Economy & Business

Red Dog Mine is down to one pit, with zinc output expected to fall by nearly half

Red Dog Mine is down to one pit, and Teck expects its zinc output to fall by nearly half by 2028. Higher zinc prices lifted its profits this quarter.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

Kinross's Alaska mine output falls 29% as less Manh Choh ore reaches the mill

Kinross's Alaska mines produced 29% less gold and silver last quarter, and each ounce sold cost 46% more. Most of the drop traces to Manh Choh, near Tok.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

State proposes a roundabout at Nordale and Peede roads in North Pole

The state wants to replace the stop signs at Nordale and Peede roads in North Pole, an intersection with a history of crashes, with a roundabout.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

Alaska proposes excluding fracking, drilling pad costs from oil property tax values

Alaska wants to spell out which drilling costs oil companies can leave out of taxed value, fracking and pads included. A board asked for clearer rules in 2016.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

Pelican's hydro plant can keep running while FERC reviews a new license

Pelican's hydro license expired, but federal law lets the plant keep running while FERC weighs a new one. An environmental review is due in January.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2w ago1 min read

Alaska starts scanning its drill core archive with light beyond what the eye can see

Alaska keeps about 95 miles of drill core in an Anchorage repository. A scanner that sees far past visible light has started turning it into data.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

Kenai Peninsula school board votes Monday on $78.3 million busing deal

Kenai Peninsula school buses would cost about $10 million in a new contract's first year. The district's whole busing budget this year is $7.75 million.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

State energy board to vote on nearly $5 million loan for solar at Red Dog Mine

Red Dog Mine makes all its power from diesel and cuts power to parts of the mine in summer. A state board votes Nov. 5 on a nearly $5 million loan toward solar.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

EPA proposes lighter methane rules for low-producing oil and gas well sites

EPA wants lighter methane rules for low-output wells, saying 2024 rules could shut up to 200,000. A DOE study says they emit half of production methane.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

EPA proposes letting new oil wells flare gas instead of capturing it

EPA proposed letting new oil wells burn off the gas that comes up with their oil instead of capturing it. North Slope fields pump huge volumes back down.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

BLM switches White Mountains and Steese to winter snowmobile rules after snow arrives

BLM switched White Mountains and Steese to winter rules Wednesday, opening trails to snowmobiles under 1,000 pounds. Rules run through April 30, though some trails remain unmarked.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

Follows: BLM pushes White Mountains winter season to Nov. 1 for lack of snow

Fairbanks' new comprehensive plan won't ban data centers, despite calls for one

Fairbanks' new 20-year plan won't ban data centers, though many comments asked it to. Planners say a ban there is legally problematic; rules would come later.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

Follows: Fairbanks borough mayor proposes pause on large data center permits through 2027

Borough staff back letting a 1976 Fairbanks duplex keep both homes despite rezoning

Fairbanks officer decides Thursday if a 1976 Birch Lane duplex can keep both units despite now sitting in single-family zoning.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

Kenai planners approve Beaver Loop day care and give it two years to open

Kenai planners approved a therapeutic day care on Beaver Loop Road for young children, including kids with disabilities, and gave it two years to open.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

Seward's harbor proposes higher travel lift rates and passing card fees to customers

Seward's harbormaster wants travel lift rates up 10% plus inflation in 2027 and 2028 and card fees passed to customers. One lift cable went from $12K to $35K.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

Seward city manager floats cutting electric rates instead of property taxes in 2028

Seward's city manager pitched cutting everyone's electric rates in 2028 instead of property taxes, by dropping a $678,000 fee. It came to her that day.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

Follows: Seward proposes a 6% summer-only sales tax and a property tax cut for fiscal 2028

Anchorage developers still build parking without a mandate, planners say

Anchorage stopped requiring parking in 2022. Developers kept building it anyway, mostly about as much as before, a city Planning Department memo says.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

Cordova to close part of Fourth Street Thursday and interrupt water service to fix a leak

Cordova closes Fourth Street between Browning and Council Thursday at 9am to fix a water leak. Use Davis Avenue as a detour, no end date given for repairs or water service interruptions.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago1 min read

FAA weighs releasing 40 acres of Fairbanks airport land for sale to expand a gravel mine

Fairbanks International Airport wants to sell 40 acres it says it no longer needs for aviation, to make room for a private gravel company. Comments due Nov. 28.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2w ago1 min read

Alaskans have until Thursday to comment on the state's $7.74 billion transportation plan

Got opinions about Alaska's roads, ferries or trails? Thursday at 5 pm is the last chance to comment on the state's $7.74 billion four-year transportation plan.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago1 min read

Alaska Energy Authority board votes Nov. 5 on a new look at the shelved Susitna dam

Alaska's energy authority votes Nov. 5 on a new look at the shelved Susitna dam, saying "time is of the essence" to catch tax credits worth up to half its cost.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago3 min read

Alaska's workers' comp tiebreaker doctors are almost all out of state, new list shows

Alaska's list of doctors who settle medical disputes in workers' comp cases has 52 names. One lists an Alaska address. Forty are based in California.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago1 min read

Fairbanks board approves 8 industrial lots on land split without approval in 1974

This Fairbanks industrial land was split without borough approval starting in 1974. A 2023 rule for innocent owners let a board approve eight lots on it.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readFrom Oct 21

State proposes giving North Slope Borough 320 acres in the Brooks Range foothills

The state proposed giving the North Slope Borough 320 acres in the Brooks foothills, a week after proposing it get 583 acres in the Kuparuk oil field.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2w ago3 min read

Willow-area owners ask Mat-Su to let them split 40 acres without building a mile-plus road

Three Willow-area landowners want to split 40 acres into two recreational lots without building 6,800 feet of road. The Mat-Su Platting Board decides Nov. 5.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

Contango begins drilling the east end of the historic Lucky Shot gold mine

Contango started underground drilling Oct. 22 on the east end of the old Lucky Shot gold mine's veins, a stretch it says no modern program has tested.

by Alaska News2w ago2 min read

State proposes 50-year Deadhorse Airport lease for an oilfield camp and yard

The state wants to rent nearly 11 acres of Deadhorse Airport for 50 years for a camp and oilfield equipment yard. Rent: about $133,000 a year.

by Alaska News2w ago1 min read

FAA hires contractor to put a $1.6 million roof on McGrath's navigation beacon

The FAA is paying $1.6 million for a new roof on McGrath's radio navigation beacon, even as it drops an airway that ran from it and moves Alaska routes to GPS.

by Melinda Communities.News2w ago1 min read

Federal judge hears bid Thursday to throw out Arctic refuge oil leasing and leases

A judge hears arguments Thursday on scrapping ANWR's oil leasing program. Gwich'in and conservation groups sue; Kaktovik, the state and industry defend it.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

NOAA closes out its $5.2 million Rainier overhaul at Ketchikan Shipyard

NOAA closed out a $5 million repair order for the survey ship Rainier at Ketchikan Shipyard, clawing back $392,172 in unused funds.

by Melinda Communities.News2w ago1 min read

Old Harbor tribe seeks permit for hydro plant to replace the village's diesel power

The Alutiiq Tribe of Old Harbor asked the Army Corps to permit a hydro plant expected to cut 95% of the diesel the Kodiak Island village burns for power.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2w ago3 min read

Comments close Friday on Mat-Su plan setting which roads can get federal money

Public comment on MatSu 2050, the Valley's first federal transportation plan, closes Friday, Oct. 30. Without an adopted plan, the region loses access to federal road, pathway and transit money.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readFrom Sep 30

Whittier wins largest federal port grant as Alaska projects take nearly $105 million

Whittier's 73-year-old Army-built dock got $50.6 million for a replacement, the biggest port grant in the country this round. Alaska won the most of any state.

by Alaska News2w ago2 min read

Anchorage Assembly vote could decide whether new housing rules reach quake-hazard zones

The Assembly votes Nov. 4 on letting more duplexes and townhomes into much of Anchorage. Open question: whether that includes the ground that slid in 1964.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago3 min read

Anchorage Assembly takes up rezone for 44 townhomes sitting on land zoned for shops

Forty-four Anchorage townhomes sit on land zoned for shops and offices. The Assembly takes up a fix Nov. 4. The city says no one objected, but one neighbor did.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

Haines and Skagway power bills could rise about $180 a month to pay for an undersea cable

Haines and Skagway households could pay about $180 more a month for power under a proposed fund for their undersea cable, the state's consumer advocate says.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago3 min read

Chugach Electric asks Anchorage to zone its Third Avenue utility yard heavy industrial

Chugach Electric wants its 60-year-old utility yard near Third and Post zoned heavy industrial, which would erase a greenway marking. The hearing is Dec. 1.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

Assembly takes up industrial rezone for an equipment yard on Laurel Acres wetland lot

A company wants to put an equipment yard on a Laurel Acres lot a city planner says is almost all wetlands. The Assembly takes up the rezone Nov. 4.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

State lenders want Seward's first water and sewer rate study since 1993 finished

Seward hasn't studied its water and sewer rates since 1993. A state loan program wants one done, and depreciation puts the utility funds' costs over revenue.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

Anchorage water utility seeks up to $675,000 for an expert witness in rate cases

Anchorage's water utility wants up to $675,000 for an expert to argue the return built into your bill. Its manager says rate case costs land on customers.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago1 min read