Digging Deep for 20 Golden Years
Dave, Construction Supervisor
For Dave, an introduction to the Pogo Mine was the starting point for building not only a career, but a life and a family in Alaska. Twenty years later, he says he has had a meaningful, challenging and rewarding career that gives him pride.
Opportunities in Alaska
In the early 2000s, Dave was working at the Stillwater Mine in his home state of Montana when he stopped by a recruitment event and heard about a new mining project in remote Alaska.
“Back then, they estimated that Pogo would be a 10-year mine,” he says. “They were offering more money than the similar job I had in Montana and I thought, ‘I could do 10 years in Alaska.’”
He remembers that he walked off the plane in Fairbanks in January 2006 and was instantly struck by the extreme cold.
“It was 65 below zero, but I was all in,” he says. “Winter here is incredible. It’s dark most of the time but the northern lights are amazing, streaming across the sky.”
“Making It Happen”
Dave started his work in this northern environment grading underground roads at the mine site, ensuring they were flat and safe for semitrucks and other heavy machinery operating below the surface. While the remote Alaska setting was new to Dave, the work was familiar from his previous mining job and from years of experience in construction including framing, roofing, working with concrete, and operating heavy equipment.
“The work was a natural fit for me because of my construction background; I was capable of reading a plan and making it happen,” he says.
With an affinity for hands-on work, Dave’s skillset and experience qualified him for a wide range of projects but he says that mining provided opportunities, financial security, and benefits that weren’t available in other industries: “Most jobs didn’t offer what mining could offer to a guy who didn’t finish college.”
Dave made use of those opportunities to create a life for himself in Fairbanks. During those first decade at Pogo, he bought a house, got married, and had three children. As his life in Alaska grew, so did the mine he had helped to build.
“They kept finding gold,” he says.
The years went on and it became clear that Pogo had an extended mine life, with ample opportunities for miners like Dave to expand their careers.
A Day In the Life
Now a Construction Supervisor for Northern Star, Dave uses his “make it happen” mentality to tackle new challenges every day. His main goal? Extracting ore while maintaining a safe, workable underground environment for himself and his team. He says a typical day includes receiving a core drilling plan from the engineering team, interpreting it, planning a route, and determining how to get there safely.
Using shotcrete, a sprayed concrete, Dave says his construction team can efficiently create whatever is needed underground, from stabilizing tunnels to backfilling stopes - a process that involves filling the underground cavities left after extraction with waste rock, tailings, and cement. This process provides ground support and creates a stable environment for future mining.
Extreme weather above ground has the potential to create changes underground, requiring Dave and his team to constantly adapt. Dave explains that water and compressed air are essential for mining, which means portal heaters must pump heat into the mine to keep water and air systems operational. If a heater goes out, Dave says the mine gets “really cold, really quick” and without a prompt solution, operations would grind to a halt. Dave and his team have to remain nimble, ready to pivot at any moment to quickly evaluate a problem and find a solution so the rest of the team can continue to do their jobs.
Did You Know? Portal heaters ensure that the underground working environment remains at a consistent temperature, whether the temperature above ground is 40F or -40F.
“Change happens on a daily basis. The work is challenging but I like a challenge and I’ve always been good at problem solving…otherwise it would be boring.”
Dave says that the reality of modern mining is different from what people imagine.
“They picture a small dark hole, pick axes, and coal mining with little area to maneuver. While that may have been true for mining in the early days, it’s not like that today. We drive huge semis underground, and the work is regimented. There are strict processes in place to keep everyone safe – we have each other's backs everyday.”
Creating the necessary infrastructure and planning daily operations so everyone is safe requires significant collaboration. Dave describes it as “a huge, symbiotic, process” that requires good communication from every team involved, from the engineers planning the extraction, to the miners underground. By relying on each other’s expertise, he says “everyone benefits.”
Taking Pride in His Work
Dave says he is proud to have reached the 20-year mark at Pogo –doubling the years he originally expected to work in the role.
“A 20-year milestone at any place is huge. It takes a lot of commitment to keep coming back every day and I think that’s less common these days,” he says. “But I enjoy working here. I like the variety of work that requires you to think on your feet.”
Beyond his career milestone, Dave says one of the most rewarding parts of his career has been understanding the broader impact of his work. Gold, he noted, has played a critical role in advancing modern technology, and without it, many of today’s innovations would not exist.
From smartphones in our pockets that keep us connected, to emerging technologies shaping a more sustainable future, gold is essential. Gold nanoparticles enhance light absorption in solar cells, improving the efficiency of solar power. Gold’s catalytic properties support fuel cells and catalytic converters, reducing vehicle emissions.
“It’s satisfying to see people use things that I know we have contributed to. I wish more people realized that technology we take for granted, and technology we get excited about, would not exist without mining.”
Two decades into his Pogo career, Dave says he can see how his contributions to the mine, particularly at its start, continue to support daily operations and the future of Pogo.
“I was here when we first started. I built the walls, I put in the fans, I literally helped lay the foundation of what is here today. Seeing the things we built that still exist and are still running, that makes me proud.”