More gold, strong zinc prices helped push value higher; critical minerals could add a boost moving forward.

Alaska mines produced approximately $4.51 billion worth of nonfuel minerals last year, a 16% increase over the $3.89 billion in 2021, and an impressive 42.7% jump over the $3.16 billion of mined products during 2020, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's Mineral Commodity Summaries 2023 report.

The rise in Alaska mine production value is largely due to increased zinc and gold production, along with strong zinc prices during 2022.

According to early estimates by the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys, Alaska mines produced roughly 1.33 billion pounds of zinc, 215 million lb of lead, 690,000 ounces of gold, and 15.8 million oz silver during 2022. This is about a 6% increase for zinc, a 15% drop for lead, a 10% rise for gold, and a 4% increase for silver when compared to 2021.

The single largest boost to Alaska mine production values for 2022, however, came from the approximately $1.57/lb average selling price for the zinc being shipped from Teck Resources Ltd.'s Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska and Hecla Mining Company's Greens Creek Mine on the state's Southeast Panhandle.

As a result, zinc accounted for roughly $2.1 billion of Alaska's mineral production value last year. Gold accounted for another $1.2 billion, and silver $343 million. The balance of Alaska's 2022 nonfuel mineral value came from lead byproducts at Red Dog and Greens Creek, as well as sand and gravel products.

Because the USGS only tracks nonfuel minerals, the nearly 1 million metric tons of coal produced each year at Usibelli Coal Mine Inc.'s operations near Healy and shipped to Interior Alaska heat and power plants last year was not calculated into the 2022 Alaska mine production totals.

With gold production expected to rise at both Kinross Gold Corp.'s Fort Knox and Northern Star Resources Ltd.'s Pogo mines in Interior Alaska, coupled with expected strong zinc prices due to global inventories held in London Metals Exchange and Chinese warehouses at historic lows, the production value from Alaska mines is expected to continue to climb in 2023.

Increased supply, demand

The value of the nonfuel minerals extracted from Alaska mines represents nearly 4.6% of the $98.2 billion in nonfuel mineral commodities in the United States during 2022.

The top 10 producing states last year were Arizona ($10.1 billion), Nevada ($8.93 billion), Texas ($8.03 billion), California ($5.61 billion), Minnesota ($4.78 billion), Alaska ($4.51 billion), Florida (more than $3.6 billion, exact value withheld due to proprietary critical minerals production values in the state), Utah ($3.6 billion), Michigan ($3.36 billion), and Missouri ($3.15 billion).

Because these mined commodities feed into virtually every industrial supply chain, their production supports a significant portion of the U.S. economy.

"Industries that use nonfuel mineral materials created an estimated $3.64 trillion in value-added products in 2022, which represents a 9% increase from 2021," said Steven Fortier, director of the USGS National Minerals Information Center.

The increased domestic consumption of mineral commodities compared with 2021 is attributed to the continued recovery of markets from the impacts of COVID-19. Global supply chains and mineral commodity markets were significantly disrupted by the global coronavirus pandemic, especially in the first half of 2020. USGS, however, reports that mineral consumption in the U.S. began picking up toward the end of 2020 and through 2021. This upward trend in both minerals demand and prices continued into 2022, with consumption of many mineral commodities now near or exceeding pre-pandemic levels.

It is expected that U.S. mine production will continue to climb in the coming years due to the increased focus on domestic production of minerals critical to electric vehicles, green energy, high-tech devices, household goods, aerospace, and numerous other consumer and industrial goods.

More critical minerals

One of the mainstays of the annual USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries is keeping tabs on America's heavy dependence on imports for most of the minerals, metals, and groups of elements critical to the nation's economy and security.

During 2022, the U.S. was dependent on imports for more than half its supply of 50 out of the 64 nonfuel mineral commodities tracked by USGS and was 100% import-reliant for 15 of those.

The list of mined commodities that the U.S. is fully dependent on foreign nations for its supply includes arsenic, used in semiconductors for high-tech devices and military hardware; gallium, a primary ingredient in semiconductors used in next-generation smartphones and telecommunication networks; graphite, the primary anode ingredient in lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles; and manganese, a largely overlooked metal in the cathode of EV batteries.

The U.S. is also more than 95% import-dependent for rare earths, a group of 15 elements critical to a wide range of high-tech, military, and commercial goods; 83% import-dependent for antimony, a metalloid that the Pentagon is particularly concerned about securing a reliable supply; and 77% import-dependent for tin, a metal that Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers ranked as most likely to be impacted by emerging technologies.

In February of 2022, the USGS finalized an updated list of minerals critical to the U.S. This updated list includes 50 nonfuel minerals and metals essential to the economic or national security of the U.S. and which has a supply chain vulnerable to disruption.

America's tenuous relations with China and Russia, coupled with the enormous new demand for minerals needed for EVs and renewable energy infrastructure, U.S. lawmakers and the Pentagon are pushing for more reliable supplies of critical minerals – either from domestic mining or importing from allied nations.

As a result, various federal legislative acts and appropriations allocated hundreds of billions of dollars in 2022 to ensure secure and reliable supplies of critical minerals.

Given that intriguing quantities of 49 out of the 50 minerals deemed critical in the U.S. are found in Alaska, the state's growing mining sector has the potential for a major boost from federal spending.

A complete list of critical minerals found in Alaska, including a summary of their uses, can be read at 49 critical minerals in the 49th State published in the November 4, 2022 edition of North of 60 Mining News.

Timely, comprehensive report

When considering each of the 15 rare earth elements and six platinum group metals individually, the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2022 includes detailed production, consumption, and recycling information for more than 90 nonfuel mineral commodities.

U.S. Geological Survey

The U.S. was more than 50% import-reliant for 50 mined commodities tracked by USGS during 2022.

This includes the most up-to-date information on industrial commodities such as cement, iron ore, and sand and gravel; precious metals such as gold and silver; rare earth elements such as praseodymium, neodymium, and dysprosium; and critical minerals such as cobalt, indium, and tellurium.

The minerals included in the report are used in every facet of modern life; from construction to consumer electronics, aerospace, renewable energy, and healthcare. And considering that the comprehensive mineral summaries are published about a month after the end of the year they cover, this data is relevant and vital to policymakers and researchers.

"Decision-makers and leaders in both the private and public sectors rely on the crucial, unbiased statistics and data provided by the USGS in the Mineral Commodity Summaries to make business decisions and determine national policy," said Fortier.

Author Bio

Shane Lasley, Publisher

Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.

• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: (907) 726-1095
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-lasley-ab073b12/