Biden Moves to Bar Mining Waste in Alaska, Blocking Gold Mine

Bloomberg via Yahoo | December 1, 2022 | By Jennifer A. Dlouhy

[PIF]

I lived it - Fished AK for 10 years and other places for 20 more. The run off from chemical gold mining operations is deadly, and no matter what, chemical gold mining ponds (arsenic) always find a way into the water table, and to the rivers where the salmon spawn, and then to the sea - killing every thing it its wake.

You likely never farmed, ranched, logged, or fished so when people who live it try to tell you what happens in the real world to us, to animals its often difficult to believe.

[PIF]

AK Fish and Wildlife determined the stocks were too low to harvest - its called conservation. The Governor had no role.

[PIF]

Yes unless you have a ravenous appetite for arsenic ...

[PIF]

Some people have no idea what they are advocating by careless knee-jerk words

[chopperk]

Was it Murki who proposed it.

[lewislynn]

Bitme didn’t do jack — the marxists behind the screen did it.

Don't make excuses for him.

Him knowing that people will make excuses or blame some nameless faceless thing for his failures will only encourage more.

He's responsible. PERIOD!

[vpintheak]

I’m going to disagree with you, but whatever.
And yes, ranked choice is designed for the flip-flopping, no moral-fiber having, no position having squish that makes decisions based on how the polls are leanings on any given subject. And since Americans and Alaskans are too stupid to think critically about anything, the media will tell people how to vote.
The current purple Alaska will absolutely turn blue. Look at our senate and how they are planning to organize! Even with a majority, the Repukes are going to form a coalition leadership group, and put a flipping Dim in charge of it! Disgusting horse crap!

[V_TWIN]

Arsenic is a byproduct of gold mining? I did not know that.

[SunTzuWu]

You likely never farmed, ranched, logged, or fished...

I haven't been a rancher or a logger but I was a commercial fisherman for 10 years and have worked on a farm. The article didn't mention chemical waste ponds just dredged material and tailings. I do agree that chemical waste ponds need regulation and maybe a different approach to disposal but, again, the article didn't mention that.

[PIF]

I was wrong about the process - its not arsenic, but cyanide. the process is called Gold cyanidation which comprises the following steps:

(1) roasting and grinding the arsenic-containing gold concentrate;
(2) cyaniding and leaching the roasted and ground arsenic-containing gold concentrate;
(3) separating a leaching solution and cyanogen slag, wherein the leaching solution in the step is marked as a first leaching solution;
(4) adding an acidity regulator and a complexing agent into the cyanogen slag in sequence, separating a leaching solution and leaching slag after leaching, and marking the leaching solution in the step as a second leaching solution;
(5) and (4) replacing and extracting gold from the first leaching solution and the second leaching solution respectively, thereby recovering gold.

The method has high gold recovery rate and can effectively prevent copper from being leached. Its extremely hazardous.

There was a incident several years back where a mine was using that process and one of its settling ponds broke and totally destroyed an important local river.

Gold ore in places also has arsenic in it.

[PIF]

Regardless of what the drive-by article mentions, the gold would have been recovered by chemical means, using Gold Cyanidation.

Articles that omit salient points are frauds designed to elicit a specific responds, while totally misleading the reader.

AK is earthquake prone. The site of the 1964 Richter 9.4 earthquake, centered in Whittier, is some 100 miles away to the southeast as the crow flies. The quake totally changed the geography of that area - there is no way to build a retaining pond (or much of anything else) to withstand a 9+ earthquake.

As you can see the proposed mine site drains directly into Lliamna Lake and via the Kvichak River into Bristol Bay, aka the Bering Sea.

Lliamna Lake is one of the mainstays of the Bristol Bay fishery. Existing mine claims are open pit, placer, or hard rock mines.

[PIF]

Where did you fish, if you don’t mind my asking?

[SunTzuWu]

The Carolina's. Mostly snapper, grouper and tile fish.

[PIF]

thanks. Me = west coast: Washington and Alaska. Salmon, halibut Dungeness crab, dogfish, cod, shrimp.

You still keep up with Nils E. Stolpe/FishNet USA and his newsletter?

[SunTzuWu]

You still keep up with Nils E. Stolpe/FishNet USA and his newsletter?

No sir. I haven't heard of him or his newsletter. I left the industry in '96 and have spent the last 26 years as a Plumber.