Mat-Su moves to lease Port MacKenzie land to an antimony company

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough is moving to lease 42.78 acres of public port land to an antimony company. The commission that recommended it has published no minutes showing who was in the room, who moved the resolution, or how anyone voted.

The borough Port Commission adopted the recommendation at a special meeting on Sept. 1, asking the Assembly to lease vacant borough land in the Port MacKenzie Special Use District to Alaska Range Resources LLC for construction and operation of an antimony pilot plant. The decision belongs to the Assembly; the commission only advises. The resolution carries the signatures of the chairperson and the port director.

The agenda for that meeting lists Christopher Gerteisen as the commission's vice chair. Nova Minerals Corp's chief executive is named Christopher Gerteisen, and Alaska Range Resources is Nova's Alaska subsidiary. In testimony to the Alaska Legislature, Nova's chief executive argued that the Port MacKenzie Rail Extension is "very important for the Estelle Gold project," the company's deposit about 100 miles west of the port. No document obtained establishes whether the commissioner and the executive are the same person, and no conflict declaration or recusal appears in any Port Commission record obtained. Neither the borough nor the company has been asked directly.

Nova's business has come before this commission before. Borough packets from 2025 record the port's asset manager telling commissioners that the "Nova Minerals permit is in early stages," and January minutes record Port Director Dave Griffin saying the company held a permit for a 42-acre site and was moving toward a lease.

What the lease would cost is not established. The resolution states no rent, no term length, no renewal rights, no reclamation or closure obligations and no performance conditions. A draft Port MacKenzie tariff handout distributed at the same meeting turned out to be terminal rules and regulations rather than a rate schedule.

The resolution also describes something smaller than what the company has told investors it is building. The borough document says pilot plant. Nova's federal filings dated Aug. 25, Sept. 1 and Sept. 8 call Port MacKenzie "the planned downstream commercial-size antimony refinery site," funded by a $43.4 million award from the Department of War under the Defense Production Act. The resolution does not say whether the lease covers the pilot plant only or the refinery.

Equipment is already on the ground. The company reported Sept. 8 that roughly 500 tons had arrived, more than 40 containers and oversized loads of crushing, ore sorting, milling, flotation and refining equipment bought secondhand from a decommissioned North American site. The barge left Seattle on Aug. 26 and reached Cook Inlet on Sept. 6. The plant's state air permit application remains on hold.

On the same day the commission acted, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority board authorized up to $25 million more for the West Susitna Access Road, a 78.5-mile year-round route connecting Estelle to Port MacKenzie. Cabin owners along that corridor have raised concerns about increased access, noise and dust from trucking ore.

Borough officials have been publicly supportive of the company. The borough manager and the port director both supplied quotes for Nova's announcement last October that it had secured a land use agreement at the port.

Public notice on the lease request drew no objections, with a comment deadline of Aug. 23. Until an Assembly ordinance appears, the rent, the term and the scope of what the borough is leasing remain unstated in the public record.