Judge rules that feds erred in greenlighting controversial mine project near Nome

Federal regulators acted improperly when they granted a permit in 2024 for a controversial gold mining project near Nome, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason, in a Nov. 2 ruling, said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated both the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act when it granted a permit to a company proposing to extract gold by dredging a wildlife-rich channel east of Nome. Gleason’s ruling stopped short of overturning the Clean Water Act permit granted to IPOP LLC, the company behind the project. She gave the parties 21 days to submit new information that will be used to decide the fate of the permit. The ruling was the result of a lawsuit filed in 2025 by five tribal governments whose members hold an interest in the region for traditional harvests and activities. The lawsuit faulted the Corps for reversing its 2022 decision that denied the IPOP permit on environmental grounds.

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