JUNEAU — Kerr Sulphurets Mitchell, a British Columbia mine in the transboundary Unuk River watershed that concerns many Southeast Alaska fishermen, Native organizations, tourism and environmental groups, has received early construction permits from the British Columbia government.
“I think people are feeling not just a sense of urgency, and being threatened, but anger, too,” said Heather Hardcastle, commercial fishing outreach coordinator for Trout Unlimited. “To hear that they have these preliminary permits, road construction permits — it seems like such a slap in the face, because the project doesn’t yet have federal approval from the government in Canada.”
KSM has received provincial approval; Seabridge Gold, the company behind the project, expects the federal decision in November.
KSM, while a large mine, is just one of a handful Southeast Alaskans are concerned about. They and Alaska’s congressional delegation are working to spur international cooperation on the larger issue of mines in transboundary watersheds. Sen. Mark Begich hopes to soon jump-start that coordination.
Rob Sanderson, Jr., Co-Chair of the United Tribal Transboundary Mining Work Group and 2nd Vice President of Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, or CCTHITA, said the provincial approval and permitting “comes as no surprise.”
“We knew that was coming,” he said. “We were behind the eight-ball on KSM by a lot of years … They haven’t been straight up with us from the beginning. They gave us a short period of time.”
Brent Murphy, Environment and Sustainability Manager for Seabridge Gold, said the company has made efforts to address Southeast Alaskan concerns. They’ve also made some trips to Southeast Alaska to meet with different communities, and changed certain aspects of the operation after discussions with the state.
Just the same, after letters and requests from concerned Southeast Alaskans, state officials in August said they would also like to see those concerns addressed.
Murphy said the next step for KSM is receiving Canadian federal approval and then finding a joint venture partner.
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