At the turn of the century, a significant discovery was made - rich, gold bearing beaches near Nome, Alaska on the Seward Peninsula. Cumulative gold production from the Seward Peninsula is placed at over 6,000,000 troy ounces of gold (187 metric tons).
Offshore Nome are the famous marine gold placers and submarine beaches. The beaches at Nome are frequently replenished by gold washed onto the beaches. After almost 100 years, the beaches of Nome continue to be repeatedly reworked by small miners every summer.
Geologists believe that the majority of the region's original placer potential is underwater and remains untapped. This proposal is an ambitious plan to systematically develop and realize the gold potential of over 300 square miles (800 km2) adjacent to historic onshore production areas while producing low cost gold with a world scale operation.
Gold mining offshore Seward peninsula and Nome presents a significant opportunity for long life mining. Estimated after tax returns on distributed cash flows are modeled at 48-80+%, based on nearby bulk sampling of over 120,000 troy ounces (3.7 metric tons) of gold offshore in the 1980's.
Coastal Alaska Mining, Inc. seeks financial partners to develop a large, coastal marine gold placer resource potential into a world class gold mine capable of producing many metric tons of gold. The project proposal is based on over 300 square miles (800 km2) of exclusive Alaskan mineral interests offshore Seward peninsula near Nome, Alaska. Coastal's total offshore mineral interests are about 500 square miles (1300 km2). The venture's financial partner(s) would need to commit about US$125.9 million to fund and develop a US$110.7 million project with a mineral potential of 19-58 million ounces (590-1800 metric tons) of gold The project plans to initially process 14 million cubic yards (11x106 m3) of sediment per year at recoveries of 0.01-0.03 ounces per cubic yard (0.4-1.2 g/m3), with production goals of 31 million cubic yards per year (24x106 m3/yr) and profitability at 0.005 oz/yd3 (0.2 g/m3).
Coastal Alaska proposes to selectively dredge large volumes of gold bearing gravel year around with proven, modern Arctic coastal operations and current mining technologies. An economic analysis shows that a thorough synthesis of the resource potential with a strong Arctic coastal mining plan and modern technology yields an extraordinarily attractive mine project, an "elephant". No plan of this scale, technical integration and economic consistency has been applied offshore Nome previously. Socially, Nome is one of the most favorable mine areas: a strong mining heritage; local infrastructure; favorable environmental results from previous mining offshore; and strong recognition of the need for good mining jobs.
The project proposal combines personnel, contacts, technology and Arctic know-how not previously applied to Nome's offshore placers. Much of this collective experience was gained in more severe environments as well as experience site specific to Nome. Most important is the small, select, highly integrated team to design, assemble and operate such a project on a fast track, in only one or two years. Coastal's key personnel have strong, diverse technical and operations backgrounds as well as large Arctic, coastal and marine project experience.
The greatest risk for new mines is usually geological uncertainty. The gold bearing marine placers of Seward peninsula are generally recognized as "elephant country" with extremely large mineral potential. Offshore Nome, the primary risks have been the lack of adequate capital, engineering, technology, planning and operations experience. Coastal's project scope encompasses over a dozen fundamental changes and major improvements to decrease cash costs from the BIMA dredge's production cost of over $400 per gold ounce ($13+/g) to $100 to $187 per troy ounce ($3.21-$6.00/g), for equal recovery per unit volume processed. Additionally Coastal's processes should obtain higher recovery efficiency, effectively reducing the unit costs further, as much as 20%.
A project in Nome's shallow marine environment, engineered and operated properly, is an extremely favorable Alaskan prospect - excellent geology, local interest, existing permit history, fewer permits, gravity based extraction without tailings disposal problems, excellent economy of scale, excellent mine mobility, selection and access, infrastructure in place, year around mining, mining without ground thawing or dust, and demonstrable fisheries benefaction.
If you're interested in receiving a copy of Coastal Alaska Mining's 200 page business plan, e-mail CAMI at nomegold@alaska.net. We appreciate any comments that you have on the project. We invite your interest and participation in this project.