Highway trucking plan deserves real analysis, but Dunleavy is a roadblock
The Alaska Miners Association, regurgitating talking points from Kinross Gold, claims that a proposed borough assembly resolution asking for more time to comment on the trucking plan for the Manh Choh mine is anti-mining.
“This has become an attack on mining in Interior Alaska and we need your support. Participate Thursday to tell the assembly the Manh Choh project is good for Fairbanks and you support mining in Alaska,” the miners association told members this week.
The association is asking supporters to wear “I stand with mining” stickers.
First off, it is possible to stand with mining and oppose the Kinross trucking plan to have trucks coming and going every 7.5 minutes every day of the year between Tetlin and Fort Knox.
Second, the assembly resolution by David Guttenberg is not an attack on mining in Interior Alaska. Read it for yourself here.
There are unanswered public safety questions about the Kinross plan to turn Interior Alaska highways into mining roads, perhaps for decades to come.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy and his administration have refused to do any serious analysis of the trucking plan and continue to act as advocates for the mine promoters.
The state bought into the project with $10 million from the Permanent Fund, without public notice or a public hearing.
Dunleavy assumes that whatever Kinross wants is what Kinross should get. I suspect that the administration quietly gave the company reason to believe it would support the project and clear any obstacles.
Whatever transpired, the lack of a public process by the Dunleavy administration is not a good approach to public policy on a matter that is not simply about mine economics.
At a minimum, the state should say what this new approach to feeding the mill at Fort Knox means in the years ahead regarding how many traffic accidents and deaths are expected, what this means to maintenance and repair and the long-term outlook for the highway system and future costs. Even before the Tetlin deposit is worked out, Kinross can be expected to look for other gold deposits that can be mined at good profits and feed the Fort Knox mill.
It would not be serving the interests of its shareholders if Kinross failed to do everything possible to expand its reach. But the people of Interior Alaska do not have the exact same interests as the owners of Kinross and its joint venture partner, Contango ORE.
Guttenberg and others on the assembly tried to act on the resolution two weeks ago, but were blocked by the three members who oppose it—including Tammie Wilson, whose state job is to represent Dunleavy for the Fairbanks area. Jimi Cash and Frank Tomaszewski joined her in refusing to extend the meeting to act on this.
The official public comment period on the corps permit has passed, but an assenbly request for the agency to look at this in more detail is not out of line.
Given the intentional blindness by Dunleavy to red flags about public safety, it makes sense for the assembly to ask the Army Corps of Engineers to look at questions the state is ignoring. And it also makes sense to have a public hearing in Fairbanks.
Kinross claims that the company-run meetings are the only public meetings that anyone needs, but sales presentations that are part of the corporate push to get the project moving are not what the public deserves.
One of the scare tactics employed this week among mine supporters was contained in a widely distributed email saying, “If the FNSB Assembly succeeds in vastly expanding the permit approval process for the Manh Choh project, the success could be used as a guide to obstruct permit approval for any subsequent exploration or mining development by small mine operators in the North Star Borough.”
This is a complete nonsense, as is the claim that opposition to the trucking plan is anti-mining. The refusal by the state to perform the due diligence expected from agencies charged with looking out for the public interest has made this request to the Army Corps of Engineers necessary.