Alaska’s Mining Future Relies on Energy and Lots of It

Since January 2025 (what else happened then?) America's and Alaska's energy future became brighter. Drill, baby, drill is the order of the day, and the Trump administration has put a lot of effort into getting Alaska's energy development back on track. Alaska also has vast mineral wealth, including rare earth metals that we get mostly from China, as well as gold and other metals and minerals. So, mine, baby, mine is also the order of the day.

There's a catch: Mining is an energy-intensive process, and a lot of Alaska's key mineral reserves are scattered across some pretty remote areas in the Great Land. On a recent visit to Anchorage to talk with the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, Energy Secretary Chris Wright had some things to say on that score.

During a trip to Alaska to deliver the keynote address at the Alaska Oil and Gas Association annual conference in Anchorage, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright gathered Alaska mining leaders at the Fairbanks Pipeline Training Center for a roundtable discussion centered on the intersection of mining and energy in the state.

"Our goal in this administration, and certainly in the Department of Energy, is to do everything we can to help all of you grow your businesses, move forward, and expand," Wright told the mining executives, Alaska Native leaders, state regulators, and mine workers gathered for the impromptu discussion.

While mining is not DOE's primary focus area, the department has long understood that a reliable source of minerals is critical to its primary objectives. Coal has been a major source of U.S. energy for more than a century; critical minerals such as graphite, rare earths, nickel and silver are essential renewable energy inputs; uranium is the powerhouse of nuclear energy; and base metals such as copper, aluminum and zinc build the nation's energy infrastructure.

"You can't mine without huge energy resources; you can't produce great energy resources without the metals from mining to build all the infrastructure," Wright said. "So, I think these are two of the most awesome industries in the world."

There's always a catch, and in Alaska mining, that's what it is; mining requires energy, and the energy expansion is due in no small part to the recoverable metals and minerals that Alaska has in plenty. The two go hand-in-hand.

Fortunately, the present administration seems to realize this, and the current Congress is steering away from the previous practice of treating Alaska as the world's largest national park, and locking its resources away. But there's still a lot to be done to get the mine, baby, mine up to speed. For example:

"The key thing that we do is turn big rocks into little rocks, and little rocks into metal," said Dan Brearly, vice president of development and operations at Felix Gold. "That needs a lot of power."

For mines already operating on Alaska's limited electrical infrastructure, that power comes at a price.

And that price is considerable. But it's worth paying. 

There will, eventually, have to be major infrastructure work around Alaska's mining operations. But one thing, in this speech, that Secretary Wright doesn't mention is the modern era of nuclear power. Something like the Felix Gold operation - and remember, in gold mining, one is literally digging money out of the ground - seems a tailor-made operation to for a small modular reactor or two, to power the mine and its associated buildings, housing, and equipment. Some of that equipment will also require fuel, mostly diesel fuel, but a reactor or two on-site would simplify the energy picture a great deal.

As I'm continually saying, we solve today's problems with tomorrow's technology. The energy technology of the future is in large part nuclear, and the advent of small modular reactors and portable reactors makes nuclear power more versatile than ever. That's something the Energy Department and the mining companies should be looking into. 

What say you, Secretary Wright?

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