SB 213-APPROPRIATION FOR MINERAL INVENTORY  CHAIR WAGONER announced SB 213 to be up for consideration. SENATOR GENE THERRIAULT, sponsor of SB 213, testified that more investments in the mineral industry like the Pogo Mine that is pouring its very first gold brick, is what this appropriation seeks to achieve for the State of Alaska. The mineral industry provides healthy tax receipts and private sector employment. He said that SB 213 proposes an appropriation of $5 million for geophysical surveys that would be doled out over several years in line with a recommendation from the Alaska Minerals Commission, which asked for a level greater than $1 million per year. 3:39:44 PM SENATOR THERRIAULT related that inconsistent funding provided since 1993 caused problems in planning strategic geophysical survey programs and the state was not, therefore, getting efficient use of its dollars. 3:43:00 PM SENATOR BERT STEDMAN said he liked the concept of looking forward to map a consistent future for the state's resources, because Alaska is a resource-based state. He asked if technological advances created a need to update old survey information. SENATOR THERRIAULT replied that the work that has been done over the past couple of years is pretty close to cutting edge, but that old information was sketchy. 3:46:20 PM SENATOR KIM ELTON asked if parallel surveys are happening on federal and BLM land. SENATOR THERRIAULT replied the federal government is working on surveying its lands, too, and has provided some money to the state for this project. SENATOR ELTON asked if the state is surveying some federal lands, too. SENATOR THERRIAULT replied yes. 3:47:52 PM ROBERT SWENSON, Acting Director, Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, Department of Natural Resources (DNR), explained the state's mineral resource program using a power point program. Its mission is to conduct geological and geophysical surveys to determine the potential of Alaskan land for production of metals, minerals, fuels and geothermal resources; the locations and supplies of groundwater and construction materials; and the potential geologic hazards to buildings, roads, bridges and other installations and structures. The department identifies Alaska's potential resources for the state's citizens. 3:51:23 PM He explained digital elevation modeling and how it showed tremendous diversity in all the samples by referencing the power point presentation. 3:52:04 PM SENATOR BEN STEVENS arrived. 3:53:21 PM MR. SWENSON explained that the state has funded high-resolution geophysics mapping of 6.1 million state acres and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had fund mapping of 3.7 million federal acres. Currently, 40 million acres are identified as high potential. High-resolution geophysics mapping costs about $575 per square mile or about $.90 per acre and over three million acres of 1:63,360-detailed geologic mapping has been completed and published using it. The entire state has a lot of geophysics data already, but it's very regional. His slides on Interior data on current operating mines and showed that lots of exploration is going on. 4:02:55 PM SENATOR ELTON asked how much the DGGS sells its data for and if it has a cost recovery program. MR. SWENSON replied that the data is very cheap and he makes sure it is available to everyone in the public. Their website is updated so that the data can be downloaded. He didn't have a specific cost recovery program. 4:04:42 PM STEVE CULLIGAN, President, Ditera Satellite Mapping Company, stated that the DGGS had done a good job of using its funding and has provided very useful data that has turned into some successful developments. He said that the state's mapping is in pretty poor shape in general and that he is using the same inaccurate maps that he used 35 years ago. The state needs to know what resources it has and geological mapping has a very high return on investment. He supported SB 213. 4:08:12 PM SENATOR THERRIAULT stated that it is unusual to have a separate appropriation bill with a line item to make its way through the process, but he hoped the committee felt comfortable with passing the bill. He said the state rides the commodity roller coaster up and down, so it should strike while the commodity prices are high and establish an outline of its resource inventory so private industry can act. 4:10:09 PM SENATOR ELTON asked if anything could change the funding from $1 million every five years to, say, $2.5 million in two years. SENATOR THERRIAULT replied that the department would have the latitude to do that, but it is not interested in sharp swings up and down and he doubted it would. 4:12:16 PM SENATOR STEDMAN moved to pass SB 213 from committee with individual recommendations. There were no objections and it was so ordered.