Fifty jewellers with billions of pounds in sales and stores around the world have pledged to boycott Anglo American’s planned Pebble project in Alaska, saying they will not use gold from the proposed mine as it threatens Bristol Bay, the world’s most important fishing ground for wild sockeye salmon.
Rio Tinto is a minority shareholder in Northern DynastyMinerals, also involved in the project.
See http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/protest-at-anglos-alaskan-quest-2123518.html.
Tiffany & Co joins jewellers boycotting Alaskan gold mine
Jewellery retailers across the UK and US with combined sales of more than £3.5 billion have pledged to reject any gold from an Anglo American mine that threatens Alaska’s wild salmon industry.
Anglo American and its Canadian partner Northern Dynasty Minerals plan to excavate a gold and copper mine at the headwaters of Alaska’s Bristol Bay, which will involve an open pit with infrastructure stretching over 30 square miles and an 86 mile long access road.
Local campaigners say the mine will destroy one of the most valuable wild sockeye salmon runs on earth and generate up to 10 billion tonnes of contaminated mine waste. The tailings lakes (made up of waste rubble and fluids) alone would bury two valleys.
See http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/nov/03/mining-gold.
Tiffany & Co Hop in the Salmon Stream, Opposing Alaska’s Pebble Mine
Tiffany & Co joins Ben Bridge Jeweler, Helzberg Diamonds, and Alaskan fisherman in support of Bristol Bay Pledge against Pebble gold mine
See http://www.energydigital.com/sectors/mining-and-aggregates/tiffany-co-hop-salmon-stream-opposing-alaska-s-pebble-mine.