Dancing with the Devil

Across Lake Iliamna from fair Kokhanok is the bustling community of Newhalen. I went there along with most of the staff on invitation by the Pebble Mine Project. For those of you who don't know, just north of Newhalen sits the largest gold, copper and molydrum deposit in North America. The Pebble Mine Project is eager to open it up. As you can imagine, there is fierce opposition to the project by natives, sportsfishermen, commercial fishermen and the like. Not only are they proposing an open pit mine but a road to a harbor across from Homer. From there, the ore will be shipped to Communist China for processing.

The invite was an all expense paid trip over to Newhalen, lunch, a powerpoint (led curiously by their enviromental manager who worked for Exxon during ... you guessed it, the Valdez incident) and a helicopter trip to the mine site.

The tour and from talking to the people involved with the project makes this job now seem as though I am witnessing the cusp of a great change that will happen.

Obviously one picture is of me and fellow passenger, a core drill site and the actual site.