"donlin gold mine"

It’s going to be a busy year for Donlin Gold. The company is gearing up for another round of geotechnical drilling — its first in two years.

NovaGold is staking a lot on the success of the proposed Donlin Gold mine after selling a big asset last year: the Galore Creek project in British Columbia.

There isn’t much at the proposed mine site right now: just a long airstrip, with clusters of sturdy buildings in the middle of green mountains close to the Middle Kuskokwim River. But if completed, the Donlin gold mine would be one of the biggest in the world.

Cleaning up a mine is an expensive and time-consuming endeavor.

The company needs at least 100 permits before they can start mining, and some of those permits could be granted on Monday as part of a joint record of decision from the Army Corps and the Bureau of Land Management.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources says the public can submit comments until September 6.

The public has 30 days to submit comments on the hefty environmental impact statement for the massive proposed Kuskokwim River area mine.

Hladick said his boss — EPA administrator Scott Pruitt — recently called him up seeking some local knowledge, on a hot topic for many Alaskans: the proposed Pebble Mine.

State regulators met with the public in Anchorage last Friday to discuss the permits for the proposed Donlin Gold Mine. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has released two draft permits that tackle one of the mine’s thorniest issues: how the company plans to dispose of chemicals like arsenic next to a river of subsistence fishermen.

The comments at the meeting remained consistent with concerns expressed in other villages throughout the Yukon-Kuskokwim region on the project; mainly residents want the economic benefits of jobs without assuming the environmental impacts mining could have on subsistence.