I appreciated Tim Bradner’s balanced piece on the Ambler Road. However, two important pieces of information were missing from it.
First, an Ambler Road right-of-way was part of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. The same legislation that created over 57 million acres of Wilderness in Alaska in 1980 granted the state access to the Ambler Mining District. ANILCA mandated a right-of-way across federal lands for an east-west road corridor between the AMD and the Haul Road (now the Dalton Highway); including the most controversial section through the Gates of the Arctic National Preserve (non-wilderness portion of the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve).
The only other federal lands to be traversed are the Bureau of Land Management lands along the trans-Alaska oil pipeline corridor itself — often referred to as 51-50 lands selected by the state, but not yet transferred by the federal government — that has remained a top priority of the state for some time now. However, the current Land Use Management Plan for the pipeline corridor lands does recognize the Ambler Road right-of-way. So there should be no question of the state’s right to build a road to access the AMD.
The second important point missing from Bradner’s op-ed has to do with pointing out why Congress granted this access route in the first place. The reason is simple — it is the shortest route that connects the AMD with Alaska’s existing infrastructure — the Dalton Highway to Fairbanks and the Alaska Railroad to the Port of Alaska in Anchorage. This will allow for the transport of fuel and freight into the mines for operations, and for the metal concentrates produced at the mines to be transported to Anchorage and exported to overseas markets.
Both the Alaska Railroad and the Port of Alaska are critical pieces of infrastructure for the entire state that are highly underutilized. Like any capital investment, they need to be maintained and that requires either paying customers or subsidies. With the Healy coal mine no longer exporting coal, metal concentrates from the AMD would be the export for the Port of Alaska.
Yes, life is about balance and in 1980, after a long and hard-fought political battle, we achieved balance of what is wilderness and what is not. The Ambler Mining District represents a nationally important source of metals and potential revenue and diversification of the state economy. By the way, these metals are also critical and absolutely necessary to build a carbon-free, sustainable energy and transportation future.
— Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
Senior adviser, Trilogy Metals Inc.
Fairbanks
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