Sir, I spent a good part of my 2014 summer on the Yukon (in Canada) and this summer I will spend 3-4 months between Eagle and Emmonak. I’m in a 21’ Duckworth not a Kayak as I am by myself.
I do this because I love all things Alaska even though I live in Texas. So, the Pebble mine concerns me but I’ve fought the EPA and environmentalists for 40 plus years as a developer in Central Texas. I endured 3 jury trials on one silly issue just several years back. The jury (liberals all) ruled in my favor all 3 times so the City finally gave up. So, bottom line, for good reason, I do not believe anything the EPA says or any environmental group.
So, coming back down to earth, I do see things that do bother me like 104 miles of roads just to get stuff to and from the mine.
So, my couple questions of you are: What mineral is being mined? Who is paying for 104 miles of road? Are the roads really necessary....meaning can the mine function some other way? Who indeed IS the legal owner of the mine? Is there a trust fund being discussed to restore the damage (eyesore in pristine area) done by the mine when it inevitably closes? Will the minerals be taxed locally? If so how much? Is the 104 mile long road going to be permitted for use by the public?
Pebble Mine is the common name of a mineral exploration of a very large, but relatively low grade copper - gold - molybdenum sulfide deposit, along with smaller yields of silver, palladium and rhenium in the Bristol Bay region of Southwest Alaska, near Lake Iliamna and Lake Clark. If built, Pebble would be one of the largest mines in the world. Because of its size, geochemistry and location, Pebble runs a high risk of polluting Bristol Bay, one of the world’s few and most productive wild salmon fisheries.
The proposed mine developers, the Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP) was a consortium of the world’s second largest multinational mining corporation, London-based Anglo American, along with Northern Dynasty, a junior mining company headquartered in Canada. Anglo American’s environmental track record does not bode well for Bristol Bay and Northern Dynasty has little experience safeguarding the environment having never developed a mine to date. Recently, however, Anglo American backed out of the project leaving Northenr Dynasty the only member. Although PLP has not released its final mine plans, preliminary designs indicate that the Pebble Mine complex would span 20 square miles of state land in the Bristol Bay watershed. Located in a seismically active region, Pebble would require the world’s largest earthen dam to be built, some 700 feet high and several miles in length. Independent scientists have questioned whether the dam could withstand the force of a massive earthquake, such as the 9.2 quake that devastated Anchorage in 1964.
The dam and 10-square-mile-wide containment pond are intended to hold between 2.5 billion and 10 billion tons of mine waste that Pebble would produce over its lifetime - nearly enough to bury the city of Seattle, WA. Because the sulfide, or acid-generating, nature of the Pebble ore body, the waste would require environmental treatment in perpetuity. Any release of mine waste into the surface or groundwater has the potential to harm Bristol Bay’s salmon runs. (From SaveBristolBay.org)
The land is state owned. Funding for the project appears to be private. Rio Tinto, the major investor, has pulled out as has Anglo American. In the few minutes I devoted to the search, I could not find any information on the road other than the vast size of the project and mention of the requirement for a new deep water port, power requirements and additional infrastructure.