Pebble Gold Mine Nets Fishermen’s Ire

By Wesley Loy, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska

Dec. 14–The largest commercial fishermen’s association in salmon-rich Bristol Bay on Tuesday came out against development of what could be the continent’s biggest gold mine.

The Alaska Independent Fishermen’s Marketing Association sent a letter to Gov. Frank Murkowski asking him to oppose the Pebble mine project as an upstream threat to the bay’s abundant sockeye.

Seattle resident and gillnetter David Harsila, the association’s president, wrote that the mine could poison several rivers that provide prime spawning and rearing habitat for salmon. Beyond that, just the specter of a giant, open-pit gold and copper mine is enough to ruin the market reputation of wild Bristol Bay sockeye, he said.

In an interview, Harsila said opposition to the mine among his association’s members, who number up to 400 of the bay’s roughly 2,800 commercial fishing permit holders, was essentially unanimous. Unlike fishing, mining isn’t sustainable and the mine would threaten more jobs than it would create, he said.

“There’s no upside to this mine for the people who depend on fishing,” Harsila said.

Bruce Jenkins, a manager for the mine’s developer, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. of Vancouver, British Columbia, said Tuesday he read the letter and was disappointed the fishing association came to a conclusion on the mine before all the facts are in.

The company hasn’t applied yet for federal and state permits, which would trigger years of public discussion about the mine’s design, Jenkins said. Northern Dynasty won’t apply for permits until 2007, and the soonest construction could begin is 2010, he said.

“The project will not be permitted if the fishing is threatened,” Jenkins said.

Harsila’s letter cites the possibility of mining chemicals such as cyanide and sulfuric acid killing juvenile salmon and earthquakes breaching ponds holding mine tailings.

But the association’s letter contains “rhetoric and sensationalism” and the fishermen haven’t made any recent effort to learn more about the project, Jenkins said.

He noted that large mines and fishermen operate harmoniously in other watersheds of the world, including the Fraser River, western Canada’s richest sockeye source where millions of fish migrate annually, just as in Bristol Bay.

Northern Dynasty has said the Pebble deposit likely contains more than 27 million ounces of gold and 16.5 billion pounds of copper. In something of a gold rush, prospectors have staked numerous mining claims on Pebble’s edges.

The mine would operate north of Lake Iliamna, which connects to Bristol Bay via the Kvichak River, historically a prolific salmon producer.

The bay is the scene of the world’s largest sockeye run. Last year, commercial fishermen caught 24.5 million sockeye worth more than $91 million at the docks.

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