Hey Clarktar, thanks for posting these events. I haven't heard how last night's turnout was yet but Monday night at the UAF Pub went really well. There were roughly 35 people attending. I gave a 30-min "values and stakes" of the Brooks Range and highlighted strong reasons why the Ambler Road should be a non-starter.
The BLM's final public input period ends Dec 22 (next friday) regarding the Ambler Road / Central Yukon Resource Management Plan. If you care about roads and open-pit mine development in the Brooks Range I highly encourage everyone to make their beliefs public record in this process, whether through testimony or petitions against the current ways ahead.
Parting thoughts about the facts of the Ambler Road push:
1. Moderately low volume / High valued minerals and metals are deep underground and are estimated to have only 10-13 years worth of mining potential.
2. The road will be a PRIVATE industrial road without public access, period. This proposed road is different than the Haul Rd in that federal funds won't be used to build it, so it'll stay private for industrial mining use only.
3. The cost-to-build estimate in 2019 was $1.9 Billion, which since COVID inflations one can only imagine real and true costs to build.
4. The mining companies are Canada/Australian owned, not Alaskan owned businesses. The exception is the native corporation lands near the end of the road (Nana Corp), which is partnered with the mining conglomerate to DBA Ambler Metals.
5. Ores extracted from as few as 4 open-pit mines (9 targeted open-pit mine sites) will be selected once the road is approved and the raw ore is planned to be shipped out of Alaska by truck, rail and sea to be sold to Asia (likely China and Korea) for refinement, and if and when the US wants to re-own the minerals and metals extracted by Canada and Australian miners we'll have to buy the resources back from Asian refineries IF they agree to sell them back to us (no guarantees). Lose lose lose. The only moneys benefiting Alaska will be the few hundred jobs created to support the 10-15 year development and 10-year reclamation. After that, we'll have lost >200-miles of wilderness appeal and 30 years of access to currently pristine intact ecosystem from the Haul Road west to Kobuk/Ambler.
6. Ambler Road will cross >20 public rivers and streams (some National Wild and Scenic rivers) and have 2,900 culverts to maintain. Anyone with ecological knowledge knows 100 culverts are a huge problem for fisheries in easy to reach and affordable to maintain areas, but 2,900 culverts in a remote landscape without proper and constant management could have catastrophic impacts to fish migrations and water control.
7. In all known scenarios for mining there will First be claims, then approval/permitting, and only then are roads created to reach these sites. The Ambler Road is proposed from back to front, since without the road being first, claims are useless to miners in this remote region.
8. There are no 100% successful (without catastrophic violations) with any Arctic Open Pit Mines in the world, and zero successful templates to guide these two eager companies, which begs the questions of 1) What percentage of catastrophic failures will occur with not ONE but >4 open pit mines in this arduously rugged Arctic landscape; 2) who will actually have to foot the bill for reclamation of these disasters? History has proven that mining companies nearly always pay the fine vs pay for cleanup with these sorts of events; and 3) If extractable resources aren't ample enough for robust ROIs and disaster maintenance, how can Alaska justify any action to promote this road?
I can't give you a single reason to support this proposed development.
Your voices matter. Go on record and stop this project. BLM's CYRMP process has alternatives to this proposal which provide a different future for the Brooks Range.
LB