Making Alaska mining great again

By Deantha Skibinski

This is a lightly edited excerpt of testimony recently provided to the U.S. House’s Natural Resources Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing "Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential."

Alaska’s lands are constantly targeted by outside opposition groups that spend millions of dollars, often using misinformation to abuse our nation’s permitting processes, to delay and ultimately stop our resource development projects. The organizations fund efforts like large form-letter writing campaigns to solicit millions of non-substantive comments during public participation periods, fund citizens’ initiatives that seek to stop mining and raise regulatory hurdles for all via the ballot box and serial litigation against agencies for permit decisions.  These nefarious activities generate fear among the general public and overburden regulatory agencies tasked with upholding the nation’s permitting process. 

Federal actions from Administrations in 2009-2017 and 2021-2025 further eroded and slowed the process by which a mine can be permitted in the United States and Alaska. During the Administration of President Biden, the Office of Senator Dan Sullivan maintained a document titled Last Frontier Lockup which tracked the 70 adverse actions specific to Alaska only, that delayed, reversed or stopped economic opportunities in the state.  

Specific actions against Alaska’s mining industry included the repeal of the Roadless Rule exemption for the Tongass National Forest, hampering exploration and access to known expansive mineral deposits across its lands; a preemptive Clean Water Act Section 404c veto at the Pebble Project; multiple actions to block the Ambler Road project; and much more. 

Thankfully the assault on resource development in Alaska has stopped this past year.

President Trump’s Executive Order 14153, Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential, was signed January 20 and recognizes “the State of Alaska holds an abundant and largely untapped supply of natural resources including, among others, energy, mineral, timber, and seafood. Unlocking this bounty of natural wealth will raise the prosperity of our citizens while helping to enhance our Nation’s economic and national security for generations to come.”  

The Trump Administration and Congress are to be commended on implementing regulatory and process improvements in the last eight months. In addition to the Executive Orders and various agency actions following directives contained in the Orders, the Administration has demonstrated its commitment to growing Alaska’s mineral production.  

In April and May, two exploration projects in Alaska, the Greens Creek Surface Exploration and Aqqaluk Pit Exploration and Expansion projects, were designated as FAST-41 Transparency Projects by the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (FPISC). By being added to this list, the timelines for completion of their permitting were made clear to all stakeholders and assured agency resources would be allocated to the effort in a timely fashion.

In June, Graphite One’s Graphite Creek deposit was designated as a covered project and placed on the FAST-41 permitting dashboard. This means that FPISC will now implement a coordinated permitting timeline for the largest known graphite deposit in North America ensuring all agencies work together to permit this mine.

Unleashing Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential is critical to our nation’s future. Alaska is an extraordinary state with the ability to significantly contribute to our country’s prosperity.  With its impressive mineral endowment, superb environmental performance, a workforce with remarkable labor and safety standards and significant economic benefits, Alaska is the place to start to make our nation a mineral production powerhouse.

Deantha Skibinski is the Executive Director of the Alaska Miner’s Association.

_{*The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of EnergyPlatform.News.}