Full-Page Ad Targets First Quantum Minerals

Sends Clear Message that Bristol Bay Remains United Against the Pebble Mine

Opponents of the Pebble Mine ran full-page ads in Alaska yesterday targeting First Quantum Minerals—the Canadian mining company currently deciding whether to sign an options agreement with the mine. “Our ­fish, our water, our wildlife and our land are more precious than gold,” reads the ad, which ran in Anchorage, Juneau and Bristol Bay newspapers.

Atauciuluting in Yup’ik means “people united working together.” Here, united to stop the Pebble Mine—a giant low-grade gold and copper mine proposed in a seismically active, porous area at the headwaters of world’s most prolific wild sockeye salmon fishery in Bristol Bay, Alaska.

United, the groups represent the economic, cultural, and social foundations of Bristol Bay, including:

  • Fifteen Tribal governments
  • Nine Alaska Native village corporations
  • People of Yup’ik, Denai’na, and Alutiq heritage with ancestral ties to the region
  • Commercial fishers
  • Sports fishers
  • Business owners

“The Pebble Mine is, and will always be, the wrong mine in the wrong place,” says the ad.

In addition to the ad, the recreational and commercial fishing industries and a fifth-generation commercial fisherman from Bristol Bay voiced opposition to the Pebble Mine in two separate opinion pieces that also ran this week.

The message is as clear as Bristol Bay’s legendary waters: “Bristol Bay Forever. Pebble Mine Never.”

Repeat after me: PEBBLE MINE NEVER.