Donlin Gold tells Alaska finance committee pipeline, power plans aim to cut diesel use as feasibility work continues

Donlin Gold presented an update to the Alaska Senate Finance Committee on May 13, outlining the project’s pipeline and power-plant plans, permitting status, job estimates and the company’s timetable toward a potential 2027 financial investment decision.

The company’s general manager, Todd Dolman, said the project sits on land governed by agreements with local landowners (transcript: Cholista and TKC/Kuskokwim Corporation) that include shareholder-preference hiring and contracting, and that Donlin has been stepping up outreach along the Kuskokwim River. "The pipeline is permitted at a 14 inch diameter," Dolman said, and "it has the capacity to carry just about double the gas that's required to operate the power plant." He described the pipeline as roughly 316 miles long and mostly buried, with limited aboveground facilities at origin, destination and pigging stations.

Why it matters: Donlin’s design uses a dedicated, on-site gas-fired power plant to cut heavy-year-round diesel demand for electricity and operations. Dolman said the plant will be a dual-fuel, reciprocating-engine design sized at 220 megawatts with a roughly 160-megawatt base need and about 185 megawatts of peak capacity. "So it's a 220 megawatt power plant. We have about a 160 megawatt base need with about a 185 megawatt peak," he told the committee.

The company provided several operations and logistics estimates. Dolman said construction could use about 50 barges (including roughly 19 for fuel) during the build phase and that steady operations would average about three barges per day to move consumables. He told the committee Donlin expects "right about 38,000,000 gallons of diesel fuel, per annum" for the mine and backup power before accounting for natural-gas substitution, and said the project includes roughly a 40,000,000-gallon diesel storage facility to support offloading and site needs.

On costs and timing, Dolman said earlier studies produced a capital estimate of about $7.5 billion, while recent escalations and updated assumptions put a current ballpark nearer $10 billion. He told senators the company is still defining a financing structure and is considering equity, debt, offtake arrangements, sovereign funds and private equity; he said top-tier engineering firms and a staged contracting approach are being used to limit the risk of outsized overruns. Donlin said it expects to complete its current feasibility (level 3) work around Q1 2027 and would be in position for a FID at that time, with early works and main construction targeted through 2031 under an aggressive schedule.

Workforce and local commitments were emphasized. Dolman told the committee the construction workforce would be phased and is expected to total about 2,000–3,000 workers during peak construction, with steady-state operations employing about 750 direct Donlin hires; he estimated construction labor costs of about $1.7 billion over the build and steady-state annual payroll around $120 million. The company said its historic local-hire rate on past work is roughly 65 percent and that it is working with local corporations and training partners on upskilling and workforce development.

Permitting and environmental review remain active. Dolman said federal permitting is complete and that many state permits are secured, but he acknowledged a judicial remand affecting study of a potential tailings-release scenario in the project’s EIS. He said that matter is on a FAST-41 schedule and that Donlin believes the process is moving on time; he asked agencies to complete coordinated schedules. "The judge felt that there were four issues challenged, but the judge felt that this is one where we could perhaps look at a little different scale of release," Dolman said.

Committee members asked follow-ups about the pipeline’s potential to serve other users, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska’s role if the line were treated as a contract carrier, tax and property impacts along the route, and how Donlin will retain locally trained workers rather than induce relocation. Donlin took several questions as takeaways, including to provide the committee comparative numbers showing the Railbelt’s current gas demand versus Donlin’s projected demand and to return with specific tax/property applicability information.

The presentation also covered ownership changes announced earlier in April: Donlin told the committee that one prior joint-owner exited, the Paulson Group acquired a 40 percent position and NOVAGOLD took the remaining 10 percent of that seller’s stake, leaving NOVAGOLD with 60 percent and Paulson with 40 percent of project ownership as presented to the committee.

The committee did not take formal action. Donlin reiterated invitations for site visits and demonstrations of local restoration work (Donlin cited Snow Gulch restoration as an example of reclamation). The company and senators agreed to exchange follow-up information; Dolman said the company expects to be able to present a complete schedule and level-2 estimates as feasibility work proceeds. The committee adjourned after the presentation.