The Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly meeting on Thursday already has a full agenda, but it just got more complicated. Two environmental action groups are coordinating to bring in a room full of protesters to stage what may be, in fact, a sit-in at the meeting, which starts at 6 p.m.
Assembly Presiding Officer Savannah Fletcher may have had advance notice of the protest, because she had already reserved a back-up meeting to finish Thursday’s agenda items, should this meeting be disrupted.
The group Alaskans for Safe Alaska Highways shared a notice that Save Our Domes and Northern Alaska Environmental Center, both of which are opposed to mining in the Interior, are planning to arrive en masse. The groups plan to take over the public comment period at the beginning of the meeting, and encouraged others to join them to crowd the room. “[W]e would we would love to have additional support sitting in the Borough chambers with us.”
The borough assembly meeting takes place in the Assembly Chambers, 907 Terminal Street.
The two groups are trying to stop the Manh Chou and Kinross mine projects. They’ve done this in the past, with protests against the Ambler Road. They’ve traveled to Anchorage to protest and brought north protesters from Anchorage to beef up to their numbers. When the group launches an action, it often comes with plenty of signs and banners for media attention.
“Industrial hard rock mining in the Interior is rapidly coming online and many people in the community feel this is incompatible with the areas in which we live and recreate,” the groups said in their notice. “Many of these projects propose to use our public roads to truck mining ore to Ft. Knox, similar to the Manh Choh operation, for years to come.”
The Northern Environmental Center is mostly funded by interest earned from the Glenmede Endowment Fund, which is a $1.5 million environmental-focused endowment that allows the group to lobby, train, and advocate without having to scrape for other funding.
“If the potential outcome wasn’t so harmful to the state of Alaska’s employment and energy future, Thursday’s ENGO actions would be comical. These are the same people who use items made from mined materials and petroleum products in every facet of their lives. They whine about responsible development in Alaska, but dismiss that the alternative to domestic development is empowering Communist China, Russia, OPEC nations and despot dictators who hate everything the U.S. stands for,” said Rick Whitbeck, Alaska state director for Power The Future. “Maybe they don’t care about U.S. energy security? Maybe they secretly love the CCP? Their actions show just how out of touch they are with the clear majority of Alaskans.”
In October, the Northern Environmental Center will cohost Antifa-style training for “activists and organizers of all levels and experience.” The two-day non-violent direct action and arts workshop is Oct. 5-6, with trainers from across the state will provide information on the “philosophies of direct action, give tactics and tools to help you start or further develop your campaign, and guide campaign and art development, leading to the positive change we want to see in our communities!”
Fairbanks was FOUNDED ON MINING! The place didn’t exist until gold was found in the 1900s by Felix Pedro.
These groups are basically obstacles from other places trying to make Alaska Mining look bad. Kinross Fort Knox has been one of the best for mining here in the interior. Alot of hard working people out there getting the gold out of the ground. The Mahn Chou mine is providing the native corporation that owns it alot of money to have those trucks on the road.
Kinross had another mine they closed years ago called the True North. You can barely even tell there was anything there now.
These aggressive protesters apparently need an education on mines. They are not what they used to be. Protesters should not be allowed into an assembly meeting period. If they are gonna go and be quiet like adults that’s fine. Do not show up acting like Seattle Based losers trying to bully your way into something.
So aggressive protestors are okay as long as they are your buddies? Give me a break. The amount of frothing unemployed GOP voters that post up at assembly meetings absolutely fits your description. Now what?
They are intelectually dishonest. They aren’t interested in any education on the subject. Their Marxist agenda is all that matters.
Daisy Mae, are you going to vote on November 5th?
Let me guess, The Environmental Clowns will show up in Gas powered cars, busses and vans? Coming from their house made out of wood and fossil fuels? Makes sense if you are a hypocrite.
This entire circus is inspired by former FNSB mayor Luke Hopkins and his band of wacko Green New Deal gangsters. It’s also a campaign ploy by Scott Kendall to get screwball environmentalists and woke DEI indoctrinates to the polls to vote for Hopkin’s child son Grier Hopkins for Borough Mayor, and to keep his brother in law David Guttenberg on the Assembly. Of course, the Newsminer will be there to cover for all of their great Democrat friends in the FNSB.
That’s quite a story! Did you cook all that up before 9 am?
She pretty much nailed it, AKSour. This is my full-time job.
👍😁
They are unwilling to give up their use of energy and products for which they are protesting against…. which includes everything that supports their lifestyles.
Isn’t that what police are for? If they show up and attend, find. If they protest and disrupt, load them on a bus and put them out somewhere between Delta and Tok.
Manh Choh is a great project.
Hard rock mining (Rapidly) my a–s. In the last 50 years we got red dog, pogo, ft Knox and many choh in an area the size of the continental United States. Further more these dirt bag protesters are all sporting I phones with gold circuits and lithium batteries. Interior miners show up in force and be heard.
A great project for whom? Alaskans who paid for it, or the truckers they are shipping up from Texas? Or the people who live along the route and now have to reckon with nonstop traffic? They don’t pay taxes, and they are getting the state to pay for all their infrastructure. To a private company. Just say you love cronyism.
Slow down there AKsourdough, this is a private endeavor and to my knowledge, this company is paying for the mine construction, all necessary permits and operation. This is a unique circumstance as the native corporation in Tetlin actually owns the mineral rights to the land and I am not sure how the tax structure works with this scenario. Per our AK constitution all sub-surface rights are held in common by the state and you pay taxes and royalties to the state for getting them out of the ground. Clearly some of that profit (most likely from lease fees etc) will go to the native corporation, therefore benefiting Alaskans.
Building public roads is a designated function of government to encourage interstate commerce and transportation and your “the state paid for THEIR infrastructure” is incorrect, as all users regardless of tax contribution have access to public roads.
Just for fun, public roads are paid for by taxpayers and who in this state is the largest taxpayer? The oil industry, so YOU should not have the right to drive on those roads either, as you contributed very little. See how that logic of yours works.
As an aside while Alaska is the largest state in the union, we have the fewest road miles and in my opinion it is holding the state back from accessing its full potential for all Alaskans.
As for shipping truck drivers up from Texas. It is blatantly clear that our state has neither the population, nor the educational ability due to our poor educational outcomes to provide all the labor force the state and industry need.
“As for shipping truck drivers up from Texas. It is blatantly clear that our state has neither the population, nor the educational ability due to our poor educational outcomes to provide all the labor force the state and industry need.”
Why didn’t you say you didn’t know what you were talking about? It would have been faster. Let me spell it out, simple, for you: THEY DO NOT PAY ALASKAN WAGES AND NO ALASKAN WILL TAKE THE JOB just like Kinross. Boneheads like to repeat things they hear, but it doesn’t make it true. They are shipping up drivers because no one will drive that route for less than they make at Walmart stocking shelves. Wake up.
What are they paying drivers? Your story sounds false. My nephew drives outside of AK – 3 on 1 off – because the money is good & they provide him w/ a plane ticket for his week back in Alaska. WHY would CDL drivers come up here (FBX no less) to drive for WalMart wages? Are you lying sourdough?
AKsourdough, this is a private business and they get to decide how much they wish to pay their employees as long as it meets the state’s minimum wage requirements. It should be pointed out that Black Gold Transport is an Alaskan company and from what I saw on their jobs application site a CDL double endorsement Truck driver starts at an hourly rate of $40.15-$42.35. There isn’t a Walmart in this country paying that kind of money to stock shelves.
Truck drivers are very much in demand. Many municipalities in this state struggle to find enough drivers for their own needs (bus drivers or snowplow operators etc). That is reality and I stand by my earlier statement that we do not have enough qualified individuals in this state. Your irrational arrogance will not change that.
A Taxpayer. You’ll be pleased to know that Kinross would be happy if Alaskans paid a much higher fuel tax to fix the road damage its trucks are doing. You want more taxes, right? Also, your taxes are needed to replace hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bridge these trucks cross. I’m sure you are happy to subsidize this private company, right?
Finally, this mine is not on state lands. There is no royalty paid to Alaska despite your assertion.
So you get the bill for the road damage, and Alaska gets nothing from royalties.
You sound like a guy who knows business. Would you take this deal if you were governor? Or would you ask the Kinross to pay a fraction of the cost of the damage it will do to our roads and bridges to build a ball mill on site? Remember, in this scenario you have to be looking out for the best interest of Alaskans.
The corruption that the owners of the land (the tribe) is alleging, is a whole seperate story.
M, I do not know how long ago you have driven the Richardson Hwy, but from the many times I have used that road, I can say it has always had challenges. Between frost heaves, earthquakes, snow melt, no shoulders to speak off etc. there is always road construction needed/going on, on some portion or other, regardless of traffic. I am pleased that there is an in-state business utilizing the road. Roads are a general welfare/interstate commerce commodity and the state/feds are charged with building and maintaining them.
It should also be pointed out that the mine folks are paying fuel tax for the maintenance of the roads. Most likely their portion is considerably higher than yours, given the many vehicles they employ for transport and the large quantity of fuel required.
You sound like Cathy Giessel and her $75/tire studded tire tax, she was trying to implement at one point to punish those, who wish to be safe in winter driving.
We in this state do not have a lack of income problem, we have a spending wisely problem.
The best interest of Alaskans is the 400-600 jobs and more industry in the state instead of outside. I am also certain that they pay business tax, permits etc. and the royalties benefit Alaskan members of the native corporation. Then I am sure they pay a fee to the other mine for processing their ore. Money that will pay for people in Fairbanks to have jobs, either directly or indirectly in the service industry.
I am further wondering if this venture will not extend the life of the other mines near Fairbanks by processing ore when their own deposit have been exhausted. That would keep more people employed for a much longer time.
It further limits environmental impacts by using facilities already in place instead of the need to build new tailing and processing facilities on site.
From my perspective we should encourage development to improve the life of all Alaskans with better access and good jobs. For that to happen we need better roads, more industry and folks willing to get out of their backwater mind-set and think bigger!
A. Taxpayer, while you posit some interesting ideas, your answer deflects from the points/questions I posed to you. This indicates you understand the points I’ve raised about why this is a bad business deal for Alaska.
I’ve done the fuel tax calcs before. Bottom line the fuel tax raises only a tiny, tiny, fraction of what is needed to repair our destroyed roads. One million gallons of fuel only nets Alaska about $80,000. When this operation is tearing up a billion dollars worth of our infrastructure we are losing badly. So the fuel tax is not an answer.
You focus on jobs, and that’s fine. We’d still have the jobs if the foreign corporation that owns this mine lease would construct a ball mill on site. We’d save the road damage. We’d not have to spend hundreds of millions replacing bridges. We’d not have the air pollution in Fairbanks- which is already a basket case. And we’d not have the safety issues of industrial ore hauling trucks that are not permitted anywhere else in the country running next to school bus stops/school buses.
I appreciate your civilized response!
M, I am under no obligation to respond to your questions as the way they are worded, they do not represent a real desire to understand my reasoning. Instead they challenge me to disagree with your predetermined answer. It is a manipulative tactic.
I am not certain what your true opposition to this project really is, but here is an observation:
If these trucks are permitted by the state then the company is not doing anything underhanded. Hauling ore means hauling rock, so I am not sure what the big deal is on that one either. DOT hauls tons and tons of gravel, sand, rock etc. all the time, along with large machinery.
I generally do not respond well when the old adage “it’s for the children” gets dragged out (as in your school bus comment)
Fairbanks air pollution is legendary and a many decades old issue. A few extra trucks driving north aren’t going to make a real impact.
You are really reaching and I am trying to understand why.
As for road damage, in my opinion we are long overdue for better road construction in materials and design, as many of our roads will not hold up even to modest traffic for more than a few years. Road wear and tear are the price you pay for progress and business. We are not a park. We are a state that should be able to support itself with commerce and industry of many kinds, using our natural resources to improve opportunities in this state for all Alaskans.
Amen tax payer
Actually Alaska sourdough a fairbanks man owns 30% of that mine. Nearly every employee at ft Knox lives in fairbanks. More than 1/2 of the truck drivers are Alaskans. You are completely out of line on this subject. You should probably stand down. Not to mention the Tetlin natives are getting a percentage as it s on their private land. The employment in Tok is like never before as well. It’s curious what your concerns are with this project.?? It’s a good project in a good location.
Hopefully this meeting doesn’t get to exciting. People seem to be losing their Minds these days.
Protests, that how America was born.
You are late on this topic.
We expected you to be the first with a cheer praising your fine Murkowski as your fearless leader in the decimation of Alaska.
You should be going after state and local office holders, not Senator Ted Stevens policy clone Senator Murkowski.
”Wrong mine wrong place” U.S. Senator Ted Stevens.
Good mine in a perfect location. I remember a comment from a moron like yourself on the Susitna dam a number of years ago. Right dam wrong place so we asked where is the correct place. The answer from you pea brains I don’t know. Meanwhile here in Mayberry we are on the verge of running short on electricity mainly because of people like yourself. Dead beat non producers.
wrong man bad memory., moron.
I have a great memory actually.
Doug, 100 percent we should have built Susitna. The usual Alaska corruption stopped it. A certain coal mining operation didn’t want it, and funded a fake environmental group to help stop it. But Gov. Palin did everything she could to move it forward.
The issue with Cook Inlet gas is only about corporate greed. There is 17 trillion cubic feet there- the monopoly that controls the infrastructure there is extorting the legislature to give them free money (corporate welfare) to do more drilling. Alaska has already thrown over $1 billion at the problem- in corprate welfare the last time this manufactured crisis arose.
And you enjoy it?
I liked the Boston Tea Party 😉
I hope we get a lot of non-wacko productive citizens to the borough meeting on Thursday night. Bring your John Coghill signs.
I’ll be there!
Sounds like an insurrection.
Looks like they’ve adopted the Antifa methods of “mostly peaceful protests.” Meaning, they will have thugs comingled with the peaceful protesters. Get ready for some property damage, if you’re attending and have nice car or truck, walk or take an Uber.
Grow up. Thugs? Turn off Fox News and come back down to Earth, you sound like a raving lunatic.
I’m grown up and living in the real world. No lunacy here, just facts gleaned from experience. What’s your story?
If Trump had just hired trained activists on Jan. 6th.
Pelosi did the hiring.
the main objection is the transport of the ore on the highway from Tok to Fairbanks and then on to Fort Knox mine north of Fairbanks. This will involve very large, very laden trucks traveling on the road about every 15 minutes of every day. I think is the problem, not the gold mining. Fort Knox and other large mines, including Usibelli have been good citizens of the interior and are generally well liked. The latest uproar is over the transport methods. Many people are objecting including former
Republican State Senator Gary Wilken.
I’ve been stuck behind them on hills and it’s bad. they do terrible in the snow too.
Anyone that lives or works along the road has been impacted.
and yet Wilkins wants a waiver for the LNG trucks to travel overweight on the Parks? The ultimate NIMBY. Have you ever followed a motorhome or travel trailer (or boat trailer being towed to Harding Lake)? it is what it is. That is commerce folks. That is what America was made of…. the freedom to travel. In communist china and russia they limit commerce and travel just like you all want to. What a joke. If you want a private road with no trucks then you should pay for it yourselves.
Fairbanks. the Golden Heart City? right?
I dont recall ever seeing it called the
Eco-nazi, tree-hugging, not in my backyard, kale eating, Hopkins loving, ultra green, windmill powered, Birkenstock wearing, whale saving, child gender changing,
boys competing against girls city…..
But maybe thats just me.
you forgot home to bunny kissing banana people (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone). Could possibly be supplemented by the CAVE people (Citizens Against Virtually Everything). NIMBY people is too weak of a description for these folks. They want to shut down Alaska and turn it into a federal park.
It was just you. You must never leave the house. There are more hippies here than any other city in Alaska and it’s always been that way. Look at our pot cultivation if you need proof.
Always? I don’t know how long you’ve been in Fairbanks, but the hippies weren’t very welcome 50/60 years ago. I moved away in 1990, in search of greener pastures. Unfortunately, I landed in Los Anchorage.
Hippies in Fairbanks,
In the 50’s beatniks looking to drop out;
in the 60’s running far away from the draft or going AWOL; in the 70’s protesting the VN war and doing lots of drugs like LSD; in the 80’s getting government jobs like at UAF, in the 90’s birthing lots of littke hippies; 2000’s protesting oil development in Alaska and warning the sky is falling with carbon; 2010’s little hippie kids having next generation of hippies and getting more government jobs at UAF; 2020’s first generation of hippies getting Alzheimer’s and telling their grandbabies that they are not the same sex they were at birth; 2025 dying in mass from life of drugs and bodies falling apart, brains decomposed and not fit for compost pile in backyard vegetable garden because of deranged chemical composition that leaches into the soil.
An apparently accurate assessment.
Beware of homegrown carrots and potatoes in Fairbanks. They may have metabolites from soil contaminated by old hippies who used lots of drugs in 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s, and peddle their veggies at the Farmer’s Market.
🤣
All they have to do is wait. Fort Knox is slated to close within 5 years. Mining is already leaving the interior on a large scale.
They dont have the patience to wait.
They have marching orders from the top White House idiots to decimate Alaska as we know it and turn it into a safe haven for the hippies to play with.
But only the “rich” hippies. The elites.
They have been transporting ore non stop since last winter. They are over the road legal trucks so another words if they are not allowed then neither is colvilles fuel tankers Crowleys fuel tankers or any other trucking company moving any product. It is highly illegal to interfere with commerce in the United States of America be it shipping,trucking or flying. If we had a damn railroad connection to the trans Canada this would be a non issue. The Fort Knox mine mill is worth a fortune. Let’s keep the jobs cranking and kinross producing gold. It’s unfortunate a bunch of so called Fairbanks conservatives are fighting this job creating opportunity.
Gold price today closed at $2660.10
Kinross is doing Alaska dirty. Instead of processing ore near Tok, its hauling it North of Fairbanks- on public roads- 24/7. Its not safe, the trucks are not following the law, and over a billion dollars of our roads are being ripped to shreads. Alaskans should not be subsidizing this nonsense with ruined roads that we, not Kinross, will have to pay to fix. This is corporate welfare, and its wrong.
Dunleavy doesn’t care about our roads, or our safety.
This is 100 percent nonsense. Our roads belong to everyone to use. If you want to make it an expressway or parkway, then lets turn it in to a toll road with NO trucks or motorhomes – then you can go to Fairbanks to get all of your supplies. No trucks is NO trucks; not even to resupply stores in Delta and Tok. The most ridiculous argument I have ever seen is that the trucks tear up the road. Prove it! Most trucks have less psi on the road than cars with narrow tires. Roads for the general population and commerce are developed and maintained for everyone. Not just rich people who have homes in Harding Lake – and who want waivers for the LNG trucks for the business they manage to travel the Parks overweight (yes Gary that would be you). This road is as safe for trucks as it is for motorhomes and the Harding Lake mafia with boat trailers and travel trailers.
DJC, I’m glad you responded, so that in my response people (like you) may be better educated.
First, this has nothing to do with being for, or against mining. The issue is not as you understand it. Kinross could process the ore at Tok, and have no trucks running 24/7/365. That would mean no noise, no air pollution, no road damage, and no accidents- which are inevitable. Maybe you know that trucks this heavy, regardless of the number of axles, are not permitted in almost every other state. These are industrial ore hauling trucks. They simply do not belong on public roads, and would be illegal almost everywhere else.
Kinross is not going to pay for the road damage. This is the corporate welfare I object to. The bill for fixing over one billion dollars worth of our roads will fall on Alaksans. Maybe you’d be happy to have an income tax to help pay for the road damage Kinross is causing?
Finally, Kinross is breaking the law. When those trucks need to merge on to the Steese Highway North of Chena Hot Springs Road they are failing to comply with the law- they are going too slow to safely merge. This becomes a big issue when the Steese is covered with ice (for about 4-5 months of the year) and its dark- which is most of the day in the Winter months.
If Dunleavy was doing his job, he’d tell Kinross that rather than have over one billion dollars of roads destroyed, Kinross should spend a fraction of that amount to build a ball mill on site. Instead, we have all the risks, and the costs. Its just bad business for Alaska.
Kinross spends thousands of dollars advertising how important it is to Alaska. That’s so we won’t notice when the State hands a private, Chinese-Canadian company $50 Million. Kinross hands out little pieces of garbage at every parade, talking about mining jobs, even though those jobs are the worst in town, and only worked by people tricked from the states.
Interesting point, Jim.
A friend I’ve known for 35 years works at Fort Knox. He drives the massive ore hauling trucks. Every so often Kinross screws its drivers in order to have grounds to fire them. Why? So the same driver can come back months later, and start working for lower wages. The guys that have been there the longest cost the most. So they are targeted. The scheme usually involves some made up safety violation. “You backed this truck up too close to _______.” Now you’re fired.
Trust me when I tell you this. I understand it WAY better than you do and WAY better than you give me credit for. So lets go over this:
First, “Kinross could process the ore at Tok”, – for hundreds of millions more to build a plant and thus render Mahn Cho unprofitable and not do-able.
Second, AGAIN, there is NO road damage from these trucks.
accidents? inevitable? Prove that one. .
“Maybe you know that trucks this heavy, regardless of the number of axles, are not permitted in almost every other state.” – this one is a blatant like. YES they are permitted. And these Black Gold trucks are state of the art, NEW trucks. The more axels they have the safer they are (more brakes, less PSI on the tires) etc.
“These are industrial ore hauling trucks. They simply do not belong on public roads, and would be illegal almost everywhere else” – again a total lie. YES they do belong on public roads, indeed they are actually DESIGNED for public roads.
“Kinross is not going to pay for the road damage.” – Kinross is contracting to Black Gold trucking. And NO they will not pay for damage any more than the motorhome driver or trailer drivers.
“This is the corporate welfare” – It is not corporate welfare. It is the state, building and using infrastructure to get our resources to market. You will have to actually PROVE that they are damaging to road….. I’ll wait.
“Finally, Kinross is breaking the law”. – Kinross is not the trucking frim.
“When those trucks need to merge on to the Steese Highway North of Chena Hot Springs Road they are failing to comply with the law- they are going too slow to safely merge” – so which law is that? You know of a statute or LAW that specifies a merge minimum speed?
“If Dunleavy was doing his job, he’d tell Kinross [again NOT Kinross] that rather than have over one billion dollars of roads destroyed [not possible]”. IF “Dunleavy” even had that ability, it would result in the immdeiate removal of Federal Highway Funds. Are you prepared for that?
Sorry Pal. You, in fact, are clueless to the entire issue. You know nothing about roads, Kinross/Black Gold, the FWHA or state road funding or even state government.
Go hug your NIMBY bunny. I am sure you are triggered.
DJC, when you have to resort to insults you remind me of debating Democrats that can’t handle facts.
You simply do not know what you are talking about. I’ll educate you some more- but if you need one on one time, I bill at $400 per hour.
Federal and state law are in play. States have different limits on vehicle length. Federal law prevents states from limiting a semi to 48 feet on the national road network. That means states can, and do impose limits. This gets very complicated- but industrial ore haul trucks this long (used by Black Gold) are not allowed in almost any other state. This can change. Yes, Kinross is not actually doing the hauling, but for simplicity this is an overall Kinross operation.
Alaska law imposes many rules about entering a highway. You should study up. You are required to use a turn signal. You are required to yield to other traffic- they have the right of way. You are required to merge at, or near highway speeds. Drivers are not doing this North of CHSR, as they are climbing a hill- they have not built up the needed speed after jumping off at the CHSR exit.
Alaska law, in summary:
“When merging into a highway in Alaska, drivers should match the speed of traffic in the lane they are merging into and ensure they have enough space to do so. Entering a roadway with insufficient or excessive speed is considered an improper merge.”
Here’s Section 13 AAC 02.295 – “Minimum speed regulation:
(a) No person may drive a motor vehicle so slowly as to impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic, except when reduced speed is necessary for safe operation or in compliance with statutes, regulations, or ordinances.”
This is an issue at other places on the road system, esp. some of the hills on the Richardson.
This project is so poorly designed that the trucks are too heavy to use several of the bridges normal (truck) traffic would use. If these trucks/loads were properly designed for this project, we’d not have this problem, now would we?
Your assertion that these massive trucks are not damaging our roads is the rankest dishonesty. FHTSA has loads of data going back almost 100 years that details exactly how quickly roads wear out, based on traffic volume and the weight- even displaced weight of those vehicles. I won’t entertain any more lies from you.
As far as safety goes, the Alaska public is at far greater risk due to this unsafe operation. Insurance companies can make money because they can predict outcomes based on vast data collected over decades. We know the likelihood of a fatal accident based on numerous factors. We can predict, year after year, how many fatal accidents will occur per 100MM miles driven. Predicting the number of fatal accidents this unsafe operation will cause is merely a mathematical/statistical computation.
And its 100 percent avoidable if Kinross would build a ball mill at the mine and avoid all this expense to Alaskans. Putting our safety at risk for a foreign corporation that doesn’t even pay Alaskans a royalty for the gold is lunacy. You are defending the indefensible.
These Alasakans have done a good job assembling data on why this project is unsafe, and bad for Alaska.
‘https://safealaskahighways.org/
M, I believe the issue most of us have with your assertions is that you pick and choose your facts. You selectively not only pick one industry, but ONE sole operator and charge that mine with receiving “corporate welfare” from the state by using the roads. You do NOT condemn any other business using heavy trucks and machinery on those very same roads. This would be the logical conclusion to your assertion. Yet you do not intimate that ALL trucking businesses receive “corporate welfare”.
You ignore that public roads are for everyone regardless.
Furthermore you keep insisting that the mine operator is responsible for yet to be established damages and deaths, while the facts are different. The mine has hired a local company to transport their product from point A to point B. Local company (Family business, who has been in the trucking business for decades) uses their equipment to fulfill their contract. I am certain that this mine is not their only client, so your insurance claim is not applicable as stated.
As for the AK traffic regulation again you only see what you want, as the statute clearly makes allowances for conditions and SAFETY!
I find your “education” intellectually dishonest!
A Taxpayer. My logic is consistent, as is the thousands of other residents who do not support an unsafe, and avoidable trucking scheme. Unlike other trucking in Alaska, no other trucks are this long, or this heavy, Further, the utilization and destruction of our roads in this case is 100 percent avoidable.
Kinross is allowing its trucks to cross a bridge in Fairbanks that the state bridge engineer said should not be used for this purpose. When the top DOT bridge guy says we should not be placing these loads on this bridge, we damn well should listen.
Bottom line, this is not a question of being anti- trucking, or anti- mining. This is a bad deal for Alaska. I bet you would be opposed if our taxes were raised to subsidize this corporate welfare.
Our highways are not industrial mining roads. That’s where these massive loads would be in any other state. Placing these massive trucks next to school buses, and school bus stops, and pedestrians is lunacy.
Finally, you do not understand the laws I cited. You can’t go slower than the normal traffic speeds either in normal traffic, or merging because your vehicle is so heavy it can’t keep up. That’s the opposite of being safe. That’s creating a scenario where an accident is more likely. That is why it is a violation of the code.
“Thousands of other residents”???
I doubt that very much.
I have seen many RVs, pick-ups with loaded down trailers or loaded DOT trucks creep onto the highway, or do 30mph up an incline. It happens without the mayhem and disasters you seem to conjure up. As long as drivers are courteous and alert, it turns out just fine.
Again you are ignoring the simple fact that it is NOT Kinross trucks! They are Back Gold Transport trucks, an outfit with expertise in transporting goods and I am sure well versed in regulations.
The responsibility for that bridge you bemoan lies with the state alone. Just as with height, weight restrictions are a common issues with heavy transport. If the DOT doesn’t want trucks over a certain weight driving over that bridge, then they need to restrict it. Until they do traffic will flow per current regulation.
Your entrenched dislike of Kinross clouds your reasoning. There is no further point in continuing this conversation.
You are losing the debate because I’m laying out facts. That’s why you want to discontinue.
If I am pulling a heavy RV trailer and can not get up the hill without impeding traffic, then I risk getting a ticket, under the laws I’ve referenced above. It’s my job to ensure the equipment I use can do the job. Since the equipment that Kinross relies on to get dirt to Ft. Knox can’t maintain highway speeds in certain spots, then they are breaking the law.
Remember, differential speed kills. These trucks weigh around 160,000 pounds. At 60 MPH these trucks have massive amounts of kinetic energy- over 20 million foot pounds when I do the math. That means when they hit something the car or pedestrian that they strike at 60 MPH will disintegrate. These loads have no business being anywhere near civilians, school buses, etc.
The top experts at DOT said these loads should not be on a vital bridge, but they were overridden by a certain politician. Care to guess who?
Sigh!
Frankly I don’t care and will leave who has the more reasonable approach/argument up to the other readers/commenters to decide for themselves.
No I do NOT care to guess, because it is either a “rumor” or a figment of your imagination.
Your continuous innuendo about this company or that politician supposedly getting theirs shadily or doing questionable things, isn’t helpful. It gives the impression that you really know very little about how our government and economic system actually work. Therefor a decent discussion to find a solution, is not to be had.
It takes blinders to point fingers at one group of users.
Your make too much sense.
The trucks are completely over the road legal. It would cost hundreds of millions to build a mill at tok. Not to mention sufficient electricity would be needed. This plan to use the ft Knox mill is brilliant. Keep the ore moving kinross
Lets say your cost estimate is accurate, Doug. Its high- but lets just assume its accurate. Just replacing one of the bridges the trucks use is several hundred million. And there is more than one bridge to replace. Now add the cost to replacing/repair hundreds of miles of road. Vastly more then $200MM.
Alaska would be better off just building the ball mill and giving it to Kinross.
In the end the Kinross executives just can not believe how stupid our governor and elected officials are. Those guys aren’t dumb. They’ve crunched the numbers and know this is a massively costly, bad deal for Alaska. But incredibly, Dunleavy won’t stop it.
The oil industry used to marvel how it could buy votes that gave them billions of dollars of our oil for bribes that might have been in the thousands.
You do recall when a dozen of our elected officials were arrested and sent to prison for the bribes they took?
And every one of those trucks cost a registration tax, tire tax, fuel tax, and sales tax when they bought the truck not to mention paying a driver a mechanic a tire man who are all paying taxes. No one is getting anything free.
And kinross is a publicly traded company. You can buy stock in. The ft Knox mill would cost in excess of $1 billion to build today.
Wow, and I thought Fairbanks was the Golden Heart because of Felix Pedro discovering Gold there. Guess somebody should have shot him so that no one would ever know “there’s Gold in them their hills”.
Forget the gold. Pot is still the biggest commodity in Fairbanks. All the Democrats want to do is “one last tok” before laying down.
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