Pebble Mine Tapes Uncover Plans to Build Massive 180-Year Mine at the Headwaters of Bristol Bay in AlaskaPosted & Edited By MARY KAUFFMAN
September 27, 2020
According to the EIA the tapes also reveal Pebble’s apparent plans to use the infrastructure included in its mine plan to open up other expansive swathes of western Alaska to mining, including through the activation of the Donlin Mine, a project that already has federal permits and could become economically viable overnight if the Pebble project is approved. Topics were discussed between EIA investigators and Pebble on a number of other topics in the tapes including the Alaska Governor, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Northern Corridor, Alaska senators, Alaska politics, corporate structure, water treatment, Trump Administration and EPA veto. Following the release of the tapes, Pebble Limited Partnership CEO Tom Collier resigned.
Tim Bristol, SalmonState executive director said, “Tom Collier is only leaving the Pebble Partnership because he got caught. Deception, dishonesty, greed and hubris are in the DNA of this company and at the heart of its existence. Pebble lies. We have always known this and now, thanks to these tapes, the rest of world knows it as well. Tom Collier was not the source of this corruption — he is indicative of it. In the wake of this week’s events, it’s imperative our leaders call for a halt to the Army Corps planning process, which was exposed as broken almost beyond belief.” Tom Collier, the CEO of Pebble Limited Partnership, and Ronald Thiessen, the president and CEO of Northern Dynasty, of which Pebble is a wholly-owned subsidiary, spoke with EIA investigators during August and September after the investigators expressed interest in investment opportunities related to the Pebble project. Their conversations, which were recorded, contain multiple statements by Collier and Thiessen that contradict, or in some instances color, previous public statements by company executives as well as assertions in official company materials that Pebble is intended to be only a small 20-year mine, as described in the Clean Water Act permit application for the project. Statements made by Collier in the recordings also call into question the Congressional testimony he submitted on behalf of Pebble regarding the company’s plans for expansion. In October 2019, Collier submitted written testimony to the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and the Environment stating that, “Pebble has planned a smaller, smarter mine” and that it has “no current plans, in its application or in any other way, for expansion.” The proposal from Pebble considered in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is for an operations phase for the mine that would last for 20 years with a daily process rate of 180,000 tons. The EIA recordings capture a different version of Pebble’s plans indicating that the company envisions a project with a 180-200 year mine life, and with expansion after the first 20 years, including an expected increase in daily production rates to between 220,000 and 320,000 tons. EIA Executive Director Alexander von Bismarck said, “These tapes show that potential investors are given an entirely different vision for this massive mine than the government and the public. We think that is important information to release. The public, and especially the people of Alaska, should know about the scope of a project with permanent impacts on one of the most pristine ecosystems on Earth.” When asked by investigators if growth of the mine past the scale currently applied for would be “unstoppable,” Thiessen simply said “Yes.” Then he explained further: “Once you have something like this in production why would you want to stop? And even, at the end of the day its footprint is so tiny. If we mined the whole valley it’s 25 square miles.” In another conversation, Thiessen asked, “Who’s gonna stop a mine that has 180— at a 160,000 metric tons per day, the first deposit that we’ve discovered at Pebble – and there will be more – but the first one lasts 180 years.” In response to a question from EIA about expansion after the first 20 years Collier characterized the likelihood of expansion as almost 100%. He also explained how the recently-approved “northern corridor route” facilitates expansion, stating: “And so now we’re going to be building a northern corridor. We’ll have a slurry pipeline as part of it so the concentrate will go down to the coast by pipeline. And it makes a lot of things easier for us. It makes expansion much easier.” Pebble also told EIA that it plans to submit an application for expansion after the permit now being considered by the Army Corps of Engineers, is approved. Thiessen confirmed, “during that twenty years, you’re gonna make the application to continue for another twenty.” Similarly, Thiessen shared with EIA its interest in developing additional mines in the area saying, “Now Pebble itself has…425 square miles of mineral claims, and so there could be more mines on the Pebble lands over time…We have other sites that we’ve drilled into and we have ore-grade mineralization in other areas in that 425 square miles but we don’t talk about it too much because right now we want people to focus on only Pebble…” Pebble also confirmed its interest in using the infrastructure that will be put in place as part of the Pebble project to facilitate activation of the Donlin mine. According to Thiessen, the Donlin mine is economically unviable unless it can use the roads and pipelines that will be built by Pebble to export its ore. Thiessen explained, “There is another project that’s 175 miles north of Pebble. It’s called the Donlin Project… …there is a lot of logic to us joining forces to make a single corridor.” Collier also weighed in stating, “if you flip the Pebble switch on, it’s likely that you may be also flipping on the Donlin switch.” “While the public is told this is a 20-year project, investors are told it will go for up to 200 years. While the public is told it will be 5 square miles, investors are told that it could spread over the entire valley and literally pave the way for other mines, hundreds of miles away,” said von Bismarck. The Pebble Tapes cover discussions between EIA investigators and Pebble on a number of other topics including: the Alaska Governor, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Northern Corridor, Alaska senators, Alaska politics, corporate structure, water treatment, Trump Administration and EPA veto. Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay said in a news release that Alaska’s fishermen are disgusted by the recordings released that confirm long suspected collusion between Alaska’s state leadership and the Pebble Limited Partnership as well as a federal permitting process wholly corrupted by Pebble’s lobbying influence. “[The] curtain was finally pulled back on all our suspicions about Pebble’s undue influence in the permitting process,” said Katherine Carscallen, Executive Director of Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay. “These recordings have Pebble executives not just confirming the corruption we’ve always suspected, but literally bragging about how they’ve worked behind the scenes with Alaska’s leadership and government agencies to design a process that serves their company. If our Senators hope to restore any public trust in this process, now is the time.” “We are shocked at the depth and breadth of Pebble’s deception,” said Rachel James, Bristol Bay campaign coordinator for SalmonState. “From their manipulation of the Alaska governor’s office, to the truth of their plan for a massive 200-year mine, to cozy relationships with the Army Corps and EPA political appointees, it’s clear they will stop at nothing in their plans to build a toxic mega-mine at the headwaters of the greatest sockeye salmon run left on the planet.” In the recordings, Pebble Limited Partnership CEO Tom Collier and Northern Dynasty President and CEO Ron Thiessen discuss their relationships with Alaska Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy, and Trump Administration political appointees. The tapes make clear that Thiessen and Collier do not expect Alaska’s senators to take a meaningful stand against Pebble, that they see the senators as supportive of the mine, and that every day the senators remain silent about the need for an EPA veto of the project under the Clean Water Act, or other meaningful action, is a boon for the Pebble Partnership and its actual plan to build a massive mining district at the headwaters of Alaska’s greatest salmon resource. Of Senator Dan Sullivan, Collier says: “He's off in a corner being quiet.” Ron Thiessen adds that the senators’ silence is “perfect for permitting.” Of Senator Lisa Murkowski, Collier says: “When she’s asked a question she says things that don’t sound supportive of Pebble – but when it comes time to vote, when it comes time to do something, she never does anything to hurt Pebble, okay? Never.... When it really mattered, she didn’t do anything.” “We will continue to dig into these videos and the revelations they contain over the coming days,” James said. “For now, one thing is clear: The Pebble Partnership is counting on Senator Lisa Murkowski and Senator Dan Sullivan’s continued silence about Pebble’s lies to Alaskans, and on the senators doing nothing to stop the corruption outlined in these shocking tapes. It is time for Alaska’s senators to stand with the people of Bristol Bay and the majority of Alaskans in calling for an EPA veto to this toxic, deceitful project.” However, Sullivan tweeted after the release of the tapes, "Given the lies of Pebble’s leadership, the record needs to be set straight." He tweeted clarifying, "Let me be even more clear; I oppose Pebble Mine. No Pebble Mine." In August, both Senators Murkowski and Sullivan praised the Corps' decision that the Pebble Mine did not meet the high standards required and both came down publicly against the mine more than ever before. (Army finds Pebble Mine project cannot be permitted as proposed - August 26, 2020) From Bristol Bay Dillingham fisherman and tribal leader Robin Samuelson stated, “When outside money and outside interests make bigger than life promises you know it’s gotta be more crooked than a dog’s hind leg. Whether it is the headwaters of Bristol Bay or the Kuskokwim we will never give up. Our people, our lands and future generations come first.” One of the tapes, entitled “Donlin,” includes discussions about tying together transportation and power infrastructure for the Donlin and Pebble Mine projects and creating a massive mining district spanning the Bristol Bay and Yukon-Kuskokwim drainages. Legal experts noted that the information connecting Donlin to Pebble would also require a Supplemental Environmental Impact statement and other new analysis. Tom Waldo, Senior Counsel for Earthjustice who represents Tribes fighting the Donlin mine said, “If Donlin is going to use Pebble infrastructure, that’s a different project with different impacts to different communities. It will require new permitting by the Army Corps and State of Alaska agencies.”
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