Dear Alaska Miners, When a summer goes by so fast, with so many surprises and adventures and wins, and a few losses, it’s sometimes easy to forget why we do what we do. With this our 85th anniversary as your Alaska Miners Association, it’s also as easy to forget what got us here. It’s about the people. It is the Alaska miners, their families, their companies, their communities — and every other Alaskan that lives better because of mining — that we are here for. Elsewhere in this issue of The Alaska Miner, you’ll see a four-page summary of the new McKinley report that we commission each year, to provide you with details on the economic benefits of mining to Alaska. I’ve been blessed and busy this summer explaining this report to audiences all over Alaska. And as you’ll see, there are lots of those audiences who are still slow to embrace the importance of necessity of what we as miners do, for our state and our country. But when you get past all the numbers — the billons of dollars, the hundreds of nonprofits, the thousands of beneficiaries — it still comes down to one thing. It’s about the people. It’s about the hard-working Alaskans in remote communities, who deserve to have the same quality of life and life expectancies and healthy kids, as every other American. It’s about residents of the Northwest Arctic Borough communities who now live longer, and healthier, and wealthier, because of the economic boom of Red Dog Mine. It’s about the young Alaska adults who get to stay in Alaska, instead of leaving the state to live and work, because they have great jobs working in Alaska mines. Earning an average of $135,000 a year. Without huge student debt to pay off. And to live the Alaska lifestyle and give back to the land we all love. It’s about the Alaskans who live in our largest boroughs and have more affordable utilities, because their neighbor mines pay most of the freight and support the power companies that benefit everyone. It’s about the people. Those Americans who don’t understand us, but need us, who don’t live in Alaska, but rely on the minerals we mine every day. The copper in their phones and minerals in technologies from appliances to airplanes. The Americans and America that are always under threat from the foreign regimes who control and freely mine the minerals that America needs but refuses to mine domestically. It’s about the people. It’s about Alaska Native Corporations who distribute 70% of their ANCSA resource wealth to all others across the state. It’s about the people who work in the thousands of support industries and retailers and who support our mines and explorers, And also provide the critical services we all need to live and prosper here. It’s also about the people who are a key part of our organization, who work thousands of hours as volunteers for AMA. It’s about the mining giants and pioneers upon whose shoulders we’ve built everything we have, and everything to come. So, I hope on those frustrating days at the end of which it feels like defeat, whether in D.C. or Juneau or Wall Street, that you can remember as I do, why we work so hard. It’s about the people! Deantha Skibinski AMA Executive Director Executive Director’s Report www.AlaskaMiners.org 1
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