Mining in 2019: The Year in Review

The project is on land owned by mineral estate owner Calista Corporation and surface estate owner The Kuskokwim Corporation In the last year the partners received numerous permits from state and federal agencies, including a permit from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Mining, Land, and Water, which issued preliminary land use decisions for the project's transportation corridor, including the access road and related material sites, airstrip, and upriver Jungjuk Port. According to the EIS now under review, the project would include development of the open pit mine, with associated infrastructure to include a 270-megawatt power generating plant. The first-ever application of ASTER and LANDSAT8 imagery over Sheep Hill massif shows a consistent correlation between a distinctive strong iron oxide alteration signature and the geological and geophysical trace of the previously discovered platinum group metals-copper-nickel (PGMCu-Ni) sulfide mineralization hosted by a dunite-lherzolite unit. The plan calls for excavation of approximately 2,000 meters of underground ramp to provide a drill platform for exploration and to provide access to gather additional geotechnical and hydrological data; completion of 30,000 meters of underground exploration drilling; placement on the surface of waste rock from underground excavation; construction and operation of sediment settling ponds and land application disposal system for the discharge of underground seepage waters; and construction of other facilities necessary for the underground excavation and drill programs.