Copper Vs. Salmon: A mine in Alaska

Copyright EARTHJUSTICE.ORG

By: Rishaan Chowdhury 

The FEIS for Pebble Mine was recently published. 

Pebble Mine is a mine that is being developed by Northern Dynasty Minerals Corporation. It will be built in Bristol Bay, Alaska. Bristol Bay is the largest salmon fishery in the world, it produces about 46% of the world’s sockeye salmon annually. Northern Dynasty Minerals is attempting to build a mine that will produce billions of dollars worth of copper and gold in an area that produces at its peak, 62.3 million Sockeye Salmon. In 2002 Northern Dynasty Corporation got interested in the Pebble Mine area. Since then, Northern Dynasty has done research to learn more about Bristol Bay and how they could design the mine in a way that will not damage the fishery. That means not using and using specific materials in the construction and mining process. In my recent interview with the Executive Vice President of Public Affairs, Sean Magee, he said that the plan will include multiple environmental SafeGuards to help with keeping a positive relationship between the mine and the fishery. The Mine’s plan will try to protect the fishery. There is a debate though whether the Mine will actually have any positive effects on the environment. If a section of the mine breached it could release toxins that could severely affect the fishery, yet authorities and Northern Dynasty believe the mine will still have a positive effect on the fishery.The Mine will also have positive effects on the local community, says Sean Magee “ It will help their economy” he says. The Mine will create at least 1000 jobs to local Alaskans. It is noteworthy that the fishery creates up to 14000 fish related jobs to local Alaskans. If Northern Dynasty’s plans succeed and if none of the sections breach, the mine will be able to coexist with the fishing community. Sean also said that the product of the mine is copper. It is a very important ingredient in  medical supplies and equipment, and making environmentally friendly resources such as windmills. “Our products are critical to society,” he says. And Pebble Mine will also produce other metals and resources such as gold which are also an important resource. However, these are all nonrenewable  and after being mined are  gone for good. Sean says that the mining process will be done in a way that won’t damage other resources such as the fishery. The Pebble Mine’s actual construction will start at earliest in 2022 or 2023. Sean says that the Mine will include multiple pipelines to transport the product and give power to the Mine, a fort for mine workers to live in, an 80 mile road for workers to get to the Mine, a processing plant to ground up and process the product, and a storage facility to store the final product. The Mine will also include a port at Diamond Point to ship the products to the US Mainland and overseas.

Overall how this mine will impact the local community and environment remains unclear.  Sean says “that we have to make decisions [like this] based on science rather than politics”. And it is true that the fate of mine has been mostly decided based on politics. During President Obama’s administration, the project was stopped  on the grounds that it will damage the fishery. In 2017 when  President Trump took over, his administration allowed the project to start again.

 I believe that the mine and the corporation may still be correct as 12 years of research has been carried out to support the idea that the mine will not damage the fishery. However, every precautionary step has to be taken to ensure the safety of the Bristol Bay fishery and more broadly the local environment.