Sealaska wants to work Yakutat gravel deposit
ANCHORAGE - Sealaska Corp. wants to develop a high-grade sand and gravel deposit near Yakutat and is looking for a partner to help it pursue the venture.
Sealaska officials say the Broken Ore Cove deposit just outside Yakutat could supply all aggregate needed for major Southeast construction projects in the future.
Development of the deposit also could provide jobs for many of the Juneau-based Native corporation's shareholders in the region, hit hard with sharp declines in the timber and fishing industries.
"There is tremendous opportunity for this deposit," said David Oliver, vice president and general manager of Sealaska subsidiary Alaska Coastal Aggregates LLC.
Oliver spoke at the Alaska Miners Association annual meeting in Anchorage Nov. 8 to pitch the project to potential operators, the Alaska Journal of Commerce reported.
The majority of sand and gravel used in Southeast is imported, largely from Canada and Washington, Oliver said.
Southeast, which extends from Yakutat south to Metlakatla, has many millions of dollars in construction projects slated for the next few years, requiring millions of tons of aggregate.
Oliver says the resource literally is in the region's own backyard.
More than 450 million tons of high-quality sand and gravel have been identified at the 3,000-acre Broken Ore Cove site, Oliver said.
He believes the deposit could hold as much as a billion tons of high-grade aggregates.
The deposit, Oliver said, is "geologically endowed."
It also is accessible and can easily be developed with very little investment, compared to what it would cost to bring a Lower 48 deposit on line, Oliver said.
The area, which has been clear-cut, has very little topsoil that would have to be removed, Oliver said. There is also a large, deep-draft dock once used to load logs.
Sealaska is the largest private landowner in Southeast, with some 350,000 acres of surface lands and an additional 300,000 acres of mineral estate.
Oliver said West Coast cities already export more than 3 million tons of sand and gravel annually from Canadian producers. The number is expected to jump to more than 5 million tons annually in the near future, he said.
Sealaska's subsidiary Alaska Coastal Aggregates, being Native-owned, has an "8a" federal designation, which gives it preferred status when bidding on large government projects.
Shipping would have to be done by barges from Alaska to domestic markets. There are no U.S.-flagged ships that would meet gravel-hauling requirements under federal commerce rules, Oliver said.