A gold exploration project at Coeur Alaska’s Kensington Mine north of Juneau has revealed thousands more ounces of precious metals. The high-grade gold deposits will extend the mine’s life through 2029.
Steve Ball, the general manager at Kensington, said the company spent a few years and nearly $90 million drilling to discover more gold. Now those efforts have paid off.
“We increased our reserves from a low point of 261,000 ounces at the end of year 2022, to 501,000 ounces at the end of year 2024.”
Ball said those new reserves, which they’ve already started excavating, represent around five years of mine life.
Brian Holst is the executive director of the Juneau Economic Development Council. In an email, he said this is promising for workers here, since the mining industry is one of the community’s largest private employers.
“Both Kensington and Greens Creek Mine provide some of Juneau’s highest paying jobs, averaging over $120,000 a year, so knowing that Kensington Mine has a longer future of work in Juneau ahead of them is great news for the workers and our community,” he said.
Kensington employs around 380 people and roughly 40% of them live in Southeast. The mine is also Juneau’s second largest taxpayer after Hecla Greens Creek Mine.
Kensington mine is located about 45 miles northwest of Juneau in the Berners Bay Mining District. It’s owned by Coeur, a multinational company based in Chicago, Illinois, which began operating it in 2010.
The mine has raised environmental concerns. Last year, it reported a tailings spill. Separately, it was potentially responsible for a fish die-off downstream. In 2019, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fined Coeur more than $500,000 for multiple environmental violations.
The price of gold is on the rise. As of today, it’s at roughly $3,600 per ounce.
Deantha Skibinski is the executive director of the Alaska Miners Association. She said the positive trend makes Alaska a more attractive place to drill, given how expensive it is to establish gold mines here.
“That certainly incentivizes companies to do that exploration in Alaska to hopefully bring more mines online,” she said. “So it really is a positive driver in terms of growing our industry here.”
Ball said that Kensington staff have already started more exploratory drilling with the hopes of extending the mine’s life even further.
