Mine company plans road near Herbert Glacier as proposed cabin put on hold
- Jasz Garrett
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
Controversy about New Amalga Gold Project expands to concerns about impacts on nearby recreational use as lawmakers question its ties to Cascade Point Ferry Terminal
By Jasz Garrett and Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
Notice of a proposed access road to a planned gold mine near Herbert Glacier was published by the state Wednesday, following the U.S. Forest Service’s cancellation of a recreational cabin near the glacier in a draft decision published last month.
If the road about 21 miles north of Juneau is approved, construction could start as soon as this spring, with an anticipated completion date of fall 2027. The application seeks use of the road until 2061.
The notice for the road was published during a week when the New Amalga Gold Project proposed by Canada-based Grande Portage Resources Ltd. was under intense scrutiny from legislators due to the mine’s role in another nearby state project — the Cascade Point Ferry Terminal. The Dunleavy administration has been rapidly advancing the terminal 30 miles north of Juneau despite strong opposition from regional officials and residents, who have expressed concern a primary intent of the project is providing an ore shipping facility for the mine.
Attempts by the Juneau Independent to contact the Alaska Department of Natural Resources officials for further details about the public notice it published this week about the road were unsuccessful.
On Friday, a Forest Service spokesperson denied that last month’s draft cancellation of the cabin was related to the road proposal. Paul Robbins, a public affairs officer for the Tongass National Forest, added the possibility of Herbert Glacier Cabin being built wasn’t eliminated by January's draft decision. The project is currently in a period where objections to the draft plan are being accepted.
“The decision was made to move forward with the overlook and the trail improvement,” Robbins said. “And while this decision doesn’t authorize the cabin, it doesn’t mean that there can't be a cabin in a later decision. The NEPA’s done, and all we would have to do is go through another objection period to authorize the cabin being built. So cancellation may not be the right word for that. In this decision, it wasn't authorized to move forward. As far as the state thing, that really doesn’t have anything to do with us as far as the road easement.”
He said the Forest Service received public comments concerned about the proximity of the mining claim to the cabin and that input was taken into account. But Robbins noted other factors like capacity issues and the cabin’s complexity were larger drivers to not move forward at this time.
Many of the public comments — for and against the cabin — linked that Herbert Glacier project to the mine.
“It was a wise decision to cancel the Herbert Glacier Cabin project as it will conflict and cause unnecessary permitting problems for the mining exploration and development that has been ongoing for over 20 years,” wrote Neil MacKinnon, in a comment posted Feb. 10. “There are plenty of other cabin sites within the Tongass that could be developed that are in areas that are not conflicting with established multiple uses of the Tongass. The fact that this project got so far in the proposal process is disturbing as it evidences the USFS bias against mineral development. A bias that perverts the Multiple Use mandate of the USFS against economic use of the land.”
An argument the mine project and cabin can co-exist was made in a Feb. 7 comment by Jennifer Malecha, a disability services specialist at the University of Alaska Southeast.
“I understand that there are existing and potential mining activities in the area, and that the Forest Service must balance multiple uses of public land,” she said. “However, public recreation and mineral development do not need to be mutually exclusive. With clear boundaries, scheduling considerations, safety buffers, and ongoing coordination, it should be possible to protect public access while allowing responsible mining activity to continue.”
The public comment period to object to the Herbert Glacier project ends March 9. The public comment period on the state’s public notice ends March 13.
The Forest Service in April of 2025 approved exploratory drilling and other activities for the Amalga project for up to one year. Eight drill sites are proposed.
The mining project is on Forest Service land and currently only accessible via helicopter. The proposed easement area can be directly accessed via Glacier Highway and a driveway/ approach road permit for the turnout from Glacier Highway would be obtained from the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities prior to development.
“This will greatly reduce the distance of supply helicopter shuttles while also reducing noise impacts to residential areas near the current staging area,” the private company’s application states. “This would involve utilizing state land accessed from Glacier Highway in between the Herbert River bridge and Eagle River bridge.”
The Herbert Glacier Cabin project area is approximately one mile from the terminus of the Herbert Glacier. The proposed mining road’s closest approach to the Herbert Glacier Trail is approximately 490 feet, according to a map included in the easement application. The road ends a few miles short of the glacier, but the state’s notice says, “if a mine is ultimately built, the road may be extended onto USFS land to access the minesite.”
Kyle Mehalek, a technical specialist with Grand Portage, wrote in a public comment last year the proposed cabin is on a hillside high enough to be exposed to mine-related activities.
“It would be incredibly challenging, likely impossible, to protect the proposed cabin from potential visual and noise impacts with the same effectiveness as the existing trail,” he wrote.
Grand Portage, in its application, states it wants to use the site at the end of the road as a staging area for the Amalga project, in order to reduce helicopter activity from the current area in the Mendenhall Valley. The site would include a helicopter pad and two one-acre storage areas for construction materials. The access road and staging areas would consist of a two to three-foot layer of compacted shot rock.
“The staging areas will be used to store equipment, drilling supplies, and rock core samples inside metal shipping containers (i.e., ‘CONEX’ boxes),” the notice states. “The staging areas will also be used for helicopter operations to transport supplies and materials to the applicant’s mineral exploration sites (New Amalga Gold Project) on adjacent United States Forest Service (USFS) land near Herbert Glacier. If a mining operation is approved and developed on the adjacent USFS land, the 1.3-mile-long road on state land will serve as the first segment of the access road to the project site.”
Attempts Friday by the Juneau Independent to contact Grand Portage President and CEO Ian Klassen were unsuccessful.
• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz@juneauindependent.com or (907) 723-9356. Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
