Charles Wohlforth, in an opinion piece for Alaska Dispatch News, discusses the failed road to Umiat and likens it to the proposed Ambler road.  He questions why the state would fund a 211 mile road that NovaCopper has not agreed to pay for,  to access a mine that they have not promised to build.

“The state of Alaska spent $35 million planning a road to Umiat before the company that hoped to develop an oil field there went bankrupt in late May.  We’re currently spending similar money for a 211-mile road to an uncertain development prospect in the Ambler Mining District…

I talked to David Clarke, who recently took a buyout from BP when it downsized. He managed big projects and advocated for them within the company.  With oil prices down, BP needed few people to do that kind of work.

Unlike Alaska, companies trying to make a profit don’t keep paying people to work on money-losing projects..

Alaska is approaching the Amber road the same way.  The project would cost about $450 million.  The state has studied it for seven years at a cost of $19 million. Last October, Walker gave AIDEA approval to spend another $3.6 million on detailed work for an Environmental Impact Statement.

But NovaCopper, the company for whom the state is building the Amber road, has not decvided whether to build a mine. It signed an agreement with AIDEA specifically withholding any promise to mine or to pay for the road…”

Read the full article here: Alaska spent $35 million for a road to bankrupt development, but hasn’t learned its lesson