Placer miners seek four seasons at Cache Creek, and state comment closes Aug. 31

Mechanical placer mining could run at Cache Creek near Petersville through the end of 2030 under an application now before the state, and the public has until 5 p.m. Aug. 31 to weigh in before the Alaska Department of Natural Resources decides whether to approve it.

The department posted the notice Monday. The applicants are listed as Cash Mining, Judson Jones and Doug Anderson, and the project is called Cash Mining 3. The requested term runs from the day authorization issues to Dec. 31, 2030, unless extended, or up to four full mining seasons on one creek.

What the department is deciding is narrower than the project. It is adjudicating a plan of operation approval, governing how the mine is worked, and a reclamation approval, governing how the ground is restored, both on state land. Cross-country travel on state land outside the mining locations may also be authorized. DNR says it may issue an authorization with stipulations after its review, and that the activity may be modified during it, so a comment may change the conditions rather than the outcome.

The notice states no acreage, water use or equipment, but the full application is attached to it. In it the operators propose working a single 20-acre claim, Moonshine 1, with a crew of three from June 1 to Oct. 15, using a dozer, excavators, rock trucks, loaders and a washplant. They list 1,200 gallons of fuel in a double-walled tank, stored 500 feet from flowing water, against a DNR minimum of 100 feet.

The Cache Creek and Peters Creek drainages have produced placer gold since the early 1900s, and one-man and family operations still work them. DNR noticed another Cache Creek placer application in January 2025.

Other permits are separate decisions. DNR's fact sheet says mining in Alaska can require authorizations from as many as twelve state and federal agencies. The notice names no affected landowners or water users.

Written comments go to the Division of Mining, Land and Water's Fairbanks Mine Permitting Office, attention Willow-Creek Feighery, at [email protected], by 5 p.m. Aug. 31.