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Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
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Department of Environmental Conservation
(DEC)
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U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District
Corps suspends permit for Rock Creek Mine (12/07/06)
Corps announces intent to reissue permit for Rock Creek Mine (02/27/07)
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reissues permit for Rock Creek Mine (03/13/07)
The Rock Creek Project is located on the
Seward Peninsula along the west coast of Alaska. There are two project components: the
Rock Creek Mine/Mill Complex located about 6 miles north of Nome
in the Snake River watershed, and the Big Hurrah Mine located about
42 miles east of Nome in the Solomon River watershed. Both
are proposed to be developed as open pit gold mines
by the project applicant, Alaska Gold Company (AGC),
a wholly owned subsidiary of NovaGold Resources, Inc.
The known gold resource at the Rock Creek
Mine/Mill Complex lies within land owned approximately
66% by AGC, with the remainder within Bering Straits
Native Corporation (BSNC) lands. At Big Hurrah
site, the known gold resource lies within land owned
100% by AGC, and the surrounding lands are owned by
Solomon Native Corporation.
The Rock Creek Mine/Mill Complex as planned
includes an open pit mine, two non-acid-generating development
rock stockpiles, a gold recovery plant, and a paste
tailings storage facility. Standard
drilling and blasting techniques would be used to break the ore. Ore
milling rates would be about 2.75 million tons/year, while development
rock stripping volumes would be in the range of 4.4 to 5.5 million
tons/year. Milling would include crushing, screening, gravity
separation, flotation, and a cyanide leaching process. The
expected mine life is 4.5 years, with potential for additional discovery
and expansion. The project would employ up to
135 employees.
The Big Hurrah component consists of a
smaller open pit gold mine, a non-acid-generating development
rock stockpile, a temporary stockpile for acid-generating
development rock that would later be backfilled into
the pit, and an ore stockpile. Ore
would be trucked to the Rock Creek Mine/Mill Complex to be milled. Ore
would be mined at a 1,500 tons/day rate on a seasonal
basis for a total of approximately 270,000 tons/year
for 4 years.
Volume 3: Waste Management Plans
Volume 4: Reclamation Plan and Cost Estimate
Volume 5: Water
Management Reports
Volume 6: Thermal
and Seepage Evaluation
Volume 7: Monitoring
Plan
Volume 8: Geochemistry
and Groundwater Report
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