American Pacific Mining tears down work camp but plans to continue exploration at Palmer Project

Residents have mixed feelings about what the moves mean for the project and the future of the Chilkat Valley

A truck transports material for American Pacific Mining’s Klehini River modular camp on the Porcupine Spur Road. (Chilkat Valley News)

By Rashah McChesney

Chilkat Valley News

For weeks, truck traffic has been moving equipment and building materials from American Pacific Mining’s Klehini River modular camp on the Porcupine Spur Road in the upper Chilkat Valley. 

The company’s media contacts did not respond to a request for more information about its plans, but in an August 7 information release clarified that it is demobilizing the camp as an austerity measure that will save hundreds of thousands of dollars per month. 

At least some of that savings will come through a reduction in its local property tax bill, which jumped up in value this year after years of being assessed at under $40,000. Haines’ assessor determined that it was worth $2.46 million this year, meaning Constantine Mining LLC—which is wholly owned by American Pacific Mining Corp.—got a tax bill for more than $16,000. 

“Nobody (from the assessor’s office) has been out there for a while,” said Appraisal Company of Alaska assessor Martins Onskulis. “That’s the reason for the value jump. Before it was a vacant lot, now it has improvements on it.”

The company did lay out a plan for some work that would happen later this year. That includes drone surveys of what it calls “key prospects” in the area, mapping and sampling work on the west side of the Little Jarvis Glacier, and gold exploration in the Porcupine-McKinley Creek area. It plans to use its Big Nugget Camp for construction crews to support that exploration.

The Palmer Project has been divisive in the Chilkat Valley, where some residents—like Bryce Wortman—see it as a path to economic stability for local communities.

“I need my peers to be able to have good-enough paying jobs to continue to live here year-round and raise the next generation of Alaskans in Haines,” Wortman wrote in his response to a spring survey of residents younger than 40.

During a more recent interview, Wortman, who works at a local grocery store, said well-paying, stable jobs are crucial for local businesses, particularly if a local-hire priority was attached to any project development.

“That’s money that comes through local stores, local people. I’d like to see Alaskans get that money and those jobs,” he said.

But, Wortman also said he doesn’t want the development of a mine to come at the expense of the environment in the Chilkat Valley, particularly the Chilkat River.

He said if the company sells the Palmer Project, he hopes it will be to another company that could develop a mining project responsibly.

“I don’t want them coming in here and destroying everything,” he said.

That possibility is something that makes the project untenable for other residents, including tribal leaders in Klukwan.

“Food security versus a hard-rock acid mine? I’m going to choose my food security,” said Chilkat Indian Village tribal council vice president Kimberley Strong.

Strong said the valley’s priority should be on preserving the subsistence-based way of life that tribal citizens and many others in the Chilkat Valley live, pointing to the number of people currently out fishing for sockeye, and preparing for fall moose and bear hunting.

“I worry that our government and people pushing for this are here for extraction and personal financial gain,” she said. “We’re not visitors here, we’re not people here for a job or here to extract. We’re here because this is home.”

Strong and others, like Lynn Canal Conservation executive director Jessica Plachta, said the disassembly of the mancamp sends out a mixed message of what the site is actually worth at a time when American Pacific Mining is trying to sell it.

Plachta said it should be “yet another word of warning to investors.”

American Pacific Mining reports being “actively engaged” in merger and acquisition discussions with potential partners.

• This article originally appeared in the Chilkat Valley News.