www.AlaskaAlliance.com 2024 Meet Alaska Conference & Trade Show 47 While the $381.4 million of silver recovered at Alaska mines during 2023 pales in comparison to the value of zinc and gold produced in the state, the Greens Creek Mine near Juneau is the largest primary silver mine in North America and one of the biggest in the world. “Greens Creek is a premier silver mine,” said Hecla Mining President and CEO Phillips Baker, Jr. “It’s actually the 11th largest in the world, and I just want to congratulate the team on delivering excellent and consistent results and giving it a great future, because this is truly a world-class asset.” This world-class mine about 20 miles south of Alaska’s capital accounted for 9.7 million of the approximately 16.3 million ounces of silver produced in the state last year. The balance was produced as a byproduct at Red Dog. The silver-forward Greens Creek and zinc-forward Red Dog mines also produced a combined 113,000 metric tons (249 million pounds) of lead as a byproduct last year. Going into 2024, Greens Creek hosted 10.02 million tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 10.05 ounces per ton (105.2 million ounces) silver, 0.09 ounces/t (881,000 ounces) gold, 6.6 percent (1.32 billion pounds) zinc, and 2.5 percent (501.2 million pounds) lead. This is enough to keep North America’s largest producing silver mine in operation for 14 years at 2023 mill throughput rates – and Hecla keeps finding more ore. “When Greens Creek started, the mine had a mine plan of seven years and now 37 years later, the mine plan is 14 years,” Baker informed investors and analysts on Feb. 15. “This past year’s underground exploration had good success in seven of the eight zones drilled with four of those zones in the fourth quarter.” In addition to adding underground silver reserves, Hecla is revisiting the critical minerals potential it has been stockpiling on the surface over the past 37 years. In addition to silver, zinc, lead, and gold, Greens Creek ore is enriched with at least seven critical minerals — antimony, arsenic, barite, bismuth, gallium, germanium, and indium. During a Nov. 8 keynote presentation at the Alaska Miners Association convention in Anchorage, Baker said the tailings at Greens Creek contain an estimated $3 billion worth of metals, including “lots of critical minerals that you don’t really think of” during initial mining. Hecla is currently studying the viability of transporting these tailings contained within a dry-stack storage facility on Admiralty Island to an offsite location for reprocessing. In addition to offering a domestic source of critical minerals, this idea would lessen Green Creek’s environmental footprint on the Southeast Alaska island where the world-class silver mine is located. Interior Alaska energy mine Alaska’s oldest continuously operating mine does not produce gold, zinc, or silver. Instead, this operation about 115 miles south of Fairbanks provides the coal that keeps the lights and heat on during the long, cold, and dark winter nights in the state’s Interior region. Established in 1943 to provide coal to U.S. military installations in Interior Alaska, Usibelli Coal Mine (UCM) has grown into a family-owned enterprise that delivers one million tons of fuel to six Interior Alaska powerplants per year. One of these things that Usibelli is most proud of is the exceptional safety record of the more than 100 workers that deliver this coal. In early September, UCM celebrated 1,000 consecutive days without a lost time accident. Like many other coal deposits around the nation, the coal seams on UCM’s properties are enriched with rare earths, germanium, and other critical minerals. Looking for value-added opportunities, UCM is investigating the potential to recover these critical minerals from materials above and between the coal seams, coal that is not of high enough quality for power generation, and ash from a power plant at the mouth of the mine. Whether producing coal or exploring the Interior Alaska project’s critical minerals potential, UCM is continuously investing in advanced technologies and best practices to ensure its operations align with the highest environmental standards. “Beyond our commitment to safety, we also recognize our responsibility to the environment and the communities we serve,” said Joe Usibelli Jr. “We strive to leave a positive legacy for future generations.” The next generation of Alaska mines will likely be the product of some of the 50 mineral exploration projects in the state. According to data compiled by DGGS, $230 million was invested in exploring for gold, silver, zinc, copper, graphite, nickel, cobalt, platinum group metals, rare earth elements, and other minerals during 2023. — Shane Lasley, North of 60 Mining News Photo Courtesy Usibelli Coal Mine
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