Fishermen and activists in Bristol Bay, Alaska – home to the world’s largest sockeye salmon run – called for state officials to level a moratorium on mining in the region after news broke that the major financial backer for the controversial Pebble Mine had withdrawn its support.
Canada-based First Quantum Minerals is now the fourth major mining company to back out of the Pebble Mine, a proposed gold and silver mine which fishermen and activists say could devastate Bristol Bay’s fishery, an industry worth USD 1.5 billion (EUR 1.3 billion) that sustains around 14,000 jobs and provides subsistence fishing for locals.
People like Mark Niver of the organization for Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay are hoping that the latest setback will prove fatal to the project.
“We’re basically trying to capture the moment. It’s pretty apparent that they can’t find anybody to back them up with money because the whole idea is sketchy at best,” Niver said. “We’ve been trying for a moratorium for years … and our ultimate goal is to go ahead shut down the whole watershed for large-scale resource extraction.”
First Quantum Minerals was set to provide around USD 150 million (EUR 128.8 million) to Northern Dynasty Minerals and its subsidiary Pebble Limited Partnership to help in the permitting process. First Quantum announced it was backing out of the deal on Friday, 25 May, in a statement issued by Northern Dynasty CEO Ron Thiessen.
Niver pointed out that the fishing industry has been able to buy back exploitation leases from oil companies in the area around the Pebble Mine site, and that Rio Tinto, the mining company that held leases previous to Northern Dynasty, had turned its claims over the Bristol Bay Native Corporation in 2014. Another mining company, Anglo American, had pulled out of the project before Rio Tinto.
The leases for the Pebble Mine are on state land, and activists are calling for Alaska Governor Bill Walker and U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) to buy back the leases, a move Niver said would protect Alaska’s seafood brand.
“The Pebble Mine would change our fishery and seafood in general for Alaska,” Niver said. “The main thing we advertise and are proud of is that Alaska seafood comes from crystal-clean, pristine waters, and having the largest open-pit mine at the headwaters of our largest salmon fishery – how do we talk around that?”
