KODIAK -- An Alaska Native regional corporation has received title to mineral rights on 146,693 acres on the Alaska Peninsula.

Koniag Inc. received notice earlier this month that the Bureau of Land Management had approved the transfer of mineral rights promised almost 40 years ago in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

Koniag represents villages on and around Kodiak Island.

The rights do not include the right to remove gravel and other surface minerals.

The subsurface rights correspond to surface land owned by village corporations within the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge.

Koniag picked subsurface land on the peninsula because it was not allowed to claim subsurface rights within the wildlife refuge.

Koniag vice president Charlie Powers told the Kodiak Daily Mirror that the transfer represents the first half of about 270,000 acres due to Koniag.