Here's what i know to be true on this subject...
This mind is right smack dab in the greatest salmon fisheries in all of Alaska. The run off there feeds all the major salmon streams of Bristol bay fisheries.
The mine will be over a mill DEEP, and below many of the streams there, so LOT's of pumping will have to happen!
The tailings out of it, will be MILES long! That's right, Miles!
Regardless what SD is saying, MOST of the natives in the area are against it, only the natives that own land right in that area are for it.
The mineing engineers are saying everything will be fine, but when questioned as to water quality ect., they say they will solve all the problems. There will be MIILLIONS of gallons of holding water behind a wall they will build, and they say it will be held and not let out until treated. They can not prove that the water can't excape 100%, no one can and it's on an old "fault line"...
A pipe line will be bult, to move the mineral rich slurry to port to ship out of state for processing, so they also have a possibility a pipe line leak, or a ship leak, EXON Valdez style.
Even the mineing engineers said it would take years to solve all the problems, BUT that they are sure they can, even though their data that's been examined so far doesn't begin to show how.
I could go on and on, but you get the pict... Am i for or against the mine? Well, if they could do all they SAY they can do, and guarentee no disasters, then i'm for it! BUT, they haven't proven that they can do it yet!
The independent folks that have looked it all over, say the risk is too high and the company hasn't shown they can do what they say.
Lastly, this mine will be like NO OTHER in Alaska, and what other mines in the interior have done, means nothing in this case as they are completely different in a completely different enviroment!
I know the above to be true from many sources, includeing a friend who lives in the area!
DM
