Mining Industry Needs Lots of Cash to Buy Your Vote

This is the home stretch, the 4th quarter, the championship round, and the well monied mining interests are pulling out all the stops. Don't lem them buy your vote!

The mining industry is throwing some serious cash at Ballot Measure 4 - trying desperately to secure its defeat. Newsminer.com reports that,

On the other side, it’s clear where the money is coming from — the mining industry.

On Tuesday, the Council of Alaska Producers, the group that includes the major mining companies operating in Alaska, gave $300,000 to Alaskans Against the Mining Shutdown. The mining companies followed that up Wednesday by transferring $350,000.

Alaskans Against the Mining Shutdown is almost entirely funded by major mining companies, with the Pebble Partnership leading the way.

What Say Your Governor Palin?

I caught an interesting piece yesterday on MineWatch.org entitled, “Ed Fogels and the DNR in the Mining Industry’s Pocket,” in which MineWatch pulled back the curtain on the pro Pebble bias which is apparently running rampant throughout the Alaskan Department of Natural Resources – a state governmental agency which, by rights, should at least be making an attempt an objectivity given the current circumstances. Read the MineWatch piece and visit the agency’s website to see how transparent these DNR phonies are. After reading the blog, I got to wondering about the improper ties which exist between not only the Department of Natural resources and mining industry, but throughout Alaskan Government.

In steps our Governor, Sarah Palin, the woman who recently had an investigation opened against her to evaluate ethics violations. It’s not lost on me (nor should it be lost on any other Alaskan) that the Department of Natural Resources is part of the Executive branch – controlled by the Palin administration. So, in essence, the Governor’s office is helping to push out this pro Pebble tripe. Could it be that the DNR and the peons who run it are just marionettes being manipulated by a much larger puppeteer? What say you Puppet Master Palin? What does your administration make of this situation?

Anglo Pollutes the Waters of Ghana

The recently published report, “Anglo American: Rhetoric or Reality” the author, Phil Mattera, details the dirty deeds of Anglo American in Ghana and pollution of local water sources. According to Mattera,

A mine in Ghana operated by AngloGold Ashanti – an Anglo American subsidiary until 2006 and an associated company for a year after that – has repeatedly spilled waste water and tailings into neighboring communities in recent years. Scientists have found that streams in the vicinity of the mine are significantly polluted be metals.

“You wake up one day and you realize your farm is destroyed,” said Assemblyman Benjamin Anna, a local politician. “They say they will compensate but it takes one or two years. So people are complled to go to illegal mining. The way our
ancestors did.”

Anglo company reports also apparently chronicle many other spills between 2004-2006 during which mine waste water and other tailings were spilled, thus affecting homes and communities along Ghana’s Nyam River. Next on Anglo’s hit parade…the Pebble Mine. Alaskans beware.

Blog Post

Today on the Alaskan Political blog Mudflats.com, the author has penned a great article dealing with Pebble and Ballot Measure #4. He writes,

The fates have delivered me the opportunity to actually utilize my semester’s worth of time, and calculator batteries, to vote a confident YES on Proposition 4.

If you need any further convincing:

The proposed Pebble Mine site is located at the headwaters that flow into the Nushagak River, Lake Iliamna, and Bristol Bay (home of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery). You don’t need to be an expert to understand that contaminants, like the water they are in, tend to flow downstream. Oh, yes…and the mine’s giant earthen dam holding all those contaminants in, is also located on a fault line.

According to the EPA, mining has contaminated the headwaters of 40% of watersheds in the Western United States. FORTY percent. Are you willing to risk the Nushagak River, Lake Iliamna and Bristol Bay on those odds? Not me.

What about other similar hard rock mines? Well, a recent study of 25 modern hard rock mines showed that 76% exceeded water quality standards. SEVENTY SIX PERCENT. This is not a pretty picture.

To read the full article CLICK HERE.