Anchorage Daily News

JUNEAU -- After plans to build a dock for the Kensington Mine were foiled, Goldbelt is brainstorming about what to do with its property at Cascade Point.

Its ideas have included running an ecotourism business out of Cascade Point, almost 40 miles northwest of downtown Juneau, according to Goldbelt officials.

"We're still in that stage of 'what if,' " chief financial officer Victor Scarano said.

Goldbelt, Juneau's urban Alaska Native corporation, brought in about $90 million in revenue last year, with the biggest chunk of that -- $75 million -- coming from federal contracts. Another $15 million came from tourism, including the Mount Roberts Tramway and the downtown Juneau Goldbelt Hotel, according to Scarano.

The company had planned to build the Cascade Point dock to ferry workers to and from the Kensington Mine site. But its permit for that was invalidated along with the mine's tailings plan permit by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a lawsuit brought by environmental groups.

Coeur has appealed that court's decision. If the U.S. Supreme Court decides in favor of Coeur, the mine company could return to its former plan, including using the dock at Cascade Point.

In the meantime, the Goldbelt senior management is in a holding pattern, looking for short- or medium-term opportunities there, said Goldbelt president Gary Droubay.

Goldbelt is considering barging sand and gravel from a new pit outside Cascade Point, which may have several million tons of rock. Subsurface rights belong to Sealaska Corp. A contractor that would transport and sell the gravel would pay Goldbelt $1 per ton for access across Goldbelt's land.

Goldbelt is preparing a new permit application, to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to land barges there for the sand and gravel project, Scarano said.

The company also still plans to keep working with Coeur Alaska. Right now it is providing a skeleton crew of security people for the mine. The company is discussing driving buses and perhaps ferrying boats to carry miners to and from the work site, said Bob Martin, vice president of operations.

Last year, the company made $3.5 million to $4 million after taxes, from the roughly $90 million in revenues, Scarano said.

For the future the company is developing a three-pronged plan: land, tourism and federal contracting.

Since Goldbelt's inception under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, the company has been one of the largest landowners in Juneau. It owns 33,000 acres at Hobart Bay, about 80 miles south of Juneau; 1,700 acres in West Douglas, including much of the waterfront; and about 1,400 acres at Cascade Point.

The land is an undervalued part of the company, according to the chief financial officer.

"On the balance sheet, you don't really see the land. But it's worth hundreds of millions of dollars," Scarano said.

Downtown, Goldbelt has considered expanding the Goldbelt Hotel. The hotel has been a moneymaker for the company, but more rooms might be more expensive to build than they end up being worth, Droubay said. This would be particularly true if the capital were to move, he said.

The largest part of Goldbelt's business happens far from Alaska. Under federal law, certain Alaska Native majority-owned businesses, known in government parlance as Alaska Native 8(a) companies, can get sole-source contracts of any size with the federal government without participating in a competitive bidding process.

On the East Coast, among other contracts, a Goldbelt subsidiary provides role players for Middle Eastern war simulations. Rocket scientists, in another subsidiary, run mission operations for NASA research.

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