June 09, 2018
Saturday AM

I am writing to correct the public record about misleading and inaccurate information regarding Seabridge Gold’s KSM Project presented in the UPRIVERS documentary currently being screened in Alaska and British Columbia. Seabridge Gold has also requested the producers and funders of the documentary to retract their misrepresentations.

The documentary’s suggestion that a failure at KSM would destroy the Unuk River and the way of life in Ketchikan is an extreme exaggeration and scare mongering.

The potential impacts to Alaskan waters were carefully evaluated during both the provincial and federal government environmental assessment reviews. In her final decision, the Canadian Minister of the Environment relied on an independent Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency scientific report which stated, “that no significant adverse impacts on water quality, water quantity, fish, or human health are expected on the Alaskan side of the Unuk River.”

The documentary also falsely states Alaskans were not consulted during the mine review process. Seabridge Gold, the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office, and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency both worked extensively with US Federal and Alaskan State Agencies during the environmental review process. Both the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency concluded Seabridge Gold conducted significant, meaningful engagement with all concerned parties, including Alaskans. The Alaskan regulators concurred by stating: “The participating US federal and state agencies did not identify any outstanding transboundary concerns with the environmental assessment.”

I caution people to be wary of the information presented in the UPRIVERS documentary as it is a politically motivated attempt to discredit mining in British Columbia and contains both misleading, biased and blatantly inaccurate information about the KSM Project.

Factual information is available at www.ksmproject.com or by calling our Smithers office at 250-847-4704.

Yours truly,

Brent Murphy, M.Sc., P.Geo.
Vice President, Environmental Affairs Seabridge Gold
Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada

About:

Editor's Note: Among other locations, the “Uprivers” documentary exploring the transboundary watershed impacts of British Columbia mines was presented at the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center in Ketchikan on March 23, 2018. The documentary examines the "threats posed to sustainable fisheries and ecosystems in transboundary river systems such as the Unuk, and follows Alaskan and Canadian activists as they work to create an international consensus for protecting wild rivers."

The text of this letter was NOT edited by the SitNews Editor.

Received June 06, 2018 - Published June 09, 2018

Related Viewpoint:

Viewpoints - Opinion Letters:

Webmail Your Opinion Letter to the Editor

 

SitNews ©2018
Stories In The News
Ketchikan, Alaska

Articles & photographs that appear in SitNews may be protected by copyright and may not be reprinted without written permission from and payment of any required fees to the proper sources. E-mail your news & photos to editor@sitnews.us Photographers choosing to submit photographs for publication to SitNews are in doing so granting their permission for publication and for archiving. SitNews does not sell photographs. All requests for purchasing a photograph will be emailed to the photographer.