HAINES, Alaska—The frigid waters of the Chilkat River in southeast Alaska have teemed with fall-running salmon on their journey home to spawn as far back as Jones Hotch Jr. can remember.
Now in his 70s, Hotch is the tribal president of the sovereign Chilkat Indian Village in Klukwan, a small community located along the 52-mile river 18 miles south of the U.S.–Canada border.
Like his ancestors, he and his family rely on the river for subsistence and their cultural identity.
For this remote indigenous community of 75 people organized by traditional clans, there is no other way of life, Hotch says, and no other place they would rather be.
“Klukwan is home,” he says.
He believes that the pristine land and clean water are essential for the people, brown bears, and bald eagles that depend on the salmon, which he values far more than precious metals.
Gold and silver, along with copper and zinc to a greater extent, are at the center of a heated controversy regarding a proposed underground hard-rock mining project located about 17 miles upriver from Klukwan near Glacier Creek.
In the coastal town of Haines Borough, 21 miles southeast of Klukwan, the Palmer Exploration Project is a uniquely divisive issue, as residents on both sides of the debate agree.
They are either in favor of it, opposed to it, or in the low-profile minority of wait-and-see skeptics.
It is a clash of competing visions for economic development and quality of life, balancing high-paying jobs and economic growth with environmental preservation.
“The state of Alaska holds an abundant and largely untapped supply of natural resources including, among others, energy, mineral, timber, and seafood. Unlocking this bounty of natural wealth will raise the prosperity of our citizens while helping to enhance our nation’s economic and national security for generations to come,” the document reads.
“By developing these resources to the fullest extent possible, we can help deliver price relief for Americans, create high-quality jobs for our citizens, ameliorate our trade imbalances, augment the nation’s exercise of global energy dominance, and guard against foreign powers weaponizing energy supplies in theaters of geopolitical conflict.”
Hotch believes that everything comes with a price.
He finds the value of copper, zinc, and precious metals deceptive when weighed against the sacrifice of native ways of life.
“It’s a tremendous threat to our way of life. Salmon are vital to us. It’s what we’ve eaten since we’ve been here,” Hotch told The Epoch Times.
“The way I see it, with the Palmer Project, we’re looking at it eyeball to eyeball and saying to the generation that’s here now: you could be the last one.”
The site has direct road access to Alaska Highway 7, which stretches for about 50 miles from Haines to the border with British Columbia, Canada.
It passes through vast untouched wilderness shielded by the Chilkat Mountain Range along Alaska’s southeastern archipelago.
The Tlingit people in Klukwan traditionally cure their salmon in smokehouses, trade them, and share them with each other.
Shawna Hotch, the Tribal Liaison for Strategic Initiatives at the Alaska Venture Fund and a member of the Chilkat Indian Village, views the Palmer Project as contrary to cultural survival.
“The threat if this goes through is eradicating an entire people,” she said. “I don’t know how we could survive without access to all the food that has allowed us to be sovereign and live off the land.”
In her native Tlingit language, Klukwan translates to “Eternal Village.”
However, a hard-rock mining operation is a temporary pursuit.
“Once they come in and the mine is successful, they’re going to leave,” she told The Epoch Times. “We’ve depended on this valley since time immemorial.”
Residents of Haines say that the seasonal arrival of salmon attracts many tourists, which is vital for the town’s commercial fishing and retail economy.
“However, we need places like this,” Benner said. “Human beings need places like this. Just because there are minerals you can mine [and] it’s going to create jobs—at what cost?”
It includes 4.77 million “indicated” tons of ore, which contains 13.2 percent zinc and 3.5 percent copper. The project has an estimated 12 million tons of inferred resources, consisting of 8.9 percent zinc and 3.1 percent copper, while also exploring for gold and silver.
Mineral resources are classified into three categories based on the level of geological data availability and confidence: inferred, indicated, and measured.
According to the Canadian Institute of Mining, inferred resources have the lowest confidence level, providing the least amount of information based on geological sampling and analysis.
Indicated resources offer more useful data for project planning and exploration, while measured resources provide the highest level of reliable information for mine planning and evaluation.
The discovery of surface minerals in Haines began in 1969 when local prospector Merrill Palmer first identified them.
After the finding, several companies conducted exploration campaigns.
The drilling activities conducted by Constantine Mining uncovered significant deposits in 2010 and 2017. The company is a subsidiary fully owned by American Pacific.
In June 2023, American Pacific launched an exploratory drill program spanning 29,527 feet at the project site located in the Porcupine Mining District of Haines. This initiative is part of a $25.5 million exploration effort in partnership with the Japanese investor Dowa Metals & Mining Alaska.
Peter Mercer, the senior vice president of Advanced Projects at American Pacific, said that the mining company, as the sole owner of the project, is currently negotiating with several potential investors, although he could not provide further details.
“From a project perspective—from the resource side—everything looks positive. We have not done the economic analysis review of its viability yet. That won’t happen for some years to come,” Mercer told The Epoch Times.
“It’s not quite there yet. It’s still in exploration; we haven’t proposed a mine.”
On Jan. 21, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) approved a site exploration plan submitted by American Pacific. As part of this approval, the company must present a detailed work plan for the upcoming field season before starting any operations.
During the exploration phase, the company intends to construct an underground ramp to facilitate its operations.
In addition to DNR approval, the project requires authorization from the federal Bureau of Land Management and the Trust Land Office, which oversees the mineral estate owned by the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, known as the Haines Block.
Mercer said that the data gathered from the exploration will help the company assess the project’s size and scope if it proceeds to become a mining operation.
This information will guide decisions to determine workforce numbers and the project’s economic potential for the area. Also, it will address several technical and safety concerns raised by opponents of the project, Mercer said.
“The data collection we’re doing right now is so those questions can be answered. They are very important questions. You have to collect the data. You have to do the engineering and analysis to be able to answer,” he said.
The company is aware that Haines residents oppose any development, he said.
“So, it doesn’t matter what data is collected, what is said, or how it’s done,” Mercer said. “They are of the opinion that development should not proceed on this project or any other project.
“There is also a strong contingency that supports the project. We wouldn’t march ahead without collecting the data, without asking the questions and doing that type of technical analysis.
“There’s extremes on both sides on whether to proceed or not proceed.”
No Guarantees
The company plans to complete site exploration within five years before moving forward with any mining proposals—or not.
“That doesn’t guarantee that it will be positive or negative, one way or the other,” Mercer said.
Mercer said that data collection will also prioritize ensuring the safe closure of the mining operation if it proceeds.
He said American Pacific has a reliable safety record and is currently involved in four active mining projects in Nevada, along with the Madison Mine located in Montana.
“My expectation is that [mining] companies go far beyond what the regulatory standards are,” he said.
“Again, that’s why we collect this information so we can fully assess the full lifecycle of a mine—from its planning stage to development and construction.
“We’re here to make sure that everything is collected [based] on the best practices—from exploration and evaluation based on [industry] standards and with approval from state and federal bodies in order to explore.”
However, opponents of the project say that simply exploring mineral deposits can pose a risk of acid contamination to the river watershed.
“Alaska is like the Third World—it’s an extractive thing,” says Sue Chasen, president of the Chilkat Valley Historical Society and an American Bald Eagle Foundation board member.
“You try to develop other things, and it hasn’t been very successful. That’s the problem. You don’t have other industries except resource extraction.”
Chasen believes there are less invasive methods to develop the local economy, such as agricultural research, that capitalize on the region’s natural abundance.
“I try not to get too emotional about [the issue], even though it’s pretty upsetting,” Chasen told The Epoch Times.
Residents Sound Off
Art, 81, lives in Haines and drives a Tesla electric vehicle—reportedly one of four in the town—and charges the battery using an outlet in his garage.Though he’s not against mining in general, he’s skeptical about the Palmer Project and its potential impact on the established local economy and environment.
“What’s really important is that any mining operation monitors the situation and the water,” said Art as he sat enjoying a cup of coffee at a downtown cafe.
“You don’t want to harm the environment to the point where you can’t trust the food you’re getting out of the water or even killing the fishery,” he told The Epoch Times and asked not to use his last name, citing the bitterly divisive Palmer mine issue.
“I’m skeptical. No matter where you’re in the world, you’re going to need strategic metals periodically, but it has to be done in a certain way.”
Scott, a logger from Haines, said he is “sick and tired” of the pessimistic scenarios presented by those opposing the project—that it’s “going to be the end of the world—no eagles, no fish—nothing.”
Like any long-term project, the development of a mine requires time, he said.
“The exploration company has to prove [there are deposits] so that the big outfits will go in for the mining,” Scott told The Epoch Times. “They haven’t done that yet.
“That’s how the process works. They’re not going to go mining tomorrow. We explore, we find something, we get somebody to buy it, just like the prospectors in the old days. It’s the same thing, just on a gigantic scale.”
Nancy, a self-identified moderate Republican from Haines, said that she would support a “responsible” project, understanding that there is no perfect guarantee against mining accidents.
“We all want technology to happen. We need those rare earth minerals,” Nancy told The Epoch Times.
Haines’s economy is not just about mining, she said. “The tourism industry has incredible potential, but Haines is not Skagway,” a tourism community 19 miles to the north.
“Skagway makes so much money off of all the cruise ships that come in. But Haines people don’t want that.”
Nancy said that the cruise ship industry could be a “humongous” resource for the local economy.
“But this is a quiet bedroom community. It is an older community, which is wonderful.”
“I do think, however, that we need to put our foot down concerning companies that come in and make sure that our land and our waters are safe and that they care.
“I don’t [oppose] change, as long as we’re headed in the right direction.”
Don, 83, moved from Montana to Haines in 1966. He supports the Palmer Project as a boost for the economy.
“I’m in favor of that mine, but with the environmental rules they got now,” Don told The Epoch Times.
“There are a lot of people against it because they think it’s going to harm the fish. With the environmental rules we have, I’m sure they'll be just fine.”
Gershon Cohen, the project director for Alaska Clean Water Advocacy, expressed concerns about the project’s location near Glacier Creek and the Klehini River, which is a major tributary of the Chilkat.
He said that not only hard-rock mining, but also exploration, could pose a risk of acid contamination to the water supply.
Risks in Exploration
Cohen said that this situation would lead to the daily release of water contaminated with oil, lubricants, explosive residues, and heavy metals, all of which are toxic to salmon.Large quantities of contaminated water would flow downhill into Glacier Creek and the Klehini River, he said.
Mercer said that American Pacific has implemented measures to prevent potential contamination during exploration.
These include installing double linings on fuel storage containers, inspecting all equipment to be used in the process, and thoroughly washing all vehicles to remove any pollutants.
“At this point, it’s really just fuel and diesel to power the camp, to power the drills. That’s where we spend most of our contamination perspective,” Mercer said.
Cohen is skeptical and questions the economic benefits of future mining operations, along with the logistical challenges they may pose.
“There is no local housing available. American Pacific is constructing a man camp for 200 workers that would be brought in for two weeks on, two weeks off shifts,” he said.
He added that the mining industry has a “long history of creating boom-bust economies. Any benefits we would see would be short-lived and followed by a crash when the mine closes, which on average happens within 10 years.
“Mining companies always promise to protect local river systems,” Cohen said, “but the reality is they can’t guarantee there won’t be significant problems, and assurances made by one company won’t bind a future owner or operator.”
Opponents also argue that seismic activity, earthquakes, and vulnerability to landslides and avalanches make the proposed mining site a risky endeavor.
“There’s no protocol that it can be clean in an actively seismic area,” said Alaina Birkel, tribal environmental research analyst at Chilkat Indian Village.
“Everybody here relies on the salmon. That’s what this whole thing is about.
“This whole issue is about protecting salmon and protecting a way of life that has existed before mining ever existed.”
Rose Fudge, the community organizer for Chilkat Forever, agrees that the Palmer Project is “highly speculative” and located in a high-risk area of the Chilkat Valley.
“This promise to deal with and mitigate any hazardous waste is out of anybody’s control with the types of risk in this area,” Fudge told The Epoch Times.
Going Clean
Fudge said that the expanding tourism industry depends on a clean environment to attract visitors who wish to experience it.“All of those rely on the health of our environment as the greatest assets of our community,” she said.
Alaska Democrat Rep. Jesse Kiehl, who represents Juneau, Haines, Skagway, and Klukwan, described Haines as a “passionate place” on issues of local development.
“People want it very much, or they don’t want it very much. The [Palmer Project] issue is not unique,” said the former member of the Haines Borough Assembly. “It is also not to say that every extraction job is a good idea without looking at it.”
Kiehl told The Epoch Times that it’s “absolutely” possible to do hardrock mining right in southeast Alaska.
“We also know from our Canadian neighbors at Mount Polley and some of the other recent disasters around the world that it can go terribly, terribly wrong.”
The provincial government ordered immediate remediation efforts in response to the incident.
Kiehl noted that the Kensington Mine and Greens Creek Mine, the largest silver mine in the United States, are located near Juneau, Alaska’s capital. Both operations are well-managed and employ hundreds of workers, he said.
“It’s a miner’s job market right now,” he added.
“There are more mines than there are miners,” Kiehl said. “And so the people who work underground make a lot of money. They’re high-wage jobs. They get very favorable working conditions.”
The current average mining salary in Alaska is $29 per hour, according to ZipRecruiter.
What makes the Palmer Project so controversial is its proximity to the high-producing Chilkat salmon river, Kiehl said.
“It’s not itself a spawning habitat. But the thing about water is it goes downhill. People worry a lot about the [polluted] water ending up in the spawning habitats,” he said.
“If there is a serious or significant risk that you’re going to do long-term serious damage to the renewable resource, you shouldn’t do the mine.”
Mining Done Right
Kiehl said the proposed Pebble Mine in southwestern Alaska’s Bristol Bay sits above one of the world’s most significant known gold deposits.This includes billions of pounds of copper and molybdenum, millions of ounces of gold and silver plus millions of kilograms of rhenium, according to Northern Dynasty Minerals, the project’s owner.
However, due to its environmentally sensitive location, mining is virtually “impossible” without impacting vast amounts of sockeye salmon habitat, Kiehl said.
“I’m here to tell you Kensington Mine [unlike the Pebble Mine] does not pose an unacceptable risk to a renewable resource of salmon in this region,” Kiehl said.
“The question is, what would the [Palmer] mine plan be? All the other questions absolutely have to be looked at. You have to make a serious choice.
“I'll say it again: it’s possible to do hard rock [mining] right in this part of the state. But it’s also possible to do it wrong. You just can’t be ideological about this one. You have to do a serious look.”
Kiehl said that he is keeping an open mind about the project and is carefully monitoring the situation.
“The single most crucial thing to me is that if a mining prospect goes forward, where do they propose to put the tailings [waste materials], and how?”
Haines Mayor Tom Morphet told The Epoch Times the Palmer Project is a sensitive issue because “it’s about people’s food.”
“When economic interests bump up against people’s food, it’s like the price of eggs, right? When you get down to people’s food, they get sensitive,” he said.
Incompatible Goals?
Morphet finds it challenging to balance salmon fishing and hard rock mining in the valley.“So, it’s necessarily controversial. And I stand behind what I said to the mining representative who was in here last fall. I said, ‘If you can make a fish in the wild as good as nature can, I’m on your side. Until then, I’m on nature’s side.’”
The question is whether the gamble is worth it, Morphet said.
“You’re going to have people say roll the dice, and you’re going to have other people say no, let’s keep our money. We know how much money we have in our pocket.”
The problem is what happens after the mining stops, the company goes away, and the valley is left with “a great big pile of acid-causing rock,” Morphet said.
“We know what we’re sitting on, and it’s a pretty good thing. At this moment, most of us are not willing to risk it.”
Craig Loomis, a member of the Haines Borough Assembly, said that when he moved to Haines in 1960, it felt like a “paradise” for commercial fishing and recreation.
“I always thought, why would you ruin one resource to have another resource?” Loomis told The Epoch Times.
He said that mining, much like logging, follows a cycle of “boom and bust.”
“How long is the mine going to run? What if they just decided to keep this thing for five years? I’ve seen it happen in Canada. Of course, there are mines here that they just walked away from,” Loomis said.
“As far as I’m concerned, fish and mines don’t go [together]. I’m not against mining. I can tell you this valley is split almost 50/50 on this particular project.”
Mining in Alaska
On March 3, the Alaska House Natural Resources Committee received a presentation from state conservation officials regarding a minerals and mining survey for 2024.The survey identified seven operating industrial metal mines, one coal mine, 150 placer gold mines, 65 exploration projects, and 80 active sand and gravel operations.
Alaska’s total mineral production value was $4.5 billion in 2024, with an estimated 663,731 million tons of zinc produced, including 1 million tons of coal, 844,631 ounces of gold, and 15.7 million ounces of silver.
When compared globally, Alaska’s copper resources accounted for 12.4 percent of the total, zinc 7.4 percent, gold 7 percent, silver 7 percent, and coal 17 percent.
Trump’s Order and National Security
On Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order titled “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resources Potential,” which recognizes the state’s wealth of minerals and fossil fuels.
In the statement, U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) echoed that sentiment, saying: “It is morning again in Alaska. With the stroke of a pen, President Trump has done more good for Alaskans than perhaps any president in our history.”
Alaska DNR Commissioner John Boyle said the president’s executive actions in Alaska serve the broader goals of energy independence and national security.
Alaska state Sen. Shelley Hughes, a Republican who frequently visits Haines, said the Palmer Project aligns with the president’s energy and natural resources policies.
“There’s only one direction with what we can do with the mining industry, and that’s an upward growth of the mining industry. It does fit with President Trump’s vision,” Hughes told The Epoch Times.
“There couldn’t be a better place on the planet to do it because we’re incredibly responsible resource developers. Alaska has untapped potential as far as mining when you look at the large land mass.”
Hughes added, “This particular project has been a conversation for quite some time. The people I’ve spoken with are curious and cautiously optimistic. They need a lot of questions answered. I think it’s early enough to answer those questions over time.”
Although Hughes acknowledges her limited knowledge of the project, she supports the process of exploration.
“I support the process because it makes sense in the United States to develop these resources, doing it with good stewardship” instead of importing them from rival and competitor countries, she said.
