As a glacier retreats, a gold mine advances. Why are some locals angry?

A junior Canadian mining company, Canagold, is seeking permits and approvals to renew its gold mining operations at a remote site in northwestern British Columbia (BC). Called the New Polaris Mine, it faces opposition from First Nations, environmental nonprofits and downstream communities in Alaska.

In 1957, the Tulsequah Chief Mine stopped production of gold, copper, lead and zinc after six years of short-lived operation. Its legacy has since made it infamous: For the past seven decades, the Tulsequah Main Mine has dumped rust-red, mineral-laden runoff called acid mine drainage into the glacial waters of the Tulsequah River. Despite repeated calls from residents and environmentalists and promises from the government, the acid mine drainage has yet to be cleaned up. In the midst of this continued environmental contamination, the new Polaris mine comes into play.

Like the now-abandoned Tulsequah Chief Mine, the new Polaris Mine is located on the Tulsequah River, which then flows into the Taku River, crosses the Alaska border near Juneau, and ultimately empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Taku Watershed covers 18,000 square kilometers of undeveloped wilderness, an area roughly the size of New Jersey. It is home to all five species of Pacific salmon, which support the watershed’s rich ecosystem and have long been a key part of the livelihoods of the Taku River Tlingit peoples.

Canagold first announced plans to resume operations at New Polaris in March 2023. It has since created project descriptions and received approval from the British Columbia provincial government to continue the environmental assessment process. Since January 2025, it has been preparing its application for an environmental assessment in British Columbia, a process that can take months or even years.

Consultation with participating Indigenous nations is integrated into this evaluation process. For the new Polaris mine, this involves bi-weekly conferences and meetings with the people of the Taku River Tlingit First Nation. Because it is located on their territory, the mine cannot operate without their free and prior agreement. The Taku River Tlingit “are leading the way in dealing with mining companies. Consent agreements are beginning with our nation and our people,” noted Jíník, spokesperson for the Taku River Tlingit First Nation, in a March 2023 press release.

But even as Canagold and the Taku River Tlingit engaged in discussions, other communities, located further downstream and across an international border, did not have the same voice. Guy Archibald, executive director of the Southeast Alaska Native Transboundary Commission, which includes 15 First Nations tribes from the Taku River watershed, told GlacierHub: “We are happy that they are working with [the Taku River Tlingit]but we are the only downstream communities and we are not sufficiently consulted. »

This commission is the latest in a long line of downstream Alaskans fighting for greater recognition of cross-border mining pollution in Canada. While the border between the United States and Canada complicates Alaskan groups’ efforts to make themselves heard, mining pollution does not toe those lines.

In an era of species extinction, the environmental threat posed by New Polaris is intensified by the potential growth of the Taku River salmon run over the coming decades. One of the few positive aspects of climate change is that melting glaciers in Alaska and Canada are providing valuable new habitat for Pacific salmon.

A 2021 study predicted that under a moderate emissions scenario, more than 3,700 miles of salmon habitat would be created by deglaciation by 2100. Jonathan Moore, study author and aquatic ecologist at Simon Fraser University, told GlacierHub that the melting of the Tulsequah Glacier could lead to some of the largest increases in salmon habitat. Today, New Polaris is putting a major site for this expansion at risk.

As Archibald said: “All mines, regardless of size, located near salmon habitat are detrimental to salmon. » But here above all, the story of the Tulsequah Chief Mine and other environmentally disastrous mines in British Columbia is of great importance. New Polaris is “in an area prone to acid rock drainage,” said Adrienne Berchtold, an ecologist and mining impacts researcher with SkeenaWild, a salmon conservation nonprofit, and its unstable, braided waterways make it difficult to monitor mining impacts like pollution and habitat destruction.

To build the mine, Canagold offers 40 to 70 barge trips on the Taku each season. But these barge transportation projects “are high risk, and an accident would damage some of the best wild salmon spawning habitats in the world,” Breanna Walker, director of Salmon Beyond Borders, said in a December press release. Canagold also plans to build a mile-long airstrip in Flannigan Slough, the largest wetland in the Taku watershed.

Beyond Canagold’s projects, environmental groups are also wary of B.C.’s environmental assessment protocol. Berchtold told GlacierHub: “British Columbia likes to publicize its ‘world-class standards’ in environmental assessment and review. But SkeenaWild found “numerous gaps” in the provincial mine review protocol. “It is very rare for projects to be rejected during the environmental assessment process; almost all are ultimately approved,” Berchtold added.

The new Polaris still faces obstacles. But opponents fear it will crush them. British Columbia has streamlined mining permits and prioritized infrastructure development for critical minerals like copper and zinc, which are key to clean energy. In January, Canagold announced its decision to also mine antimony, a key mineral used in batteries and semiconductors, at New Polaris. Although the economic aspects have not yet been defined, Canagold is now positioning the project as a gold and antimony mine. The new Polaris can ride the critical mineral wave, using this streamlining to its advantage.

Many environmentalists see this as a pretext to move the project forward. “There are real risks in ‘fast-tracking’ and ‘cutting red tape’ in the era of Trump tariffs and moving forward on priority projects,” warned Nikki Skuce, director of the Northern Confluence Initiative and co-chair of the BC Mining Law Reform Network, in an interview with GlacierHub.

In its latest move, Canagold has released a feasibility study, signaling its commitment to starting production. This shows how lucrative the New Polaris project could be, with an after-tax value of $312 million, at a projected base price of $2,500 per ounce of gold. For local residents, the project, which will last eight years, should also offer some 200 well-paid jobs. But that didn’t get people, especially those downstream, interested in the project. “It is a gold mine whose main uses are vanity and greed,” Archibald said.

“Too often, environmental assessments rely on a wait-and-see approach,” Berchtold explained. But environmentalists and downstream Alaskans have grown impatient. Advocacy groups continue to call for mining reform, while the Southeast Alaska Native Tribal Commission has filed a human rights complaint against the British Columbia government with the Inter-American Human Rights Council over a separate cross-border mine.

As Jennifer Angel-Amaya, a gold mining researcher and graduate student in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, part of the Columbia Climate School, told GlacierHub: “Communities must be equipped with the tools, resources and support to protect their territory from bad practices, taking a proactive role in saving their land and foster long-term resilience. »

Although New Polaris is just a mine, as glaciers retreat and more mineral-rich land becomes available to mining companies, friction between gold and salmon in British Columbia may well intensify – a local manifestation of the tension raised by extractive economies in the age of climate change.

This story is republished courtesy of the Earth Institute, Columbia University http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu.