State moves to permit an antimony ore crusher near Port MacKenzie

The state has tentatively approved an air permit for a rock crusher at an antimony processing plant near Port MacKenzie, and is taking comment through Oct. 14.

The crusher would break down ore of antimony, a metal the state lists as a critical mineral, at a facility run by Alaska Range Resources of Palmer, a subsidiary of Nova Minerals. Its emissions would be capped at about 54 tons a year of particulate matter and nearly 4 tons of hazardous air pollutants, all of it antimony. Federal toxicology guidance links long-term inhalation of antimony dust to heart and lung effects.

What the state hasn't published is any estimate of what the crusher would actually put into the air nearby, no air-quality modeling and no health assessment. Rep. Kevin McCabe described the operation to a city council this month as "simply a crush and separate plant."

The permitting has also been confusing. Four days before the state opened this comment period, it issued a notice saying a comment period was not automatic, and that without someone requesting one it would decide the permit by Oct. 9 with no public input at all. Neither notice mentions the other.

The plant is part of a larger project. A separate state comment period, closing Oct. 12, covers the Department of Natural Resources' review of exploratory ore sampling 80 miles southwest of Trapper Creek, which feeds the same Port MacKenzie plant.