Key figure in Alaska mine project resigns

Minerals firm cites fallout from ‘embellished’ comments about ties with officials

JUNEAU, Alaska — The man helping lead efforts to develop a copper and gold mine near the headwaters of a major salmon fishery in Alaska has resigned after the release of recorded comments in which he “embellished” relationships with elected and regulatory officials, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. said Wednesday.

Tom Collier served as chief executive officer for the Pebble Limited Partnership, which is owned by Canadabased Northern Dynasty and is seeking a key federal permit for the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region, which supports the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery. Collier’s resignation is effective immediately, Pebble spokesperson Mike Heatwole said by email.

The resignation letter was not released. Heatwole called it “a private matter between employer and employee.”

Collier and Ron Thiessen, Northern Dynasty’s president and CEO, were shown in recorded conversations released this week by a Washington, D.C.-based group called the Environmental Investigation Agency. The recordings were made by individuals the group called “investigators” who had “expressed interest in investment opportunities related to the Pebble project.”

Thiessen, in a release Wednesday, slammed the group’s tactics as unethical. But he said it doesn’t excuse the comments that were made. He apologized “to all those who were hurt or offended, and all Alaskans.”

Collier in the tapes suggested support from the state for the project and described himself and Gov. Mike Dunleavy as “pretty good friends.” He also suggested Alaska’s two U.S. senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, were “embarrassed” by statements they made raising concerns about the project and were now “in a corner being quiet.”

Murkowski, in a statement, said she did not misunderstand an announcement by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in August that said discharges at the mine site would cause “unavoidable adverse impacts to aquatic resources” and laid out levels of mitigation that would be required.

Murkowski and Sullivan released statements the day of the August announcement that said the Corps had determined the project could not be permitted as currently proposed and they agreed with that position.

Ron Thiessen, in a release Wednesday, slammed the group’s tactics as unethical. But he said it doesn’t excuse the comments that were made. He apologized “to all those who were hurt or offended, and all Alaskans.”