Skagway pens tentative lease with state agency for ore terminal

Skagway Ore Terminal and ship loader. (Photo courtesy AIDEA)
Skagway Ore Terminal and ship loader. (Photo courtesy AIDEA)

The Municipality of Skagway Assembly has released a draft lease in anticipation of the Gateway Port Expansion Project.

The draft 35-year-lease is with the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, or AIDEA, for about six acres that includes the Skagway Ore Terminal and nearby tidelands. It would start in 2023 after White Pass Yukon Railroad’s lease of the property ends.

In 1990, AIDEA purchased the ore terminal and ship loader and started subleasing the land from White Pass. Those lands will revert back to the city in 2023. AIDEA asked the municipality for the future lease to offer some certainty to prospective mining companies and investors that might want to transport ore through the terminal.

The new lease allows up to 750,000 tons of ore and concentrations be shipped through the facility annually. Under the new lease, AIDEA’s monthly rent will be based on fair market value appraisals of the property every five years. Commodities surcharges to the companies shipping ore through the terminal will be split; 85 percent of those fees for the municipality and AIDEA 15 percent for AIDEA. The city will use fifty percent of its portion to maintain the property or the port in general.

The city is still negotiating details with White Pass for a tidelands lease. That’s necessary to allow the city access to areas of the port for the Gateway Project. While some specifics of that lease were released last January, a formal lease has yet to be finalized.

 

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