Alaska should follow Canada's lead in requiring reporting of oil gas, mine taxes, royalties from all jurisdictions

Alaska has a “ripe environment for meeting the nation’s need” for many critical minerals, according to a document prepared for a two-day conference this week aimed at promoting mining in Alaska, northern Canada and Greenland.

The event, which takes place Wednesday and Thursday, is sponsored by the Wilson Center, the University of Alaska, the Arctic Energy Office of the federal energy department and the RAND Corporation.

Social and environmental concerns are valid, but the “long history of community-led mining in Alaska and Canada offers lessons that can be applied to new efforts around critical minerals,” the Wilson Center’s Polar Institute says.

One lesson that Alaska can learn from Canada can be found in the Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act, a 2015 law that mandates publication of payments made to governments in Canada and beyond.

The law applies to oil and gas companies, as well as mining companies.

The degree of transparency is in stark contrast to that required in Alaska, where privately owned companies like Hilcorp can keep nearly everything secret.

The disclosure required by the Securities and Exchange Commission is less effective and more opaque, as it does not reveal project-level information.

These reports are an excellent source of information to contrast and compare how much Canadian oil and gas and mining companies pay governments around the world in taxes, royalties, fees, etc.

These disclosures have drawn next to no attention in Alaska over the years, which is unfortunate, given the major role that Canadian mining companies play in Alaska.

The McKinley Research Group does not mention the ESTMA reports required by Canada in the reports it publishes on “The Economic Benefits of Alaska’s Mining Industry,” though it stresses that the industry pays $117 million to the state and $50 million to local governments. The reports do not mention what taxes, royalties and fees are paid to governments Outside.

The McKinley group mentions the amounts spent on exploration, employee wages, contractors, etc. It does not deal with profits, but that is a key category that must be included in an accurate overview of the “Economic Benefits of Alaska’s Mining Industry.”

The ESTMA data portal is a good place to view the information by company and project.