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Donlin Gold draft environmental impact statement up for comment

Dean Swope / KYUK

At meetings over the next two months, the US Army Corps of Engineers will hear from the public about Donlin's EIS, as that massive gold mine projects inches towards permitting.

The US Army Corps of Engineers released a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Donlin Gold Mine last November. The massive project, near Crooked Creek on the Kuskokwim River, hasn't proven as controversial as Pebble Mine, though some of the environmental concerns of a massive open pit mine near a salmon-rich watershed are similar. Donlin has the support of Calista and the Kuskowkim Corporations, as well as many of the regional tribes and corporations, and seems likely to reshape the future finances and employment along the Kuskokwim.

Check out the draft EIS and more on the project here; the schedule of public meetings is posted here. The Alaska Dispatch's Lisa Demer has an excellent article here.