{"id":9400,"date":"2019-04-18T19:08:56","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T19:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/first-pepperoni.flywheelsites.com\/?p=9400"},"modified":"2025-10-27T21:51:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T21:51:41","slug":"expert-pebbles-plan-doesnt-add-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildsalmoncenter.org\/2019\/04\/18\/expert-pebbles-plan-doesnt-add-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Expert: Pebble\u2019s Plan Doesn\u2019t Add Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Former Rio Tinto staffer says the mine could lose billions under current scenario.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Pebble Limited Partnership\u2019s bid to establish an open pit mine at the headwaters of the world\u2019s richest sockeye fishery doesn\u2019t pencil out financially, according to an international mining expert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, its latest plan appears to be a Trojan horse designed to gain entry for what will eventually be an even larger and more damaging open-pit copper and gold mine near Bristol Bay, Alaska,<\/a> home to a $1.5 billion salmon fishing economy and dozens of communities that depend on salmon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This expert testimony comes in the midst of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers\u2019 90-day comment period<\/a> on a hastily develop environmental impact statement (DEIS) that did not require Pebble to clearly state its business case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You have until June 29 to send your comments<\/a> to the Army Corps of Engineers: Tell them to stop a sham permitting process.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As proposed, the project is \u201calmost certainly not economically feasible,\u201d Richard Borden, an independent environmental consultant who spent 23 years working for Rio Tinto PLC, wrote to the Army Corps<\/a>. Rio Tinto was one of three mining giants that abandoned huge investments in the Pebble project. \u201cThese are approximate, back-of-the-envelope calculations,\u201d he added, because Pebble has not established a business plan to fully evaluate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2011, Pebble\u2019s proponents commissioned a study that estimated a fully permitted mine would produce a $3.8 billion profit in the first 25 years of an operation that could continue for a century, given the massive deposits of rich ore located far below the tundra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the latest proposal up for federal review, which proposes harvesting low-grade ore at shallower depths for 20 years, Pebble would lose $3 billion, said Borden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As proposed, the project would require roughly $6.7 billion in intrusive infrastructure construction, including a massive toxic waste pond surrounded by what would be the largest earthen containment dam ever built.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Scientists warn the dam has a significant risk of failure over time, with potentially catastrophic effect on Bristol Bay salmon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army Corps impact statement estimates the new Pebble Mine proposal would damage 3,458 acres of wetlands, and would affect 80 miles of salmon streams in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impact would be even larger if Pebble were to expand to a large footprint to mine over a 78-year period, a scenario it has previously contemplated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such expansion is Pebble\u2019s real intention, testified former Alaska legislator Rick Halford at a state hearing recently: \u201cThis mine is at least a mile deep and it\u2019s the richest at depth, and to mine your way down to the money and then stop is a ridiculous assumption.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom Collier, CEO of the Pebble Limited Partnership, concedes: \u201cit would be unlikely that in the future someone wouldn\u2019t want to take some portion if not all of the rest of the ore out of the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ron Thiessen, CEO of Vancouver, B.C.-based Northern Dynasty Minerals, which controls Pebble, has said: \u201c\u2026This project, it\u2019s a multi-generational opportunity. It\u2019s size and scale will lead to a very, very long life mine\u2026 And when you build the infrastructure in there and you\u2019ve got a concentrator, you can feed it forever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pebble is pitching a “smaller” mine foot print, but in reality it is just the beginning and will open the way for a much larger mining operation. Compare Pebble and other mining claims in scale with Washington D.C.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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