BLM to publish new environmental review for Ambler Access Project in 2nd quarter 2023, final decision later in year

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management now anticipates publishing a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, or DSEIS, for the 211-mile Ambler Access Project in the second quarter of 2023.

The proposed road, built from the Dalton into the western Brooks Range, will be an industrial-use-only road from the Upper Kobuk River mineral projects to the Dalton Highway, the all-year state highway connecting the North Slope with Interior Alaska road system.

If it is built, the new road will enable advancing exploration and development at the Ambler Mining District, a region home to some of the world’s richest known copper-dominant polymetallic deposits.

Once published, the draft will be open for public comment. BLM also now anticipates publishing a final SEIS and conducting a final pre-decision consultation with Alaska Native Tribes and corporations and issuing a Record of Decision in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2023. The timing of that would sync with further feasibility work and federal permitting for the proposed which-grade Arctic project.

Federal environmental studies were previously completed for the Ambler project under former President Donald Trump but after President Joe Biden took office the new administration decided to take a further look at the project mainly at the request of Alaska Native communities along the route of the road.The new SEIS was to further evaluate subsistence impacts to fish and caribou habitat and to do additional tribal consultation.

BLM is now evaluating comments made during the scoping phase of the second environmental review to determine whether additional impacts, if any, should be more thoroughly assessed. A compilation of the substantive comments received will be assembled into a summary public scoping report and available on the BLM website for public review.

In a related development, Trilogy Metals Inc., one of the partners in the Upper Kobuk minerals exploration, released the first results for the 2022 exploration drilling program, done with its partner, Australia-based South32 Ltd. Ambler Metals LLC, a joint-venture of the two companies, carried out of the work, which has now been completed.

For the $26.2 million 2022 program funded 50% by South32 Trilogy reported multiple Intercepts of High-Grade Copper, Zinc and Silver Mineralization, including 9.63 Meters with a Copper Equivalent Grade of 6.78% and 5.55 Meters with a Copper Equivalent Grade of 7.81%.

The 2022 field program included 10,738 meters of diamond drilling, of which 8,376 meters was drilled at Arctic, the most ever drilled at Arctic in a single field season, while the remainder of the drilling was used on regional targets in the Ambler minerals belt and near Bornite. The 2022 program was mainly to advance Arctic with additional “infill” drilling to improve the confidence in the resource modeling and for geotechnical studies to further de-risk the project, Trilogy said in a press release.

The drill results announced are from the first seven drill holes of the Arctic drilling program for 2022, including holed AR22-0191 through AR22-0197, and including four infill holes and three geotechnical holes.

The results of the remaining holes are expected to be announced in the coming months. For full details of the 2022 drill program, see Trilogy’s news release of June 8, 2022.

Richard Gosse, Trilogy’s vice president for exploration, said “We are encouraged by the results of this first set of holes, received from a record total number of meters drilled at Arctic (8,376 meters) in one season, in addition to seven regional drill holes and extensive geological mapping and soil sampling at several other prospects in the (Ambler) belt, including Ambler, Dead Creek, and Sunshine.

“We look forward to announcing more results from this comprehensive program in the next few months, with a view of upgrading the Indicated Resources at Arctic to Measured,” Gosse said.

Tony Giardini, Trilogy’s President and CEO of Trilogy, said the 2022 drilling was the largest exploration program in the history of the Arctic deposit. It will, “continue to unlock its world-class mining district potential as a critical source of green metals for the U.S economy in line with President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.”