The Lucky Shot property in the scenic Hatcher Pass area, in the Mat-Su north of Anchorage, is one mining project under development by Contango Ore. Contango helped successfully develop another property, Manh Choh, in Alaska’s Interior — the first large mine to open in the state in more than a decade. After 40 years in Alaska’s mining industry, he is tired of permitting delays, lawsuits and the state’s lack of infrastructure.
So a bell chimed in his head four years ago when he read a vague line in a corporate report proposing an unusual kind of gold mine — one that could be ready for construction in just a couple of years, instead of the dozen or more that some projects take. The idea was simple: Dig a typical pit and mine the ore — but send the rocks somewhere else for the heavy industrial process of separating out the gold. “When I read that, I was like, ‘That actually makes a hell of a lot of sense,’” Van Nieuwenhuyse said in an interview. A mine could be approved more quickly, and built much faster, Van Nieuwenhuyse figured, if it didn’t need the same processing and waste disposal sites that most large mines do. It also, in theory, would have a smaller environmental footprint, would need less power and would cost less to build. Contango Ore, a Fairbanks-based company that has emerged as a player in Alaska’s mining industry since Van Nieuwenhuyse took over as chief executive in 2020, near the town of Tok in Alaska’s Interior, became the first large mine to open in the state in more than a decade. Critical to its development was a partnership with multinational Kinross Gold Corp., which now owns 70% of Manh Choh. The project’s unconventional model, aligning with Van Nieuwenhuyse’s vision, involves huge trucks that carry dozens of loads of ore each day along a nearly 250-mile route. The trip ends at a pre-existing Kinross mine near Fairbanks, where the ore is processe