Minerals mining in Alaska could benefit from rail extension

Discussing the importance of building the Port MacKenzie Rail Extension, a 32-mile rail connecting the Alaska Railroad to the facilities at Port MacKenzie, John Moosey, manager of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, and Chris Aadnesen, president and CEO of the Alaska Railroad Corporation, highlighted the benefits that affordable transportation costs could bring to Alaska’s mineral resource development. Notably, the nearly 1,000 known mineral deposits near the Alaska Railroad—including lead, zinc, copper, molybdenum and silver— could be developed into viable working mines with the construction of the Port MacKenzie Rail Extension.

Moosey and Aadnesen cited studies conducted by the University of Alaska Fairbanks that estimates the value of mineral production from three of those mines at “$85 billion over the next 100 years” and “projected to generate $300 million per year in state taxes, royalties and fees for 60 years.”