THE AMBLER ROAD, TAKEN APART: KEY FIGURES WITH SOURCES More Than Just Parks / morethanjustparks.com/ambler-road / press kit: morethanjustparks.com/ambler-road/press/ Updated October 5, 2026. Free to quote with credit to More Than Just Parks. 211 miles of private industrial road, Dalton Highway to the Ambler Mining District, on AIDEA's Alternative A centerline (211.18 miles). Closed to the public: "Access would be controlled, with no access by the general public, including area residents." The 2024 Final SEIS adds that the road "eventually may be opened to the public." Source: BLM EIS GIS record / 2020 Final EIS Vol. 1, pp. 40 and 45 / 2024 Final SEIS Vol. 1, p. 375 / The Road 26 miles inside Gates of the Arctic National Preserve, 332 acres of footprint on Park Service land. The 1980 law that made the park directs the Interior Secretary to permit surface access across the preserve, through a process it sets out. Source: 2024 Record of Decision, pp. 9 and 12 / ANILCA ยง201(4)(b) / The Road 2,932 water crossings, counted by us on the applicant's own engineering file: twelve on rivers, 35 on creeks, two on other named water and 2,883 on unnamed drainages; 544 inside the preserve. The 2020 Joint Record of Decision gives the same total ("approximately 2,932 streams"). The 2024 decision counts 49 bridges, the applicant's file 29. Source: AIDEA crossing inventory / 2020 Joint ROD, p. 20 / 2024 ROD structure table / The Water 4,524 acres of total footprint: 41 gravel mines over 1,863 acres, 137 acres of access roads, three airstrips, five camps, four maintenance stations, twelve towers. The road itself is 2,318 acres of it, about half. Source: 2024 Record of Decision, p. 12 / AIDEA engineering GIS / A Road Is Not a Line 5,122 active state mining claims on 649,057 acres along the corridor; 3,431 of them, two thirds, located after AIDEA applied for the road on November 24, 2015; 504 in the five weeks after the President's decision of October 6, 2025. Source: Alaska DNR claims file, counted by us / The Mines 0 mines permitted. "No mines have been developed, and no plans of development are pending before the federal government." That was 2024. Ambler Metals applied for the Arctic mine's Clean Water Act permit in 2026 (April 20 by the company's account, a complete application on May 19 by the Corps' notice). The Corps published its notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement on September 18, 2026, and targets a Record of Decision by September 15, 2028 and a permit decision by September 22, 2028. Scoping comments are due November 2. Source: 2024 Record of Decision, p. 24 / Corps special public notice POA-2019-00081, Sept. 18, 2026 / Trilogy Metals 8-K, Sept. 21, 2026 / The Mines 20.9 decibels, the natural ambient sound level the Park Service measured at South Walker Lake inside the project area. The government's model puts 788 square miles within earshot of the finished road, for one mine at six trucks an hour (the 2024 review's forecast for full operation with four mines in production runs 4.3 to 7 an hour on average), and calls Alternative A "a noise incursion into Gates of the Arctic National Park." Source: 2020 Final EIS, p. 101 and Appendix D, Attachment A / 2024 Final SEIS Vol. 1, pp. 206 and 208 / The Sound 121,000 caribou in the Western Arctic Herd at the 2025 census, down from more than 490,000 in 2003. Management level, set by the herd's working group in December 2025: "Critical, Declining." At the Red Dog road, Alaska's one comparable mining road, 8 of 28 collared caribou showed large alterations in their movements and took an average of 33 days to cross; the other 71 percent did not appear to be delayed. Source: WACH Working Group, Dec. 2025 / 2020 Final EIS Vol. 1, p. 155 / 2024 Final SEIS Vol. 1, p. 209 / The Caribou $2.2B to build, finance, maintain and remove the road over 50 years, by our calculation. The 2024 Record of Decision puts construction at $672.4 million, up about a third from the $501.9 million in the 2020 errata; in 2026 prices that's about $763 million, and the 30-year bonds AIDEA plans to sell would add about $726 million in interest at the 5 percent in AIDEA's own example. As of June 30, 2025, AIDEA's auditors record that the parties have not entered into a road use agreement; the company's reserves assume a toll of $8.04 a tonne. Our calculation, method on The Money: $763 million construction, $726 million interest, about $88 million closure, about $595 million maintenance. Source: 2024 ROD, p. 23 / 2020 Joint ROD errata / 2024 Final SEIS, p. C-3 and p. 3-206 / FHWA National Highway Construction Cost Index, 2026 Q1 / AIDEA FY2025 audited statements, p. 57 / Trilogy 10-K FY2025, p. 66 / The Money $28M a year in road tolls and maintenance the Arctic mine assumes it would pay, by its own 2022 study ($8.04 a tonne), about $367 million over its 13-year life. No road use agreement exists. The state's review projects about $1.1 billion in revenue over the lives of all four mines, two of which have no economic study and one of which "would not be economically viable" without inferred resources. The company's three studies of the mine raised the build cost 51 percent from 2018 to 2022, from $779.6 million to $1,176.8 million, and cut the after-tax value from $1,412.7 million to $1,108.1 million. Nobody has a number that pays for the road. Source: Arctic S-K 1300 Technical Report Summary, pp. 221, 378, 382 / Trilogy Metals 8-Ks, Feb. 21, 2018 and Aug. 20, 2020, Ex. 99.1 / Form 10-K FY2025 / 2024 Final SEIS Vol. 1, p. 269 / The Money $102M lined up through AIDEA, a public corporation of the State of Alaska, at most: $17 million appropriated by the Legislature, up to $35 million committed under 2020 funding agreements with Ambler Metals by board action rather than appropriation, $50 million authorized by AIDEA's board in October 2025. Source: AIDEA resolutions and audited statements FY2022 to FY2025 / The Money $35.6M the Department of War's investment for about 10 percent of Trilogy Metals, announced October 6, 2025, closed September 11, 2026. It also carries the right to 12,323,356 more shares at one cent, in two pieces. The 6,161,678 warrants become exercisable on the earliest of three events: Phase 1 of the road complete (as determined by the Engineering Firm or AIDEA), ten trucks carrying ore concentrate on the road in any ten-day period, or a change of control of the company. The 6,161,678-share South32 option is described by Trilogy as exercisable on Phase 1 or a change of control; its text is not public. Trilogy's stock rose 211 percent in the next session ($2.09 on October 6, 2025 to $6.50 on October 7). Source: Trilogy Metals 8-K, Sept. 14, 2026, Exhibits 10.1 and 10.5 / 8-K, Aug. 31, 2026 / 10-Q filed Oct. 2, 2026 / The Deal GOV what else the government got: the right to name one independent director to Trilogy's board until October 6, 2028; a non-voting board observer while it holds at least 8,000,000 shares; an observer inside the Ambler Metals joint venture; written approval, "not to be unreasonably withheld," for Trilogy borrowing above $1 billion until the earlier of January 1, 2029 or a change of control; and a commitment to "work in good faith to help facilitate financing required for construction of the Ambler Access Project in coordination with the State of Alaska." Veto rights through a special representative apply only if "Restricted Entities" reach 10 percent of Trilogy or South32, for national security reasons. Source: Investment Agreement, sections 5.1 to 5.3 / Cooperation Agreement / Trilogy Metals 8-K, Sept. 14, 2026 / The Deal 30 communities whose subsistence the government found the road may significantly restrict. In June 2024 the BLM denied the road because it could not find that restriction "necessary." The President reversed the denial on October 6, 2025, using a separate ANILCA appeal provision, section 1106(a), after making his own public-interest findings. Source: 2024 Record of Decision, pp. 18 and 28 / Decision of the President, Oct. 6, 2025 / The People 3 / 89 Three Tribes in the region passed resolutions supporting it: Allakaket and Hughes only with access limited to the mining companies, local communities and residents, and Ruby with no condition. High Country News counted some 89 northern Tribes and First Nations, across a far wider region, that passed or supported resolutions against it, and Audubon Alaska counted 88 Indigenous governments supporting the No Action Alternative. The site prints the supporters' documents in full. Source: Resolutions hosted by AIDEA at ambleraccess.org / High Country News, March 28, 2025 / Audubon Alaska, April 19, 2024 / The Case for the Road COMMENT The Army Corps is taking public comment on the Arctic mine's environmental review (Corps reference POA-2019-00081) until November 2, 2026, 11:59 pm Alaska time. Write a comment with the sources built in: https://morethanjustparks.com/public-lands-action-network/7293 Source: Corps special public notice, Sept. 18, 2026 SUMMARY More Than Just Parks, a reader-funded public lands advocacy organization, has published an interactive investigation of the Ambler Road, a proposed 211-mile private industrial road across the southern Brooks Range in Alaska, from the Dalton Highway west to the Ambler Mining District, including 26 miles through Gates of the Arctic National Preserve. The road would be built and owned by AIDEA, a public corporation of the State of Alaska, closed to the public by staffed gates (the federal review says it "eventually may be opened"), and used to haul ore concentrate from four deposits where no mine is yet permitted. The investigation runs fifteen chapters, an eighteen-scene visual story, a mile-by-mile flight along the route, and an interactive atlas of every one of the road's 2,932 water crossings, with every figure cited to the federal record, AIDEA's financial statements, the applicant's own engineering files or filings with the SEC, and our own counts labeled as ours. It reports, from the executed agreements filed with the SEC, that the Department of War closed a $35.6 million stake in Trilogy Metals, the company behind the mines, on September 11, 2026, with the right to buy 12,323,356 more shares at one cent: 6,161,678 warrants that unlock on the earliest of Phase 1 of the road, ten ore-concentrate trucks in ten days, or a change of control, and a 6,161,678-share South32 option that Trilogy says unlocks on Phase 1 or a change of control. It was reported from the corridor in August 2026 and is illustrated with original photographs. CONTACT: ask@morethanjustparks.com