About NANA
NANA is a for-profit Alaska Native corporation, formed as a result of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), which was passed by Congress in 1971. NANA is owned by the more than 15,000 Iñupiaq shareholders, or descendants, who live in or have roots in northwest Alaska. Iñupiat have close ties to the land and to each other. The word Iñupiat means “real people” in Iñupiaq, the language.
The NANA region is located in northwest Alaska, largely above the Arctic Circle, and encompasses 38,000-square miles, in which NANA holds and oversees 2.2 million acres. The land is rich in mineral resources and metal deposits. NANA manages its lands to protect subsistence activities that are critical to the lives of residents.
In 1982, Red Dog Operations was developed through an innovative operating agreement between the operator Cominco, now Teck Alaska, and NANA, as the landowner. Red Dog Mine is located in the DeLong Mountains of the Brooks Range, 82 miles north of Kotzebue and 55 miles from the Chukchi Sea. Red Dog Mine produces zinc and lead.
The Upper Kobuk area contains the Ambler Mining District, which holds deposits of copper, gold, lead, zinc, silver and cobalt. Exploration of the Upper Kobuk Minerals Projects (UKMP), part of the Ambler Mining District, has taken place since the 1950s and comprises Bornite, an under-explored copper deposit, and Arctic, one of the highest-grade copper-zinc deposits known.
In 2011, the NANA board approved a unique agreement between NANA and NovaCopper (now Trilogy Metals) for the ongoing exploration of UKMP. In late 2019, South32 and Trilogy Metals announced a joint venture partnership. In February 2020, the joint venture was complete under the name, Ambler Metals.
To learn more about NANA, go to https://www.nana.com/
For more about the activity in Alaska and to view the digital map, go to https://digigeodata.com/area/alaska/