Choices Yes, it should be all business and for commercial use No, it should integrate housing options ..read more

By:  Anna Lionas Graphite One is on track to complete the feasibility study by the December 2024 deadline allowing the company to get financing for the project so they can begin applying for permits, which is when the public comment period will open. “The soonest you could possibly start mining out there would be 2029,” Graphite One Senior Vice President of Mining Mike Schaffner said. This week a team from the company traveled to Nome, Teller and Brevig to present latest updates on the proposed graphite mine located at the northern slopes of the Kigluaik Mountains, near the Imuruk Bas ..read more

By:  Diana Haecker Another Quintillion fiber optic cable cut caused an internet and cell outage, lasting about 12 hours between midnight and noon on Tuesday, in northwest Alaska.   The cause? Quintillion CEO George Tronsrue said in an email to the Nugget: “Spring freeze and thaw conditions created pressure, stretching and breaking a fiber strand within the cable.” Unlike last year’s monthslong outage, when a subsea cable break occurred, this week’s cable failure happened on land and service was restored within a day. Quintillion President Michael “Mac” McHale said that the team wa ..read more

By:  Megan Gannon Six local entities have signed a joint letter calling for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to overrule a “flawed” decision to award a mining permit to IPOP. The Nevada-based company was just given federal permission for a controversial project to dredge for gold in the Bonanza Channel near Solomon. The letter opposing IPOP was sent on Monday to the region’s state and national representatives, said Kirsten Timbers, president of the Village of Solomon—the tribe whose homelands are closest to the proposed mining site. “For the protection of the pristine environment and ..read more

By:  Megan Gannon Winter is known to be an important part of the Pacific salmon life cycle—and a critical period for their survival. Scientists believe that a third of all Pacific salmon, including Western Alaska stocks, overwinter in the Gulf of Alaska. But winter salmon ecology in the region is poorly understood because it’s hard to get out and do surveys in the open ocean during that season, said researcher Ed Farley. Farley is the program manager for the Ecosystem Monitoring and Assessment Program at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Auke Bay Labs, in Juneau. He gave a Strait S ..read more

Choices Yes No ..read more

By:  Megan Gannon The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is now soliciting bids for phase one of the massive project to increase dock space and accommodate larger vessels at the Port of Nome. The request for proposals was published at the end of February on SAM.gov, and the Corps will accept bids from contractors through late May. The Corps has previously put the price tag of the overall port expansion at around $600 million, and in-water work is expected to begin in the summer of 2025. But once the contract for phase one is awarded, Nomeites will have a better idea of the actual costs the ..read more

By:  Anna Lionas Three weeks in a row, residents of Nome and the Southern Seward Peninsula Coast received winter storm warnings from the National Weather Service. With back-to-back blizzards in the first and second weeks of April and a third taking place this week, business as usual was interrupted by the stormy spring. School was delayed or cancelling, flights were canceled, businesses closed early and people just hunkered down to wait out the weather.   Rick Thoman, Alaska Climate Specialist at the International Arctic Research Center at UAF, told the Nugget seven out of the la ..read more

By:  Megan Gannon The Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference, or WAISC for short, was held in Nome last week. Hosted by Alaska Sea Grant and the University of Alaska Fairbanks Northwest Campus, the meeting brought together a few dozen researchers and knowledge holders from across the state and Lower 48. Talks covered a vast array of topics, from harmful algal blooms and coastal storms to energy efficient design and reindeer husbandry. Presenters included scientists who live in Massachusetts as well as high school students at Nome-Beltz. As the theme of this year’s gatheri ..read more

By:  Diana Haecker The Nome Common Council signed off on a Memorandum of Agreement with Norton Sound Health Corporation to take over ground ambulance services, currently run by the city’s volunteer ambulance department. In January, the council had decided to relinquish the service to NSHC. The city had run the Nome Volunteer Ambulance Department since 1996, but an uptick in complaints from the public regarding lagging response times and a smaller pool of ambulance volunteers forced the council to weigh the pros and cons for a city-run ambulance vis-à-vis an ambulance service operated b ..read more