Developer eyes private property in Haines, Skagway’s ore loader

By Max Graham Chilkat Valley News

March 2, 2023

A Canadian developer with a murky track record says he is eyeing Haines as the site of an ore terminal that would serve “several” Alaska and Yukon mines.

Prosperity Investments, an Edmonton-based firm whose owner has a history of unfinished projects, has proposed to buy Skagway’s aging ore loader for $1, to dismantle and move it and to use the conveyor belt and other equipment to load ore for shipment from Haines or another “undisclosed” loca- tion. Prosperity also has proposed to dredge Skagway’s contaminated ore basin and use the dredged material to make concrete for building new ore transport equipment.

The company is “in the process of designing and building” a new ore terminal, project manager Terry Woodthorpe said in a proposal submitted to Skagway officials last week. That “includes building five new ore concentrate sheds of different sizes for different minerals,” he added, though the proposal provided few details and no drawings or cost estimates.

But Prosperity Investments, which was incorporated in Alaska two weeks ago, still hasn’t determined a site for the terminal, company owner Harold Jahn told the CVN this week.

Moreover, Jahn’s business record includes a lawsuit over a breach of contract and a number of unfinished or disputed projects in the U.S. or Canada.

Promoting his experience, Jahn told the CVN he has been working for years to build a new deep water port complex in Kitimat, British Columbia, and aims to start

Municipality Of Skagway Notice Of Special Municipal Election

TUESDAY, April 18, 2023

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, there will be held in the Municipality of Skagway, Alaska, a SPECIAL MUNICIPAL ELECTION

THE FOLLOWING QUESTION IS ON THE BALLOT:

Ø Shall the rate of sales tax collected upon sales made and services rendered in Skagway be increased from 5% to 6.5% for increased operational and infrastructural demands during the 2nd and 3rd quarters of each calendar year, April through September?

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Ø The E.A. & Jenny Rasmuson Community Health Center building and the Dahl Memorial Clinic business shall not be leased or sold without ratification by public vote.

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ELECTION HOURS: The polls will open at 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday, April 18, 2023 and will close at 8:00 p.m. on the same day.

DEADLINE TO REGISTER TO VOTE: The deadline to register to vote in the April 18, 2023 Special Municipal Election is Sunday, March 19, 2023

VOTER QUALIFICATIONS: A person may vote in a municipal election only if the person:

1. is qualified to vote in state elections under AS 15.05.010;

2. has been a resident of the municipality for 30 days immediately preceding the election;

3. has registered before the election as required under AS 15.07 and is not registered to vote in another jurisdiction

ABSENTEE VOTING: Voters who will be out of town for the Special Municipal Election on April 18, 2023 are able to vote absentee in person at the Borough Offices beginning Monday, April 3, 2023 and ending Monday, April 17, 2023 between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. In order to allow sufficient time for mailing, absentee ballots by mail should be requested by Friday, April 7, 2023 construction by 2027. He said it’s a $2 billion project spanning 200 acres including two container ship terminals and a dry dock. The CVN spoke with sources at the Kitimat Chamber of Commerce, District of Kitimat and Haisla First Nation, several of whom had not heard of Jahn’s project. One official had heard of it but was unaware of any official steps being taken to advance it.

For more information visit www.skagway.org and click on “Government” then “Elections ” or contact the Borough Clerk at s.burnham@skagway.org or 907-983-9706.

Still, Jahn’s ore loader proposal shows outside interest in shipping ore from Haines, or at least promoting it.

The issue of industrial mine export – which some residents worry will create haul truck traffic and pollute the environment – has long been contentious in Haines. In recent months, Lynn Canal Conservation has campaigned to prevent shipping ore from Lutak Dock, a large public freight dock that’s being renovated.

But Prosperity Investments’ proposal adds a new element to the debate. The Skagway Borough Assembly will address the proposal March 2. If the assembly rejects it, Prosperity still plans to develop an ore terminal with new equipment, Jahn said.

“It would be nice if we could stay in the region (near Skagway),” he said. The project could create local jobs, he added, and he suggested that Skagway’s ore terminal workers could stay employed by commuting to Haines in “fishing boats.”

Prosperity is exploring two potential sites in the Haines Borough, Jahn said. He declined to specify where, beyond stating that one is far from the town itself.

“At this time, because we’re in discussions with a bunch of different people, and we haven’t purchased any properties at this point, we can’t really disclose where those potential sites are,” Jahn said.

There has been some speculation that a private ore dock could be built on a waterfront parcel north of Lutak Dock, recently acquired by a subsidiary of Colaska, the parent company of Southeast Roadbuilders and SECON. But the company has had no contact with Jahn or Prosperity Investments, SECON general manager Tim Dudley said in an email to the CVN.

The property “was purchased to support our current operations in Southeast Alaska,” he added.

If Prosperity Investments can’t find a lot to buy or lease in Haines, it would take Skagway’s ore loader elsewhere, Jahn said. “We could have those pieces of equipment sit on barges for a couple years,” he added.

“I’m not a big fan of proposals that have vague elements in them. I would definitely want to know where it’s going to go,” said Skagway Mayor Andrew Cremata. “An ore loader with massive holes in it and probably mercury and lead contamination going into our backyard (Lutak Inlet) doesn’t really work for me.”

In a phone interview this week with the CVN, Cremata didn’t mince words about the state of the loader.

“You look at it from the outside and you go, ‘Oh, that’s in really terrible condition.’ And then you look at it from the inside and (see) light pouring into multiple holes, some quite large,” he said. “I don’t think it takes a genius to figure out that it is still a giant environmental hazard and has been for some time.”

The loader, which operates until March 18 under a lease with the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, is expected to be removed this year as part of a project to clean up the basin around the dock, which has been contaminated with lead and zinc from past ore shipments.

“The logic would be we could reuse that equipment rather than it just going to scrap,” Jahn said.

Not only is the loader likely to be removed whether or not Prosperity buys it, but Cremata has proposed an or(see page 7- Haines)