Graphite One: US Army Corps to hold public meetings next week

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is holding public meetings in Nome, Teller and Brevig Mission next week to give an overview of the proposed Graphite One graphite mine on the northern slopes of the Kigluaik Mountains and to present information on the environmental review process.
Notably, Graphite One representatives will only be present at the Nome meeting on Monday, April 13. Graphite One Senior Vice President of Operations Kevin Torpy told the Nugget that Graphite One intended to be present at all meetings. “However, the various tribal, municipal, and Village Native Corp entities in those communities have asked to meet with USACE and the State agencies without Graphite One in attendance,” Torpy said in an email to the Nugget. “We are respecting that request by not attending.  We would like to get out to the communities this spring but will wait until after the upcoming meetings to have those discussions.”
He added that Graphite One will provided a project summary and update on summer 2026 plans at the Nome meeting this coming Monday.  Asked if there will be another Graphite One meeting, as the company has held in the spring for several years, Torpy said, “Graphite One will decide if an additional meeting is needed afterwards.”
State agencies involved in the permitting process will also be present at the meetings next week.
The permitting process has been underway since last fall. The lead agency is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, coordinating the permitting with other federal and state agencies.
The proposed mine would feature an open pit “to extract graphite ore and produce a graphite concentrate for further processing and manufacturing of Coated Spherical Graphite, primarily for the electric vehicle lithium-ion battery and energy storage markets, as well as other high grade graphite products,” according to the federal permitting dashboard online. The mine was chosen to be part of a fast-tracked permitting process that put it on a permitting timetable that seems expedited compared to other mine permitting processes. After the release of the Feasibility Study in the summer last year, the company submitted its permit applications for various federal permits. The timetable anticipates a decision for the Clean Water Act Section 404 permit, an Environmental Assessment and historic preservation office reviews to be complete by September 2026.  State permits are not displayed on the FAST-41 timetable.
Last month, Graphite One released a 331-page long Environmental Evaluation Document. It details the history of the project and the plan for development, operation and reclamation after mine closure. As justification, Graphite One states that “the project aims to develop a domestic supply of high-grade graphite for energy storage, EV batteries, and industrial uses, supporting the U.S. energy and defense sectors.”
The mine would be located on the northern slopes of the Kigluaik Mountains at Graphite Creek, just a few miles north of the Imuruk Basin. The area is used for subsistence harvests of red salmon and other fish species, moose, musk oxen, waterfowl, plants and berries by people of Teller and Brevig Mission. According to the document, the mine pit itself would measure a 1.1 mile in length and encompass 337 acres. The mine would produce over its estimated 21-year life 78.5 million tons of ore and 253.3 million tons of waste rock. The waste rock facility is to store indefinitely 338 million tons of filtered tailings and waste rock, “equivalent to a volume of 181.8 million cubic yards and approximately 660 acres in surface area.”
In addition, to the pit and the waste management facility, the company proposes to build an access road from the Kougarok Road through Mosquito Pass to the mine site, to build a mine complex including rock crushers, ore processing mills, a tailings pond, water treatment plant and a power plant, fuel storage with a capacity of 850,000 gallons, explosive storage, a helipad, truck shops, a metallurgical lab  and administration offices. The permanent workforce, the documents says, would be housed in Nome and bussed to the mine daily.
Graphite One aim to operate the mine year-round, 24/7.
They propose to build a 17.3-mile long gravel road to the mine to accommodate the industrial traffic of daily trucking of employees, fuel and transporting conexes on tractor trailers with ore to the Port of Nome to be shipped to the secondary processing facility. The road would be on state of Alaska land, require six 16-foot wide bridges over streams, designed for 80-ton capacity. The proposal specifies that the road would not be open to the public and be blocked by gates, a guard house and emergency sleeping accommodations sleeping up to 12 personnel. The document does not specify which entity would foot the bill for the access road. However, the document says improvements would be necessary to the 30-miles of the Kougarok Road from Nome to the access road and that the state should pay for it. “It is expected that the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities would permit and construct the required road upgrades, which have independent utility from the Project. The modifications include widening, curve straightening, and capping.”
The company envisions to barge construction and mining equipment through the Tuksuk Channel while the Mosquito Pass access road is being built. Using a barge or landing craft, the company wants to construct a temporary gravel staging pad at Imuruk Basin and create a seasonal winter road to the mine to get construction equipment and “modularized” mine facilities to the site.
The document specifies that the complex would take 30 months to build and upon the end of the mine’s life in 21 years, it would take a year to dismantle it.
Upon conclusion of mine operations, the site would be reclaimed. “Given the relatively small size of the operation and concurrent reclamation activities of the WMF (waste material facility) throughout the life of the mine, it is assumed that most demolition and reclamation activities at the mine site would be completed in approximately one year.” The mill, facilities and foundations will be demolished and removed. “The debris would be disposed in the final pit and covered,” the document says. Water treatment facilities would remain and ongoing monitoring would need to be done indefinitely.
As for Employee Housing, the document sags that employee hosing during construction would be provided in Nome or at the mine site. “Graphite One is anticipating that the Projects’ construction housing requirements would be fulfilled by a construction camp installed to support the Port of Nome expansion and/or a new camp constructed in Nome,” the document says. Graphite One aims to “maximize a local work force through a combination of local hire and relocation” and they intend to “provide long-term housing by constructing a subdivision with single and multi-family housing as well as apartments for Nome-based employees.” For workers from outlying villages, G1 would construct “camp style accommodations.”
The full document is posted online at:  https://www.graphiteoneinc.com/graphite-creek/