meetings with people in and around the industry. This article was originally published in Northern Journal, a newsletter from Nathaniel Herz. Subscribe at this link. Alaska Beacon, an affiliate of States Newsroom, is an independent, nonpartisan news organization focused on connecting Alaskans to their state government.
