Alaskan opposition to Anglo American’s Pebble project intensified last week when six UK jewellers joined the fray in London on the eve of Anglo’s April 15 annual general meeting (AGM), saying “no to dirty gold”.

Simultaneously, Anglo’s Pebble project partner, Northern Dynasty Minerals, of Canada, said that a year-old sustain- ability fund was preparing to dispense the first $1- million in grants to 33 Alaskan applicants.

Anglo investor relations spokesperson Anna Poulter told Mining Weekly that, while there would be gold by-products, Pebble was primarily a copper project.

“We don’t view gold-mining as core to our business,” Poulter said, adding that Pebble was still a project and not a mine.

Mining Weekly was referred to Anglo media relations head James Wyatt-Tilby, who was, however, unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.

A media release disseminated by Resource Media from both the UK and Alaska said, however, that the six jewellery retailers and designers, which had come out against “dirty gold” from Pebble, represented 260 stores.

The media release follows an initial Resource Media release on April 7 that a delegation of Alaskans would confront Anglo at its AGM, in London, over the Pebble project, located in south-west Alaska.

Anglo media relations head in Johannesburg Pranill Ramchander reiterated to Mining Weekly that Anglo welcomed all its shareholders to its AGM, where they would have an opportunity to put their questions to chairperson Sir Mark Moody-Stuart.

Ramchander had also said earlier that Anglo strove for the best environmental performance wherever it operated.

“For Pebble, it is too soon to say what the project design will be, but the reality is that it will have to take into account the environmental sensitivities of the region, and satisfy the authorities and local communities that proper protections can be put in place,” Ramchander told Mining Weekly.

Anglo did not respond to a Mining Weekly question on the Alaskan delegation’s request to meet Anglo American CEO Cynthia Carroll.

Resource Media said in its latest release that the UK jewellers were pledging their support for Bristol Bay Alaskans by pledging not to buy gold from Pebble, a project Anglo acquired from Rio Tinto under Carroll’s watch.

Resource Media said that a large openpit operation was being considered in Bristol Bay’s headwaters, which hosted the world’s most productive wild sockeye salmon fishery.

The fishery was said to be critical to the economy of Alaska and that the UK was the largest consumer of Bristol Bay canned sockeye salmon.

The UK jewellers, which included Goldsmiths, Beaverbrooks, Mappin & Webb, Watches of Switzerland, Fifi Bijoux and April Doubleday, took this step at the invitation of local Alaskans who seek to protect wild salmon, clean water and their traditional way of life from the damaging effects of industrial metal mines.

“We, at Beaverbrooks, support the protection of Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed from large-scale mining,” Beaverbrook MD Mark Adelstone was quoted as saying.

In pledging not to source gold mined at Pebble, the UK jewellers join eight US retailing outlets, which endorsed the pledge last year, including Tiffany & Co, Helzberg Diamonds and Ben Bridge Jeweller.

Resource Media said that the threat to the Bristol Bay fishery had also elicited support from 140 sportfishing businesses, a consortium of 231 Alaskan tribes and numerous conservation groups, in addition to Alaska’s commercial fishing industry.

Choggiung Native Corporation director Thomas Tilden said that the wild salmon fishery had sustained Bristol Bay’s economy and people for generations.

Resource Media said that Northern Dynasty Minerals was a co-owner with Anglo of the Pebble copper/gold project and was expected to generate an estimated nine-billion tons of waste, much of it containing acids and toxic metals to be stored on site in what is now pristine Alaskan wilderness.

Northern Dynasty Minerals said from Vancouver that the year-old Pebble Fund for Sustainable Bristol Bay Fisheries and Communities would dispense its first $1- million in grants to 33 successful applicants this spring.

Northern Dynasty said that the fund was established as a five-year, $5-million commitment to support community-led initiatives that enhanced the health of Bristol Bay fisheries and contributed to a sustainable economic future in south-west Alaska.

The Alaskan delegation’s flight to London follows a March visit to Alaska by Moody-Stuart, who, Resources Media said, was greeted by protesters waving ‘No Pebble Mine’ signs. When Moody-Stuart headed petroleum company Shell, prior to chairing Anglo, he had to deal with environmental protests over Shell’s involvement in the North Sea.

Resources Media said that the Pebble mine would be the largest openpit copper and gold mine in North America, extending over 30 square miles of the Bristol Bay watershed and that even minuscule amounts of copper and zinc hindered the ability of salmon to find their spawning grounds and identify predators.

The mine, located on State lands, would use 70-million gallons of water daily from streams and rivers – three times the daily consumption of Anchorage, Alaska’s biggest city.

To operate, the mine would require an estimated 600 MW to 700 MW of power, necessitating new generating capacity.

For those reasons, the Alaskans said that Pebble mine posed unacceptable risks.

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