Announcement • Jul 16
Trilogy Metals Publishes Coordinated Federal and State Permitting Schedule for Arctic Project in Alaska
Trilogy Metals Inc. announced that a coordinated federal and state permitting schedule for its flagship Arctic Project in northwestern Alaska’s Ambler Mining District has been published on the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council’s Permitting Dashboard at permits.performance.gov. The high-grade Arctic Copper-Zinc-Lead-Gold-Silver Project is being advanced by Ambler Metals LLC, Trilogy’s 50/50 joint venture with South32 Limited. The permitting schedule was published within the statutory 60-day window following the Arctic Project’s May 14, 2026 designation as a Covered Project under FAST-41 (established by Title 41 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act), and sets out a coordinated, publicly tracked timetable of federal environmental review and authorization milestones under the National Environmental Policy Act. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is reviewing Ambler Metals’ Clean Water Act Section 404 permit application filed on April 20, 2026, is confirmed as the project’s lead federal agency. State of Alaska permitting milestones for the Arctic Project have been integrated into this single published schedule pursuant to the Memorandum of Understanding signed in August 2025 between the Permitting Council and the State of Alaska. Under that agreement – the first statewide MOU of its kind between the Permitting Council and any state – the State of Alaska agreed to opt into the FAST-41 process and to work with the Permitting Council and, where applicable, lead federal agencies such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to align state permitting actions with the federal review timetable on the Federal Permitting Dashboard. As a result, the Arctic Project’s schedule reflects both the federal environmental review process led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the corresponding state permitting actions being coordinated by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ Office of Project Management and Permitting, providing a single, synchronized roadmap for all major federal and state authorizations required to advance the project. Alaska was the first state in the nation to enter into a statewide MOU with the Permitting Council, and that agreement has since served as the template for subsequent state partnerships, including those signed with Idaho, Tennessee, and Utah. At the time of signing, the Permitting Council and the State projected that the framework could reduce the environmental permitting timeline for Alaska projects to approximately 2.7 years, from a historical baseline of approximately 3.6 years – an efficiency gain of roughly 25%. The Arctic Project is among the first mining projects to be permitted under this federal–state framework, and its published schedule reflects that intended efficiency. Under the published schedule, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and cooperating agencies have committed to an estimated 29-month integrated review timetable, with key federal milestones including a Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement expected in September 2026, publication of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement targeted for October 2027, and a targeted Record of Decision in September 2028, to be completed concurrently with State of Alaska and Northwest Arctic Borough permitting milestones. The Record of Decision represents the culmination of the federal environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act; the remaining federal and state authorizations that follow the Record of Decision drive the schedule’s targeted overall completion in November 2028. Measured from the Section 404 permit application filed on April 20, 2026, the schedule targets a Record of Decision in approximately 29 months – inside the approximately 2.7-year timeline contemplated when the Permitting Council and the State of Alaska signed their Memorandum of Understanding, and materially ahead of the historical baseline for comparable federal reviews. All dates and milestones are publicly viewable and subject to ongoing tracking on the Federal Permitting Dashboard. For more information about the FAST-41 permitting program, see Trilogy’s news release dated May 15, 2026. Arctic Project FAST-41 Timeline to Date: August 2025: The Permitting Council and the State of Alaska signed a statewide Memorandum of Understanding to integrate federal and state permitting schedules for eligible Alaska infrastructure projects. It was the first statewide agreement of its kind between the Permitting Council and any state, and has since been used as the template for Memorandums of Understanding with Idaho, Tennessee and Utah. April 20, 2026: Ambler Metals filed an application for a Clean Water Act Section 404 permit with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, initiating federal permitting for the Arctic Project. May 14, 2026: The Arctic Project was posted as a FAST-41 Covered Project on the Federal Permitting Dashboard, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers confirmed as the lead federal agency. July 13, 2026: The coordinated federal and state permitting schedule was published on the Federal Permitting Dashboard, establishing the timetable of milestones for the Arctic Project’s federal and state review.
