Alaskan groups sue to halt CdA Mines project

JUNEAU, Alaska – Alaska conservation groups filed suit in federal court Monday in an effort to halt construction of a controversial gold mine proposed by Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp.

The suit alleges that two federal agencies erred when they issued permits for the Kensington Mine, located about 45 miles north of Juneau on the Tongass National Forest. More than 4 million tons of mine tailings would be pumped into alpine lake that supports runs of salmon and cutthroat trout, the suit said.

“There are other options for mine waste disposal for the Kensington Mine,” said Russell Heath, executive director for the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, one of three organizations, including the Sierra Club, that filed the suit. In an earlier application, the company had proposed land-based disposal of the tailings, Heath noted.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Forest Service are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Disposing of the tailings in the lake was part of a cost-cutting plan for Coeur d’Alene Mines. The plan will allow the Kensington Mine to break even – on a cash flow basis – at gold prices of $300 per ounces, company officials said this summer.

Kurt Russell, Coeur’s vice president of environmental resources, described the tailing’s mineral content as similar to surrounding rock during a July interview. After the mine is closed, the lake will be restocked with fish, he said.

Conservation groups said the mine’s permit sets a bad precedent. “It’s the first time since the passage of the Clean Water Act that a mine will dump its chemically-processed waste directly into a fresh water lake,” said Bonne Gestring, a Montana spokeswoman for an environmental group called Earthworks.