Page 4 - Donlin Winter Newsletter

SNOW GULCH
By Enric Fernandez
Becoming a miner in the early 1900s in Alaska required a special kind of adventurous and enterprising spirit. These were some trademark characteristics of Robert (Bob) Fisk Lyman, an intelligent, entrepreneurial and hardworking Alaskan miner. Bob is well known in the Alaska mining hall of fame for his work at DeCoursey in the 1940s, a mercury mine 19 miles northeast of the Village of Crooked Creek. In early spring, Bob would get on a tractor and take his mercury flasks 25 miles, from DeCoursey to the Village of Crooked Creek to be transported by water, or
50 miles to Flat to be transported by air. In the 1950s, Bob and his family started a placer mining gold operation at Snow Gulch, which was mined until 2015 when Carolyn and Spencer Lyman ended operations. Mining activities
at Snow Gulch changed the land, natural features and drainage of Snow Gulch. Donlin Gold saw this as an opportunity to enhance the aquatic habitat in the Crooked Creek watershed.
The Lyman’s operations created depressions on the land that have since filled with water and formed small lakes. “Lakes and an aquatic feature — that is what is absent
Photo courtesy of Donlin Gold
in the Crooked Creek watershed,” said Enric Fernandez, Permitting and Environmental Manager for Donlin Gold. These lakes are unique aquatic habitats and attract waterfowl species that are rarely seen in the area, but they are shallow and lack connectivity with the mainstem of the creek to make them functional for fish. Donlin Gold is planning to enhance the aquatic habitat in Snow Gulch by enlarging the size and depth of the lakes, connecting them to the creek and restoring adjacent wetlands and stream channels. “These changes will enhance and create more lake habitat in the Crooked Creek drainage, which the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has agreed will bring value to the fish,” said Enric. Earthwork operations started this fall and are expected to resume in the summer of 2022. The work is expected to take multiple years to complete.
BACKHAUL 2021
THANK YOU FOR MAKING BACKHAUL 2021 A SUCCESS!
We would like to thank our IGAP partners in the following communities:
Sleetmute • Crooked Creek • Napaimute • Chuathbaluk • Aniak • Upper Kalskag • Lower Kalskag • Tuluksak • Akiak • Kwethluk • Akiachak • Napaskiak • Napakiak • Atmautluak • Kasigluk • Nunapitchuk • City of Bethel • Toksook Bay • Chefornak • Quinhagak • Mekoryuk • Kongiganak • Kwigillingok • Kipnuk • Nightmute
Donlin Gold LLC 2525 C St., Suite 450 Anchorage, AK 99503 Visit us at donlingold.com
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