Fast Tracking of Permitting for the Donlin Gold Mine Further Erodes Trust Among Yukon-Kuskokwim Tribes

On Monday, the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (Permitting Council) added the Donlin Gold project to its list of projects covered by FAST-41 permitting. FAST-41 is a government program that certain projects can apply for in order to receive expedited environmental reviews and permitting.

Six Southwest Alaska tribes filed a legal challenge to the mine’s federal permits in federal court — and won a victory on a key claim. That victory requires the two main federal agencies responsible for permitting the Donlin mine to supplement the project’s environmental and subsistence studies to examine the risks of a much larger tailings spill at the mine.

Fast-tracking this project through this process risks harming the public and Tribes who must live with the consequences of the mine, including a potential catastrophic tailings spill.

FAST-41 is a voluntary federal permitting process available only to certain projects who apply for it and are eligible. Mining is not an appropriate industry to be covered under Title 41 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act. Mining has more harmful impacts than any of the other covered sectors and produces vast quantities of waste, including toxic waste, that must be managed in perpetuity.

Following are statements from our clients and from Earthjustice attorneys:

“This move does nothing to earn our trust; to the contrary it further erodes it,” said Orutsararmiut Traditional Native Council President Gage Hoffman. “We won on one of our key legal challenges in federal court, and as a result, the mine’s permitting agencies must supplement the project’s environmental study to examine the risks of a much larger tailings spill at the mine. With that should come a thoughtful, transparent, and deliberate process — not the speeding of up of permitting for a project that has dire consequences for our region.”

“Earthjustice has long objected to adding mining as a covered industry under this statute that was designed for transportation projects,” said Earthjustice attorney Maile Tavepholjalern. “We don’t think this expedited permitting is appropriate for any mining projects, period. The consequences for communities that could be harmed by mining projects are too important. Our clients who oppose the Donlin mine won a victory in federal court last year requiring federal agencies to more thoroughly and accurately scrutinize the consequences of a tailing dam failure. What our clients deserve is a more careful review and sufficient time and opportunity to comment on the new analyses that must be done. Fast tracking of the permitting that could potentially including limiting public comment is harmful to our clients.”

Background

The Donlin Gold Mine project, if built, would reportedly be the largest pure gold mine in the world. The company is expected to extract 556 million tons of ore to produce about 30 million ounces of gold over the 27-year life of the mine — and would generate 2.5 billion tons of waste rock, some of which would generate acid drainage. It’s possible the project could be even larger; Donlin is currently working on a feasibility study for the project and has indicated that the actual scope could be even larger than originally planned and studied in the 2018 environmental impact statement.