Alaska, Echo Bay drum up aid for Russian flood victims

Echo Bay Mines has joined the people of Alaska in donating relief supplies to help flood victims in eastern Russia.

The Denver-based company, which has worked in Alaska for more than a decade and has interests in eastern Russia, donated the use of its 727 airplane to ferry supplies to the Sakha republic after the Yakutia region was devastated by spring flooding in May.

The relief effort was organized after Sakha President Mikhail Nikolayev asked Alaska Governor Tony Knowles for assistance, after being turned down by cash-strapped Moscow. The call was answered by many in Alaska with donations of bedding, clothing and footwear.

Echo Bay’s jet, which the company used to shuttle miners to the now-closed Lupin mine in the Northwest Territories, left Anchorage in mid-August carrying about 19 tons of food, clothing and supplies. It landed the following day in Yakutsk, capital of the Yakutia region.

Echo Bay has a 50% interest in the Kuranakh gold project, 150 miles south of Yakutsk.

In May, sudden warm weather melted the snow too quickly, sending millions of gallons of water and ice down the Lena river. Ice dams blocked its flow, flooding much of the region. Accounts vary, but as many as 15 people are believed to have died and 30 more are reported missing. Some 51,000 were evacuated. Thousands of cattle and horses were also killed, and several hundred bridges, roadways and dams were wiped out. More than 15,000 homes were either destroyed or damaged by the flooding. Power was severed during the incident, leaving most of the inhabitants without electricity.

The region relies heavily on imported supplies, though little aid has reached the region since the disaster.