Mining company in B.C. looks at reopening Windy Craggy mine

Cathedral peaks over the Chilkat River. (Will Steinfeld / Chilkat Valley News)

By Lizzy Hahn

Chilkat Valley News

A British Columbia mining company is proposing to revive the Windy Craggy mine, located about 70 miles northwest of Haines. 

The site sits in the Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park in northwest B.C., near the confluence of the Tatshenshini and Alsek rivers.

There are hurdles to re-opening the project. According to the online news magazine The Tyee, which first reported the revived interest in the Windy Craggy project, British Columbia-based Dominion Critical Minerals, a junior mining company that was incorporated in 2025,  would have to apply for a park boundary adjustment to develop the project. Mining is not permitted in a Provincial Park, which is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site that includes Glacier Bay National Park in southeast Alaska.

It’s not clear how far Dominion has gotten with its proposal, but according to documents obtained by The Tyee, the company is interested in reopening a pre-existing mine that was last being developed in the 1990s by another Canadian mining company, Geddes Resources Limited, which wanted to mine copper. Cobalt, gold, silver and zinc are also present. The Windy Craggy mountain has tributaries that feed into the Tatshenshini and Alsek rivers, popular rafting destinations north of the Chilkat Valley.

Russ White is a consulting geologist who runs Lynn Canal Geological Services in Haines with his wife, Cindy Buxton. White did not directly work on the Windy Craggy mine but heard friends working on the project talking about it while he was working in the mining industry.

“It’s a very rich deposit, higher rate than Constantine [Mine]; it’s more along the lines of Greens Creek [Mine] but more massive, so it would have been cheaper to mine,” White said. 

Both the Greens Creek Mine and the proposed Windy Craggy Mine are in what White described as “out of sight, out of mind” areas, where people don’t see the mine directly, compared with the proposed Palmer Project, which would be closer to the Haines Highway. 

If constructed, White said that while people may not see the mine pit itself, “it would probably affect the river at some point.” 

The Windy Craggy site is not mine-ready. White estimated that even with no opposition, it would still take around 10 years to mine because more exploratory drilling has to be done.

The Tyee reported that currently, the exploration site Geddes was working on in the ’90s is continuing to leach acid rock drainage into the environment. This includes drainage into the Tatshenshini River.

Dominion highlighted environmental concerns with the site as it currently stands in a briefing note the company sent to Tamara Davidson, British Columbia’s minister of environment and parks.

Every time he drives out the highway past the sign that says “Tatshenshini Wilderness,” project director for Alaska Clean Water Advocacy Gershon Cohen says that he thinks about the proposed Windy Craggy Mine.

Geddes Resources’ plan in the 1990s was to mine copper, transfer it via haul trucks or pipe to Haines and then ship it to Japan. It drew widespread opposition from Chilkat Valley residents when it was last being developed in the 1990s. 

“It was a remarkable experience, in that an amazing percentage of the town was opposed to the project,” said Cohen. 

Cohen attended a town hall that Geddes Resources hosted in Haines and said the meeting was one that he would never forget. According to archival Chilkat Valley News coverage, more than 250 residents showed up to a forum in May 1990 that ended up lasting more than five hours. 

Back then, he said, it was “remarkable because the polarization, believe it or not, was even worse then.”

According to a story published in the Chilkat Valley News on May 17, 1990, six of the roughly 36 people who addressed Geddes spoke in favor of the project. 

Geddes anticipated “an ore truck would pass on the highway every nine minutes,” according to a different story in the May 10, 1990 CVN.

Cohen recalled an audience member asking Geddes Resources president Gerald Harper what would happen to school buses traveling on the highway, and having to potentially interact with ore trucks. Cohen said Harper’s response had an immediate effect on the crowd. 

“He [Harper] said, ‘I suppose the school buses will have to move out of the way when the ore trucks go by,’” Cohen recalled. The attitude in the room shifted, Cohen said, after Harper said this to the room of locals. “No way is our school bus going to have to get out of the way of your ore trucks,” Cohen said.

“There was a lot of opposition to the project and I know there would be a lot of opposition if the project happened now,” Cohen said. “We stopped something stupid from happening that would have impacted this valley.”

The last attempt to develop Windy Craggy ended in October 1993 when the Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park was established as a Class A park. According to the British Columbia government, Class A parks are “dedicated to the preservation of their natural environments for the inspiration, use and enjoyment of the public.” The definition goes on to explain that permits with an interest in land or natural resources can not be issued unless “to do so is necessary to preserve or maintain the recreational values of the park involved.”

In August 1995, the Vancouver company Geddes Resources Limited received $103.8 million from the British Columbia government to abandon its “mineral claims at Windy Craggy Mountain.”

• This story originally appeared in the Chilkat Valley News.