Massive Mine Project in Alaska

The Tahltan of northwestern BC are not the only people making decisions and facing challenges about resource extraction and traditional sustenance cultures. Karl Vick details in the Washington Post (or here) plans for a massive mining development, The Pebble Mine, in Bristol Bay, Alaska. The issues sound eerily familiar:

The mining companies count on … change, dangling the prospect of cash incomes even while bowing deeply to traditions that no native consciously rejects.

…

“It’s all about getting the ’social license,’ ” said one Northern Dynasty manager, using industry jargon for obtaining permission of the local community, and speaking privately because the company authorized only Magee to be quoted.

“It’s not rape and pillage anymore. It can’t be.”

By all appearances it’s an uphill battle. A recent survey by Bristol Bay Native Corp., which under federal law represents 8,000 natives with roots in the area, found 69 percent oppose the mine, 57 percent “strongly.”

The problem is salmon. Wild sockeye course through the bay and famously surge up the rivers that converge exactly where geologists found rich deposits of gold and copper.

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