Antimony mine comment period closes Oct. 12, months after work began

Alaskans have until 5 p.m. on Oct. 12 to comment on state approvals for an antimony mine and refining plant whose own construction schedules began in June.

The Department of Natural Resources opened the 30-day comment period on Friday. At issue are two draft approvals, one for the plan of operations, the document setting how the work may be done, and one for the reclamation plan, which sets how the ground is put back. They cover the Estelle Gold and Critical Minerals Project.

The schedules in the company's own filings run ahead of that deadline. The plan for the Whiskey Bravo site lists construction from June 16, 2026, to Dec. 14, 2026, with commissioning and production from Dec. 15 to Jan. 4, 2027. The plan for Port MacKenzie lists construction from July 7, 2026, to Jan. 25, 2027. This newsroom reported processing equipment for the Port MacKenzie plant ashore on Sept. 7, four days before the state opened comment.

The drafts do not establish whether construction actually began on those dates at either site, or what has been built at Whiskey Bravo, which sits on state land inside the authorization now out for comment.

The applicant is Alaska Range Resources LLC of Palmer. Both draft approvals state that a reference to Alaska Range Resources "is considered a reference to Alaska Range Resources LLC, a subsidiary of Nova Minerals Corporation."

What the Project Would Build

The project would take bulk antimony ore from two prospects on state land about 80 miles southwest of Trapper Creek. At Stibium, building the access trail alone means placing about 71,000 tons of material to fill the slopes below it. Sample areas off the trail account for four acres of disturbance, with 200 to 400 tons of ore projected in the first season.

Ore would move to a crushing and sorting facility near the exploration camp at the Whiskey Bravo airstrip. Concentrate would go to Port MacKenzie, where a pilot plant would mill, float, refine and package antimony trisulfide to meet "quality requirements of military specification MIL-DTL-159E(AR)." The project, the Whiskey Bravo plan says, "is supported by an award of U.S. $43.4 million in funding from the Department of War."

Characterization of samples from the two prospects "indicates the material may be geochemically reactive and may have the potential to generate acidic and metal-laden leachate," the plan states, which is why the waste facility at Whiskey Bravo would be lined. The flotation tailings at Port MacKenzie are described as relatively benign by comparison.

The state has set financial assurance for reclamation at $6.63 million, the bond the company must post before it can operate. The two plans show how that figure is built: $124,317 for reclaiming the Styx and Stibium sampling areas, $5,469,352 for decommissioning Whiskey Bravo, $469,818 for the reclamation camp, and $561,860 recommended for Port MacKenzie. Those total $6,625,347. The drafts do not establish whether the bond has been posted. The approvals would run five years, to 2031, though the effective dates in the drafts are blank.

The Mining Section Chief, currently Steve Buckley, would be the authorized officer. If work stops for more than three years, the department may treat the operation as abandoned and require reclamation to start.

The public notice draws a line between the parcels. Work on state land is subject to the Alaska Land Act, the reclamation statute and two chapters of regulation. But "the activities solely located on Matanuska-Susitna Borough lands are only subject to AS 27.19 and 11 AAC 97," the reclamation rules alone. The Port MacKenzie parcel, where the refining would happen and where the tailings would be buried, is borough ground.

The borough is not a bystander there. The Port MacKenzie plan says the company secured a land use permit for the refinery from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough in October 2025, that operations may not begin until a bond is approved by both the state and the borough, and that the borough may extend the closure period or require areas to be reclaimed differently.

Discrepancies in the Record

The drafts contradict themselves and each other. The plan of operations approval states the financial assurance as "$6,630,00.00," while the reclamation approval states the same agreed amount as $6,630,000.00. The plan of operations approval also carries the reclamation document's number in its page footers. The public notice identifies both documents with an F prefix while the documents themselves are headed with an A. The Port MacKenzie schedule lists commissioning and production as starting Jan. 1, 2026, six months before that plan's construction begins and six months before the plan was written.

Two more run deeper. The Port MacKenzie plan's own location table puts the site in Section 14, Township 04 North, Range 23 West, while the public notice puts it in Section 23, Township 14 North, Range 4 West. The plan's own coordinates match the notice, which suggests the numbers defining where the work may happen are transposed in the company's document. And the two plans specify the same barrier forty times apart: Port MacKenzie calls for an "80-millimeter (mil)" polyethylene liner, Whiskey Bravo for an 80-mil liner. A mil is a thousandth of an inch.

No one speaks in the record. No resident of Point MacKenzie, Houston, Big Lake or Trapper Creek appears, and neither does any tribe.

Comments go to William Groom at the Division of Mining, Land and Water's mine permitting office in Fairbanks, who can also show the full application packet on request, at (907) 451-2788 or [email protected].

A second deadline comes first. The Department of Environmental Conservation is handling an air permit for the same Port MacKenzie site under fast-track rules, and unless someone asks for a public comment period by 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 25, the state will issue or deny that permit by Oct. 9, three days before comment on the mining approvals closes. Requests go to Zachary Boyden at [email protected].