DNR takes comment through Aug. 24 on Warner Creek placer mining expansion near Chicken

An expanded placer mining operation at Warner Creek near Chicken is open for public comment until Aug. 24 at 5 p.m. AST. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources will review the amendment after the comment period closes.

DNR is reviewing a request, filed as APMA F20252226 Amendment 1, to add one mining claim to the existing operation. The amendment also adds a claim owner. James Stansell, Garrett Stansell and Robert Handley are the applicants on the permit for placer exploration and mining in the Fortymile Mining District. The work is proposed to run through Dec. 31, 2030. Comments go to Willow-Creek Feighery at the Fairbanks Mine Permitting Office. DNR lists that office at 3700 Airport Way, Fairbanks, AK 99709, with email [email protected] and phone (907) 451-2736 for Northern Region mining applications.

More broadly, and apart from any comments filed on this amendment, Fortymile-area public land users and adjacent community interests have argued that industrial mining can affect water quality, habitat and the local landscape in a district that produced an estimated 452,000 ounces of placer gold between 1887 and 1977. The Fortymile River entered the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act in 1980. Roughly 70 percent of its boatable segments are owned by the state. In 2016, the Bureau of Land Management recommended closing all federal minerals in the Fortymile Wild and Scenic River lands to new mining.