A new group has filed a lawsuit in Alaska Superior Court seeking to stop a mining company from hauling double-trailer trucks filled with gold ore across a wide swath of Alaska’s public highways.The complaint names the state and the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities as defendants.
Kinross Gold representatives said Thursday. Peak Gold is owned primarily by mining company Kinross Gold, based in Toronto. The trucks will head northwest into the state’s Interior on the Alaska and Richardson highways. The ore will be milled at Kinross’Fully loaded, the rigs will weigh 165,000 pounds and stretch 95 feet. The plan calls for 60 daily trips to the mill, round the clock, with a truck passing every 24 minutes one-way.
She said the state is taking measures to improve the safety of the roads, such as clearing brush to improve visibility around bus stops and other areas of the route. She said the state is adding passing lanes, though the lawsuit argues that the measures won’t be completed before the hauling is scheduled to start.
After Kinross acquired its stake in the mine in 2020, it has gone to great lengths to publicly disclose the hauling plan, she said.