Army Corps says no to massive gold mine proposed near Bristol Bay in Alaska

JohnB

WKR
Joined
Aug 28, 2019
Messages
376
Well there is something to be thankful. I agree that the term "death blow" is likely highly inaccurate.
 
Joined
Apr 22, 2012
Messages
7,391
Location
Chugiak, Alaska
Yeah, and of course Northern Dynasty's CEO states that he vows to appeal it. Like what's already been stated, I also don't necessarily think that this is the final nail in the coffin, but it's definitely a step in the right direction. One thing that kind of pisses me off is that our congressman Don Young is quoted as saying that he is "disappointed that the process doesn't allow sufficient input from Alaskans", and "now there must be a consideration of how the feds will compensate our state for the loss of economic potential. My question to Don Young is, have you not listened to the Alaskans overwhelming anti-Pebble sentiment over the last three decades, and exactly how do you think that the federal government should compensate the state of Alaska when the fact is, Northern Dynasty is a Canadian owned company that would more than likely only employ a handful of local Alaskans? Also, I wonder exactly how much money Don thinks that this Canadian owned mining company was going to bring to the state of Alaska, and exactly how much money and livelihoods would be lost with the destruction of the worlds largest Sockeye salmon fishery. I have voted for Don Young many times, but god damnit, sometimes he says some real stupid shit.
 
Last edited:

OXN939

WKR
Joined
Jun 28, 2018
Messages
1,790
Location
VA
Also, I wonder exactly how much money Don thinks that this Canadian owned mining company was going to bring to the state of Alaska, and exactly how much money and livelihoods would be lost with the destruction of the worlds largest Sockeye salmon fishery.

I think the question is how much money the mine was going to bring into *his* pocket, as well as the pockets of those like Dan Sullivan who only came out against Pebble once the scandal about its senior leadership trying to illegally bribe politicians broke. If that's not a real obvious window into where these politicians' loyalties truly reside, I don't know what is.

You'd think that maybe the state with permanent protections for the sustainable management of natural resources in its constitution would be a place where politicians would make the obviously correct choice on something like this. Nope. Not until they got scared of being brought down by a sinking ship. As a soon-to-be Alaskan, I'm happy to see this permit denied, but sad that these politicians were so eager to get in bed with an obviously corrupt foreign company to destroy Alaska's natural resources for money. I honestly hope they all learn their lesson and get burnt by the flames of this thing.
 
Joined
Jun 28, 2017
Messages
375
Location
Oklahoma
We hunt by summitville goldmine in Colorado. The dudes with their fancy suits and helicopters come in, rape the land, use highly toxic chemicals, take all the money out and shelter it offshore, then declare bankruptcy of the standalone corporation they created for the project. Now it’s a superfund site that the taxpayers are still paying to clean up. Why would anybody want that.

Wikipedia:
In 1984 an area of 1,230 acres (5.0 km2) was acquired by the Canadian-based Galactic Resources Ltd. subsidiary Summitville Consolidated Mining Company, Inc. (SCMCI). They began a new large-scale open pit operation covering 550 acres (2.2 km2). New techniques were used to extract gold from otherwise uneconomic ore.

The mining involved the treatment of pyritic ore with a sodium cyanidesolution to leach the gold out of the ore—heap leaching (see also cyanide process). The solution (leachate) was then removed from the ore and the valuable metals extracted using activated carbon. SCMCI leached around 10 million tons of ore on a 73-acre (0.3 km2) heap leach pad. The mining operations were finished in October 1991 with the leaching continuing until March 1992, when Galactic Resources filed for bankruptcy. A total of 294,365 troy ounces (9,155.8 kg) of gold and 319,814 troy ounces (9,947.3 kg) of silver were recovered. SCMCI then closed the site and converted on-site equipment for the detoxification process, with around 160 million U.S. gallons (610,000 m³) of stored water needing treatment. After the company insolvency proceedings were completed in a British Columbia court, the US Government declared the site a superfund cleanup site and spent $155,000,000 of public funds cleaning up the site.

In 1991 SCMCI was served with a cease-and-desist order by the state government, concerned with metal levels in nearby water due to the run-off of excess water from the heap leach pad and through the damaged pad liner. Possibly 85,000 US gallons (320 m³) of contaminated water had leaked into nearby creeks. In December 1992 Galactic Resources Ltd. declared itself bankrupt and declared that the site clean-up operations would halt immediately. The site clean-up was undertaken by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), from 1994 under Superfund Emergency Response. The main problem was the contaminated water held in an inadequate pond system. Another source of contamination was water leaking from older underground workings. The EPA estimated that 3,000 US gallons (11 m³) were leaking from the site every minute. However, despite the water having a pH of around 3 (acidic), a USGS study stated that the run-off was no serious threat.

$155 million was spent on the site for detoxification and to reduce leakage. Robert Friedland, the chairman of Galactic Resources Ltd. paid around $30 million in settlement. Heavy metals and acid from the mine are suspected to have killed stocked fish in downstream reservoirs on the Alamosa River in 1990. Although cyanide from the heap leach pads also leaked in the watershed, cyanide is believed to have quickly volatilized into the atmosphere without damaging downstream aquatic life.[5]
 

Mtnboy

WKR
Joined
Feb 26, 2013
Messages
1,296
Location
ID
Good news, I also agree though that we aren't done fighting this fight.

Something to think about, if Mr. Young blatantly ignores the average Alaskan on this then what else do you think he is ignoring his constituents about and only serving himself?

It's time we start voting these crooks out and I'm not just talking about Alaska here. Idaho is completely full of folks who blindly support politicians and just ignore how bad they are for hunting, fishing and conservation.
 

Mtnboy

WKR
Joined
Feb 26, 2013
Messages
1,296
Location
ID
Too bad. This was jobs for real people with real families who actually live in Alaska. Seems to be hampered by enviro-zealots out of state who lack skin in the game.
Why don't those real people with real families find one of the thousands of jobs supplied by the Salmon this mine threatened?

Spare me the jobs argument. This was going to mean very few jobs for "real Alaskans". And the irony of your comment when you aren't even in Alaska is just the icing on the cake. Feel free to stay in Oregon so you can simplify your Bio.
 
Joined
Apr 22, 2012
Messages
7,391
Location
Chugiak, Alaska
Why don't those real people with real families find one of the thousands of jobs supplied by the Salmon this mine threatened?

Spare me the jobs argument. This was going to mean very few jobs for "real Alaskans". And the irony of your comment when you aren't even in Alaska is just the icing on the cake. Feel free to stay in Oregon so you can simplify your Bio.

Exactly. Anybody who actually believes that this mine would provide employment to a significant number of Alaskans, is either incredibly naïve, stupid, or a combination of the two. Alaskan’s as a whole are overwhelmingly opposed to this mine, and this is especially true in the areas around the proposed site.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

thinhorn_AK

"DADDY"
Joined
Jul 2, 2016
Messages
10,341
Location
Alaska
Yeah, and of course Northern Dynasty's CEO states that he vows to appeal it. Like what's already been stated, I also don't necessarily think that this is the final nail in the coffin, but it's definitely a step in the right direction. One thing that kind of pisses me off is that our congressman Don Young is quoted as saying that he is "disappointed that the process doesn't allow sufficient input from Alaskans", and "now there must be a consideration of how the feds will compensate our state for the loss of economic potential. My question to Don Young is, have you not listened to the Alaskans overwhelming anti-Pebble sentiment over the last three decades, and exactly how do you think that the federal government should compensate the state of Alaska when the fact is, Northern Dynasty is a Canadian owned company that would more than likely only employ a handful of local Alaskans? Also, I wonder exactly how much money Don thinks that this Canadian owned mining company was going to bring to the state of Alaska, and exactly how much money and livelihoods would be lost with the destruction of the worlds largest Sockeye salmon fishery. I have voted for Don Young many times, but god damnit, sometimes he says some real stupid shit.

Oh c’mon man, northern dynasty would have hiring fairs all over the villages in the lake and pen/dlg area to hire cafeteria works and janitors...
 

thinhorn_AK

"DADDY"
Joined
Jul 2, 2016
Messages
10,341
Location
Alaska
Too bad. This was jobs for real people with real families who actually live in Alaska. Seems to be hampered by enviro-zealots out of state who lack skin in the game.

Wrong, there are so many salmon jobs in the region, anybody who wants a job has one. These “jobs” the mine we’re going g to create were nothing but low level grunt gigs that nobody wants anyways. That mine could easily destroy the fishery and THAT would cause serious job losses, the canneries, fishermen etc.
 
Joined
Jun 28, 2017
Messages
375
Location
Oklahoma
it’s funny how some people love “deregulation”.

What most people do not realize is that government oversight is absolutely needed b/c most corporations are amoral and only care about profits to shareholders. Without government oversight many companies would literally dump their contaminated by-products right into the local lake or river.

I guess one could argue that it might be worth the pain in the case of the mine, if the company was giving a 1/4 royalty to the state and had posted an irrevocable bond for $1billion to cover clean up costs.

Otherwise they will just do what British petroleum did, act like asses and blow off safety protocols and then walk away from making whole every business owner they screwed over when they blew out their deep horizon well and shut the gulf coast down for a year. They didn’t come close to paying to cover the lost revenue to the fishermen, shrimpers, hotel owners and restaurants that all got hammered. Even if they could pay the businesses, how do you pay Mother Nature for killing all the dolphins, oysters, red snapper, pelicans, etc.

Ain’t worth the grief.
 

Marbles

WKR
Classified Approved
Joined
May 16, 2020
Messages
3,686
Location
AK
it’s funny how some people love “deregulation”.

What most people do not realize is that government oversight is absolutely needed b/c most corporations are amoral and only care about profits to shareholders. Without government oversight many companies would literally dump their contaminated by-products right into the local lake or river.

I guess one could argue that it might be worth the pain in the case of the mine, if the company was giving a 1/4 royalty to the state and had posted an irrevocable bond for $1billion to cover clean up costs.

Otherwise they will just do what British petroleum did, act like asses and blow off safety protocols and then walk away from making whole every business owner they screwed over when they blew out their deep horizon well and shut the gulf coast down for a year. They didn’t come close to paying to cover the lost revenue to the fishermen, shrimpers, hotel owners and restaurants that all got hammered. Even if they could pay the businesses, how do you pay Mother Nature for killing all the dolphins, oysters, red snapper, pelicans, etc.

Ain’t worth the grief.

Yep, by law most corporations are required to only take the interest of their shareholders into account. It is oversight and fines that insure doing what is right is also in the best interest of the shareholders.
 
Last edited:

OXN939

WKR
Joined
Jun 28, 2018
Messages
1,790
Location
VA
Wrong, there are so many salmon jobs in the region, anybody who wants a job has one. These “jobs” the mine we’re going g to create were nothing but low level grunt gigs that nobody wants anyways. That mine could easily destroy the fishery and THAT would cause serious job losses, the canneries, fishermen etc.

That guy is trolling for sure. Even with extraordinarily low expectations for most people these days, it is hard to believe that anyone is actually stupid enough to think Pebble would be a good decision for Alaska.
 

wildcat33

WKR
Joined
Feb 17, 2015
Messages
1,213
Location
CO
Also, the Pebble project has purposefully understated their reserves, so that the current proposed footprint of the project is as small as possible, misleading stakeholders into thinking the impact of the project is less than it is. In actuality, the reserves are much larger and the long term vision (50+ yrs), is to expand little by little. They know that once they get the initial permits for construction, which is the hard part, the easy part it to get permission to expand.

So in addition to what others have said, it's a Trojan Horse.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jun 28, 2017
Messages
375
Location
Oklahoma
You know why I like this site?

Because we can all have a rational adult discussion which gives all sides a chance to have various points of view aired without childish ad hominem attacks on the other parties’ sexuality, race, education, etc.

Truly.
 

dla

WKR
Joined
Jan 3, 2019
Messages
302
Location
Oregon & Idaho
That guy is trolling for sure. Even with extraordinarily low expectations for most people these days, it is hard to believe that anyone is actually stupid enough to think Pebble would be a good decision for Alaska.
You probably got stuck on the word "think".
There are always two sides to every issue. Have you seen "fair and balanced" in this thread?
 
Top