Greens Creek Mining Company

Small operation. High yields. Big responsibility.

The Greens Creek Mine is a comparatively small operation. It consists of an underground mine that delivers a polymetallic ore containing silver, zinc, gold and lead to a surface mill and concentrator, which in turn produces three separate concentrates.

In recent years the mine has produced around 570,000 tonnes of ore per annum with an average grade of 24 oz/ton silver, 14 per cent zinc, 0.20 oz/ton gold and 6 per cent lead. The concentrator has averaged 1,580 tonnes per day throughput and produced an average of 77,000 tons of zinc concentrate, 42,000 tons of lead concentrate and 71,000 tons of bulk concentrate each year. These concentrates are shipped to various smelters throughout the world on a regular basis.

Located as it is in the Tongass National Forest, which stretches for 500 miles along the south eastern coast of Alaska, this operation is extremely eco-sensitive. The success of Rio Tinto's environmental policy was recognised when the Greens Creek Mine was awarded the prestigious national 'Sentinels of Safety' award for achieving excellence in safety performance in the Underground Metal Mine Category.