that the mine would cause “complete loss of” the bay’s fish habitat...
is a lie.
Actually it isn't a lie - effluent from the mine flowing down the rivers would kill most of the returning salmon and even if some manage to spawn the eggs would be poisoned and any surviving smolts would die. It would be the end of the largest salmon run in the world, not to mention the end of thousands of jobs and a way of life for thousands more. The salmon don't spawn in the Bay, they spawn in the rivers.
Since many are unfamiliar with the life cycle of salmon - here's a quick course:
Salmon (in this case, sockeye, which are "vegetarians") are born in the gravel beds of rivers, emerge and swim to a lake (Iliamna in his case) where they live until able to go down stream and into the ocean, then after four years, return to the same river they came from and spawn in the same area they emerged from, then die.
You can see from the image that the entire Iliamna drainage would be effected, and the later leases would effect Cook Inlet salmon.
Salmon are more important then minerals. Organic salmon is better than the heavily chemicalized farmed salmon. If you like farmed salmon with its generous helpings of antibiotics, food dye, copper oxide, copper hydroxide and cuprous thiocyanate, you'll love eating your canned minerals - best BBQed.