Public comment period opens for Graphite One permit application
By Diana Haecker |
On Tuesday, Sept. 30, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened a 30-day public comment period in response to a permit application received from Graphite One as the Canadian exploration company is seeking permits to mine a graphite deposit on the northern slopes of the Kigluaik Mountains, near Imuruk Basin.
The permit sought is a so-called Section 404 wetlands permit that would allow the company to permanently discharge fill material into waters including wetlands, according to the Corps’ public notice document.
The total extent of wetlands impacted would be more than 414 acres, in addition to diverting a stream away from the mine site. The document states that “the total impact of jurisdictional waters impacted by the discharge of fill is unknown at this time.”
The document says that a total of 381 acres of waters and wetlands would be permanently eliminated within the 1,176-acre footprint of the proposed mine.
The mine also proposes to not only build an access road from mile 30 of the Kougarok Road through Mosquito Pass to the mine site but also to build an access ramp for construction staging along the edge of Imuruk Basin.
Besides the mine pit, the proposal calls for a processing plant, a waste management facility, a water treatment facility, a power plant, fuel storage, explosive storage, a helipad and roads, administrative facilities, warehousing, a crusher and a mill, among other facilities. Graphite One proposes an open pit mine that would operate year-round. The purpose is “to mine graphite and process the graphite into commercially viable ore concentrate for transport to the Port of Nome via a new 17.3-mile gravel access road and the existing Seward Peninsula public road system. The ore concentrate would be shipped out of Alaska for further processing and manufacturing of Coated Spherical Graphite, which would supply material needed for electric vehicle lithium-ion batteries and energy storage as well as other high-grade graphite products.”
According to the public notice, a five-acre staging pad and access ramp would be built at Imuruk basin to support the construction. The pad and ramp would be developed in coordination with and leased from Bering Straits Native Corporation, the land owner, but no permanent structures would be built there.
The access road
The proposed access road would permanently fill several rivers and streams, totaling 33.5 acres of waters including wetlands that would be permanently eliminated within the 568-acre footprint of the access road.
The company envisions to transport the graphite concentrate in 20-foot shipping containers – two per truck—on the access road to the Kougarok Road and on to Nome. The road would be entirely on land owned by the State of Alaska’s Dept. of Natural Resources, which will make a determination if the road is going to be open to the public or not.
According to the document, Graphite One expects 12 roundtrips by trucks transporting dried ore from the mine to Nome. The Kougarok Road is a gravel road, not build to withstand industrial traffic. The document says that the DOT investigated deficiencies of the existing Kougarok Road, and that “negotiations between ADOT& Graphite One are ongoing and would determine the funding mechanism and responsible parties for improvements and maintenance to milepost 30 of the Kougarok Road.”
The process
The project has been fast tracked in a federal initiative called Fast-41 which helps projects speed up the permitting process and requires public posting of the timeline and updates throughout. A website containing a dashboard contains a timeline that shows the target dates for permits to be processed and approved.
The 404 permit is the first to be tackled on the dashboard. The public notice states that federally recognized tribes have the right to consult with the Corps on a government-to-government basis and that the notice “invites their participation in the federal decision-making process regarding the protected tribal rights or resources.”
During a public meeting in June conducted by Graphite One, the company was prepared that the 404 wetlands permit would trigger an Environmental Impact Statement, not just an Environmental Assessment, as part of the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, process. Project Manager Greg Mazer with the Alaska District of the Corps told the Nugget in an email that they have not yet determined if an EIS or EA will be pursued.“The Corps is currently evaluating the proposed action’s anticipated impacts and simultaneously conducting an approved jurisdictional determination based on information provided by the applicant, other available information, and a recent site visit,” Mazer wrote. “The results of the jurisdictional determination and/or continued analysis of the project’s anticipated impacts may lead to review of the project via preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement.”
The public comment period for this 404 permit is limited to 30 days and comments must be submitted by Oct. 31, 2025. According to the dashboard, the target date to approve the permit is Sept. 29, 2026.
A public hearing has not been scheduled but according to Mazer, any person may request such a hearing in writing within the comment period. “Requests for public hearings shall state, with particularity, reasons for holding a public hearing,” he said in response to the Nugget’s questions.
Nome resident Austin Ahmasuk in a letter to the Corps requested on Tuesday that public hearings are to be held in Nome, Teller and Brevig Mission and furthermore requested to extend the public comment period to 120 days.
Coinciding with the first day of the public comment period, the federal government shut down as Congress was unable to pass a stopgap spending bill. At press time on Tuesday night it was unclear how the government shutdown will affect the federal permitting process for Graphite One.