As Federal Ground Shifts, Mining Industry Leaders Seek to Advance Projects

Two Alaska mining projects—Donlin Gold and Graphite Creek—were added to the federal Permitting Council’s FAST-41 dashboard under the mining sector this year. The dashboard and permitting council, created by Congress in 2015, help coordinate federal environmental authorizations for key infrastructure projects, resulting in a record of decision nearly eighteen months faster than without those tools. That’s great progress, Compton said, but there’s a catch.

“Much of what has occurred is at the administrative level, and that’s going to be subject to the whims of the next administration,” he said. “If Congress is defining [the responsibilities of the Permitting Council], it may lessen the pendulum swing from administration to administration,” he said.

Emma Pokon, Region 10 administrator for the US Environmental Protection Agency and former Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner, told the audience that federal reform is trending toward letting state regulators lead the way.

“I think the state agencies have great expertise and often a better understanding of local conditions and issues. So we’ve been placing early emphasis on respect and a level of deference for our state colleagues to make appropriate judgment calls so that we can focus our energies here in Region 10 on providing support when it’s requested, while also not duplicating or complicating those state processes. My hope is that, in simplifying that framework a little bit, the process overall will be more efficient and more streamlined,” Pokon said.

Asked how industry leaders could assist in helping mining permitting go more smoothly, she said communication and a complete permit are the best ways to smooth the permitting process.

“Some good engagement and good information to make available to the public can make all of our conversations all around go a bit more smoothly,” Pokon said.

Tackling Other Issues

Karina Waller, state director for Senator Lisa Murkowski, briefed the audience on what the senator has been working on related to mining. It wasn’t a short list.

“She saw the writing on the wall two decades ago about how outdated our mining laws were, and how we’re falling behind other countries—particularly China— and our dependence on critical minerals. So what she started doing is introducing legislation and legislative fixes to attempt to reverse that trend,” Waller said.

Not everything Murkowski introduced has been successful, she noted, but each piece has built on the last. Waller listed the American Mineral Security Act, which Murkowski originally introduced in 2019 (a new version was introduced this year), as an ongoing piece of legislation Murkowski is pushing. One success was the inclusion of mining on the FAST-41 project dashboard, she noted.

“In addition to that, there have been several other pieces of legislation, including the reconciliation bill, that included provisions in there for resource development. And we’ve seen some of those policies come to fruition recently with two Alaska-based [mining companies] that just received Defense Production Act grants: Graphite One and Nova Minerals,” Waller said.

“So I think you are seeing a kind of coalescence around [the idea that] everyone knows permitting is broken in this country, and the only people that are benefiting right now are the lawyers and potentially some of the lobbyists. I think there is an urgency to try and get this done—and likely before the lame duck session, you know, with the [2026] midterms,” Waller told the audience.

That doesn’t mean the industry has no obstacles currently facing it, however. Asked what issues could slow down the seemingly favorable business climate, Compton said permitting reform can’t entirely be crossed off the list yet; it should be considered a work in progress.

A second, significant obstacle, he said, is an educated workforce, both at the industry level and within federal agencies.

A third headwind, he said, is social acceptance and trust. “Ultimately, it is all about trust and the social acceptance of our industry,” Compton said. “If I had the power to change one thing, it would be to get us further down the road in building that trust.”