State still reviewing Pebble permit

The state Department of Natural Resource is still reviewing Pebble Partnership’s application for a new Miscellaneous Land Use Permit to do work on state lands at the big Pebble minerals deposit near Iliamna. The current MLUP expires at the end of this month and PPL needs a new one to cover site activities including a summer program of eld work that is planned. DNR will ask the company to provide a bond, also.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will soon publish a Notice of Intent to begin the formal Environmental Impact Statement process for the proposed Pebble mine. That will include a schedule and locations for “scoping” meetings, an initial step in the EIS process.
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Red Dog road/port: The Financials

The Red Dog mine road and port is often cited as a successful example of “public/private partnership” in infrastructure supporting economic development. A 60-mile road connects the mine, 90 miles north of Kotzebue in the De Long Mountains, to a port on the Chukchi Sea. The state’s Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority stepped in to build the infrastructure when the company developing the mine, Cominco Inc., was unable to fund it. The company (now Teck) pays AIDEA a fee to use the facilities. While this success is talked of, the particulars are relatively unknown. Here they are:

• $265 million invested by AIDEA
• $465 million in payments from Red Dog as of December, 2017
• 6.5 percent interest on the nancing
• Agreement goes to 2040
• AIDEA pays a dividend to the state