The Chilkat Valley Mining Forum Committee approved a geologist, a socio-community specialist and a Sealaska board member to present at its Feb. 24 forum, focusing on “community impacts and solutions.”

The mining forum is a nine-member group aimed at providing information about mining. Members are: Chilkoot Indian Association, Constantine Metal Resources, Haines Borough, Haines Chamber of Commerce, Haines Gillnetters Association, Haines Minerals Association, Haines Miners Association, Haines Sportsman’s Association, Takshanuk Watershed Council and the Palmer Family.

Geologist Lance Miller, vice president of natural resources from Alaska Native corporation NANA, Shena Shaw, community specialist from Canadian environmental group Hemmera, and Jodi Mitchell from Sealaska and Tlingit and Haida energy group, will present at next month’s conference.

This year marks the committee’s third forum, an annual event aimed at providing community members information and discussion on mining.

Miller has worked in mineral resources for more than 30 years in North America, Asia, Africa and Russia, according to his online bio. The company he works for, regional Native cooperation NANA owns the site of Red Dog Mine, the country’s largest zinc mine.

Shaw has experience working with “large-scale petroleum and mining projects” as well as First Nations and communities, her website reads. According to committee chair Liz Cornejo, vice president of external affairs for Constantine Metal Resources, Shaw has worked as a contractor for Constantine in the past, and “may again in the future.” Shaw worked with Kluane First Nation to develop sustainable natural resource development in the band’s land in the Yukon Territory.

Mitchell worked 20 years for Inside Passage Electric Cooperative (IPEC), a Southeast Alaska electric utility company. She is also vice chair of the Sealaska board.

The mining forum committee considered about 20 speakers, but whittled down the list based on availability and a majority 70 percent vote, Cornejo said.

Last week, Takshanuk Watershed Council (TWC) board president and committee member Ben Kirkpatrick proposed the group re-consider a fourth speaker the group previously vetoed, economist Gregg Erickson, but the motion was denied by three of nine committee organizations.

Erickson is a former director of research for the Alaska Legislature, where he helped draft legislation to establish the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend. He worked as an economist for former Alaska Gov. Bill Sheffield and worked on oil spill impact mitigation and restoration in Alaska.

Erickson said that he’s objective when it comes to looking at mining impacts, and that “people have to judge for themselves what kind of examples are more relevant for them.”

Kirkpatrick said this forum is a perfect opportunity to include Erickson. “Gregg’s background as an economist fits perfectly with our topics.”

Erickson will also be in Haines during the conference, as TWC received a Western Mining Action Network grant in December to bring him to Haines from Oregon, to discuss the experiences other small communities had with industrial mining. He will present at the Chilkat Center on Feb. 25, the day after the forum.

Haynes Tormey, who represented the Haines Sportsman’s Association in their vote against a fourth speaker, said that their negative vote had nothing to do with Erickson’s qualifications.

“There was no ill will,” Tormey said, “We like to stick to the procedures. (Erickson) wasn’t part of the initial roundup, and then at the 11th hour, he was thrown in,” he said. “Rather than work through all the challenges, it was easier to just say, ‘No, not this forum, maybe the next.’”

Kirkpatrick said the vote against Erickson was disappointing, and supports some community member’s beliefs that the mining committee favors the industry.

“I personally want to hear what Lance Miller, a mining geologist who worked for Red Dog, has to say,” Kirkpatrick said. “That’s why it’s disappointing that people didn’t feel that way about Erickson.”

After the mining committee’s first forum in 2017, two member groups dropped out: Lynn Canal Conservation (LCC) and Chilkat Indian Village.

The committee has a history of being pro-mining, according to LCC board president Eric Holle. “We only had two (of eight) speakers who were critical of the mine,” Holle said of the 2017 conference. LCC’s committee representative Cary Weishahn and Chilkat Indian Village’s president Kimberly Strong both quit the mining committee a day apart in January 2018, according to Holle.

Cornejo said that the purpose of the group is not to select speakers with a point of view, but with information to help make informed decisions. “If there are critics that think the speakers are biased, we would invite that feedback and it will help us create better forums.”

“I personally wouldn’t call any of those speakers pro-mining speakers, that’s just too simplistic,” she said. “It’s more complex than I think sometimes people can portray.”

Constantine Metal Resources has been exploring at the Palmer Project site 30 miles north of Haines since 2006 for minerals including zinc, copper, silver and gold.

Cornejo estimates that Constantine has found about 14 million tonnes of minerals. Currently, the project is still in exploration. Constantine is developing an economic viability report, the first of three steps in economic studies, Cornejo said.

Author