Alaskan Group Voices Concern Over Gold Mine

Photo: Alaska Region US Fish and Wildlife Service/Flickr

Salmon Beyond Borders, a conservation group focusing on maintaining and sustaining wild salmon populations in Alaska and Canada, has voiced its opposition to a new gold mine.

New plans have been filed to develop the New Polaris Gold Mine Project in the headwaters of the Taku River system, which flows into the Gulf of Alaska just outside of the state’s capital, Juneau.

Salmon Beyond Borders issued a lengthy press release which read, in part:

“In documents Canagold Resources Ltd. has submitted to the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office, the company proposes to construct a mile-long airstrip adjacent to one of the most ecologically important wetlands in the Taku watershed, and make over 100 barge trips from Juneau up the tricky, shifting Taku River during the two-year mine construction phase. Additionally, the waste rock generated from gold extraction at New Polaris will likely contain high levels of contaminants like arsenic and antimony, which pose a risk to water quality. Canagold has neither described how they will address this risk nor discussed what long-term water treatment will be required.”

Mining is always risky, so it’s not surprising that a salmon advocacy group is in opposition to a new mine, especially one located on the headwaters of an important watershed.

Salmon Beyond also argues that more involvement is needed on the part of indigenous and local leaders to ensure the mine moves forward as well as it can. From the press release, it sounds like the mine is moving forward.