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In an undated image provided by Ken Hill/National Park Service, Alaska, the headwaters of the Ambler River in the Noatak National Preserve of Alaska, near where a proposed access road would end. The Biden administration is expected to deny permission for a mining company to build a 211-mile industrial road through fragile Alaskan wilderness, handing a victory to environmentalists in an election year when the president wants to underscore his credentials as a climate leader and conservationist. (Ken Hill/National Park Service, Alaska via The New York Times)

News

Biden’s Interior Department said to reject industrial road through Alaskan wilderness

The Biden administration is expected to deny permission for a mining company to build a 211-mile industrial road…

Employees at the Kensington Mine removing tailings from Johnson Creek on Feb. 17 following a Jan. 31 spill of about 105,000 gallons of slurry from the mine, although a report by the mine’s owners states about half slurry reached the creek 430 meters away. (Photo from report by Coeur Alaska)

News

Emergency fisheries assessments sought after 105,000-gallon tailings spill at Kensington Mine

Company says Jan. 31 spill poses no risk to Berners Bay habitat, but NOAA seeks federal evaluation.

Kaskanak Creek in the Bristol Bay’s Kvichak watershed is seen from the air on Sept. 27, 2011. Threats to the watershed and other sites were cited by the Environmental Protection Agency when it issued a decision barring permitting of the Pebble mine. But the Dunleavy administration and Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. have taken legal action to try to reverse that decision. (Photo provided by Environmental Protection Agency

News

State lawsuit claims federal government owes Alaska $700 billion for quashing Pebble mine

The federal government owes Alaska more than $700 billion in compensation for the 2023 Environmental Protection Agency action…

The Red Devil Mine, which produced mercury on and off from the 1930s to 1971, is seen from the air in 1960 in this archival photo from the University of Alaska Anchorage’s collection. The Bureau of Land Management has approved a plan to clean up what is considered the last remaining source of contamination: tailings spread over the property. (Photo by Don Grybeck/University of Alaska Anchorage Consortium Library archives and special collections)

News

Federal regulators approve long-term plan for cleaning site of Alaska mercury mine

Nearly a century after a Western Alaska mine began producing mercury, cleanup of the site is entering a…

The Unuk River is one of the transboundary watersheds of Southeast Alaska. (U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center photo)

News

Southeast Alaska tribes seek Canadian recognition due to transboundary issues

A group of Southeast Alaska tribes is asking Canada to recognize their right to have a voice in…

A simulated photo shows the tailings stack and other features of Hecla Greens Creek Mine under the recommended decision for expanding the mine announced Thursday by the U.S Forest Service. The expansion would extend the life of the mine up to 18 years. The tailings stack is significantly larger in two other proposed alternatives that would expand the mine’s life up to 40 years. (U.S. Forest Service)

News

Draft USFS decision extends production of Hecla Greens Creek Mine for 12 to 18 years

Expansion of Admiralty Island mine includes heightened mitigation and monitoring, agency reports.

The U.S Supreme Court is photographed on Wednesday, Jan. 3, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

News

Supreme Court denies Alaska’s bid to revive the copper and gold Pebble Mine proposal blocked by EPA

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected Alaska’s bid to revive a proposed copper and gold mine…

Constantine president Peter Mercer descends from a helicopter after a tour of drilling sites in August. Mercer said drilling work will be similar in the next two or three years, as the company starts to transition to more economic, environmental,. and engineering analysis that will result in a full plan for how to access the ore, which the company is shooting to release in 2026. (Lex Treinen / Chilkat Valley News)

News

Constantine Mining president lays out timeline for Palmer Project work

Project north of Haines at least five years from decisions about mine development, executive says

The Stikine River Flats area in the Tongass National Forest is viewed from a helicopter on July 19, 2021. The Stikine River flows from British Columbia to Southeast Alaska. It is one of the major transboundary rivers impacted by mines in British Columbia. (Photo by Alicia Stearns/U.S. Forest Service)

Opinion

Opinion: Facing transboundary mining, Alaskans shouldn’t buy industry rhetoric

“Rest assured,” writes Michael Goehring, president of the British Columbia Mining Association, to Southeast Alaskans in his recent…

Kinross Gold’s Fort Knox mine, is seen from space. (Google/Maxar Technologies, Airbus)

News

Mining exec: Alaska’s pricy, fossil fuel-based power could thwart investment

Kinross Gold says its Alaska investments have ‘extremely high’ energy costs and carbon emissions.

A sticker expressing opposition to the Pebble Mine is seen on a coffee shop window in Kodiak on Oct. 3, 2022. Opposition to the mine has been widespread in Alaska’s fishing communities for several years. The fight is now being waged in briefs filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, as the Pebble Limited Partnership continues to push for mine development. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

News

Debate over Pebble mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region moves to dueling US Supreme Court briefs

Company sticking to development plans, despite federal action barring permitting for the project.

A marker for the U.S.-Canadian border sits between Skagway, Alaska, and Stikine Region, British Columbia. (Photo by Philip Yabut/Getty Images)

Opinion

Opinion: British Columbia is committed to responsible mining practices

As close neighbors, British Columbia and Alaska share a common goal: to foster responsible resource development by championing…

Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire File A statue of William Henry Seward stands outside the Dimond Courthouse in downtown Juneau. An appeal in a dispute regarding the Palmer Mine project has been filed in state Superior Court.

News

Palmer Project mine wastewater permit heads to Superior Court

DEC permit challenged by environmentalists and mine interests.

A photo of the Palmer Project north of Haines provided to the Empire in 2019 by Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. (Courtesy photo)

News

State decision on Palmer mine project a win and a loss, environmentalists say

DEC issues waste management permit for exploratory drilling; plaintiffs weigh further challenge.

A view of the Stikine River and its delta. (Photo by Mary Catharine Martin)

Opinion

Time for U.S. to hold Canada accountable for transboundary river impacts

Two years ago this fall, I testified at a Wrangell Borough Assembly meeting in support of yet another…

The Mendenhall Glacier and surrounding area is seen under an overcast sky on May 12. A federal order published Friday bans mineral extraction activities such as mining in an expanded area of land surrounding the glacier for the next 20 years. (Ben Hohenstatt / Juneau Empire File)

News

Feds expand ban on mineral extraction near Mendenhall Glacier

20-year prohibition on mining, oil drilling applies to newly exposed land as ice continues retreat

Hecla Green’s Creek environment/surface operations manager Martin Stearns (left) listens to Angoon resident Floyd Kim express his opposition to the four alternatives for the Hecla Greens Creek Mine North Extension Project, of which includes expanding its 8.5-million-cubic yard disposal facility to hold up to an additional five million cubic yards of tailings and waste rock storage. Kim was among the around 15 residents who joined the meeting held Friday afternoon in Angoon. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire)

News

Angoon residents speak out against Greens Creek Mine expansion

“We have no real power to stop what’s going on — even if we fight it seems to…

Waterways in Southeast Alaska are seen from the air in this 2021 photo by a member of the Central Council Tlingit Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. The Native tribe is among many in the U.S. and Canada seeking faster and more definitive action by the two countries to cleanup polluted mining sites and safeguard areas against harm from future industrial activity. Complaints about contaminated sites in some border areas, including the Tulsequah Chief mine in British Columbia about 20 miles from Alaska near Juneau, have gone largely unaddressed for many years. (Courtesy Photo / CCTHITA)

News

U.S.-Canada summit leads to renewed calls for transboundary mining cleanups

Indigenous leaders — including Rep. Peltola, U.S. and Canadian tribes — seek joint oversight of areas

In this aerial view is the Donlin Gold project, located around 12 miles north of the Kuskokwim River community of Crooked Creek, Alaska, on Aug. 11, 2022. Three Alaska Native tribes have sued to block what they say would be one of the largest gold mines in the world. Tribes from the communities of Kwethluk, Tuluksak and Bethel filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday, April 5, 2023, challenging the adequacy of a 2018 environmental review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and issuances of a key permit and lease by federal agencies for the Donlin Gold project. (Loren Holmes / Anchorage Daily News)

News

Three tribes sue to block major gold mine project

ANCHORAGE — Three Alaska Native tribes have sued to block what they say would be one of the…

Brian Erickson, vice president and general manager of Hecla Greens Creek Mine, speaks to the Juneau Chamber of Commerce Thursday afternoon. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire)

News

Mine VP gives update, addresses report on elevated lead levels in Hawk Inlet

“They made numerous unsupported comparisons and conclusions to support their allegation.”