Members of the House Natural Resources Committee spent Monday touring Hecla Mining Company’s Greens Creek Mine, gaining a firsthand look at one of the world’s largest and lowest-cost primary silver operations.
Located in Southeast Alaska, Greens Creek is a cornerstone of domestic mineral production and a critical contributor to both the state’s economy and the nation’s resource security. The site produced 8.5 million ounces of silver in 2024 at an all-in sustaining cost of $5.65 per ounce, along with 55,275 ounces of gold. Forecasts for 2025 project silver output between 8.1 and 8.8 million ounces, supported by proven and probable reserves of 105.2 million ounces of silver, 880,000 ounces of gold, 250,600 tons of lead, and 658,700 tons of zinc. Current reserves provide an estimated 14 years of mine life.
The delegation toured the underground mine, mill, and surface facilities, observing technology and safety protocols that support production efficiency and worker protection. An aerial overview of the Tongass National Forest followed, providing additional context for how the mine operates within the broader Southeast Alaska landscape.
“One of the things we have tried to highlight is how Alaskans care for the environment while we develop our resources responsibly. We have certainly had an opportunity to see that in Juneau at Green’s Creek Mine,” Congressman Begich said during a press availability in Anchorage on Wednesday.
Greens Creek remains Hecla’s primary cash-generating asset, as well as a steady supplier of minerals vital to U.S. manufacturing and renewable energy supply chains. The visit highlighted the mine’s role in balancing economic development, job creation, and environmental stewardship in a region where natural resources and conservation interests converge.
“Alaska’s mineral wealth is indispensable — not just for our state’s economy, but for America’s energy security,” Begich said. Greens Creek Mine exemplifies how our nation can responsibly tap into critical mineral reserves to reduce reliance on foreign adversaries and support domestic supply while also fueling innovations. I couldn’t be more grateful to have 10 members of the House Natural Resources Committee in our great state to witness firsthand Alaska’s incredible resource potential.”
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources did not require Greens Creek to submit core samples yet issued a permit. The native corporations need to get Earth Justice to file a lawsuit against the ADNR demanding the permit be rescinded.
Why would unnamed native corporations needs to get a radical environmental group to file a lawsuit, couldn’t they do that themselves? If DNR didn’t require a core sample to issue a permit, how would unnamed native corporations using a third party radical environmental group to conduct lawfare result in permits that have been in place for years being rescinded?
History? That is exactly what they did recently in lawfare targeting the permit approvals of the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. Earth Justice demanded in both cases the government rescind their approvals of the permit application of a mining competitor – citing the lack of acceptable core sampling methodologies. However, AK statutes and USACE regulations do NOT require core samples for 402 and 402 permits. But if EarthJustice has been targeted by mining competitors seeking regulatory claim jumping fronting as ‘natives’ upon one competitor, why not ALL of them? Are there financial entanglements and selection of winners and losers at play? The ADNR needs to be exposed for the Fraud, Waste, Abuse and Criminal collusion they routinely take part in with their noble ‘native’ co-conspirators.
Greens Creek and its associated exploration is located on Federal claims and private, patented lands. DNR has regulatory oversight only for mine reclamation (approving mine reclamation plans or letters of intent to do reclamation for small exempt operations) and Water Use Authorizations/Water Rights under the Alaska Water Use Act. The mine’s main plan of operations is done via the U.S. Forest Service. Not sure what “permit” DNR has issued without core samples, but your statement doesn’t make sense. Submitting core samples isn’t a requirement…
Core Sample data collection and analysis were cited in recent ADNR permit disallowance. Meanwhile, EarthJustice cited the same in lawfare demands to rescind 404 and 402 permits granted for these same permit applications by the USACE and ADEC. For the tribes and soros funded environmental lawfare goons, the rules do not matter. Stealing non-native businesses property is the goal. Subsistence concerns and cultural virtue signaling is the kabuki theater.
There sure are a lot of people claiming to hold stakes.
Why would DNR need the core samples??? I’m
Trying to figure out what exactly you are getting at here Native. ???
They don’t.
The ADNR Mining office just claims to need them when evaluating a permit application submitted by any mining company owned by anyone from the lower 48 whose people didn’t cross the Bering Strait land bridge ~13000 years ago.
Nicholas would win the Alaska governorship, hands down over Uncle Tom, if Nicholas decided to run. What an incredible nephew!
I will do my best to keep Nicholas in Congress, Mark. He’s so damn popular in Alaska, he could probably win any seat he desires, except at the Begich family dinner table. That seat is still yours, bro.
I’ll bet when the Begich family eats at Thanksgiving, they have separate dining tables, and maybe separate rooms. Ham for NB3 and the uncles eat turkey.
I bet ma Begich is having trouble holding down the fort.
It is disputable whether Nick Begich is a good representative for all Alaskans. I know for sure that he has hired some staffers who are rude, unprofessional, and with none of the characteristics and attitudes that Alaskans generally expect when calling a congressional office. I voted for Nick and contributed financially to his campaign, but my experiences with him and his staff since he was elected are concerning and troubling.
If his staff are rude and unprofessional, theyre just par for the corse, along with Murkowskis
Why are comments made to the contrary not posted? My previous comment, that was pending and waiting for approval, has now disappeared. A few decisions like this could be the start of a pattern.
Lessee, silver, lead and zinc out of the same hole in the ground. Wonder how productive this mine is with rare earths? Cheers –
Native are you anti mining ?? If so you’re transmitting your trash on a device full of (mined) and (oil) derivatives. So your comments are hollow at best.
I am not ‘anti-mining’. Quite the contrary. I continually cite the preferential and criminally indictable collusion between AK state and regulatory agencies afforded to ‘native’ corporations – resulting in bribes, kickbacks and maladministration of agency authority afforded to people who contend in public that Alaska is not a state in the United States, but rather their sole possession. Meanwhile if you are a mining company based in the lower 48 with valid mining claims in Alaska, you are subjected to unlawful discrimination and malicious regulatory impositions because you are a ‘non-native’. The spouses of Dunleavy and Sullivan are C-Suite office holders in two native corporations who receive hundreds of millions of state and federal set aside no-show, no-bid and no-work contracts.
Consider the Nome port expansion. Granted noncompetitively by the biden regime to native entities in 2022 through the US Army Corp of Engineers. Funding received 2023 … $276,000,000 later not so much as a single deliverable item has been made manifest. Instead in 2024 the project recipients declared a need for an additional $650,000,000 to resume their not working for FY2025.
Quite a remarkable comment if the points can be proven.
You merely have to look it up. Try Grok.
Further more Earth justice and green peace are NOT environmental groups they are predators that RAPE their money from industry which does nothing but drive the price of products up for you and I. Your new iPhone is $1800 because of them. It should be $250. Even if these so called environmental groups are riding bikes to work they are riding mined and oil produced equipment. They are scumbags. Extorting $ for a living is wrong.
Agree 100%
I refuse to purchase anything from Apple until they cease and desist in exploiting the slave labor of Uyghurs and the Lao Baixing to make their surveillance and brainwashing hardware.
When are we gonna start talking about the soaring gas prices up here? $3.80 at Circle K.