Anglo American CEO To Meet With Alaska Group Over Pebble Project

A delegation of Alaska Native leaders and the director of a large commercial fishing fleet are due to meet with Anglo American PLC (AAUKY, AAL.LN) Chief Executive Cynthia Carroll and Chairman John Parker Wednesday to voice their concerns about the construction of a large Alaskan gold and copper mine.

The delegation wants to voice their concern that the mine may destroy an important spawning habitat for wild sockeye salmon and harm communities around Bristol Bay that depend on fishing.

"We've come to London to let Anglo American's leadership and shareholders know that the Pebble Project is a dead end," said Kimberly Williams, executive director of Nunamta Aulukestai, an association of nine village corporations, the regional corporation and Tribes representing more than half of the Alaska Native People of Bristol Bay.

"This project will jeopardize the fishery that supplies 50% of the world's commercial supply of sockeye salmon," said Bob Waldrop, director of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, which represents approximately 2,000 commercial fishermen.

"The fishermen are putting their full weight against this project," he added.

The move by the native group comes just before Anglo American's annual general meeting, which will take place Thursday.

Anglo American said it was premature to make judgements about the project since it is still in exploration phase and no mine plan has been developed.

"We do believe that Pebble can be developed in a way that protects the fishery and the onus is on Pebble to prove that and to convince Alaskans," James Wyatt-Tilby, a spokesman for Anglo American said in an emailed statement.

The Pebble project, which is located in southwestern Alaska, is one of the world's largest undeveloped gold and copper deposits. It is jointly owned in equal measure by Anglo American and Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. (NAK, NDM.T).

Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto PLC (RIO, RIO.LN) owns a 19.8% stake in Northern Dynasty. Mitsubishi Corp. (MSBHY, 8058.TO), another prominent shareholder in the project, sold out of its 11% stake in Northern Dynasty recently.

The project is still in its pre-feasbility study, but some options include an open-pit mine and possibly an underground mine that could potentially produce 350,000 tons of copper annually and a significant amount of gold and molybdenum byproducts.

Anglo American has so far invested about $350 million in the project and said it would commit $1.4 billion to take the project through various stages of development, but only if a mine could be designed in accordance with Alaska's stringent environmental standards and to the benefit of the local community.

Nearly 30 investment organizations representing more than GBP105 billion in assets have sent an open letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, urging it to exercise its authority to safeguard Bristol Bay.

More than 50 jewelers representing GBP3.5 billion in annual sales have also signed a "No Pebble" pledge to abstain buying gold sourced from the mine.

The delegation arriving in London is concerned that an open-pit mine would generate up to nine billion tons of toxic mine waste, which would be disposed of on-site and require constant water treatment.

"We of course recognize the range of concerns that exist and we encourage all interested parties to participate and to make informed decisions based on the facts and reality, not scaremongering," Wyatt-Tilby said.

Pebble's Alaskan management team is talking to local people day in, day out he noted. "[W]e are being as open and transparent as possible, making our environmental baseline studies available for independent scientific scrutiny, for example."

Anglo American CEO Carroll also traveled to Iliamna and Anchorage, Alaska, in March, where she held town-hall meetings and met with local officials, businesspeople and native leaders, to listen to a whole spectrum of opinion.

Wyatt-Tilby said concerns that a potential failure at Pebble could wipe out the Bristol Bay fishery were misplaced, since the large majority of the Bristol Bay salmon fishery actually derives from the six river systems that are hydrologically disconnected from Pebble, he noted.

The project is expected to complete its pre-feasbility phase study in 2012.

-By Alex MacDonald, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]