Two entities organized two mining forums this week that focused on community impacts and solutions from industrial mining—a split that largely reflected the perspectives and concerns about a potential mine at the Palmer Project 30 miles north of Haines.
The Chilkat Valley Mining Forum Committee organized Sunday’s forum at the American Legion. Lynn Canal Conservation and Chilkat Indian Village dropped out of the committee after its first forum in 2017. Critics said the committee is composed of pro-mining interests that compromises its ability to carry out its stated goal of increasing “awareness and education on mining topics, risks, benefits and solutions.”
Takshanuk Watershed Council, a member of the forum committee, withdrew its support for Sunday’s forum after the committee voted against including economist and environmental consultant Gregg Erickson. Takshanuk used grant money to host Erickson for Monday’s event.
On Sunday Lance Miller, natural resources vice president, for the native corporation NANA opened his presentation by highlighting the importance of employment and income on health. He made a connection between mining jobs and decreased cancer rates. Miller displayed slides showing low cancer and cancer mortality rates in the Northwest Arctic Borough where the Red Dog mine operates. He provided data from 1980 to 2014 that shows an increase in Northwest Alaskans’ life expectancy.
“It’s interesting, Red Dog came along in the mid to late 80s,” Miller said.
He linked the mine’s presence with expanded education, employment and access to health care.
Miller provided a counter example to criticism that mining is a short-term gain for communities, citing the industry’s 140-year history in Juneau. The mining industry is the largest property tax payer in Juneau. “Deposits, once you’re in a mineralized area, these areas last for a long time,” Miller said.
He highlighted Red Dog’s $235 million payment in lieu of taxes to the Northwest Arctic Borough. He said the average 25-year-old in the borough is more likely to have a high school degree, earn more money and receive services paid for through Red Dog’s payments to the borough since the mine began operating.
The second speaker, Jodi Mitchell, did not discuss mining, but spoke about impacts on Hoonah after a privately-owned tourism company, Icy Strait Point, created a tourist destination near the village. Mitchell is the chief executive officer of Inside Passage Electric Cooperative. Her presentation included unattributed responses to questions she posed to an unknown number of village residents about the company’s perceived impact on Hoonah.
Shena Shaw, a Canadian environmental consultant, gave an overview of how a socio-economic impact assessment would benefit a town. She said such studies paint a picture of how a potential mine would affect the day-to-day activity of a community and considers both the positive and negative effects and how to mitigate the harmful effects.
“All I’m trying to do is create the space where it’s all out there so people can kind of evaluate and weigh out if there is a net benefit here, because you’re never going to get rid of all the bad things. That’s kind of impossible.”
Canadian law requires the proponent of a mining project to pay for such a socio-economic study. In Alaska, no such law exists, but Miller said mining companies have paid for such studies.
Although none of the speakers provided concrete information about Haines, Shaw provided a list of general positive and negative outcomes in mining communities that include: employment and contract opportunities, an expanded tax base and other revenues to municipalities, seed funding for projects, housing shortages, cost of living increases and loss of land.
Erickson, an economist who worked in Alaska state government and now runs his own consulting company, said at Monday’s event in the Chilkat Center lobby that the majority of mining communities experience negative economic outcomes from industrial mining.
His argument was based on a peer-reviewed “meta-study” that analyzed 300 quantitative findings on mining in published and technical literature from the United States.
Erickson said some communities such as Juneau and Fairbanks, cities that spring boarded from mining, benefit from the industry because their economy is already diverse and its loss would be felt less. Because mining is impermanent, when companies leave rural communities, the loss is felt harder, Erickson said. He also said while mining output has increased, automation has resulted in an overall decrease in jobs.
Erickson said because land at the Palmer Project is owned by the state and federal government, Haines will have little influence on a project although the borough could potentially negotiate a payment in lieu of taxes or create a severance tax.
Forum committee member Mike Mackowiak asked Erickson what kind of economy would be ideal for Haines that didn’t have a downturn. Erickson said that a larger, diversified economy is ideal where the ups in one industry coincide with the downs of another. He repeated that when a mine leaves a community like Haines, its residents will feel its economic loss.
“At some point they’re going to wake up one day without that industry and it’s going to change their community again in a very dramatic way,” Erickson said. “Mining in a community the size of Haines, I think you can say without any fear of contradiction, it’s going to change the community significantly.”
Ron Jackson attended both forums. He said Erickson’s presentation was a good counterpoint to Sunday’s forum. He said he would have liked to hear multiple viewpoints at one event. “If they had dropped the Hoonah (speaker) yesterday and put in this one, that would have been quite a package I think,” Jackson told the CVN Monday night after the presentation.
Forum committee co-chair and Constantine vice president of community relations Liz Cornejo said she was happy to see high turnout at both events. Participants filled out comment cards and Cornejo said she received both positive and negative feedback. She said some said they wished the information had been more in-depth and specific. She said others didn’t attend because they felt it would be biased.
“I felt that there was a variety of information,” Cornejo said when asked if she felt Sunday’s forum was one-sided. “There are more perspectives that could have been included. It wasn’t intended to cover all perspectives on the topic. Gregg Erickson’s talk on Monday provided an additional perspective. There was benefit in having an additional perspective.”
The Chilkat Mining Forum Committee is represented by the Haines Sportsmen’s Association (Haynes Tormey), Haines Chamber of Commerce (Tracey Harmon), Haines Borough (Jan Hill), Chilkoot Indian Association (Luke Williams), Constantine Mining (Liz Cornejo), Takshanuk Watershed Council (Ben Kirkpatrick), Palmer Family (Jessie Badger), Northern Southeast Gillnetters and Alaska Miners Association (Ryan Cook).