Skagway is inching toward building a dock that Canadian mining companies could use to once again export ore from the local port.
The municipality of Skagway has been in talks with officials in Yukon, Canada for several years about building a new dock that would allow mining companies to get bulk minerals to market.
But doing so would require a handful of federal permits. Skagway’s borough assembly voted unanimously earlier this month to begin that process, which can take up to two years. During an assembly meeting last week, Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai said kickstarting the permitting process is an important next step.
“If an agreement is reached and approved by Skagway and the Yukon, the project will be able to move quickly to tendering and construction,” Pillai said.
Skagway will need to secure three federal permits for the project: one from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and two others under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act.
The permitting process will cost upwards of $120,000 – and the Yukon government has committed to footing the bill. The job will be handled by contractors, including Washington-based KPFF Consulting Engineers.
Pillai emphasized during the meeting that moving forward on permitting does not mean the project itself is a done deal.
“A positive decision on this item will not bind the municipality of Skagway to future decisions on this project but will support our ability to meet potential demand in the near future,” Pillai said.
Demand for the dock would stem from Yukon mining projects set to come online in the coming years. During an interview earlier this week, Skagway Assembly Member Deb Potter nodded to a copper, gold, molybdenum and silver deposit that the Casino Mining Corporation is developing northwest of Whitehorse, Canada.
“It’s going to be a massive operation,” Potter said. “And they want to ship out of Skagway.”
There’s a long history of mining companies shipping ore out of the small, tourism-dependent town. The municipality previously had an ore loader on one of its docks that was most recently used by Minto Metals’ Corp. Minto used the facility up until March of 2023.
But the loader wasn’t in great shape, Potter said, and was removed when Skagway replaced that dock last summer.
Potter said the project could help diversify the local economy and provide a major financial boost, given that mining companies would pay fees to use the dock. That’s different from how it worked before, when the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway held a 55-year lease on the Skagway port.
“The benefit now that that lease has expired is, we’re just looking at bringing in a bunch more money,” Potter said. “That money goes to Skagway now, not to White Pass.”
Negotiations are ongoing between Skagway and Yukon officials on an export cooperation agreement.
Skagway will need to hammer out more details as the project moves forward. That includes making sure that exporting ore via the new dock would not lead to contamination in the area, which was a problem in the past. The assembly has already passed an ordinance that says the ore would need to come through the port in sealed containers, for that purpose.
