Alaska delegation to visit Mount Polley disaster site, meet company, First Nations – The Province
VICTORIA – Alaska’s lieutenant-governor will make an extraordinary visit to the British Columbia mine at the centre of an environmental disaster in an effort to ensure his state won’t be damaged by a similar catastrophe.
Alaskans have been voicing concerns about B.C.’s plans to expand mining in the province’s north, saying B.C.’s upstream mines could harm the valuable salmon rivers that flow into Alaska.
Lt.-Gov. Byron Mallott will visit the Mount Polley mine next week, the site where a tailings dam at the gold and copper mine in central B.C. collapsed last summer spilling millions of cubic metres of mine waste into area waterways.
Mallott will also meet with officials in B.C.’s ministries of energy and mines, environment and aboriginal relations during a stop in Victoria.
