Bokan Mountain on Prince of Wales, has been in the news for its uranium and Rare Earth Elements. Ucore Rare Metals, a Canadian exploration company, promotes Bokan as its flagship property with an untapped resource of 11 million lbs of Uranium 308 and Rare Earth Elements (RRE) “estimated to be the largest combined heavy and light RRE deposit within the US”.

However, the site is not NI 43-101 compliant which leaves it wide open for exaggerated claims. NI 43-101 is a mineral resource classification scheme used for public disclosure relating to minerals properties in Canada.  NI 43-101, a guideline for how public companies disclose scientific and technical information about mineral projects, does not apply to Bokan.  The purpose  of NI 43-101 is to ensure that misleading, erroneous or fraudulent information relating to mineral properties is not published or promoted to investors on the stock exchange overseen by the Canadian Securities Authority.  Since the mine is in the US, Ucore is not subject to Canadian regulations.

Ucore is downplaying the fact that Kendrick Creek is listed as high priority by the State of Alaska Contamination Sites Program because of heavy metals and radioactive isotopes left by the Ross-Adams mine.  Kendrick Creek, a stream used for subsistence salmon and shellfish harvest, in addition to a significant commercial salmon harvest, is again under threat.

TCS will be sending comments on the Tonka Timber Sale DEIS.  The Forest Service proposes harvesting between 25.2 to 53.4 million board feet of timber on the Lindenburg Peninsula, an area previously logged. The 5000 acres already cut have eliminated high value wildlife  areas; with this additional sale, the southern half of the peninsula will be covered in clear cuts.

The proposed action , Alternative 2, would harvest the greatest amount of timber, using conventional and helicopter yarding systems.  There would be 9.3 miles of new road construction, extending the existing road system. There is extensive controversy over the log staging area in the Pothole, a protected cove on the east coast of Woewodski.  Log rafts have been shown to damage productive marine habitat.  However, barging the logs to their destination is preferable as a means of protecting the personal, subsistence and commercial crab harvest in the Pothole.

Comments are due mid-December.