Alaska Chooses Largest Gold Mine Over Clean Water

[struggle4progress]

By Kari Lydersen, AlterNet. Posted August 29, 2008.

... on Aug. 26, Alaskans voted down a ballot measure that proponents had cast as crucial to the future survival of Bristol Bay salmon. Ballot measure 4, which survived a challenge that went all the way to the state Supreme Court to remain on the state's primary ballot, would have prohibited large metal mines from contaminating salmon streams and drinking water sources. Though by law the ballot measure couldn't name a specific project, everyone knew it was aimed at the proposed Pebble Mine, which if developed as planned would be North America's largest open pit gold mine, also mining copper and molybdenum (a crucial element in steel).

Opponents of the ballot measure, which was defeated by 57 percent of voters (95,338 to 71,456), called it a "mining shutdown" and said it could not only block the Pebble Mine but paralyze Alaskan mining in general and force existing mines to close. Much of Alaska was settled during the gold rush of the late 1800s and early 1900s, and like oil, mining is seen by many as central to the state's economy and identity. It is also seen as an economic lifeline in a time of astronomically high energy prices and stagnation in fishery profits partly because of competition from Chilean and Norwegian fish farms.

Multinational mining giant Anglo American and its Canadian partner in the venture, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., say they will safely contain waste from Pebble Mine, namely the sulfuric acid that results when sulfide ore is disturbed and exposed to oxygen -- also known as acid mine drainage. But opponents of the mine say no sulfide mine has ever operated without leakage, and they also fear cyanide, which is normally used in the refining of gold ...

... Alaska native communities around Prince William Sound are still feeling the devastating effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989 and are disgusted with the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision holding the company's punitive damages at $507 million. Residents of small towns like Tatitlek on the sound say they are still unable to eat local shellfish and seabirds, since thousands of gallons of oil still contaminate the beach ...

http://www.alternet.org/water/96843/alaska_chooses_largest_gold_mine_over_clean_water/

[kestrel91316]

1. In a nod to the uber-fundie governor who is now VP candidate,

I am reminded of the story in the bible about Esau selling his birthright for a mess of pottage. Or however they put it.

[NNadir]

2. On the other hand, if Anglo American had paid Amory Lovins, gas shill, to greenwash them,

they could be mining gold in the arctic right now, just like "Stained River," Rio Tinto.

[struggle4progress]

3. Look. I'm sorry Amory spurned you -- or whatever it was. But try to get over it. Some of us

really do use this site for information purposes. Surely you can do something more productive than reflexively croak Amory is a bad bad naughty man. On the basis of past experience with your posts, I rather doubt Amory has anything to do with the Pebbles mine project -- but if he did, you could at least provide a useful link, couldn't you?

[NNadir]

4. Well, since your clique is one of the most absymally informed groups on the planet and

one of the laziest, having never bothered to inform yourselves about the first damn thing, I'll provide you with a link to just one of Lovins comsumer whore adventures.

...Texas Instruments Inc. and Royal Dutch Shell. One company, Rio Tinto Group, which was pressured into canceling a copper and gold mining project in Wales in the 1970s after Lovins wrote a book with photos on what he called the area's spectacular "Mountains of Longing," is now a client studying how to save money at an Arctic diamond mine. Sources familiar with his institute say that Lovins can command daily consulting fees of up to $15,000 to $20,000, a far cry from his days as an environmentalist...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/24/AR2006072400976.html



Heckuva job. Do a little blackmail, get in, break some legs, and the collect the protection money.

Thug.

Actually the gold mines that Lovins was "consulting" on were in the Amazon. If you're too fucking lazy to look it up, that's not my fucking problem.

Laziness and stupidity is why this planet is trashed, by the way. You must be very proud on your contribution.

[struggle4progress]

5. Translation: you had no information whatsoever regarding the Pebbles mine,

but you hope to cover with vituperation