Alaska Business March 2022

MINING

Zeal for Zinc

Red Dog Mine feeds the hunger for a critical metal

By Isaac Stone Simonelli

E

veryone knows Alaska’s economy is dominated by oil and gas, but not when it comes to foreign exports.

The most valuable commodity Alaska sends to other countries is, in fact, zinc ore and concentrate. As of 2020 (the most recent data compiled by the US Census Bureau), Alaska exported $730 million worth of zinc. That’s down from over $1.2 billion in 2017 but still more than the $556 million worth of petroleum exported (because most Alaska petroleum is consumed domestically). When the rest of the world looks at Alaska’s resource output, they think zinc.

Zinc consumption has gone from about half a pound per person globally in 1960 to about four pounds in 2020. The metal is nearly ubiquitous, showing up in everything from dietary supplements and sunscreen to fertilizer and ordinary alkaline batteries. The most prominent use of zinc, though, is as a galvanizer: protecting both iron and steel from corrosion.

“We are galvanizing—making corrosion resistant steels— in greater quantities than we ever have before,” says David Hammond, a mineral economist at Hammond International Group who also works as a consultant for NANA Regional Corporation. “A lot of infrastructure uses zinc metal in it.”

NANA leases the mineral rights of the Red Dog Mine northwest of Kotzebue. Through an operating agreement with Teck Alaska Incorporated, Red Dog produced 491,000 tonnes of zinc in 2020, making it the world’s largest producer of the metal, with the largest reserves.

102 | March 2022

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