DNR posts placer mining application for Glacier Creek in Fairhaven district

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources posted notice Wednesday that it had received a Multi-Agency Application for Permits to Mine in Alaska, an APMA, for placer mining and reclamation on Glacier Creek in the Fairhaven Mining District. The notice does not name the applicant or the scale of the proposed work.

The filing opens a state and potential federal review, not an approval to mine. DNR says it may issue an authorization with stipulations, modify the proposal, or find that the review does not support mining activity at all. The review covers mining and reclamation on state land and may also address cross-country travel outside designated mining locations.

The notice does not establish whether this is the same operator behind a 2023 DNR notice covering a separate Glacier Creek placer-mining amendment, which had named Glacier Creek Mining Company as its applicant.

The APMA is a single form, but it is built to help applicants navigate permitting requirements that can involve as many as 12 state and federal agencies. DNR distributes completed applications to the agencies involved. Depending on the work proposed, additional authorizations may be required, including a fish habitat permit for work below the ordinary high water mark of an anadromous stream, a wastewater discharge permit, or Clean Water Act Section 404 review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

That multiagency review exists because placer mining in and near streams can affect water quality, habitat and stream conditions. Those are the stakes for anyone downstream on Glacier Creek if mining is approved and extended over multiple years. Approvals run one to 10 years, and disturbances over five acres require a reclamation bond.

The notice does not state a comment deadline or identify the office taking comments on this application. DNR's Fairbanks Mine Permitting Office handled comments on the earlier Glacier Creek notice and other recent APMA cases.