Judge upholds federal permit for mining access inside Lake Clark National Park

A road, airstrip and exploration tunnel inside Lake Clark National Park and Preserve can move ahead. U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason upheld the federal permit authorizing the work on Sept. 14 and closed the case.

The question she answered was narrow. Gleason asked whether the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers acted arbitrarily in issuing the permit, not whether the Corps got the decision right.

The permit, issued in September 2024 under the Clean Water Act provision governing wetland fill, covers 2.3 miles of road, an airstrip lengthened to 5,000 feet and 5.14 acres of fill in wetlands. It went to Johnson Tract Mining Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Contango ORE, Inc. The company's own November 2024 news release described the work as a 2.6-mile portal access road.

The site is a 21,000-acre private inholding owned by Cook Inlet Region, Inc. and surrounded by the park, at the headwaters of the salmon-bearing Johnson River about 13 miles above Cook Inlet. Tuxedni Bay, ten miles east, is critical habitat for endangered Cook Inlet beluga whales.

Cook Inletkeeper, the Chickaloon Village Traditional Council, the Center for Biological Diversity and commercial fisherman Anna-Maria Mueller sued in May 2025. They argued the Corps had failed to analyze acid rock drainage, contaminant leaching and noise, and had failed to consult NOAA Fisheries about the belugas. Cook Inletkeeper puts the beluga population at 331 and says bear-viewing ecotourism in the region supports $37 million in annual sales and $10 million in direct wages.

Gleason found the Corps was not arbitrary in deciding that consultation with NOAA Fisheries was unnecessary, or in concluding that the rock has low potential for acid rock drainage, the acidic runoff that comes off exposed sulfide rock.

Cook Inlet Region says responsible mineral development on its lands generates dividends for its Alaska Native shareholders, a position it states on its website rather than in response to the ruling. Contango has told investors that the permit authorizes exploration infrastructure and not a mine, and that any future mine would require further permitting. Neither the Corps nor either company commented on the decision.