Kenai, Homer and Seward are up for consideration as sites for a new graphite processing plant.
A Vancouver-based company is working on plans to develop Alaska’s sole graphite find, located on the Seward Peninsula about 37 miles north of Nome. Part of the development plan includes a value-added manufacturing facility to process the raw graphite from the mine into coated spherical graphite for lithium-ion electric vehicles batteries and other products. The company is still selecting a site for the manufacturing facility, though it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority to consider locations in Alaska for the plant in February, according to a news release from the company.
Of the four communities currently under consideration, three are on the Kenai Peninsula, said Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District Executive Director Tim Dillon at the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly’s meeting Tuesday.
“What we’re trying to do is make sure the product doesn’t go from Nome down to the state of Washington to get processed and then over to Asia,” he said. “What we want is we want it to stay in Alaska.”
Dillon said the plant would bring 150 new jobs to the peninsula, if one of the cities is selected. It’s still early, but there could be a variety of jobs available, he said. There may more workforce training and planning needed if Graphite One Resources chooses a location on the peninsula, he said, such as housing in Homer and Seward.
AIDEA is working with the company to select a site. The final choice will take a number of factors into consideration, including sufficient industrial land, electrical infrastructure to power the plant and industry infrastructure like a port and dock with shallow-draft barge access and potential need for access for lager vessels that would bring in processing materials, wrote AIDEA External Affairs Officers Karsten Rodvik in an email.
“Nearby road and rail access, as well as storage silos on-site for incoming material and finished product round out the infrastructure requirements,” he wrote.
The Kenai area, with its multiple oil support docks to the north, has long been a center for heavy industry in Southcentral Alaska. With the recent decline in oil prices and production, multiple longstanding oil companies have also scaled back operations or withdrawn, including the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation shuttering its fabrication facility and ConocoPhillips seeking to sell its LNG export facility.
However, Homer and Seward have been building their industrial capacity in recent years. A consulting firm is wrapping up a feasibility study for Homer to expand its deep water dock, which serves fishing vessels, cruise ships, oil drilling jack-up rigs and other large vessels. The multi-million dollar project has not taken a final direction yet, and the Homer City Council has a variety of options to choose from in expanding the dock.
Seward, meanwhile, has been expanding and improving its Seward Marine Industrial Center on the east side of Resurrection Bay, which also serves heavy vessels and oil drilling rigs. The goal is to expand its capacity for large vessels, including the cruise ships that arrive in Seward all summer, bringing thousands of tourists. In October 2016, the city and multiple partners — including AIDEA — finished a study on upland development at the industrial center, allowing for further business development at the site. The city is also finishing up work on its breakwater there to provide more shelter from swell and wake action, according to the upland development study.
Dillon told the assembly the consideration of the three cities is a good sign for the peninsula, whether or not the company ultimately chooses to build its plant here.
“My hope is that just having three qualified communities, whether this work outs or not, it’s showing people that, ‘Hey, the Kenai Peninsula is looking to be diverse with different things, and they want to work,’” he said.
Reach Elizabeth Earl at elizabeth.earl@peninsulaclarion.com.
