Serious concerns about updated plans for transboundary Taku River gold mine
New Polaris would require hundreds of barge trips up a tricky, shifting glacial river and an airstrip built alongside flood-prone wetlands vital to wild salmon. A comment period for this proposed Canadian mine is underway until Dec. 12.
JUNEAU, ALASKA—Salmon Beyond Borders expresses surprise and concern about a Canadian company’s updated plans to develop the New Polaris Gold Mine Project in the transboundary Taku river system, which flows into the ocean just south of Alaska’s capital city. In documents Canagold Resources Ltd. has submitted to the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office, the company proposes to construct a mile-long airstrip adjacent to one of the most ecologically important wetlands in the Taku watershed, and make over 100 barge trips from Juneau up the tricky, shifting Taku River during the two-year mine construction phase. Additionally, the waste rock generated from gold extraction at New Polaris will likely contain high levels of contaminants like arsenic and antimony, which pose a risk to water quality. Canagold has neither described how they will address this risk nor discussed what long-term water treatment will be required.
“Canagold’s New Polaris gold mine proposal includes a failure-prone barging plan, construction in essential fish habitat, and a nearby mine that’s been polluting the Taku for almost 70 years, while Alaskans have no real voice in the mine planning process,” said Salmon Beyond Borders Director Breanna Walker. “Anyone familiar with the Taku knows it’s a shallow, dynamic river system that quickly changes and isn’t easy to navigate. Canagold’s plans are high risk, and an accident would damage some of the best wild salmon spawning habitat in the world.”
“From a young age, I heard my elders and mentors describe Flannigan Slough as one of the Taku’s greatest treasures,” said Salmon Beyond Borders advisor Heather Hardcastle, who grew up commercial fishing with her family in Taku Inlet. “I’m really concerned about Canagold’s latest plan to build a mile-long airstrip alongside this vast, intact wetland that has long sustained wild salmon, moose, and people. It’s hard to see how the New Polaris Gold Mine Project is in the best interest of all who are tied to the Taku.”
Flannigan Slough is located at the confluence of the Taku and Tulsequah Rivers. New Polaris is almost within sight of the abandoned Tulsequah Chief Mine, which has been contaminating shared waters for almost 70 years. Canada and British Columbia have so far both failed to clean up the mine and to hold the mine’s historical owner, Teck Metals, liable for cleanup and maintenance costs. Notably, the New Polaris mine will target exclusively gold, and over 90% of gold mined today becomes jewelry or gold bars. Any remaining industrial need can easily be met through gold recycling.
Additionally, Canadian mine permitting processes deny Tribes and Alaskans a way to protect our interests from upriver B.C. mine pollution, and co-steward shared rivers. Tribes and thousands of Alaskans downstream of Canada’s modern-day gold rush have long called for binding international watershed protections, developed by Indigenous peoples and local communities under the U.S.-Canada Boundary Waters Treaty. Virtually every Southeast Alaska municipality and Alaska’s Congressional delegation have also repeatedly issued this call.
Salmon Beyond Borders supports the agreements between the Taku River Tlingit First Nation and B.C., and between the nation and Canagold. Yet, without the involvement and consent of Indigenous nations and communities downstream in Alaska, the provincial Environmental Assessment process leaves gaping holes in the evaluation of a potential Canadian mine in a transboundary watershed that affects multiple jurisdictions and requires transportation across U.S. waterways.
A few updated specifics from Canagold Resources Ltd.’s “Detailed Project Description” of the New Polaris Gold Mine Project:
Canagold’s plans to build a mile-long airstrip in the riparian area alongside Flannigan Slough, the Taku watershed’s largest wetland and critically important habitat for salmon, moose, swans, geese, and other wildlife.
Some of the waste rock at New Polaris may produce localized acidic conditions and generate arsenic and antimony. These contaminants pose significant threats to water quality and could require ongoing water treatment. Canagold has neither described how they will address this risk nor what long-term water treatment will be required.
Canagold no longer plans to use cyanide to extract gold from ore on site. Instead, they will fly in supplies and fly out over 30,000 tons per year of gold-sulfide concentrate from the mine site, requiring either a significant amount of plane traffic or, if that’s economically unfeasible, a shift in their plans to an increase in barging.
Canagold proposes to build a Transfer Barge Facility and anchor it in Taku Inlet, in the middle of an economically important Southeast Alaska salmon gillnet fishery.
Canagold also plans to build a barge loading dock near the confluence of the Tulsequah and Taku Rivers.
Canagold anticipates needing to run 100-120 barge trips through Alaska waters and up and down the Taku River during the two-year New Polaris construction phase. Canagold also plans around 10 barge trips per year once the mine is operating.
Canagold proposes to use ATR 72 twin-engine turbo prop cargo aircrafts to fly in supplies to New Polaris and fly out gold concentrate. Given the payload of these planes and the estimated total weight of the freight each year, Canagold proposes close to 4,000 plane flights between Juneau and New Polaris annually.
The comment period for the Process Planning phase of the British Columbia Environmental Assessment of the New Polaris Gold Mine Project closes on Dec. 12, 2024.
Background:
The T’aakū (Taku), Shtax’héen (Stikine), Jóonax (Unuk), and Salmon watersheds, which flow from the glaciated boreal forests of northern British Columbia into the temperate rainforest of Southeast Alaska, total about 35,000 square miles of some of the last remaining healthy wild salmon habitat left on Earth. Together, these iconic rivers and their watersheds are roughly about the size of Maine. The Taku is the largest roadless watershed on the West Coast of North America; the Stikine is the fastest free-flowing river in North America. These rivers are home to all five species of wild Alaska salmon, brown bears, moose, Dolly Varden, hooligan, steelhead, and many other species significant for cultural and economic well-being. These rivers have nourished, and have been stewarded by, Indigenous peoples since time immemorial and are modern-day centers of culture and commerce. Today, the Taku, Stikine, and Unuk Rivers account for nearly $50 million in economic activity annually in Alaska and are integral to the overall regional $1 billion annual salmon fishing industry and $1 billion annual visitor industry.
Three large-scale B.C. gold-copper mines with tailings dams currently operate in the region, and more than 100 B.C. mine projects are in some phase of exploration, proposal, or development here. Over 80% of B.C. mine claims in these river valleys are within 3.1 miles (5 km) of a river or stream; 18% of B.C. mine claims are currently covered by glaciers; and as glaciers melt, researchers predict that much of these glaciated areas will become new salmon habitat–if not dug up for gold first.
B.C. has close to a $0.5 billion Canadian shortfall of funds for the cleanup of mines post-closure, and does not analyze the potential cumulative effects of multiple mines. At the same time, B.C. has permitted 20% of these transboundary watersheds to be staked with mineral claims, including almost 90% of the B.C. side of the Unuk watershed and virtually all lands adjacent to the Iskut River, the Stikine River’s largest tributary.