In recent months, Constantine revised language on its website with regard to the Palmer Project’s road access—an issue raised in a securities complaint filed in August by environmental groups. Blurbs on trading news websites also show new language about road access to the exploratory mine site 40 miles northwest of Haines.
Constantine CEO and president Garfield MacVeigh told the CVN that the true nature of road access to the Palmer Project was already clear to its shareholders, as disclosed in the company’s 2019 preliminary economic assessment (PEA).
The August securities complaint, submitted by Lynn Canal Conservation (LCC), Rivers Without Borders and Alaska Clean Water Advocacy to Canadian authorities, alleged that Constantine misled investors about readiness to export ore at Haines’ port and paved road access to the Palmer Project.
A paragraph on Constantine’s website about the Palmer Project formerly said, “This project is fully accessible by paved road with services such as gas stations, rest stops and restaurants.”
Now, that paragraph states, “Nearby logging roads and a paved Alaska State Highway provide access to the year round deep-sea port of Haines.”
The company’s descriptions on numerous investment news sites similarly have changed. A blurb on Stockhouse.com, for example, read that the Palmer Project “is fully accessible by paved road” but now says it “is located in a road accessible part of coastal southeast Alaska.”
“That’s a serious omission, when you say ‘I have a paved road from A to B,’ and you know you don’t. You’re lying,” said Alaska Clean Water Advocacy project manager Gershon Cohen. “The reason that I would argue it’s material (to investors) is that it’s going to cost millions and millions of dollars to make that statement true.”
In a memo to the CVN, MacVeigh confirmed that TSX Venture Exchange requested that Constantine “change a reference from logging road to ‘gravel’ logging road” and that “the changes we made to the language are consistent with the information we have disclosed in our 2019 PEA . We have always made it abundantly clear to our stakeholders that while there is paved road access to and from the Palmer project, a portion of the access is by gravel road.”
A 2019 Constantine press release about the company’s PEA stated that between Haines and the Palmer Project are “22 km of gravel road and 50 km of paved highway.”
MacVeigh did not say whether the TSX Venture Exchange mentioned the company’s description of the project as “fully accessible by paved road” or if the exchange requested any other revisions to its public statements, such as ones cited in the securities complaint as allegedly mischaracterizing Haines’ ability to export ore. Other than the revised language about road access, no observable changes were made on Constantine’s website or in public descriptions of the Palmer Project.
Constantine released its summer field work results last month. MacVeigh said drilling was challenged by a shortage of drill crews and that crews completed drilling that provides hydrological and geotechnical information for future underground exploration planning and permitting.
“Holes were drilled near and down gradient from the South Wall zone to provide information on the water table and amount of water and water quality. Several of these holes will serve as longer term monitoring wells,” he said. “The assay (mineral) results reported in the news release are in the deepest portion of the South Wall Zone and highlight good copper and zinc grades in an area of wider spaced previous drilling.”
The company also drilled holes to be used as monitoring wells that are located downgradient and down valley from the proposed land application discharge (LAD) area that will monitor variations in the water table, water quality and water movement, MacVeigh said.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) remanded the LAD permit in 2019 pending groundwater connectivity studies. Results from those studies are pending.