A Dallas-based mining company says it started its first work to recover antimony from previously-mined land in Alaska on Monday.
The new activity is taking place at the Mohawk Mine, which is in the Ester Dome area near Fairbanks. It’s currently a small operation, but part of the U.S. Antimony Corporation’s broader campaign, through subsidiary Great Land Minerals, to mine the critical mineral in Alaska and transport ore to the Lower 48.
The company says its projects will reduce domestic reliance on foreign adversaries for materials, like antimony, that are essential to national defense and energy technologies.
The United States didn’t produce any antimony domestically in 2024, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Last year, the U.S. imported more than 60% of its antimony from China, which banned export of it and other minerals to the U.S. in December.
Though conducting exploration for potential underground mining in Alaska in the future, U.S. Antimony says it’s prioritizing a strategy to recover the mineral from discarded rock waste at historic mining sites.
Antimony reclamation operations started at the Mohawk property after an “exclusive VIP site visit” on Monday, the company says. Industry leaders, local and state elected officials and their staff, as well as staff for Alaska’s congressional delegation were among those invited. U.S. Antimony planned for about two dozen to make it to the tour.
KUAC did not confirm how many of them attended, but Rep. Ashley Carrick, a West Fairbanks Democrat, was there, she said. Carrick represents House District 35, which includes the Ester area.
Carrick said they visited multiple parcels around Ester Dome that the company has acquired. She opposes U.S. Antimony’s projects, and said the tour only compounded her worries. That’s in part because the claims have grown to include patented land, or land where owners possess both surface and mineral rights.
“Especially after having seen the long-term, future plans and size of this project, I’m even more concerned about it than I was previously,” she said.
In total, U.S. Antimony says it has about 240 mining claims covering around 25,000 acres near Fairbanks, Tok and the Maclaren River. The Mohawk property is located a little less than a mile north of the junction of St. Patrick and Henderson roads in Ester.
U.S. Antimony says it acquired the site at the end of June. It’s patented land.
“Therefore, permitting is much simpler and expeditious,” the company wrote in July.
East Fairbanks Republican Rep. Will Stapp also went to U.S. Antimony’s exclusive tour, he said. Stapp said he thinks the company’s plans to invest in the area are promising.
“I was definitely optimistic,” he said. “I think economic growth is generally a good thing, and I think responsible resource development is also a good thing, and we just want to make sure that the operations out there are as safe and as least disruptive for the residents as possible.”
The company says its plans would include trucking raw ore from its Alaska claims to a smelter in Montana more than 2,000 miles away at a rate of 20 loads per month.
But for now, Mohawk is the first site where mining activity is getting underway. Carrick said U.S. Antimony officials told the group that crews were going to begin reclaiming antimony from old deposits right after the visit ended Monday.
That was another part of her concern. Carrick, who lives in the vicinity of the mine, said the company has yet to engage with the community through any public meetings.
“So the project is already happening, and the plans for expansion are already developed,” she said. “I hope, because they did suggest they have a commitment to hearing from the public, I hope that that actually happens. And I hope that the community is listened to.”
In response to an interview request, company CEO Gary Evans said in an emailed statement that they hosted the officials this week to “foster open dialogue and highlight how the project can contribute to the Interior’s economy while reinforcing Alaska’s role in critical mineral security.
“By working within already mined terrain, we can minimize new disturbance and ensure the project reflects the priorities of Alaska communities,” he said in the statement.
In a letter Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) received in August, the Dallas-based company indicated that it’s targeting antimony in up to 5,000 cubic yards of waste piles generated by mining at the Mohawk Mine in the 1930s.
“No new ground will be broken outside the waste pile footprint and existing mined areas,” the letter reads.
DNR gave the go ahead on Sept. 5, saying in a response that the operations at Mohawk are small enough in scope to meet permitting exemptions in state law.
DNR Director of Communications Lorraine Henry said by email that "[b]ecause the proposed activities meet the small operation exemption and are on private land … only a regulatory filing is needed."