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The Pebble Blog

The gigantic Pebble copper and gold prospect in Southwest Alaska is one of the touchiest topics in Alaska today.

In this blog, I'll track news that is significant or interesting about the Pebble project. I'll also try to generate discussion and information sharing about some of the claims and counterclaims about the project, and mining in general.

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About Elizabeth Bluemink ebluemink@adn.com

I've been writing about mining in Alaska since 2004 and without a doubt, it is one of the most interesting topics that I cover at the Daily News. I've been a newspaper reporter for the past 10 years. In the Deep South, I specialized in reporting about environmental conflicts and pollution cleanups. For two years, I covered commercial fishing, mining and logging in Southeast Alaska. In my current job as a Daily News business reporter, I write about mining, tourism, Native corporations and other businesses.

Profile of Anglo American chief

Posted by Elizabeth Bluemink

Posted: May 29, 2008 - 12:29 pm

Here's a recent profile of Cynthia Carroll, the chief executive of Anglo American, the London-based company with a 50 percent stake in Pebble, from Forbes Magazine.

The article covers a lot of ground - business strategy, safety changes, black empowerment, Pebble - so it's hard to pick a representative quote. The following blurb is the first paragraph of the story.

Last August, six months into her tenure as head of Anglo American Plc., Cynthia Carroll convened a meeting of 120 executives at the Johannesburg operations headquarters of one of the world's largest mining concerns. Sitting alone on an auditorium stage facing the mostly white, insular South African group, the petite New Jersey-born geologist with a bubbly voice described Anglo's dismal safety record --15% of South Africa's 220 yearly mining deaths, all blacks.

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4 May 31, 2008 - 1:16am | CingRed

Class act

Great decision by Anglo to bring on a such a courageous leader. I couldn't agree any more than with her statement "safety and efficiency go hand in hand". You can tell she values people and is revolutionizing the industry.

3 May 30, 2008 - 9:29am | ThorZone

Lucky To Have Her......

We are fortunate with regards to the high qulaity leadership in the executives that are heading up the Pebble Mine. First The Pebble Partnership lands John Shively to run that part of the operation and in the bargan we get Cynthia Carroll.

If you read the article in Forbes, you can get a pretty clear picture of who Ms. Carroll is and what she stands for. They say actions speak louder than words. Clearly Ms. Carroll's actions are to date impressive!

May 30, 2008 - 11:16am | Sockeyemark

Wonder if the Chinese will keep her

Chinese are in the process of buying controlling interest in Rio and Anglo. They might get rid of Ms Carroll anyway. Even if they have a lousy track record on mining deaths and human rights.

May 30, 2008 - 7:45pm | Sockeyemark

Wonder if the Chinese will keep her

Once the Chinese get controlling intrest in Rio and Anglo they might get rid of Ms Carroll with the lousy track record on mining deaths and human rights.

May 30, 2008 - 11:29am | ebluemink

hey, please fix your post

don't think there's any evidence that they are buying a "controlling interest" though they have been upping their stake.

May 30, 2008 - 11:13am | RedGold

Lucky to be Paid by Her...

In the spirit of Governor Palin's call for transparency, please tell all the readers ThorZone how much you are on the mining payroll for. Don't go cheap, PebblePartnership has pledged $15 million for their efforts this year. Hold out for the big money!!!

June 3, 2008 - 7:36am | whataboutmyjob

Hacks

RedGold you are absolutely right! I am a big supporter of the Governor and I know that these Pebble Partnership people are trying to buy my vote. The least they can do is be honest about it.

I have heard that all these ads we have been seeing aren't factual because they related to a bill thats not even on the ballot. Is that true?

June 3, 2008 - 7:59am | NoBob

What's on the ballot . . .

I will take the liberty of answering for ThorZone. There are two initiatives, Water 1 and Water 3. Water 1 was approved by a lower court in Dillingham and rejected by a lower court in Fairbanks. Water 3 was approved by a the lower court in Fairbanks. This all goes to the supreme court later this month for the final word on what will appear on the ballot.

The shutdown rhetoric applies to Water 1. No mine can operate without tailings or a water discharge that includes "any" amount of common metals. You couldn't run your own home by those rules. It was clear that the courts were going to deep six this--and if they didn't, then the state would end up spending the Permanent Fund to buy Pebble.

Seeing this, the response of the sponsors of Water 1 was to ask that it be withdrawn. They said Water 1 had "unintended consequences." Sure. It hasn't happened yet. Apparently there are no rules for this. But I expect it will happen.

So we will be left with Water 3.

June 3, 2008 - 8:23am | NoBob

What is Water 3?

I am going to reply to my own post to explain what Water 3 is--or what I think it might be. The wording of the initiative is vague and there are even some misspellings in it--a piece of bad writing for sure.

Basically, Water 3 is the same as existing law. In substance, it is the same as AS 46.03.070 which gives the state authority to promulgate water quality regulations. The state has promulgated those regs and we have a regulatory system that works just fine. Sure, there are violations, but not a lot. Penalties are sufficient to keep things under control.

Now the idea that Water 3 is the same as existing law isn't just mine. Judge Blankenship, in approving Water 3 said that it was the same too . . . that is with an exception. The good judge said that existing law doesn't regulate non-point sources--the sort of thing we are seeing now with the Rock Creek situation. That's a mistake as readers of this blog now know from reading the articles Elizabeth posted.

Now when a judge makes a mistake like this, it is incumbent on the parties to ask him to fix it. The parties didn't do this. If the judge refuses to fix it (we don't know if he would have) then the parties need to take this to appeal. For reasons I don't understand, the parties (meaning industry) haven't done this either.

Normally, an initiative that is the same as existing law can't appear on the ballot. But in the case of Water 3, it seems likely that it will. If it passes or if it doesn't, at the end of this all we will be left scratching our heads and wondering 'what was this all about.'

June 3, 2008 - 8:49am | NoBob

Why vote on an initiative that is the same as existing law?

Once again, I am going to reply to my own post and explain what this is all about. This is about one man's hubris. This is about an attempt to strong-arm the mining industry into repudiating Pebble so that it could be killed in the legislature.

A year ago December Bob Gillam sent Jay Ramras to a miners meeting in Fairbanks to deliver the message 'repudiate Pebble or I will destroy the industry with initiatives.' The industry didn't do what Gillam wanted, so the initiatives were filed. The AG and Lt. Governor rejected the first two and basically maneuvered Gillam's lawyers into a position where they proposed something that was the same as existing law. One could say that Gillam was outmaneuvered. But his desire to have something on the ballot got the better of him.

Now I might think that industry should have been able to put a stake in the heart of this thing--and perhaps they will yet--but I'm not sure if it matters. Gillam's efforts appear to have been neutered. And Alaskans have been jerked around by a bunch of thuggish nonsense.

June 2, 2008 - 11:01am | ThorZone

Payroll

I am not on the payroll of any mining company. I work for a small locally owned company that is not in the mining business or any other resource development business.

My interest in all of this is creating a sustainable economy here. The envorinmentalists and various government groups are doing their best to make Alaska a place where there are few jobs and no easy way to earn a living here. They have been doing that for years. I am simply trying to do my best to resist those efforts.

June 3, 2008 - 7:38am | whataboutmyjob

What About My Job Thor Zone?

ThorZone- You say you are trying to protect my job but what will you do when the largest source of sockeye salmon are killed and I am not able to support my family by fishing anymore.

June 5, 2008 - 10:00pm | njalo99

get a grip

even if the Worst that could happen....did.... It would effect 1/10 of the slamon in Bristol Bay...check the Facts....

June 5, 2008 - 11:17pm | alaskaman15

I'm concerned about this attitude, Bristol Bay run is

Expendable. It would be far more than 1/10th though, the Kvichak and Nushagak system...

June 5, 2008 - 10:18pm | demorgan33

Hey fact checker, you get a grip

1/10 of the fish in Bristol Bay is still 4-5 million sockeye. That is 3-4 million more fish than were affected by the shutdown of the entire west coast of America this spring. So let's not minimalize the possible effects here. As an example, the legendary Copper River is forecast to harvest 750,000 reds this summer. I wont bore you with the math, but you can see that there is a lot more at risk here than a few fish from one tiny stream.

June 6, 2008 - 9:42pm | njalo99

I'll have to check

but do believe the N.West coast screwed themselves.....not sure about the rest tho-

June 7, 2008 - 6:46am | demorgan33

I was simply comparing

the numbers of Bristol Bay to a few other salmon fisheries, to respond to your "it's only 1/10th of the fish at risk" statement. But I'm glad you made the point about the West Coast states screwing themselves, you are absolutely right, they did. And the biggest cotributer to these runs failures, Activities upstream. People messed with their spawning beds, put in dams, eroded banks until there is almost nothing remaining of those runs. We can learn from this lesson, or continue to repeat the same mistakes here.

June 7, 2008 - 7:14am | NoBob

You're wrong on NW salmon

The decline has been across the board on developed and undeveloped rivers--dammed and undammed. Honest experts will tell you that ocean conditions are the big killer. Too warm. Next is probably hatcheries. They seriously limited genetic diversity. Sure, dams and development have had an impact. Sometimes it seems there are just too many vested interests out there for anyone to tell the truth. Fishermen and their hatcheries, environmentalists who put winning above the environment, Bob Gillam and his lodge, and the developers too. Too bad.

June 13, 2008 - 2:30pm | Sockeyemark

Haa... It's the Old Honest Experts

Everyone knows the answers and no one takes the blame.
I can assure you this, if Bristol Bay is left alone it will continue to feed the world.
If not; then what has happened on the west Coast and East coast for that matter WILL eventually happen to Bristol Bay.
We'll soon find out what path we choose come August.

June 7, 2008 - 11:22am | alaskaman15

Your wrong No BOb , it was the lodge owners and fishermen

they'll ruin all the fishing that's left in Alaska. But those no net loss mines, bring them on they'll actually enhance the area of Bristol bay.
Down with clean water, screw the salmon.

June 7, 2008 - 8:39am | PuckFebble

Thats debatable

Hi there, I hope your day is going well....
While it appears ocean conditions is the most likely set of factors in the latest non-harvest season, I will give you that. But every biologist I have talked to, when speaking about the great PAC NW salmon runs, talk about a gradual decline, over decades, due largely to river conditions. As Demorgan mentioned.
Water quality is often the focus in this whole pebble campaign, but I hear often bios talking about how important water quantity is. When it comes to salmon stocks, versus industrialization, the salmon have shown to be the loser every time.

2 May 30, 2008 - 6:50am | minewatcher

The Devil is in the Details

I read the Forbes profile on Carroll, and the piece is extremely laudatory of her efforts to increase worker safety in Anglo mines - as well it should be. But the piece simply fails to go deep enough into the details surrounding Anglo's Pebble Mine scheme, only discussing the plan in terms of it being one of Carroll's expansion projects. Let's hope Forbes will follow up with another article actually getting to the meat of the issue and the potential downside that this Pebble expansion project carries with it.

May 30, 2008 - 9:32am | ThorZone

No Mine Plan

The reason they did that is because there is no mine plan yet. They haven't even found the edges of the ore body. Can't come up with much of a mine plan until you know what you will be mining.

Forbes unlike many media outlets will not speculate on something like this.

May 30, 2008 - 9:44pm | PuckFebble

Mine plans...

I hear this fairly often. While they have not released any actual blue print mine plans, they have made little secret, especially before they came under heavy fire about pit mining. But there is little question that Pebble East will likely be a tunnel system, and Pebble west(the one they havent found the ore body edge yet apparently) will be a pit mine. There is no other way they can make it economical for the low quality of ore spread over such a large area. That much we know for sure.

1 May 29, 2008 - 11:48pm | Sockeyemark

If your a highly paid miner, you won't be for long

220 yearly mining deaths! Discovery Channel has a new opportunity here....THE DEADLIEST MINER!! Filmed right in Pebble mine!! So that's how they’re going to make there money, ah the so called PLAN is coming together now!!

May 30, 2008 - 9:56pm | njalo99

get Real

Now Anglo used to own the Greens Creek Mine, via Rio Tinto, on Admiralty Island here in S.e Ak, Our Safety Records speak for themselves, and Rio's commitment to them was at the start an inconvienence, The group here at GC have made great strides in recruiting, training and keeping valuable employees. The miner's I have worked with and still work with are some of the most highly trained in the world!...period! Everything from medical EMT training, Fire Training with the JFD..(juneau fire dept), Mine rescue and surface operations are better than Most mine's in the World, and we take great pride in that, so, Please Sock keep your comments to something you know something about, obviously it isn't Mining in Alaska.

May 30, 2008 - 9:25pm | NoBob

You have a point here

I have worked in a mine and visited many mines of all types. This is hard work often under really tough conditions. Sometimes it's almost like being on another planet--underground dependent on life support systems from afar. That being the case, I never cease to be amazed at the safety record of US mining. That is a feat. We should be appreciative of the people and companies who do this work. We need these metals and you can't grow them in a pond or net pen like you can fish. And the safety record is way better than the "Deadliest Catch" or even mere lowly paid gill netters.

May 30, 2008 - 10:12am | asrcp9

Question

Aren't a majority of those mining deaths outside of America where the safety regulations are near to non-existant?

May 30, 2008 - 10:40am | PuckFebble

To a point...

Hi there,
Firstly, of course those deaths come from operating outside of America, Anglo has never operated a mine(or at least currently isnt) in America. They have made thier billions on the backs of workers in mostly Africa and South America(specifically Colombia). Whose mines, by design and operation are considerably more dangerous.
Now the regulations in those countries is lax no question, what that article fails to mention is the other countries where there are also safety and human rights issues. Villagers protesting the forced relocation of thier communities, the closed access to historic grazing lands, and those protesters being shot in some cases. This is not from decades past, but from this century.

It would be interesting to hear Mrs. Carrols answers about her partnerships with Rio Tinto plc, including Pebble. Rio Tinto has been named as a company that supported apartied in S Africa.
Or why the families of those killed in the AA mining incidents are often left without thier soul breadwinner and then get a measly payment for thier lost loved ones, only to live the rest of thier lives in further poverty.
So, sure we all applaud her efforts of "going beyond compliance" she claims to want about Pebble. But in reality, under her leadership, the policies of old have continued. The single paid day for safety training in her African mines is great, what it doesnt mention is that it came when her employees threatened a walkout. It didnt happen simply because she thought it was the right thing to do. She and Anglo American have shown time and time again that profits and production trump, safety, human rights, and enviromental concerns.

May 30, 2008 - 4:36pm | jcn7vc

Anglo Operations in America

AngloGold Ashanti currently operates the Cripple Creek and Victor Mine near Colorado Springs, CO.

May 30, 2008 - 9:41pm | PuckFebble

Appreciate it

Thanks for the info, I always thought that one was GCGC. Ashanti does manage it. Looks like I need to do some research into that one. Interesting to note though, that Colorago is in the process of strengthening thier mining regulation, and guess what? The industry is also claiming a shutdown there. Just like they have each and everytime new regulations are proposed. Amazing how they have managed to continue operations under the current laws anywhere. According to the miners, they would have been shut down dozens of times over the last few decades.

May 31, 2008 - 8:32am | jcn7vc

Proof?

Do you have any proof of that? I constantly read the Colorado news and subscribe to Mining Engineering magazine and haven't heard anything hinting at it. Even my family sends me anything in the papers that have to do with metal mining in Colorado. None of them have said anything.

May 31, 2008 - 5:25pm | PuckFebble

Here ya go...

http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page68?oid=44678&sn=Detail

This was publishes in January 2008. Youll probably notice the common theme here.
From the article

"Colorado lawmakers have introduced state legislation that would give communities the right to control what kinds of mining operators they would allow.

The Colorado Mining Association (CMA) warned that, in its current form, "The bill would ban many technologies essential to modern mining operations without enhancing environmental protections."

CMA was particularly critical of a provision in the bill that bypasses state regulatory authority to give local governments veto power over operations and technologies. Association President Stuart Sanderson said, "We believe that decisions on matters of statewide interest such as development of minerals should remain in the hands of technical exports with solid expertise and funding, rather than scattered throughout the various levels of local government."

Sanderson told Colorado news media that, "This is an effort, in our view, to curtail mining in Colorado." He added that the measure would "balkanize" regulation of the mining industry and discourage investment in Colorado mining.

House Bill 1165, introduced by Assemblymen Randy Fischer and John Kefalas, both Democrats representing Larimer County and Ft. Collins, would increase both the size of and the regulatory authority of Colorado's Mined Land Reclamation Board. It also aims to protect surface landowners rights through "maintaining local control over mining activities."

Fischer told the Coloradoan newspaper, ‘We're on the verge of another mining boom. As a result (lawmakers) have a responsibility to take action to protect public health, private property and our scarce groundwater supplies that are (seeing) new risks posed by modern mining technologies. We are obligated to enact new 21st Century laws to meet the risks to meet the risks posed by 21st Century mining."

House Bill 1165 requires the Mined Land Reclamation board to specifically examine health and environmental risks during the permitting process, and mandates that the board protects public health, safety and welfare including protection of the environment and wildlife resources.

The measure also addresses the regulation of in situ leach mining in a state which hosts numerous uranium mining and milling operations.

The same legislators also introduced House Bill 1161, which more fully expands the regulatory authority of the Mined Land Reclamation Board over in-situ mining operations, including protection of groundwater and public health.

Sanderson also suggested that the legislation may be an end-run around a current Supreme Court case concerning Summit County's ban on cyanide heap-gold mining.

In a news release, Sanderson criticized the failure of the bill's sponsors to seek significant input from the mining industry and other impacted parties in developing the legislation. "

May 31, 2008 - 6:01pm | jcn7vc

Thanks

I hadn't come across that article, but it is very interesting. I won't desicrate this blog by starting a discussion on this article, but I found it interesting that the bill would enable cities and counties to control whether the mine gets a permit, essentially letting the locals decide whether they want the mine and its jobs and such. It also is pretty biased against metal mines, in that it excludes mines that produce materials for construction. Why not protect against all mines?

June 2, 2008 - 1:12am | PuckFebble

Its novel...

For sure. I think the increase of local influence being the most interesting idea. The west side of Bristol Bay, and specifically the Nushagak communities including Dillingham would be best off to form a borough. But that is another issue for another time.
As for being biased, I think one needs to consider the scale, impact, economics and risk of an individual mine or at least the type of mining that exists for the target resource.
A gravel pit and the pebble pit will be two very different things.

May 30, 2008 - 9:33am | ThorZone

Get real

How many have died so far at Pebble?

The answer is ZERO people have died.

Sockeye...you gotta come back to reality.

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