Setting the Record Straight: Seabridge Gold’s Response to CBC’s What On Earth Show

In the recent CBC’s What On Earth episode titled ‘One border, three rivers and the battle to protect fish’ which highlighted complex and challenging issues surrounding mining and exploration projects in the Alaska/British Columbia (BC) transboundary region, the KSM Project was also discussed.

Brent Murphy, Senior Vice President of Environmental Affairs at Seabridge Gold, sent a letter to the program’s host and producer to provide accurate and up-to-date information about the KSM Project. The letter also addressed several misleading claims made during the interview by representatives of Southeast Alaska tribes and emphasized Seabridge Gold’s long-standing commitment to responsible mining practices. It also emphasized the company’s proactive and extensive engagement with Alaskan tribes and Indigenous partners in northwest BC, highlighting the design changes made to the KSM Project in response to their concerns. These changes, which added more than $300 million to the projected capital cost, demonstrate that Seabridge Gold not only listened but took meaningful action, which further reflects the company’s unwavering commitment to the responsible development of the KSM Project.

A key correction provided in the letter clarified that the petition filed by the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC) and Skeena Wild Conservation Trust challenges the Substantially Started Determination (SS Determination) of the KSM Project and not the Environmental Assessment (EA) approvals which the project received in 2014. The letter also reaffirmed Seabridge Gold’s confidence that there is ample evidence that the SS Determination was achieved by fully meeting or exceeding the BC Environmental Assessment Office’s Substantial Start Policy criteria in every category.

You can read the letter here.

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