Red Dog Mine

Monday morning was spent in Kotzebue before catching the chartered flight to Red Dog Mine, where we were to scout out a potential new field site for mapping ocean surface currents. As the pilot loaded our luggage in to the nose of the plane,


I was thinking it was kind of sad to leave Kotzebue so quickly. We barely had time to get our bearings. It would have been neat to hang out a little while longer, so hopefully there will be a next time. One last glance as we took off, and it was goodbye for now, Kotzebue.


A short flight over the tundra and through a mountain pass


delivered us to Red Dog Mine, which I believe is the largest zinc mine in the world.


The mine is about fifty miles away from their port facility, where we were going to stay, so we still had a little bit of traveling ahead of us. The man who drove us to the port was super nice and took the five of us on a little tour of the facility before we were whisked away. Here are Oceana, me, Hank, Larry, and David posing in front of the mine.


The pit could definitely swallow up pretty much anything in sight and is in the middle of a gorgeous setting. Do you see the bulldozer in the bottom left hand corner of the following image? (You may have to click on the image to blow it up)


Well, here it is on the road when you're right next to it. Notice the size of the driver in relation to the tires. Hopefully that gives you some sort of idea how big the mine is.


Getting to the port from the mine required passing the tailings pond and proceeding across the tundra and more hills to the coast.


Along the way, there were giant snow fences to keep the road from being completely drifted over and unnavigable in the winter.


We arrived at the port just in time for dinner and to get a good night's sleep. Is this work? It seems more like a vacation so far...