The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers today finalized a wastewater and tailings disposal permit for the Greens Creek Mine near Juneau.
Without the permit, the silver mine on Admiralty Island would’ve soon run out of space for its tailings, the material left over after valuable minerals have been extracted from raw ore during the mining process.
Greens Creek government relations manager Mike Satre says the permit will meet the mine’s needs for about 10 years.
“Greens Creek is incredibly pleased that we have the final permit in hand to start the expansion to our tailings facility in 2015,” Satre says.
The mine is one of Juneau’s largest private employers. Satre says of the more than 400 people who work at Greens Creek, about 225 of them hail from Juneau and Southeast Alaska. He says many of the rest live elsewhere in the state.
The mine is owned by Hecla Mining Co. of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
Greens Creek is located within the Admiralty Island National Monument, which led environmental groups to express concern about the permit.
