Donlin Gold SEIS
Public Involvement Site

Project Overview

Donlin Gold LLC has applied for permits to develop an open pit, hardrock gold mine about 10 miles north of the community of Crooked Creek, in southwest Alaska. (277 miles west of Anchorage and 145 miles northeast of Bethel.) In addition to the mine site, the project has two other major components: transportation infrastructure and pipeline.

If built, the Donlin Gold project would produce gold from a major ore-body, through a subsurface lease with Calista Corporation, an Alaska Native regional corporation, and a surface use agreement with the Kuskokwim Corporation, a merged Alaska Native village corporation. Some components would be on State of Alaska and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands. On the Cook Inlet side of the pipeline, a small portion of CIRI Inc. land would be affected.

The proposed project would take about 3 to 4 years to construct, with a projected mine life of approximately 27 years. It would produce approximately one million ounces of gold per year for 27 years. About 59,000 tons of ore would be processed onsite each day.

Mine Site

The mine and facilities would have a total footprint of about 16,300 acres. There is currently no road or rail access to the site, nor an existing power supply. Components of the mine site include:

• Excavated open pit, ultimately about 2.2 miles long, 1 mile wide, and 1,850 feet deep
• A waste treatment facility (tailings impoundment) about 1 mile long, ultimately covering 2,350 acres
• Waste rock facility covering approximately 2,240 acres
• Mill facility processing approximately 59,000 tons of ore per day
• Natural gas-fired power plant with a total connected load of 227 MW

Transportation Infrastructure

A key piece of transportation infrastructure would be a proposed barge landing near Jungjuk Creek on the Kuskokwim River. The dock area would cover 21 acres. On the river, residents could expect to see 3 barge-trains pass each day the river is navigable. Transportation infrastructure would also include

• 30-mile road from the mine site to the new barge landing
• 5,000-foot airstrip

Pipeline

The proposed pipeline would be a 316-mile, small-diameter (14-inch) natural gas pipeline from the west side of Cook Inlet, across the Alaska Range, to the proposed power plant.

SEIS Documents

• TODO: Remand
• TODO: Notice of Intent

Final EIS Documents - Released April 2018

• EIS Table of Contents (678 KB)
• Executive Summary (5.5 MB)
• Chapter 1: Purpose and Need (706 KB)
• Chapter 2: Alternatives (11.8 MB)
• Chapter 3.0: Environmental Analysis
  • Chapter 3.0 Approach & Methodology (60.6 KB)
  • Chapter 3.1 Geology & Paleontology (1.8 MB)
  • Chapter 3.2 Soils (6.5 MB)
  • Chapter 3.3 Geohazards & Seismic Conditions (3.3 MB)
  • Chapter 3.4 Climate & Meteorology (1.8 MB)
  • Chapter 3.5 Surface Water Hydrology (9.5 MB)
  • Chapter 3.6 Groundwater Hydrology (2.7 MB)
  • Chapter 3.7 Water Quality (5.7 MB)
  • Chapter 3.8 Air Quality (2.7 MB)
  • Chapter 3.9 Noise & Vibration (1.8 MB)
  • Chapter 3.10 Vegetation & Nonnative Invasive Species (8.1 MB)
  • Chapter 3.11 Wetlands (15.3 MB)
  • Chapter 3.12 Wildlife (5.6 MB)
  • Chapter 3.13 Fish & Aquatic Resources (2.7 MB)
  • Chapter 3.14 Threatened & Endangered Species (1.5 MB)
  • Chapter 3.15 Land Ownership, Management, & Use (2.8 MB)
  • Chapter 3.16 Recreation (165 KB)
  • Chapter 3.17 Visual Resources (7.6 MB)
  • Chapter 3.18 Socioeconomics (1.2 MB)
  • Chapter 3.19 Environmental Justice (1.5 MB)
  • Chapter 3.20 Cultural Resources (812 KB)
  • Chapter 3.21 Subsistence (20 MB)
  • Chapter 3.22 Human Health (1.3 MB)
  • Chapter 3.23 Transportation (188 KB)
  • Chapter 3.24 Spill Risk (2 MB)
  • Chapter 3.25 Pipeline Reliability & Safety (98.8 KB)
  • Chapter 3.26 Climate Change (1.3 MB)
  • Chapter 3.27 Other Impact Considerations (73.8 KB)
• Chapter 4: Cumulative Effects (836 KB)
• Chapter 5: Mitigation (284 KB)
• Chapter 6: Consultation (1.8 MB)
• Chapter 7: List of Preparers (169 KB)
• Chapter 8: Distribution (149 KB)
• Chapter 9: References (975 KB)
• Glossary of Terms (283 KB)
• Appendix A (131 KB)
• Appendix B (18 MB)
• Appendix C (1.1 MB)
• Appendix D (8.7 MB)
• Appendix E (2.6 MB)
• Appendix F (475 KB)
• Appendix G (2.6 MB)
• Appendix H (1.7 MB)
• Appendix I (125 KB)
• Appendix J (192 MB)
• Appendix K (122 KB)
• Appendix L (82 MB)
• Appendix M (44.3 MB)
• Appendix N (735 KB)
• Appendix O (6.9 MB)
• Appendix P (8.8 MB)
• Appendix Q (10.1 MB)
• Appendix R (19.7 MB)
• Appendix S (1.9 MB)
• Appendix T (49.4 MB)
• Appendix U (4.5 MB)
• Appendix V (413 KB)
• Appendix W (3.4 MB)
• Appendix X (1.5 MB)
  • Appendix X (Appendix A, Vol. 1) (60.9 MB)
  • Appendix X (Appendix A, Vol. 2) (58.2 MB)
  • Appendix X (Appendix A, Vol. 3) (22.8 MB)
  • Appendix X (Appendix A, Vol. 4) (2.3 MB)
  • Appendix X (Appendix A, Vol. 5) (1.3 MB)
• Appendix Y (9.8 MB)
• Appendix Z (10 MB)
• Appendix AA (269 KB)
• Appendix AB (1.2 MB)