Published: May 10, 2016 |

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For first time since 1985 and likely for the last time, there are commercial gold mining plans this summer inside Denali National Park and Preserve.

An Eagle River gold miner filed a plan last year to work the final unpatented mining claim in the national park. If his plan is approved, his suction dredge placer gold mining operation could begin this summer.

The plan is open for public comment through June 2 in a National Park Service environmental review. Anchorage business Eldorado Ventures, LLC owns 118 acres of valid unpatented claims along Eldorado Creek, 1.5 miles upstream from the town of Kantishna.

The mining work crew would likely range between one and four people, according to the park service’s 108 page environmental assessment of their plan. Their plan involves rebuilding an old tractor trail so they can access their claim by pickup truck. They would live in the Comstock Cabin, an old mining cabin along Eldorado Creek. 

The mining site and access road wouldn’t be visible from tourism businesses in Kantishna, said Steve Carwile, the National Park Service compliance officer who’s been processing the proposal.

“Both of the lodges in downtown Kantishna are on the east side of Moose Creek. The road up Eldorado starts on the west side so you would have to either drive or walk across Moose Creek, which is certainly doable but most people out there don’t have vehicles and aren’t looking forward to getting water above their knees,” he said.

For work to begin this summer, the park service would have to make a formal finding that the project wouldn’t have a significant environmental impact. The mining project also needs a permit from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, he said. 

The environmental assessment of the mining operation went out Thursday and didn’t immediately receive any comments, Carwile said. 

A HISTORY OF GOLD MINING

Kantishna is an early 20th Century gold mining town at the end of the Denali Park Road. The Kantishna Hills Mining District produced 85,000 ounces of gold between 1905 and 1983, according to the park service.

Today the area is known mostly for its wilderness lodges. Kantishna and the area around it were added to the national park as part of the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. The expanded park surrounded small islands of private land and mining claims. There’s been no mining around Kantishna since 1985. In 1990, the park service began buying mining claims within the park when they had willing sellers. The park service approved one other plan to mine in the park in 1993, but the claimant was in his 80s and never used it, Carwile said.

The new proposed placer mine sits on the last unpatented claim in the park. An unpatented claim is a claim where the claimant owns the right to mine on the public land, but doesn’t own the land itself. Several patented claims remain in the Kantishna area, but they’re unlikely to be used for mining because the surface is valuable as a potential lodge or cabin site, Carwile said.

The unpatented claims owned by Eldorado Ventures, LLC. were first staked in the late 1960s and were purchased by their current owners in 2002, Carwile said. Eugene Desjarlais, of Anchorage, is the main owner of the claims. He holds a 75 percent share in Eldorado Ventures, which incorporated in 2004.

The owners rejected the park service’s offer to buy the claims, choosing to try their luck developing them instead, Carwile said. Lacking mining expertise, they leased the claim to miner Kris DeVault of Eagle River, who has experience with suction dredge mining.

The claims were declared valid in 1999, which means that the creek holds enough gold for mining to be profitable. But Carwile is doubtful that DeVault’s operation will be a major moneymaker because it’s in an area that was so widely prospected for so long.

“The threshold for validity is only that you make a profit,” he said. “You could have a claim that is worth a dollar in profit and it would still be valid to mine.”

Source: (May 8, 2016) Newsminer.com

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