N AT U R A L R E SO U RC E D E V E LO PM E N T SPEC I A L SEC T I O N
Open Pits or E Underground Ops Suiting a mine’s methods to its environment and commodity By Scott Rhode and Antonio Lopez 72 | November 2021
Alaska Business
very day, approximately 1,000 Alaskans go to work where the sun never shines. They are the miners in the tunnels at the Kensington, Greens Creek, and Pogo mines. Meanwhile, their cohorts at the Fort Knox, Usibelli Coal, and Red Dog mines labor with blue sky over their heads. Same industry, two different approaches to extracting minerals from the earth. Whether the risks and rewards of open pit versus underground mining make sense for any given site depends largely on the depth and nature of the deposit and the type of ore expected to be found. w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m
