The Renewable Resources Coalition's
Weekly News Updates

Quote of the Week: Dynasty Caught Fibbing? You decide!
“Misleading statements from the upper management to shareholders of your company do not bode well for future relations for the project stakeholders.”
-Bristol Bay Native Corporation Letter to Northern Dynasty (See full story below)

Tip of the Week
See what Alaskan hunters are saying about the Alaska Outdoor Council’s opposition to the proposed Bristol Bay Fish Refuge and post your reply…
http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/showthread.php?t=6515&highlight=pebble+mine

Note Regarding Our New Format:
Due to the huge volume of stories in recent weeks, we are shifting to an abbreviated news roundup format that will require you to click through to read the entire story. Sorry for any inconvenience but in the long-run this will be much more efficient.

TODAY’S TOP STORY

Claim of Pebble support faulted
NORTHERN DYNASTY MINES: Bristol Bay Native Corp. calls for retraction and clarification.
By ELIZABETH BLUEMINK
Anchorage Daily News
Published: December 13, 2006
http://www.adn.com/money/industries/mining/story/8489705p-8383464c.html

Bristol Bay Native Corp. recently delivered a stern rebuke to the company exploring the Pebble copper and gold prospect near Iliamna Lake.

Bristol Bay's board of directors is displeased with statements about strong Native support for mining in Bristol Bay made six weeks ago by the chairman of the company that owns Northern Dynasty Mines Inc.

Bristol Bay chairman and chief executive Hjalmar Olson said in a Nov. 29 letter sent to Robert Dickinson, chairman of Hunter Dickinson Inc., that "an official retraction and clarification statement from (Northern Dynasty) is in order."

A Northern Dynasty executive said Tuesday that his company is drafting a response to the regional Native corporation.

"It's not clear that there has been a mistake yet. ... There may have been some ambiguity in the statements made by (our) chairman," said Bruce Jenkins, the Northern Dynasty executive.

"If we're at fault, we'll correct it," Jenkins added.

Dickinson made his controversial remarks about Native support for Pebble at a global conference for mineral investors and analysts in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Dickinson, a presenter at the conference, said "... our Native neighbors also have had a vote recently for their input into responsible mineral development. That group voted 78 percent in favor of responsible mineral development in their neighborhood."

Dickinson went on to tell the investors: "And so socioeconomically and environmentally within the region we're doing very well."

His comments were published in a audio slide presentation subsequently viewed on the Web by Bristol Bay shareholders and other people in Alaska.

Dickinson's numbers were accurate, but the interpretation was misleading, according to Bristol Bay.

In 2005, Bristol Bay shareholders approved a resolution in support of "environmentally-friendly" mining. It passed with 78 percent approval, said Bristol Bay's shareholder and corporate relations director Jason Metrokin.

However, only 26 percent of Bristol Bay's shareholders voted on the resolution. "That equates to roughly 20 percent of Bristol Bay's entire shareholder base who, at that time, voted in favor," Olson said in his letter.

Olson told Dickinson the resolution was not an endorsement of mining in the Bristol Bay region, "or the Pebble project, as your remark inferred."

"As your project moves ahead, BBNC will gauge its support based on the actions and behavior of your company in these early phases. Misleading statements from the upper management to shareholders of your company do not bode well for future relations for the project stakeholders," Olson wrote.

Bristol Bay's board so far has maintained a neutral position on the Pebble project.

The Dubai audio presentation about Pebble has been removed from the Internet.

On the other hand, Dickinson's statements are still being repeated elsewhere, Olson pointed out in his letter.

The ultimate point of the letter is to ask Northern Dynasty to "check their sources," Metrokin said this week.

He noted that the company's shareholders are just a subset of all Bristol Bay residents.

"We do have a large number of shareholders who are very concerned about that project. When a developer is trying to portray themselves in good way, that's all right. ... But we don't want people mincing words, particularly when they are our words," he said.

Daily News reporter Elizabeth Bluemink can be reached at ebluemink@adn.com or 257-4317.

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Both sides laud decision on fish refuge
PEBBLE MINE: State Fisheries Board votes to create advisory panel.
By ELIZABETH BLUEMINK
Anchorage Daily News
Published: December 12, 2006

The state Board of Fisheries decided Monday to hold off on a proposal to form a fisheries refuge in Bristol Bay drainages in and around the massive Pebble gold, copper and molybdenum deposit.

Instead, the seven-member board voted unanimously to create a panel to evaluate whether protections for fisheries in Bristol Bay need to be beefed up.

Anti- and pro-Pebble forces were both quick to claim victory in the board's decision at its Dillingham meeting.

To view the full story, please click on
http://www.adn.com/money/industries/mining/story/8486276p-8380034c.html

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Committee appointed to study creation of fish refuge
By Jason Moore, KTUU.com
Monday, Dec. 11, 2006

Anchorage, Alaska - The Alaska Board of Fisheries voted to study the idea of creating a fish refuge in the area of the proposed Pebble Mine.

At the board meeting in Dillingham, opponents of the Pebble Mine attempted to convince the board to recommend to the state Legislature that the fish refuge be created; instead, the board appointed a three-member committee to investigate whether new standards are needed to protect habitat around the proposed mine.

Both sides in the conflict call the decision a victory…

To view the full story, please click on
http://ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=5801110

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Fishing businesses decry large mine proposed for Alaska
Anchorage Daily News, December 8, 2006

“A large mine in the heart of some of the best salmon and trout fishing in the world is a fly fisherman's worst nightmare, says an official of a trade association.”

To view the full story, please click on http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/ap_alaska/story/8478075p-8371663c.html

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Anti-Pebble forces step it up
Anchorage Press, December 6, 2006

“Groups opposing the proposed Pebble Mine Project in Southwest Alaska have launched a new advertising campaign directed at fly fishers everywhere. The ads, printed in the form of an open letter to the governor of Alaska, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, are running in Fly Fisherman and Fish Alaska magazines, hoping to make the point that fly fishers, among others, ought to be worried about the mine's environmental impact. Trout Unlimited, Sportsman's Alliance for Alaska, Renewable Resources Coalition and several of the fishing industry's top names, including G-Loomis, Sage and Gamakatsu, appear on the ads.”

To view the full story, please click on
http://www.anchoragepress.com/archives-2006/flashlightvol15ed49.html

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Study: Mines fail to meet water-quality expectations
Anchorage Daily News
December 8, 2006

“Mines in the United States are failing to meet water-quality standards, according to a research study published Thursday by Earthworks, a Washington, D.C., mine-watchdog group.”

To view the full story, please click on http://www.adn.com/money/industries/mining/story/8476154p-8369782c.html

To review the study this story is based on, please visit
http://www.mine-aid.org

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Gems Fightin' Words
Federal agency predictions that mines would not pollute water were wrong, study says

Before giving a precious-metal mine the go-ahead, federal agencies must find that the operation will not taint surrounding waterways with chemicals like arsenic, cadmium, mercury, lead, and cyanide. But for the past 25 years, agencies' pollution predictions "did not generally agree with reality," says Ann Maest, coauthor of a new study by green group Earthworks. The group suggests regulators may rely heavily on the word of industry-hired consultants, rather than past mine experiences and adequate sampling. In response, industry officials suggested that mines that went bust, were abandoned, or weren't built to high environmental standards should not have been included in the study. To which we can only say, "Wha?" And we'll follow that up with a "Whaaa?": Federal regulators have given a mining company permission to dump 4.5 million tons of waste into Alaska's Lower Slate Lake, a move Greg Peck of the U.S. EPA calls "the most environmentally protective way to protect these waters."

To view the whole story, please click on
http://grist.org/news/daily/2006/12/12/#4

straight to the source: The Santa Fe New Mexican, Associated Press, Christopher Smith, 07 Dec 2006

straight to the source: The Oakland Tribune, Douglas Fischer, 11 Dec 2006

To review the study these stories are based on, please visit

http://www.mine-aid.org

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Debate intensifies over proposed mine’s impact on fish
KTUU 2 News, December 6, 2006

“Bristol Bay, Alaska - The Alaska Board of Fisheries, which is no stranger to heated fish fights, finds itself caught in the middle of an epic battle between conservation and resource development. At the heart of it is the enormous Pebble Mine, proposed at the headwaters of Bristol Bay salmon streams.”

To view the full story, please click on
http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=5781070

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Board considers creating first-ever state fish refuge

KTUU 2 News, December 5, 2006

“Bristol Bay, Alaska - Could a fish refuge give the hook to a controversial mine project? That debate raged today in Dillingham as the Alaska Board of Fisheries considers an unprecedented proposal that some say could handicap the proposed Pebble Mine.”

To view the full story, please click on http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=5775249

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Fishing organizations unite to oppose Pebble Mine
Alaska Journal of Commerce, December 3, 2006

http://www.alaskajournal.com/stories/120306/hom_20061203015.shtml

“New opposition to a proposed massive copper-gold-molybdenum mine in Southwest Alaska is coming from the sport fishing industry, as proponents of the mine continue exploration on what they say is not yet a fully defined project.”

To view the full story, please click on http://www.alaskajournal.com/stories/120306/hom_20061203015.shtml

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Report: Healthy job growth anticipated

Peninsula Clarion, December 1, 2006

“Alaska’s economy is expected to add more than 48,000 jobs by 2014, with most new wage and salary positions coming in the health care and social assistance industry, according to a 10-year forecast by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development…

More controversial, however, is the proposed open-pit Pebble Mine near Iliamna, which has been drawing opposition from a growing list of groups and individuals because of a perceived threat to Bristol Bay fishing and visitor industries. As a result, potential Pebble employment was not included in the forecast.”

To view the full story, please click on http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/120106/news_1201new003.shtml

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Activists: Lake no place to stash gold mine's waste

Alaskan dispute may have implications for mining throughout West

By Douglas Fischer, STAFF WRITER

Article Last Updated:12/11/2006 06:41:25 AM PST

SAN FRANCISCO — What's the price of gold?

To a mining company and the federal government, it's a small alpine lake in Southeast Alaska.

Coeur Alaska has proposed turning Lower Slate Lake into a dumping ground for 4.5 million tons of tailing waste expected from the Kensington gold mine on Alaska's panhandle.

Federal regulators agree that no other place works as well to put so much waste. They have approved the lake's destruction under new rules designed to better protect the nation's waterways.

To view the full story, please click on

http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_4818301

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GOLD-COPPER DEPOSIT SHARES SURGE 50%
Free Market News Network - Pompano Beach,FL,USA
Shares in Northern Dynasty Minerals [AMEX: NAK, TSX.V:NDM], which has 100% ownership of the world’s second largest gold-copper porphyry deposit, the Alaska ...

To view the full story, please click on

http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=28783

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Palin will see that ruining fishing for a few mining jobs is a bad idea
Anchorage Daily News, December 11, 2006
Letter to the Editor
http://www.adn.com/opinion/letters/story/8484571p-8378277c.html

I'm writing in response to Randy Zimin's letter, "Governor needs to take positive stance toward mining in Southwest," printed Dec. 4.

Most people who live in Southwestern Alaska live there because they want to; they don't want another Southcentral as he does. If a camp job requiring you to leave home for weeks at a time will bring dignity, then why not get a job on the North Slope? Zimin chooses to live in King Salmon; if it's that bad, move to Anchorage and live with the traffic and crime.

His statement that "a small group of voters from the Dillingham area, who are on the same side as most Lower 48 fishermen" were the only people opposed to this mine is ridiculous. The majority of residents in Southwestern and the rest of the state are opposed, and as people learn the true plans and impacts, the opposition is growing. Gov. Sarah Palin is an intelligent woman and will see that ruining a treasure like Southwestern Alaska for a few mining jobs is a bad choice.

- Kari Holman, Wasilla

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Majority of Bristol Bay area is set against development of Pebble mine
Anchorage Daily News, December 10, 2006
Letter to the Editor
http://www.adn.com/opinion/letters/story/8481996p-8375660c.html

Randy Zimin is wrong in his letter dated Dec. 4 ("Governor needs to take positive stance toward mining in Southwest"). He claims that only a small group in the Dillingham area is opposed to the Pebble mine project. The fact is the majority of the Bristol Bay region is against Pebble. This region replaced Carl Moses, a greatly respected 11-term lawmaker, with Bryce Edgmon, a first-time candidate, solely on this issue. Edgmon's platform was anti-Pebble; Moses' was neutral. Edgmon's anti-Pebble views won the general election for him by a 2-1 margin against Moses, and even more against Ron Bowers, the other candidate, who was also neutral on Pebble. The majority of the Bristol Bay area is against Pebble.

The fish in the Bristol Bay area are a renewable, life-giving resource that should continue for centuries to come. Open-pit mining extracts a nonrenewable resource and risks this renewable resource by destroying and poisoning the environment. The monetary gains of mining are better described as momentary or short-lived; however, the wastes and toxins left behind from this endeavor last forever. Common sense says we can't contain a tailings pond of toxic waste, held back by a dam the height of the Hoover Dam, from seeping into our environment forever. Forever is a long time. The two industries are incompatible.

-Mariann Petersen, Anchorage

EDITOR'S NOTE: The writer is a partner in a fishing lodge and air taxi business in the Bristol Bay area.

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Governor, please consider how Pebble does not benefit all Alaskans
Anchorage Daily News, December 9, 2006
Letter to the Editor
http://www.adn.com/opinion/letters/story/8478120p-8371709c.html

Gov. Sarah Palin has a particularly difficult choice to make -- whether to support or oppose the proposed Pebble mine and the development of a massive mining district at the headwaters of Alaska's Bristol Bay.

With the potential for the Alaska gas pipeline, a surging tourism industry and a revitalized commercial fishery, Alaska's economy is clearly poised to move from robust to booming. However, a decision to support Pebble not only would be contrary to the governor's constitutionally defensive and consensus building platform, but it could also add the threat of a bust cycle to the economic future of the Bristol Bay region.

The proposed Pebble mine will not provide the maximum benefit for all Alaskans. In fact, if developed, Pebble will put at risk our resurgent Bristol Bay commercial fishery and thriving tourism industry, will destroy salmon spawning and rearing habitat, and will threaten the subsistence lifestyle of the people who call the area home.

The governor would be doing all Alaskans a favor by conditionally opposing this ill-advised project until Northern Dynasty can prove beyond doubt that viable industries, habitat, and subsistence cultures in the region will forever be protected.

-Dan Oberlatz, Palmer

EDITOR'S NOTE: The writer operates a guide business in the Bristol Bay area.

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Surroundings of Pebble worth more than precious metals under ground
Anchorage Daily News, December 7, 2006
Letter to the Editor
http://www.adn.com/opinion/letters/story/8473247p-8367141c.html

Personally, I find it hard to believe that our own people would consider Pebble mine development. I know it is an opportunity for jobs and money, but are they willing to risk their land and rivers to a Canadian mining company that will make the largest open-pit mine in North America, along with one of the largest dams in the world to hold toxic waste? The land that they are trying to waste is among the most pristine wilderness areas in the world; the sockeye salmon capital of the world. The land that we have is worth too much to be risked. It is worth more than its weight in gold, or copper, or whatever else they are trying to dig out of there.

The scientific way and the traditional way do not work together. That's like mixing ammonia with Clorox; something's got to give.

-Antone Johnson, Anchorage

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Jobs wanted, Pebble Mine not
Peninsula Clarion, December 1, 2006

Letter to the Editor

http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/120106/letters_20061201004.shtml

In response to Bob Favretto (Clarion, Nov. 17), those who oppose the Pebble Mine have “not failed to note that the project must go through an extensive local, state and federal permitting process before any development can occur.”

Already, Northern Dynasty has applied for 11 permit applications to date, so bringing this to the public’s attention is essential.

Those who oppose again, “have not failed to look at the major economic benefits through jobs and economic spinoff to communities throughout Southcentral and the state.” We choose to not be shortsighted as some of you are with this project.

Fishing is a renewable resource when managed correctly. More fishing lodges can be opened in the area, flightseeing tours, etc. Look how Southeast has bounced back by applying these businesses.

Unfortunately, Northern Dynasty needs the South and North Fork Koktuli rivers, the Upper Talarik Creek and approval to construct dams to hold back toxic tailings; basically, they need water rights.

Those who oppose are over 90 percent who live in the area and more are opposing throughout the state as they learn exactly what an open pit mine will do to one of Alaska’s most precious areas.

Thirteen Native corporations set a precedent by coming together to oppose this mine for many reasons, along with lodge owners and the majority of commercial fishermen. They are fully aware of the hardships in the area, but they are not willing to sacrifice their way of life. Educate yourself on the damages that have occurred throughout the world, including the United States, with open pit mining. It is not the mining of old that you read in history books.

The General Mining Law of 1872 has allowed some miners to extract huge fortunes in precious metals from public land, paying little for the land and nothing for the minerals.

It has also allowed some to wreak havoc on the environment, leaving taxpayers to pay for cleanup that most will go on in perpetuity.

Summitville Mine, Summitville, Colo.; Brohm Mine, Deadwood, S.D.; Anaconda Copper Mine, Yerlington, Nevada; Molycorp Molybdenum Mine, Questa, N.M.; and Zortman-Landusky Mine, Lodge Pole, Mont. These are the top five open pit mines in the United States for toxic damage. All groundwater was contaminated and cleanup continues at taxpayers expense. Groundwater contaminated by arsenic, cyanide, toxic metals and other materials. Water at one site was so contaminated with corrosive salt that water dissolved a metal handrail.

I am not against jobs for Alaskans, nor is anyone else who opposes the Pebble Mine. I am an Alaskan. I stand by the people of the Bristol Bay area. I know I would not want this mine in my back yard.

Saundra Fletcher, Anchorage

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Fish-bearing lake must go to develop mine
Company: Proposal for Interior gold and copper project has environmentalists worried

Larry Pynn, CanWest News Service
Published: Monday, December 11, 2006

VANCOUVER -- A Vancouver-based mining company says it must destroy a fish-bearing lake and creek in order to exploit its Prosperity copper-gold deposit about 200 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake.

"The lake is right beside the deposit," John McManus, vice-president of operations for Taseko Mines Ltd., said in an interview. "The reality of trying to preserve the lake and have the mine is just not realistic."

This is the second mine proposal currently before the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office seeking to destroy a fish-bearing lake. Kemess is about two years into an environmental process that seeks to dump waste rock and tailings into six-kilometre-long Duncan Lake to expand its gold-copper mine about 400 kilometres northwest of Prince George.

McManus said Taseko's plan for the Prosperity site is to build a dam from waste rock and tailings just above Fish Lake on Fish Creek, effectively killing both. He described Fish Lake as shallow and measuring about one kilometre in length and supporting a population of rainbow trout.

Asked if people will consider the destruction of a lake a backwards environmental step for B.C. mining, McManus said: "Some will, some won't. You have to take a balanced approach to everything.

"I'm not trying to downplay the importance of the lake. Nobody wants to . . . get rid of a lake. But we're talking about having large industry and an economic generator in the area.

"It's difficult to put your finger on a spot on the map of this province where you can do any significant development that doesn't somehow affect a fish or fishery."

Kate Glover, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Environment, said last week the ministry would make no public comment on the two mine applications while they are in the process of an environmental assessment.

She did note that Fish Lake is home to an estimated 85,000 rainbow trout, of which 4,100 to 4,900 are caught annually.

Garry Alexander, project assessment director with the Environmental Assessment Office, said while it is not uncommon for major industrial projects in the province to have some impact on fish habitat, it is unusual to lose a lake outright.

The Xeni Gwet'in First Nation in the Nemiah Valley, which stands to gain economically from a mine in its territory, has so far said it wants to be closely consulted on the proposal and has not yet taken a formal position against it despite the planned destruction of the lake.

Environmentalists, however, were quick to decry the plan. "If you polled British Columbians, they'd say that killing lakes is not on," asserted Joe Foy of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee. "Surely, there are minerals in areas where you don't have to kill lakes."

Foy also called B.C.'s environmental assessment process a rubber stamp for industry, and called for a new independent system of reviewing potentially damaging projects. "Projects always get through," he said of the current process. "We have to do something about that."

Alexander confirmed not one of 134 projects reviewed by the environmental assessment process has been rejected since the legislation took effect in 1995. However, he said proponents voluntarily withdrew 13 projects, or 10 per cent of the total, due to the challenges of providing more information or the need for project redesign to meet environmental requirements.