NovaGold to pay nearly $900,000 fine for pollution

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Canadian gold miner NovaGold Resources Inc and its unit Alaska Gold Co have agreed to pay almost $900,000 to settle water-pollution charges in Alaska, according to the U.S. government.

Under an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency, filed in Anchorage on Tuesday, the mining company will pay $883,628 in civil penalties to settle pollution charges at its Rock Creek Mine near Nome, Alaska.

The charges concerned multiple violations from April 2007 to September 2008, when sediment-laden stormwater flowed into three area creeks during mine construction, federal officials said.

Rock Creek, which operated only from September through November last year, has had a troubled tenure.

NovaGold said at the time of the closing that the mine, which had been expected to produce 100,000 ounces of gold annually, had "experienced unanticipated mechanical problems" and that the company could not afford the upgrades needed to meet conditions of federal and state environmental permits.

NovaGold is considering restarting the Rock Creek mine next year or selling it outright, an executive said on Tuesday.

"We're likely looking at trying to position ourselves for start-up in spring or summer of 2010," NovaGold's vice president for strategic development, Greg Johnson, told Reuters in a telephone interview. Reopening the mine would require an investment of about $10 million to $20 million, he said.

"It's always an option to look at selling," he added, although he said that timing is not good to sell a mine such as this.

(Writing by Bill Rigby, Leslie Gevirtz; editing by Gunna Dickson)