The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sullivan engages ambassador at the federal level; Mallott heads trans-boundary group to begin state-province dialogue
From Washington D.C. and Ottawa to Juneau and Victoria, Alaska officials are engaging their Canadian counterparts about new generation of northwestern British Columbia mines that could potentially be built upstream of Southeast Alaska.
This possible development of a number of copper, gold and other metal mines in Canada's westernmost province has troubled conservationists, fisherman and others in Southeast Alaska for years. The August 2014 tailings dam collapse at the Mount Polley Mine in central British Columbia added to these concerns and prompted a wider sense of urgency.
"We can't let a similar accident taint the rivers of the trans-boundary region along the border between northwest B.C. and Southeast Alaska," Petersburg Borough Mayor Mark Jensen said in response to a January report on the Mount Polley incident.
Following the dam failure, a number of municipalities along the Southeast Alaska panhandle are calling for more stringent oversight of mine development upstream and across the border. Those seeking tighter controls include Juneau's City and Borough Assembly, which passed a resolution in January requesting a formal review by the International Joint Commission, an organization formed in 1909 to deal with U.S-Canada trans-boundary water issues.
Red Chris (Imperial Metals), KSM (Seabridge Gold), Brucejack (Pretium Resources), Tulsequah Chief (Chieftain Metals), Schaft Creek (Copper Fox Metals-Teck Resources), Galore Creek (Novagold-Teck) and Kisault (Avanti Mining) are among B.C. mine projects found upstream of Alaska.
Of these, Red Chris began operations in February and owners of KSM and Brucejack have received environmental assessment certificates from the B. C. government and are awaiting federal approvals to begin development.
Federal talks
The controversies that arise when a mine is proposed typically are about risk versus reward - while a new mine has the potential to bolster the bottom line of its developer and the economy of the jurisdiction where it is located, fishermen and other downstream users often view the potential environmental downside as outweighing any economic advantages a mine might offer. This rift becomes wider when an international border runs between a proposed mine and those downstream.
It is this gap between potential rewards to British Columbia from developing the mineral rich northwestern sector of the province with the risks such ventures may pose to those living in Southeast Alaska that officials from Canada and the United States are trying to reconcile.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, took up these discussions at the national level during a March 24 meeting with Canadian Ambassador to the United States Gary Doer.
The congressman and the diplomat discussed the Mount Polley dam failure and slew of B.C. mineral projects in various stages of exploration, permitting and development.
Sullivan told the Juneau Empire that Doer "expressed support for getting the appropriate people together on both sides of the border" to further discussions on trans-boundary issues related to mining.
Ambassador Doer and Sen. Sullivan have made tentative plans for a future meeting to further talks on B. C. mines.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, also has engaged Ambassador Doer and other Canadian officials in discussions at the federal level. However, the senator has expressed frustration about the lack of response from the U.S. State Department, despite her attempts to get the agency involved.
Trans-boundary group
As Sullivan engages Canada on the federal level, Alaska Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott is heading a trans-boundary working group assembled to engage British Columbia at the state-provincial level.
Of Tlingit heritage and born in Yakutat, Mallott has a special connection to Southeast Alaska and the people that live there.
"I grew up in an environment that was so natural, and so much a part of me, that I never really considered it as separate from my being. And I know many Alaskans, particularly First Peoples, feel the same way," Mallott said during a February speech at the Alaska Forum on the Environment.
"Southeast Alaska is also a place in which there are multiple trans-boundary rivers, and habitats that know no boundaries, and life that knows no boundaries. And there are activities, taking place and being planned, in the upper regions of those rivers that affect our lives in Alaska, over which we have no meaningful control," he added.
It was during this keynote address that the lieutenant governor first announced the formation of a trans-boundary working group.
Headed by Mallott, the working group includes commissioners from Alaska's departments of Natural Resources, Environmental Conservation and Fish and Game.
The group is currently gathering input from both supporters and opponents of mine development in northwestern British Columbia.
Mallott said he is hopeful that reasonable discussions on both sides of the border will "allow us, to seek relationships within Alaska, of those most to be affected, and with those with responsibility across the border, to find amicable ways, to deal with both threats and the opportunities that we face."
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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