Comment open until Sept. 2 on a 530-foot cable and mining camp over the Koyukuk

Alaskans have until Sept. 2 to comment on a plan to string a 530-foot transport cable across the Middle Fork of the Koyukuk River and set a six-person camp on the east bank. The state's notice does not say which mining operation it would serve. Nor does the form ask.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources published the notice Wednesday, opening a 14-day window on a five-year authorization. The applicant is Ash Berringer. The site sits near Chapman Island, reached by Chapman Road near milepost 161 of the Dalton Highway. The requested term runs five years, from 2026 through 2031, with the camp used only May through October each year.

The Division of Mining, Land and Water describes the purpose in four words. The notice says the permit is for a cable and a man camp "to support mining activities." It names no mine, no operator and no claims. The state's land use permit application does not ask for one: its six pages request the applicant's own intended use, the acreage, the people on site and the hazards, and nowhere a client or the operation the work would serve.

State mining claim records show 58 active claims covering 5,639 acres within roughly two miles of the proposed camp, held by three parties. A company recorded as 995 Exploration Inc. holds 44 of them, totaling 5,079 acres, all posted Oct. 29 and 30 of last year. The other 14 are older and lie in the river itself. Jeremy Ford holds 10 and Robert Brown four, each 40 acres, all recorded March 26, 2016, and all classified by the state as navigable river bottom. Chapman Island is itself a 40-acre mining claim, in the same section as the proposed crossing.

Berringer holds none of the 58, and nothing in the records reviewed connects him to any of the three claim holders. Nothing requires that it would: the permit is for a camp and a cable, not for mining.

The cable is working equipment. The amended application proposes to "attach cables to trees on each side of River and run" a cable rated to 25,000 pounds, carrying supplies 30 feet above the water. The camp would be three campers, one van trailer and one outhouse inside a cleared area 40 feet by 60 feet, on up to half an acre. Six employees and supervisors would work on site. No part of the area would be closed to the public.

He applied as an individual from Wasilla, yet checked the box for other commercial or industrial use and left the business license number blank, writing by hand: camp for mining crew.

One answer contradicts another. Asked whether improvements or materials are on the site now, the applicant checked yes and left the description, value and ownership blank, while writing elsewhere that the "current condition Clean and natural." The form warns that an incomplete application will delay processing.

The proposal has already shifted once. It was signed June 15 for a camp alone, then amended July 31 to move the camp and add the river crossing, with the earlier coordinates struck through. The span is given as 530 feet in the notice and 531 in the application; the applicant's drawing labels it 510.

Written comments must reach the Division of Mining, Land and Water at 3700 Airport Way, Fairbanks, AK 99709 by Sept. 2. Questions go to adjudicator Diana Lehman at 907-451-2722 or [email protected]. The division says it may then issue an authorization with stipulations, and that the activity may be modified during adjudication. The record reviewed here is the state's own file. It contains no statement from Berringer or the claim holders beyond the application itself.