New Corporate Structure Does Not Create Social License for Donlin Gold
Mother Kuskokwim Tribal Coalition Responds to NOVAGOLD's Consolidation of Donlin Gold Ownership
BETHEL, ALASKA —Today's announcement that NOVAGOLD has signed a deal to consolidate ownership of the proposed Donlin Gold project under a new publicly traded U.S. corporation may be significant for billionaire investors like Thomas Kaplan (who has not responded to MKTC request for dialogue) or John Paulson (who has not responded to MKTC request for dialogue) who are gambling on gold, but it changes nothing on the ground in Western Alaska for the people who would live with the consequences of the proposed mine.
In the last 24 hours, a new corporation, “NovaGold Corporation,” has been created in Delaware with the intent to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, according to the company. What has not been created is the social license necessary to build one of the largest and most destructive gold mines in the headwaters of the world's largest king salmon producing system, the Kuskokwim River.
If anything, opposition to Donlin Gold is broader, louder, and stronger than it has ever been. Tribal governments, Tribal organizations, Elders, subsistence fishermen, conservation organizations, and thousands of Alaskans continue to oppose industrializing the headwaters of the Kuskokwim River for a mine that would operate for only a few decades while leaving risks that will last for generations. The project also faces headwinds from existing litigation and a court-ordered supplemental Environmental Impact Statement.
NOVAGOLD says the transaction will streamline project development and financing. Ownership may be streamlined. Financing may be streamlined. But public consent cannot be streamlined. Social license cannot be acquired in a stock swap.
"You cannot silence Indigenous voices by issuing another corporate press release," said Gloria Simeon, a Yupik elder and co-founder of the Mother Kuskokwim Tribal Coalition. "You cannot manufacture community support through financial transactions. The people whose homelands would be forever changed by this project are still speaking, and our voices are only growing stronger."
For decades, Donlin Gold's owners have attempted to move this project forward through changes in ownership, financing, and corporate structure. Yet after all these years, the project remains stalled by the same fundamental reality: it does not have the trust or acceptance of the communities that would bear its greatest risks.
Today's announcement is about Wall Street. Our concern remains with the Kuskokwim River, the salmon that sustain our communities, and the future of our children.
No corporate restructuring changes the facts on the ground. No stock transaction changes the risks posed by a massive open-pit mine, a 315-mile natural gas pipeline, a 471-foot tailings dam in a seismically active region, and decades of industrial development in one of Alaska's great salmon-producing watersheds.
The Mother Kuskokwim Tribal Coalition will continue standing with Tribes, local residents, and our allies to protect the Kuskokwim watershed. We urge investors, regulators, and elected officials to recognize what this transaction cannot change – the fact that: There is still no social license for Donlin Gold.