I am writing to correct the public record about misleading and inaccurate information regarding Seabridge Gold’s KSM Project presented in the UPRIVERS documentary currently being screened in Alaska and British Columbia.
Seabridge Gold has also requested the producers and funders of the documentary to retract their misrepresentations. The documentary’s suggestion that a failure at KSM would destroy the Unuk River and the way of life in Ketchikan is an extreme exaggeration and scare mongering. The potential impacts to Alaskan waters were carefully evaluated during both the provincial and federal government environmental assessment reviews.
In her final decision, the Canadian Minister of the Environment relied on an independent Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency scientific report which stated, “that no significant adverse impacts on water quality, water quantity, fish, or human health are expected on the Alaskan side of the Unuk River.” The documentary also falsely states Alaskans were not consulted during the mine review process. Seabridge Gold, the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office, and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency both worked extensively with US Federal and Alaskan State Agencies during the environmental review process.
Both the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency concluded Seabridge Gold conducted significant, meaningful engagement with all concerned parties, including Alaskans. The Alaskan regulators concurred by stating: “The participating US federal and state agencies did not identify any outstanding transboundary concerns with the environmental assessment.”
I caution people to be wary of the information presented in the UPRIVERS documentary as it is a politically motivated attempt to discredit mining in British Columbia and contains both misleading, biased and blatantly inaccurate information about the KSM Project. Factual information is available at www.ksmproject.com or by calling our Smithers office at 250-847-4704.
• Brent Murphy is vice president of Environmental Affairs at Seabridge Gold, which is Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario with a project office in Smithers, British Columbia.
