Pebble Mine Project in the Pristine Alaska Wilderness.

Some of the questions about the mine and the long term impace it will have on the lives of the people of Bristol Bay, Alaska and the United States in general.

• What is the Pebble Mine?
• Where Is It Located?
• What are The Dangers Associated With It?
• Could the Pebble Mine pave the way for more destructive mines in the future?
• Would this open a path for oil and gas development within the watershed? Tidal Flats? National Forests?

The Pebble Copper, Gold and Molybdenum Mine.

The Pebble Mine is an open pit Copper, Gold and Molybdenum Mine proposed for the very fragile watershed of the salmon rich Bristol Bay region of Southwest Alaska. Things to note about this mine include it's proximity to the spawning beads of the worlds largest salmon runs that feed millions of people around the world, the type of mine proposed, an open pit mine, and the immense size of the project leading to a possible catastrophic environmental disaster that would far exceed the legendary Valdez Oil Spill that still haunts Alaskans today.

All types of mines, large and small, produce some of two types of waste material. First there is the finely ground pieces of rock called tailings which originate from the process of ore extraction and the much larger sized waste rock, non ore bearing, from the mine itself.

There are two primary issues in associated with the storage of mine by-product. First there is the chemical reactivity of the waste with the environment. Waste materials from this type of mine often contains some sulfide minerals, most major ores of important metals such as copper, lead, molybdenum, and silver are all sulfides, which on exposure to air and water will eventually begin to produce acid and subsequently leach metals into waste water then dispersed into the ground water and on into the rivers and streams polluting the fragile environment. Methods to minimize the permeation of air and/or water into a waste pile would be useful in delaying the onset and reducing the extent of these reactions but is still just a temporary fix to the inevitable problems to come.

Also there is the physical safety as well as long term stability of these waste storage areas. Tailings are planned to be placed into a pond behind some large dirt formation or dams. The long term stability of these dams is just as much an issue as with the consistency of the waste rock piles themselves.

History has proven that the fine particles that make up the bulk of the tailing piles are more susceptible to erosion than are the larger sized waste rock. These large piles of waste rock create a long term liability that must be managed well into the future. Over the past decade, about one of these dams per year has undergone failure around the world causing major hardship for local communities, extensive damage to adjacent environments, and expensive lessons for mining companies. This could lead to another fiasco like that we experienced with the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Clean-up costs, compensation payments and post-failure monitoring costs could easily pass the Valdez oil spill and bring on another decade of hardship for the Alaska people.

Traditional methods of mine waste storage have created a number of environmental problems as well as a few catastrophic failures that have taken place in recent years. Coarse waste rock is typically stored in large dumps or piles sometimes over 100 feet high. The stability of these heaps and their resistance to water and wind erosion are important factors in determining the short and long term safety of storing the waste materials in this environment.

The Pebble Mine project is located on land owned by the State of Alaska. Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. of Vancouver, Canada, developer of the Pebble Mine, holds 153 square miles of state land for mining claims within the Bristol Bay Watershed.