Canadian company exits contentious uranium mining project in Western Alaska — Anchorage Press

A small Canadian company behind a controversial effort to mine uranium in Western Alaska has pulled out of the project, the firm has announced.

Panther Minerals last year proposed exploratory drilling over the next four years in search of uranium on Alaska’s Seward Peninsula.

But it ultimately decided to abandon the project, called Boulder Creek, based on “seasonal, logistical, and capital considerations,” the company said in a four-paragraph press release dated July 11. 

Panther’s proposal had sparked sharp opposition among residents of the Indigenous village of Elim, a community of some 350 Iñupiaq and Yup’ik people that’s perched on the southern coast of the Seward Peninsula. The village is about 30 miles south of the uranium prospect and 90 miles east of Nome.

permit for mineral exploration could be amended to include a new operator, according to Lorraine Henry, a spokesperson with the state’s land management agency, the Department of Natural Resources. 

A completely new permit may not be required if the proposed work remains the same, she added.

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