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Alaska Native Communities Are Standing up to a Gold Mine

One of the world’s largest river deltas is now threatened by a massive open-pit gold mine.

As many as 58 Alaska Native Tribes live in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, relying on its salmon and other natural resources to sustain their families, cultures, ways of life and future generations. The proposed Donlin Mine project would imperil this essential ecosystem by generating a permanent lake of contaminated water in the open pit, a tailings dam containing 500 million tons of toxic mine waste, and a mountain of 2.5 billion tons of waste rock producing acid drainage, among other hazards.

Represented by Earthjustice, six Tribes are challenging the mining plan. With our team of dedicated environmental lawyers, we fight to protect invaluable places like Southwest Alaska from industry greed.

A map showing the location of Crooked Creek, a salmon spawning stream that flows into the Kuskokwim is where a vast open pit mine is slated be.

(© Mapbox / © OpenStreetMap)

Ten small boats on the bank of the river, with no people
Fishing skiffs tied up on the riverbank along the Kuskokwim River in the village of Akiachak, Alaska. (Design Pics Inc / Alamy)