Donlin Gold Project Wins Award for Mining Reclamation
Calista and Donlin Gold LLC Recognized for Land Stewardship Efforts
Storyknife, January/February 2025 edition
The State of Alaska recently recognized Calista Corporation and Donlin Gold, LLC with its 2024 Mining Reclamation Award for outstanding reclamation of exploration drilling at the Donlin Gold Project.
The award, presented to Calista and Donlin Gold staff at a statewide conference in November, highlights actions taken by the project to quickly restore the land impacted during exploration drilling.
In a Nov. 7 news release, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources praised the Donlin Gold Project for “exemplary stewardship of the land” and “commitment to low-impact exploration activities and implementation of industry-leading reclamation measures.”
The award highlighted many specific actions by the project, including:
- Effective use of stockpiled organics and topsoil, combined with manual reseeding of exploration drill sites, trails and trench locations. This helped rapid re-establishment of dense, native vegetation in those areas. The manual reseeding work exceeded legal requirements.
- Reclamation of drill sites, trenches and access routes “with careful precision to mimic and blend” with the topography as it existed before drilling. This also exceeded state requirements.
- Highly detailed annual reclamation reports and requests for bonding release.
The state’s reclamation award program is led by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Mining, Land and Water (DMLW).
To qualify for the state award, “an operator must perform reclamation that shows they exceeded reclamation standards and the DMLW staff must be able to back up their nomination with photos and a narrative explaining such practices,” according to the awards program website.
This is not the first time that reclamation on Calista land has been recognized in the reclamation award program. In 2006, NYAC Mining Co. and Calista received a State of Alaska reclamation award for their work in the Six Creeks area. In 2014, NYAC Mining also won a national Reclamation and Sustainable
Mineral Development award from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
“Safety and stewardship of the land are our top priority,” explains Tisha Kuhns, Calista Corp. vice president of land and natural resources.
“We are grateful for the partnership we have with Donlin Gold, LLC and the surface owner, The Kuskokwim Corporation, that continues to put these two things at the center of everything we do at the project.”