Stop the Pebble Mine, Save Bristol Bay
What's At Stake
One of the earth’s most pristine ecosystems is being threatened by a proposed open-pit mega-mine.
The Pebble Mine—proposed at the headwaters of the planet’s greatest wild salmon fishery in Bristol Bay, Alaska—threatens the communities and ecosystems that depend on the bay’s abundant wildlife. It’s also a terrible investment, pitting an eternal supply of food against an eternal supply of poison.
The Bristol Bay watershed is one of America’s last great wild places, home to bears, eagles, and wolves. It provides half the world’s wild sockeye salmon, supports 15,000 jobs, and generates $2.2 billion in economic activity every year. But if this gold and copper mine gets built, it will poison the bay’s headwaters with up to 10 billion tons of mining waste that will have to be stored—forever—in a wet and seismically active region.
In support of the tribal and fishing communities of the region, NRDC has been urging the Biden administration to affirm that the Pebble Mine has no place in Alaska’s Bristol Bay by vetoing the project. A global consensus of support for action by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from Indigenous communities, the fishing industry, and other businesses is growing, and major investors—including Mitsubishi, First Quantum Minerals, Anglo American, and Rio Tinto, some of the world’s largest mining companies—have already abandoned this destructive scheme.
For millennia, Alaska’s Bristol Bay has sustained us all. It’s an ecological treasure, and it deserves our protection. Lasting protection for Bristol Bay is achievable through an EPA veto in 2022—and we are determined to secure it.
Tell the EPA to stop the Pebble Mine and protect Bristol Bay
Reporting, expert commentary, analysis, and more.
The permit denial didn’t achieve the permanent protection that, for more than a decade, the region and its people have demanded and deserve.
The Army Corps found that the proposed gold and copper mine would cause “unavoidable adverse impacts to aquatic resources” in Alaska’s pristine Bristol Bay watershed that has sustained Indigenous subsistence cultures for thousands of years.
This is an environmental justice issue for our people. If our land and water are devastated, our people are devastated. The Army Corps is not listening . . . [and the company is] dismissive of our people’s concerns.
Pebble Mine CEO Tom Collier's contract entitles him to a $12.5 million bonus if an Army Corps permit can be obtained on schedule.
Morgan Stanley reports over 99 percent reduction in shares of Northern Dynasty Minerals, sole owner of widely condemned Bristol Bay mining scheme.
After all these years, the Pebble Mine is still crazy, and the opposition will never relent.
The Army Corps is now blatantly ignoring a clear and bipartisan directive from Congress to address data gaps and deficiencies in the Pebble Mine environmental impact statement.
Canadian owner of widely condemned Bristol Bay mine desperately seeks new partner with a few billion to spare. Financial, social, and environmental indifference required.
The Army Corps of Engineers' environmental impact statement is rushed and—at best—superficial.
The fate of the Pebble Mine may be the most consequential land use decision in North America today, pitting an essentially eternal supply of food against an essentially eternal supply of poison.
The percentage drop in the share price of Northern Dynasty, the Canadian owner of the reckless Bristol Bay mining scheme
The number of petitions urging First Quantum not to invest in the Pebble Mine
The percentage of government members of the IUCN who supported protection of the world’s greatest wild salmon fishery in Bristol Bay from large-scale mining
Opposition to the Pebble Mine within the Bristol Bay region
Number of wild fish in Bristoy Bay’s salmon runs annually
Number of public comments opposing the Pebble Mine
Acres of wetlands and other waters at risk if the Pebble Mine is built
The percentage of votes in every Alaska precinct in favor of the "Bristol Bay Forever" initiative