I noted with interest that Liz Cornejo is now working directly for DOWA Metals & Mining in Haines. It’s probably good the offshore smelting giant has installed someone to represent them locally, but it’s also good to remember that in these mining projects, personnel come and go. It’s environmental impacts that stick around.
At SEACC, we’re dealing with an acid-generating waste rock pile at the Niblack Project on Prince of Wales Island that the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has allowed to stay uncovered since 2008 — following the request of a previous owner group when Niblack exploration went into “temporary” closure. There the acid-generating cycle has started and heavy metals-laden toxic effluent is now pouring into Moira Sound.
Darwin Green (ex-vice president of exploration at Palmer Project) and Cornejo had a hand in Niblack and in what was supposed to be a temporary and covered waste rock dump. But again, personnel come and go. Green and Liz Cornejo moved on to other employment.
In the 1990s, Phil Hocker from the Mineral Policy Center told a group of Alaskans fighting Echo Bay Mines’ A-J Mine project that a verbal promise isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. Well, sometimes the written promises, like Green and Niblack’s promise to first cover and then stick back underground the waste rock pile that Cornejo was involved in, get reneged on as well.
Some good news, though: Mining companies also come and go. You won’t find Echo Bay Mines listed on any stock exchange today.
Aaron Brakel, Juneau