The Blog 

Statement for Anglo American Shareholder Meeting
My name is Verner Wilson III, I am Yupik Eskimo and Finnish, and I am here on behalf of Nunamta Aulukestai – an association of eight Alaska native village corporations in Bristol Bay Alaska. A delegation of Bristol Bay community leaders, who were scheduled to attend this meeting, were unable to be here due to the volcano.
Like most people in Bristol Bay, I am a commercial, sports and subsistence fisherman, and my families and ancestors have depended on the great salmon fisheries of Bristol Bay for thousands of years to put food on the table and for commercial income. I am here in response to Anglo American’s proposal to develop a copper and gold mine – the Pebble Mine - at the headwaters of Bristol Bay.
We have the world’s last great wild salmon fishery. It produces roughly 50% of the world’s commercial supply of wild sockeye salmon, generates approximately $400 million in revenue a year, and provides the vast majority of jobs in the region. The UK is the largest importer of Bristol Bay tinned salmon.
We know what it takes to protect a sustainable salmon fishery. And, we know that large-scale industrialization is simply incompatible with maintaining healthy wild salmon habitat. This is not about whether development of the mine can be done right. The headwaters of the world’s most valuable sockeye salmon fishery is simply the wrong place for large scale metal mining. For this reason, the Pebble mine is overwhelmingly opposed by the people of the region.
I have a stack of supporting documents here that demonstrate that eighty percent of Bristol Bay residents are opposed to this project. The threat to Bristol Bay has also generated a firestorm of support from the rest of the U.S., and I am here to deliver 100,000 signatures of opposition from across the nation.
Last year a delegation of Alaskans met with CEO Cynthia Carroll, and she made a commitment that Anglo American would not develop the proposed mine if the local communities do not support it. They do not. My question to you today is whether you intend to honor that commitment and withdraw from this project? Will you recognize and honor the results of an independent survey of Bristol Bay residents for that purpose?

Our very own “deep throat,” just alerted us that there will be a pro-Pebble press conference tomorrow in Anchorage immediately following the press conference scheduled by the Alaska Native, business and political leaders who had planned to go to Anglo American’s shareholder’s meeting in London. Rumor has it that Pebble Limited Partnership is backing the press conference and some of the local spokespeople are on PLP’s payroll. (PLP being Anglo American plc. and Northern Dynasty Minerals partnership.)

Anglo American, the multi-national mining company funding exploration and development of the Pebble Prospect just north west of Lake Iliamna, and upstream from my home in Bristol Bay, is holding their shareholder meeting in London, on April 22, 2010. Absent from this meeting are the true shareholders of this project, the residents of Bristol Bay, save one representative, Verner Wilson.
So why aren’t more of us at that meeting, why wouldn’t we want a say in the investment of a development project at the top of our watershed? Trust me, a larger group tried. Shares in Anglo American were bought a year in advance, plane tickets and hotel arrangements made months ago. Many meetings were arranged, most importantly with Cynthia Carol, the CEO of Anglo American, to ask her to live up to her promise and halt efforts to develop Pebble Mine, because we, the People of Bristol Bay do not want this risk, left in our watershed forever.

Living where we do however, we are all too familiar with the unpredictable nature of volcanic eruptions interfering with commercial airline travel and we know that even the best laid plans can fail. In the past year, eruptions from one of our local volcanoes, Mount Redoubt, sent clouds of ash to heights of 65,000 feet disrupted commercial airline traffic to/from the Bristol Bay region and Anchorage International Airport for days.

Mount Augustine, another recently active volcano in Cook Inlet, sits less than 20 miles south of one of the critical aspects of Pebble Mine’s transportation infrastructure, a proposed deep-water port site. Earthquakes are yet another reminder of the unpredictable nature of our region. The 134-mile Lake Clark fault is the area’s largest active fault line, and appears to come within 10 miles of the proposed Pebble Mine site.

So the message Verner will still be delivering to Anglo American’s shareholders and CEO, is not one made in haste or ignorance. Our decision to oppose development of the Pebble prospect, is instead made out of educated experience. I am not opposed to a gamble – if you bet me a week ago that my friends wouldn’t stand up in that shareholder’s meeting and speak their piece in front of a delegation of Anglo American’s largest shareholders, I would have taken that bet in an instant. (who knew there was a volcano rumbling between us and them at the time)
However we do know the risks associated with developing a large scale sulfide ore body in a wet and seismically active area, at the top a watershed sustaining our homes, and the best remaining sockeye and king runs in the world. I don’t doubt that Anglo American and their partners would not attempt a project that they don’t think they could complete, after all it’s their money that’s being gambled– unfortunately it’s our lives, and with those stakes, we can’t afford to let Anglo American, or anyone, roll the dice.
Katherine Carscallen