2. Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. (NAK) is continuing to get flak about the development of its Pebble Mine gold project in Alaska. AP reported earlier today that Earthworks, a Washington D.C.-based environmental group, is paying between $10,000 and $20,000 to place ads in the January, February and March issues of National Jeweler, an industry newspaper, designed to "educate" jewelers about the Pebble Mine project in the Bristol Bay watershed, home to the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world. The ads will ask jewelers to make a pledge at the Web site http://www.protectbristolbay.org. The pledge is as follows:
"1. We pledge not to source gold from the proposed Pebble Mine or any other major mines proposed in the Bristol Bay Watershed; and
2. In recognition of the importance of conserving this region, we support permanent protection from large-scale hardrock mining on public lands in the Bristol Bay Watershed."
I checked on the pledge web site but could not find whether any companies had signed the pledge. One link that was kind of interesting, at least from the environmental standpoint, leads to an interesting article arguing that junior exploration companies are less environmentally responsible than the majors because they have less of a history and less money. It's an interesting argument.
3 comments:
I read the article that you linked on junior exploration companies with a great deal of interest. I thought that it must have been quite dated, as it repeatedly referred to the Vancouver Stock Exchange which has been operating as the TSX Venture exchange for some time now, but saw that one of the footnotes referenced a 2004 source, so it can't be that old.
While there is some truth to several of the slams against junior companies, I believe it is incredibly unfair to paint the entire sector with such a broad brush in garish and nauseating colors. I'm not going to get into a point by point analysis of the article, but I did want to state that I think there are quite a few exaggerations and inaccuracies in there which make it more of an attack piece than one intended to inform or enlighten.
I think the practices described in the article are much more characteristic of the industry 10-20 years ago than today. Communities in which resources are located are much more proactive than in the past and junior companies that do not serve the local community may have problems operating succesfully over any appreciable length of time.
Here is an example of a junior exploration company that has received official recognition for their operating practices:
"Candente employs over 1,100 people on a rotational basis from 20 different communities during drilling programs. In addition to employing the locals, Candente contributes to self-sustaining social needs such as medical facilities and supplies for schools. Protection of the environment starts with monitoring water in local creeks and rivers as soon as exploration starts and replacing soil and replanting trees after every drilling program. Candente also holds meetings in the surrounding towns and villages where independent professionals explain to the community about exploration and mining activities and how they can watch for contamination problems."
http://www.candente.com/s/CorporateExcellencyTrophy.asp
SlowLane: Thanks for your input. I've had some probelsm with my computer so it's been ahrd to update here. Anyway, I basically agree with you. I thought the article was quite biased and I didn't put it up as an example of my beliefs.
Nevertheless, I thought it raised a couple of good points--how big of a priority can the environment be when you have limited funds.
Whenever I review a Gold company's annual report, there is always a significant section dedicated to environment and social responsibility. But it is hard to really know what is going on for sure and some of the claims made by the companies would probably be hard to verify.
Anyway, it's a good to be aware of the issues and for that reason I put the article up. Happy New Year to you. I hope 2007 brings much prosperity.~
Titan
Good words.
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