Many Alaskans and folks Outside (including in Congress) do not realize that the Tongass National Forest is a volcanic mass sulfide area the size of West Virginia and, accordingly, a major Alaska mining district.

Patricia Roppel’s 1991 Book “Fortunes from the Earth” catalogues more than 120 legacy non-gold mines (copper, zinc, barite) throughout Southeast that were mined from the 1890s forward. The legacy gold mines throughout the region increase that number.

The Forest Service’s 2008 Tongass Land Management Plan Amendment estimated the values of discovered and undiscovered minerals in the Tongass as: discovered minerals, $37.1 billion (expressed as 1988 dollars); undiscovered minerals, $28.3 billion (expressed as 1988 dollars).

I applaud the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) for organizing and holding a meeting last December to take a hard look at the Tongass as a mining district. The meeting participants heard from multiple technical experts about new technologies for extracting minerals from ore.

These technologies hold the potential of being less expensive and more environmentally friendly than current extraction techniques. The speakers discussed applying these technologies to legacy mines in the Tongass as a means of cleaning them up and obtaining value by processing the ore at a central site.

AIDEA’s plan should be aggressively executed because it will result in increased mining in Southeast Alaska. AIDEA’s plan works hand in glove with Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s equally important efforts to obtain a congressional exemption for the Tongass from the 2001 Roadless Rule.

The nationwide rulemaking to repeal the Roadless Rule is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2026. The governor is rightly concerned that the litigation and appeals that will follow completion of the rulemaking could last beyond the Trump administration’s term and be rescinded again.

The governor explained: “We have water access to the archipelago of islands that make up the Tongass. We just need the certainty of road access to move drills and heavy equipment across the beach into the interior of those islands to access the mineral deposits.”

The governor is right. It takes 15 to 20 years to explore and develop a mine. An exemption in law is needed to provide investors with confidence that the rules will not be constantly changing depending upon which administration holds office.

The ping-pong effect of attempting to exempt the Tongass through rulemaking has created uncertainty in the investment community.

For example, the first Trump administration exempted the Tongass from the Roadless Rule through rulemaking on Oct. 29, 2020. The Biden administration signed Executive Order 13990 on Jan. 20, 2021, directing the Department of Agriculture to review the Trump exemption.

On June 11, 2021, USDA announced that it would repeal the Trump exemption through rulemaking, which it completed in January 2023. President Trump returned the favor on Jan. 21, 2025, in an executive order “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential.”

The AIDEA and Dunleavy initiatives should be aggressively followed up with the president and with the state’s congressional delegation because the Tongass is the most accessible of the mining districts in Alaska and could support exploration and development the soonest. We just need to obtain a more permanent exemption from the Roadless Rule than can be obtained from rulemaking.

More mines in Southeast could help offset the anticipated decline in the state’s revenue. It could also help offset the decline in working-age adults and their families in Southeast Alaska.

Frank H. Murkowski served as governor of Alaska governor (2002-2006) and in the U.S. Senate (1980-2002).