The mining industry is booming. Help us cover it in Alaska.

I’m going to get straight to the point with this email: I want to hire a talented, young reporter to do more of what Northern Journal is already doing — independent journalism on Alaska’s lands and natural resources.

I connected with Max Graham a little more than a year ago, when he was living in the Southeast town of Haines. Since then, he’s freelanced compelling, important pieces for Northern Journal, including on king salmon in Southeast Alaska, a cyanide spill at a mine in the Yukon River watershed and a company’s bid to make a lower-carbon North Slope oil project.

Over the past couple of months, Max and I have been talking about the idea of him joining Northern Journal full time, and I haven’t been able to get the idea out of my head. He’s a pro — he’s written pieces for Grist, High Country News and an array of other outlets. The vision is for him to spend most of his time covering mining projects in Alaska, where companies are increasingly eyeing deposits that could supply minerals for the green transition.

Max and I discussed different ways to come up with the money to pay him —  ideas like grants, or a paid version of the Northern Journal newsletter.

All of those concepts are still on the table. But I decided that before getting too creative, I’d start with the most straightforward and logical idea: asking the readers who already power Northern Journal’s coverage.

The pitch for your support is simple: If you like the kind of journalism you’ve seen from Northern Journal since its launch, hiring Max will lead to more of it. It will also bring attention and accountability to an industry that appears poised to rapidly expand in Alaska, accompanied by the potential for significant economic benefits to communities — and risks to the environment.

We’re seeking to raise $35,000 on GoFundMe, which will cover roughly half of the salary and a small travel budget for Max for the next year. The rest would come, hopefully, from subscriber memberships and advertisers that we expect to generate from his coverage. If you’d like to discuss a larger contribution, an editorial partnership or advertising, please contact me directly.

I've committed to hiring Max for a full year if we reach our goal; if we don't, I will use the money to hire him and/or other journalists on a freelance or part-time basis to expand Northern Journal's mining coverage.

I would really appreciate your support; the No. 1 other thing you can do is to share this message, and our request, with friends and colleagues who would be inclined to support us.

I’m sharing a message from Max below. Thank you.

From Max: When Nat asked me if I’d like to cover Alaska’s mining industry for Northern Journal, I instantly said yes. Having reported on environmental issues in Alaska for the past four years, mining has been on my mind — a lot. 

The industry has surged in recent years. Global demand is rocketing for metals used in electric cars, solar panels, and wind turbines. This rush has huge implications for Alaska, which holds numerous unearthed deposits of green energy minerals, like copper, graphite, and nickel. From the Seward Peninsula to Southeast Alaska, companies are now scouring the state for new seams and proposing new mines. 

The industry’s growth is among the biggest environmental stories of our time. 

Yet no news outlet in Alaska has a reporter devoted to it, except for a single trade publication. 

With your help, I want to help change that, as a full-time mining reporter for Northern Journal.

There are countless mining stories that affect Alaskans but are not being covered.

Without tipping my hand, some of my ideas include writing about the world of mining investment, including the billionaire hedge fund managers bankrolling some of Alaska’s newest and biggest projects. I’d explore the use of new technology, like artificial intelligence, in mineral exploration and development. And I’d dig into lawsuits, environmental reviews and questions about how mining could affect water quality, wildlife, and subsistence — especially in rural areas that don’t get much attention in Anchorage or Juneau.

My interest in mining emerged when I was a reporter at the Chilkat Valley News in Haines. There, I wrote several stories about the Palmer Project, an exploratory copper-zinc mine being advanced by Canadian and Japanese companies.  I learned about mineral exploration, permitting, and mine development. And I saw how Alaskans have widely divergent views of the industry. 

Depending on who you ask, a mining boom might save Alaska, or ruin it. But no matter what you think about digging big holes in the earth, I strongly believe we’d all be served by robust, even-handed coverage of the industry. 

Can new mines stimulate economic growth and offset a decades-long decline in oil production? What does the industry’s expansion mean for nearby communities, subsistence, and Alaska's largely wild and healthy ecosystems? Who exactly is funding these new projects, and who stands to gain the most from them? What does “responsible” mining look like?

These questions have been gnawing at me. And my sense from conversations with folks around the state is that they might be on your mind, too. 

A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece about a cyanide spill at a major gold mine in the Yukon Territory. The mine — operated by a Canadian company, Victoria Gold — is high up in the Yukon River watershed, and the incident raised concerns among downstream Alaskans, who in recent years have faced severe declines in chinook and chum salmon. If not for Northern Journal — and if not for you, Northern Journal’s subscribers — this story may never have come to light in Alaska. 

My goal is to fill the gaps that exist in mining coverage across Alaska — to provide deeper, wider, and uncompromisingly independent coverage of an industry that could transform the state.

If you’d like to see that, your support can make it happen. Visit our fundraiser here.