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Pebble mine: A vote for Southwest Alaska's future?After Greg Anelon, from Newhalen, squeezed himself into a booth at Spenard Road House in Anchorage Thursday night, he got himself settled and serious, momentarily. "I love spending Pebble's money," he said, pausing before slapping the table and laughing a big, hearty laugh. It was a gesture Anelon repeated often in the hour or so he spent eating his steak and talking about life and his involvement in helping the Pebble Partnership’s efforts in building the world's biggest gold and copper mine in his back yard. Part of that involvement includes sitting on a board that chooses who will get the millions of dollars Pebble has donated to a community fund. He was in Anchorage for one of those board meetings. “I’ll spend as much as they give us,” he said with a laugh. Wading into the middle of one of Alaska's most polarizing natural resources fights hasn't sapped Anelon's humor, but it has made him more aware of the delicate, sometimes finicky relationship between Alaskans and the state’s resources. Through it all, Anelon has been educated on how his community, family and even his own pocketbook may benefit by extracting the vast underground riches at the Pebble site in Southwest Alaska. That’s why he’s working against a local ballot initiative that, if enacted and held up in court, would all but kill Pebble mine. The ballot initiative was organized by a group called Save Our Salmon. Ballots have already been mailed throughout the Lake and Peninsula Borough, an area of about 1600 people spread out over region roughly the size of West Virginia. They must be postmarked by Tuesday, Oct. 4. The group behind Save Our Salmon has raised more than $400,000 so far in its fight against Pebble. And almost all of the money has come from Bob Gillam, one of Alaska’s wealthiest citizens who runs McKinley Capital Management, an investment firm. Gilliam’s interest is personal: He owns a nine-bedroom, 14,000-square-foot private lodge on an in-holding of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, about 20 miles from the proposed mine and just north of the largest salmon-spawning areas in the world. Gillam loves his lodge and he loves to fish. "Only two things matter in life," Gillam was quoted in a 1995 magazine article as saying. "Getting rich and catching fish." Anelon is not one of Alaska’s wealthiest citizens. But with the Pebble Partnership backing him, he’s taking on Gilliam and Save Our Salmon, chairing a group called “Defend Your Rights: Vote No on the ‘Save our Salmon’ Initiative.” Anelon’s group has raised about $200,000, with the majority coming from Pebble Partnership. Pebble has also provided other contributions, like staff support. Anelon is 50 years old and has four children. He holds a degree in rural development from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He, like his ancestors before him, live in Newhalen a dot of a village in Southwestern Alaska next to Iliamna, its sister village. Both villages are about 15 miles from what prospective Pebble developers -- Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals and London-based Anglo American -- believe to be the largest undeveloped gold and copper mine on Earth. With gold fetching about $1,600 per ounce, the stakes are huge. Pebble holds more than 100 million ounces of gold and more than 80 billion pounds of recoverable copper. For Anelon, that could mean a new future for the hardscrabble region. Jobs vs. fishGreg Anelon is a manager for Iliamna Development Corp., which was founded in 2004 and services some of the exploration work at the Pebble deposit. Iliamna Development employs about 40 people, mostly from the region, Anelon said. It's a good job, he added -- one of the only good jobs in the area. Warren Buffett: “I will say this about gold. If you took all the gold in the world, it would roughly make a cube 67 feet on a side. … It would be worth at today’s market prices about $7 trillion dollars. … For $7 trillion dollars … you could have all the farmland in the United States, you could have about seven Exxon Mobils, and you could have $1 trillion dollars of walking-around money. … If you offered me the choice of looking at some 67 foot cube of gold … call me crazy, but I’ll take the farmland and the Exxon Mobils.” http://moneyland.time.com/2011/10/07/why-gold-is-down-but-probably-not-out/#ixzz1a7YrUIyr Ms. Coyne, I have to point out some odd journalism and biased personal assumptions on your part. You say: "Bob Gillam doesn't like the idea of a massive gold mine near his lodge. And it seems he'll pay as much as he needs to keep it away. His initiative..." Excuse me. "HIS INITIATIVE?" No, Ms. Coyne, it's not "his". Perhaps you could interview other Bristol Bay residents and land users that are impacted by the Pebble Project. For a better, more complete understanding. You say: "If 'Save Our Salmon' does pass, it will be a good public relations tool for the anti-mining folks." No, Ms. Coyne, it will NOT be a public relations tool for them. It will mark one step in a very long road of self-determination and empowerment in shaping the future of their own communities. Owning participation in process. Completely unfair. I think most know that without Bob Gilliam we wouldn't be bombarded with the anti-mining lies and exaggerations. This probably wouldn't get much attention if it wasn't for Gilliam funding the anti commercials and pushing sos, hence its "his initiative." WHY IT MATTERS AND WHO IT IMPACTS The Pebble Project study area for surface water hydrology is defined by the deposit (which straddles the South/North Fork Koktuli and Upper Talarik drainages), as well as potential sites for future mine facilities – such as the mill and tailings storage area. As such, the Pebble Partnership is studying surface water flows in the main-stem and tributary streams of each of these water systems. Lake Clark Hydrology Pebble now symbolizes one of the basic issues & struggles in Alaska: Whether to hang on to the traditional Frontier & Native values as much and as long as possible; or to try and hurriedly push them aside and relegate them to the history books, as decisively as possible. Late 20th C. and early 21st C. demographics have helped the vision of a developed & urban Alaska: the rural & remote areas dwindle, while city-folks increase. This is occurring throughout North America. Yet, Anchorage does not vote reliably as a Big City. Repeatedly; key, historic votes have been determined by Anchorage voters ... in favor of the traditional & Frontier model. Right now, development & urban interests have a favorable window before them, due to the post-2008 economic downturn & stimulus funding, in concert with new laws & regulations that make it easier to start big projects, right now. This "window" is probably 'just a window'. The opening will hang there just so long, then it will pass & be gone. This partly explains why we are seeing so many Big Projects at this time. Rail expansion, hydroelectric and mining, among other patterns of heightened activity. To get 'hustled' on these opportunities, unavoidably shifts more of the benefit-picture away from being Alaska-determined & managed, and toward being defined & controlled by non-Alaskan interests & priorities. Remember: the Susitna River isn't going anywhere, and neither is the Pebble gold & copper deposit. Alaskans do not need to hurry up & commit on the disposal of these resources at this particular moment (and in this particular way) because Alaskans will have these resources tomorrow, if they do not use them today, in the fashion currently being promoted. If Alaskans would prefer to fine-tune how they use the resources they have in ways that best-retain what they like about their traditions, then they should be wary of being hurried into something. "Alaskans do not need to hurry up & commit..." EXACTLY. Unfortunately, the folks who want the money, want it RIGHT NOW. From Wikipedia: The Pebble Limited Partnership is 50% owned by a wholly owned U.S.-based subsidiary of London-based Anglo American and 50% owned by The Northern Dynasty Partnership, which is a wholly owned Canadian-based subsidiary of Northern Dynasty Minerals Limited.[33] Announced in July, 2007 the partnership agreement obligates Anglo American to spend $1.425 billion towards study, permitting, and construction of the project in order to retain its 50% interest.[34] The partnership is managed by the Pebble Mines Corporation, a 50% Northern Dynasty:50% Anglo American owned corporation based in Alaska. Important stockholders in Northern Dynasty Minerals Limited include Kennecott (19.8%) which is a wholly owned affiliate of Rio Tinto, management (13%), and Mitsubishi (9.1%). One non-executive member of the Northern Dynasty board is a Rio Tinto representative. The corporate officers and executive board members of Northern Dynasty Minerals Limited are all, also, executive board members and corporate officers of Hunter Dickinson Corporation. Northern Dynasty is one of ten public mining companies driven by Hunter Dickinson, a Vancouver-based Canadian corporation.[35] Those that vote negative on this one, obviously are not in favor of Alaska, but rather the profits of Canadian and European and even Asian interests. How can anyone who is in favor of Alaska remaining Alaska be in favor of Alaska being sold to the highest bidders around the world? Ah, when people spout off with stuff about how in the past we got all our food from there, etc....ah, guys, wake up. You are no longer natives trapped by nature. You depend on gas and oil for travel and heat. I don't see you sitting by a whale/seal oil flame to get warm after paddling 15 miles. You would not do that anymore...nor could you. Modern medicine also depends on all these modern advances. Could you live without your doctor flying in? Gillian has no problem...he is getting bucks from managing money in world markets. A very modern job...but he wants to keep his local "slaves" in primitive conditions for laughs at his lodge. Fly in the Easy Bucks so they can see real nature. Ah, give me a break! I presume you know, that the Yukon Flats hydroelectric project was stopped, mainly on the basis of Native objections. That their traditions would be impacted by flooding the Flats. And that was in the 1950s, before ANCSA and ANILCA ... and the real legal traction the law now gives Natives. "By Act of Congress", the Southwest Natives own a stake in those fisheries, and they'd have to be even dumber than some would take them for, to let anything or anyone 'walk' on those fish. You don't have to live in a dugout and warm it with seal oil lamps, to figure that one out. So yeah, even Greg Anelon, who's immediate priority isn't the salmon, sweeps his hat off and bows down pretty for them. Otherwise, his peers would promptly 'fire' him. The power of Hollywood: $10/person. If everyone who loves Alaska the way it is or would like to at least see its natural habitats preserved would donate $5 to programs that present alternatives to Pebble Mine for providing a better future for Alaska, then it would likely at least match the money from Gilliam. I personally would love to lead such an effort or help someone else lead it. What could be some alternatives to a mine job? If everyone stopped to think about it, I'd imagine 100 better ideas would come to the surface. What could bring more autonomy to Alaskans? What could give them more options? Never stop asking future leaning questions and never cave in to commercial interests as those who promote them never truly have the people's interest at heart. Maybe some people don't understand this one. Hollywood gets millions or billions of dollars every year because they charge $10/person for their movies and millions of people go to see them. The point here is that a movement doesn't need 1 "savior" spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote it. It would be better to have hundreds of thousands of people spending $1-5. The truth needs to be known. All options need to be known and put on the table for discussion. Intentions as well ought to be known. Start naming the "many options" for jobs in Alaska. Drilling for oil? Nope. Constructing bridges and roads? Nada. Oil exploration in Bristol Bay off shore? No again. Develop Chuitna coal? No. Wishbone Hills? No again. Where are the jobs? "Raping the planet and creating a possible threat..." Good one. True colors shown there. Gold may be a silly reason, but copper is not. Practice what you preach and quit using ANYTHING made or manufactured with gold or copper, hypocrite. IF there's to be any copper mining in Alaska, let it be an Alaska coop that owns/operates the entire effort and let any benefits from selling/trading the copper remain in Alaska rather than going to some investor's pockets. Let it be a futuristic effort, using the latest technologies and techniques to minimize or even eliminate any negative impact it would have on the environment. Let it be an effort combined with its own recycling facilities. What could be accomplished with it? Join these efforts with an Alaskan internal currency or trade system and see what becomes possible. In terms of what "jobs", the first question should be, "What needs to be accomplished?" Kids need to be educated, food needs to be grown, homes need to be built/rebuilt, power systems need to be created/recreated, etc. What COULD be done? Research center(s) could be built and staffed, space exploration perhaps, observatories, I'd put it out as a question to people who live there... what could be accomplished, what are some good or even great goals for Alaska to accomplish... I doubt profit would be prevalent on that list. I support ANGDA, btw, and their efforts to bring to the state what the people said they want. I also am in favor of the efforts from ROUCH propane trucks, not oil. There's more than enough copper already mined. You're leaning on the same old junk - oil, bridges, etc. How about a new economic model? Why focus on the same old "hamster wheel" jobs churning away your life working to help someone earn a profit off of your efforts? You're showing YOUR true colors - the inability to think beyond your profits. What Alaskans might not realize is that there are many other options for creating "jobs" if that's the main reason they'd consider something like Pebble Mine, and there are economic options that would bring more autonomy to Alaskans such that they wouldn't have to worry about jobs so much. Gold is a really silly reason to be raping the planet and the wilderness and creating even a possible threat to the wildlife including the salmon. Schools don't have to rely on money either. There are educational approaches that would allow schools to function and even thrive without a single federal dollar. You have my contact information, Amanda. If you'd like to hear some of the ideas, I'll gladly share them with you. |
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