Five Norton Sound tribes are asking a federal judge to throw out a key federal permit for a large-scale gold mine proposed in Bonanza Channel, an estuary about 30 miles east of Nome.
The mine, proposed by a Nevada company called IPOP LLC, would dredge more than two-and-a-half miles along the channel's estuary bed.
Oral arguments for the case went before a federal judge on June 16 in Anchorage. The tribal governments of the Village of Solomon, Native Village of Council, King Island Native Community, Chinik Eskimo Community and Native Village of White Mountain say that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ignored serious environmental and subsistence concerns when it granted the Clean Water Act permit for the proposed mine in 2024.
Erin Colón is an attorney with the environmental law nonprofit Earthjustice. She’s representing the tribes in the case.
“This is the first large‑scale dredging project, mining project in an estuary in Alaska, and it’s a project that every agency that reviewed it had major concerns about what the environmental impacts would be,” Colón said. “That’s Fish and Wildlife Service, NMFS, EPA, and the Alaska District of the (U.S. Army) Corps.”
The tribes filed the lawsuit a little over a year ago. It argues that the Corps violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act by downplaying impacts to fish and wildlife habitat, migratory birds and marine mammals. And, they say the Corps did not fully consider how around‑the‑clock dredging could disrupt fishing, egg‑gathering and berry‑picking in and around Safety Sound, a critical area for subsistence users.
“It's not just an estuary where, you know, there aren't people living nearby, it's a place with a rich history that is in active use still today,” Colón said.
Colón said tribal members of the Village of Solomon, whose historical homeland overlaps the proposed mining area, filled the courtroom to watch the hearing.
Deilah Johnson is a tribal member, council member, and tribal resources director for the Village of Solomon. She said the Bonanza Channel estuary functions as a year‑round subsistence location for nearby communities and as a place where people teach and pass down cultural practices. She flew into Anchorage from Oregon for the oral arguments, and said she joined more than two dozen other tribal members of all ages in the courtroom.
“Having our youth present with us, teaching them to continue the fight and to continue the important advocacy as our future leaders, I think was also just an incredibly proud moment for us as a community,” Johnson said. “Because that is where they go fishing, that is where they go swimming, that is where we have our own small education classes with our biologists, I mean, that is part of who they are.”
The Village of Solomon has been opposing the large-scale dredge mine since IPOP initially submitted its applications for the project in 2018.
Johnson said this lawsuit is the most recent opposition.
“It constantly feels like we can't ever let our guard down, no matter what decision was made by who. We have to stay on guard and prepared for anything,” she said.
IPOP was initially denied the Clean Water Act permit by the Corps’ Alaska District office in 2022. The state branch found the project failed to prove it was the least environmentally damaging option, and was not in the public interest. In its statement rejecting the proposal, the Corps noted that less than one percent of permitting applications nationwide are denied, usually because the applicant refused to alter the design, timing, or location of the project.
But IPOP filed its own lawsuit against the Corps, arguing the Alaska office acted in bad faith and dragged out the review. The company then filed a modified version of the project with a smaller footprint.
The Corps’ Pacific Ocean Division stepped in and in 2024 vacated the Alaska District’s denial and issued a permit to the modified proposal.
IPOP's proposed project
As it stands, the proposed mine would vacuum up the estuary bed, moving 4.5 million cubic yards of material to a nearly 160 acre area of land. IPOP’s permit application says this would turn the area from vegetated shallows to mudflats, but those impacts would be temporary.
Attorneys for the Corps argue that IPOP’s revised project reduces the environmental impacts, and an Environmental Impact Statement typical for large scale projects permitted by the federal agency is not necessary.
In its written argument, the defense said the area is “expansive,” “mostly uninhabited,” and the impact would be confined to the footprint of the project. Further, they say no “unique subsistence resource” is available within the footprint of the project that couldn't be found elsewhere and people could subsist in other areas.
The argument states that the Corps determined the Bonanza Channel was not a “particularly productive” area for fishing because of low water levels and higher water temperatures.
But Johnson said that the Corp’s argument effectively sidesteps local expertise and community concerns, and the smaller footprint does not offset the impacts.
“It to me doesn't make any sense, but they are still claiming that there's no fish. We proved that there was, and that the Corps didn't consider the fish that are still with that yardage, regardless of how much smaller they made it,” Johnson said.
IPOP also needs state authorization to mine. A land use permit from the Alaska Division of Mining, Land and Water — within the state Department of Natural Resources — has been denied, and the state recently rejected IPOP’s appeal. Without both the federal and state permits, the company cannot move forward with the project.
Earthjustice Attorney Erin Colón said the denial could still be challenged in Superior court.
“There is no guarantee that the state will stand by its denial, and there's always a potential that a court could reverse that decision too,” Colón said.
There’s currently no timeline for a ruling, but Colón said she generally expects a written decision within about a year, though it could come sooner.
The U.S Army Corp’s Pacific Ocean Division did not respond to a request for comment for this story. IPOP also could not be immediately reached for comment.
