The developer of what it promises to be one of the largest open pit projects on the continent wants more time from Canadian regulators while it seeks partners to develop its B.C. metals mine about 30 miles from the border.

The Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell mine received regulatory approval in 2014 on the condition that it break ground within five years. It’s already received a five-year extension but now the company says it may need until 2026 to find a development partner.

The gold, silver, copper and molybdenum mine has been compared to Bristol Bay’s Pebble Mine in its scale, wealth and potential environmental risk to Alaska’s communities and fisheries downstream.

Its mine waste would be held in a massive tailings pond — created by a dam more than 780 feet high — taller than the Hoover Dam about 80 miles from Wrangell.

But Frederick Olsen, Jr of the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission says another extension would mean the mine’s environmental assessment would be 12 years old by the time the developer actually got started. 

“Their (environmental assessment) was already outdated because as everybody on earth knows, they were approved before Mount Polley happened,” Olsen said. “You know, when people got a wake up call on that design flaw, a catastrophic, devastating flaw in that type of design.”

He’s referring to the Mount Polley Mine disaster in 2014. That mine’s tailings dam failed, allowing millions of tons of mine waste to spill into B.C. rivers and streams.

Officials in Alaska have been keeping tabs on B.C.’s booming mining sector in transboundary watersheds. 

“I meet at least monthly with B.C. officials, but sometimes more frequently depending on specific effort we are collaborating on at the moment,” Kyle Moselle of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources said in a brief statement. He says his office was notified by B.C. officials and the Toronto-based developer of the proposed extension.

Representatives of Seabridge Gold did not return messages left for comment.

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A tribal group held a rally on the Stikine River over the weekend to advocate for stronger oversight of transboundary mining. The event marks five years since the Mount Polley Mine disaster in British Columbia in 2014.

About 30 people gathered at a sandy beach up the Stikine River about 15 miles north of Wrangell Island. They held signs saying protect the Unuk, Taku and Stikine — three transboundary rivers that flow from B.C. to Southeast Alaska.  

Native women led this event, and their message was clear: Ingenious folks are the original stewards of this land. So they deserve a seat at regulatory discussions on mining near these rivers.

“That’s why I rattled and sang all the way up here, praying to give me help from our ancestors to stand up and fight,” said Sue Stevens, a Tlingit woman from the Naanya.aayí Clan. “We are not going to let the mines claim this river.”

Sunday August 4^th marked exactly five years since the Mount Polley Mine disaster in British Columbia. The mine’s tailing dam breached, sending millions of gallons of mining waste into the Cariboo River and other waters. Operations at the mine halted earlier this year; owner Imperial metals cited low copper prices for its shuttering.

The five-year anniversary was also the final deadline for Canada’s federal government to penalize Imperial Metals under the Fisheries Act. 

B.C.’s provincial government had earlier declined to prosecute under its own environmental and mining laws.

There are fears that a Mount Polley-like disaster could devastate Southeast Alaska’s ecology — including its salmon fisheries.

Tis Peterman is the Wrangell rep for the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission. She recently met with members of the International Joint Commission – a U.S.-Canadian treaty organization that helps settle transboundary disputes over waterways.

“They don’t have the legal means to do any regulations,” Peterman said. “But it’s mainly they can bring the issue to a table, and we’ve been asking for that since 2014.”

Peterman says this was the group’s first meeting with the IJC. She says the meeting lasted two hours.

“At times it got pretty passionate, but they said ‘we’re just here to learn’,” she said.

Peterman says her group wrote to the governor asking for a tribal representative at the bilateral meeting in Ottawa this October. She’s received no response.

Peterman says her group is continuing to engage tribal governments across the border and in other Northwest states to tackle the issue collectively.

The Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission represents 15 tribes in the region. Reps from the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium and Southeast Alaska Environmental Council were also at the rally.

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