Trilogy’s Ambler Metals says permitting schedule for Arctic project under FAST-41 provides clear roadmap
Trilogy Metals has announced that a coordinated federal and State permitting schedule for its 50%-owned subsidiary Ambler Metals' flagship Arctic project, in Alaska's Amber Mining District, has been published on the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council's permitting dashboard.
Ambler is advancing the project together with global miner South32.
The company confirms that a targeted record of decision (RoD) on the project is expected in September 2028.
The US Army Corps of Engineers will be working as lead federal agency for the Arctic project environmental review, having committed to an estimated 29-month integrated review timetable.
Ambler says the permitting schedule integrates Alaska’s permitting requirements under the first statewide FAST-41 memorandum of understanding (MoU) in the US – with the model also having been adopted by Idaho, Tennessee and Utah.
The Arctic project was designated as a covered project in May under FAST-41, which was established by Title 41 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act and sets out a coordinated, publicly tracked timetable of federal environmental review and authorisation milestones under the National Environmental Policy Act.
Alaska opted into the FAST-41 process, committing to work with the permitting council, lead federal agencies and any state to align permitting actions with the federal review timetable on the federal permitting dashboard. Alaska was the first state in the US to enter into a Statewide MoU with the permitting council, with the agreement having since served as a template for subsequent state partnerships, including those signed by Idaho, Utah and Tennessee.
The FAST-41 framework aims to reduce the environmental permitting timeline for Alaska projects to about 2.7 years from a historic baseline of 3.6 years, which would mark an efficiency gain of about 25%.
For Ambler, this provides a single synchronised roadmap for all major federal and state authorisations required to advance the Arctic project.
Additionally, the Arctic project is among the first mining projects to be permitted under this federal-State framework.
The US Army Corps of Engineers’ integrated review timetable commitment includes a draft environmental impact statement by October 27 and a targeted RoD by September 2028, to be completed concurrently with other permitting milestones.
“We look forward to continued close engagement with our federal and state agency partners, as well as local communities, as the project review process advances. For our shareholders, a published timetable turns permitting from an open-ended risk into a defined, publicly-tracked sequence of milestones – and it brings a RoD clearly into view on one of the world’s highest-grade undeveloped copper deposits,” says Trilogy president and CEO Tony Giardini.