Nixon Fork Gold Mine (AK40) v1.0
The Nixon Fork Mine, located about 25 miles northeast of McGrath, has changed hands numerous times in the last century. The area was mined intermittently by various small operations from 1918-1964, the Nixon Fork mine operated from 1995-1999, and then was re-opened briefly in 2007 by a different operator. Most recently, Canadian-based Fire River Gold Corporation owned the infrastructure at the small underground mine and the right to the mining leases. The mine is already fully permitted and bonded, and almost all the required equipment and infrastructure are still in place which made restarting the operation relatively easy. The mine is powered by an on-site diesel generator facility and the fuel is delivered by air. During the previous opening of the mine, the empty fuel planes returned with ore concentrates to Fairbanks, where the ore was then shipped to Canada for further processing. The most recent plan had also called for for removing the ore by plane, and shipping it from Anchorage to a refining facility in Utah.
Fire River Gold spent around $1.25 million in 2010 on a “Re-Evaluation Program” for the mine. This program also included surface and underground exploration for additional mineral deposits nearby. In February 2011 they released the results of a preliminary economic assessment for reopening the mine.
Fire River’s future plans for Nixon Fork involved extracting the remaining lower grade ores near the existing mine, as well as reprocessing some of the old mine tailings, using cyanide heap leaching. In addition, Fire River was exploring the area for additional deposits
GPS Coordinates: 63.2291806, -154.7603361
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