Foes threaten to seek Alaska mining taxPebble copper/gold project foes threaten to seek Alaska mining tax
By: Dorothy Kosich
Posted: '05-JAN-07 08:00' GMT © Mineweb 1997-2006
RENO, NV (Mineweb.com) --The battle over Northern Dynasty Minerals’ Pebble copper-gold project kicked up a notch this week with a threat to circulate a petition to put a mining tax on the state ballot in Alaska.
Meanwhile, opposition groups published an advertisement asking national jewelers and retailers to boycott gold from the project.
Art Hackney of the Renewable Resources Coalition suggested to Anchorage Daily News that a new mining tax is one of the possible tools to fight the Pebble project. Last month, Rep. Jay Ramras, R-Fairbanks, also warned miners about the tax idea, urging the industry to try to make peace with the chief opponent of the project Bob Gillam, President of the McKinley Capital Management Fund.
Gillam, who owns a lodge near Pebble, has helped organize and fund the Renewable Resources Coalition, one of the chief project opponents.
Northern Dynasty spokesman Sean Magee gold the Anchorage Daily News Wednesday that “it’s stunning” that Pebble’s opponents would even make the petition threat.
Alaska legislator Rep. Paul Seaton, R-Homer, already declared his intention to introduce legislation aimed at changing the mining industry’s taxes. Seaton is also a commercial fisherman.
A recent legislative opinion requested by Seaton determined that-- if the state used eminent domain to prevent the development of Pebble, or imposed excessive permitting requirements--the State of Alaska may have to pay Northern Dynasty just compensation for the loss of its copper and gold deposits. Seaton expressed fears that the compensation could cost billions of dollars.
Northern Dynasty claims that Pebble’s resources have a gross value of $92 billion including 49 billion pounds of copper, 65 million ounces of gold, and 2.9 billion pounds of molybdenum.
The Bristol Bay Alliance, a coalition of Alaska Native communities, fishermen, businesses, sportsmen and conservation groups, launched an ad campaign in National Jeweler asking them to protect Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed from the Pebble project.
The harvest and processing of the Bristol Bay fishery in southwest Alaska generates $320 million and employees some 12,500 people. In addition, sports fishermen spent $120 million in the area. The ad asks jewelry retailers and manufacturers to take the Bristol Bay Protection Pledge—a commitment not to buy or use gold from the Pebble mine or any other major mines on public lands in the Bristol Bay watershed.
However, neither the ad nor the pledge specified how retailers could trace whether their gold comes from the Pebble mine once it is permitted, constructed, and begins operation.
Northern Dynasty has invested $126 million in the project, and anticipates spending another $30 to $45 million this year. Mineral production could begin at Pebble in 2011 or later. The company has not yet decided if the operation will be open pit or underground. Mega copper miner Rio Tinto has a 9.9 percent stake in Northern Dynasty via its Kennecott Canada subsidiary.